LiveSide - News blog : Windows Live Mobile

Windows Live for Windows Mobile updated

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:11:13 GMT

With today’s announcements around the release of Windows Phone (Windows Mobile 6.5) comes not only an updated MyPhone, but upgrades to both the mobile client and web experience for Windows Live for Windows Mobile. Not much from Windows Live about the new versions yet, except one post on the Stay Connected (Windows Live for Windows Mobile Team) blog (last post: Dec 26, 2008, woohoo!). Here’s what’s new, from the post:

Windows Live Home - an entirely new feature!
- View you and your friends "What's new" feed from Windows Live and other major 3rd party social networking sites.
- View Windows Live photos and comment
- Upload photos to Windows Live and other 3rd party sites through integration with the new My Phone client
- View your Windows Live people
- Update your status and accept network invitations from others
Improvements and Updates like
- Entirely new launcher screen
- Significant touch investments that shine with new Windows Mobile 6.5 devices
- Bing search integration
- Abuse reporting
- Automatic uninstall of previous versions
- Virtual memory improvement and reduced installation file size through client refactoring

You can try out Windows Live for Mobile at mobile.live.com

Windows Live for Mobile client:

You can also download the Windows Live for Mobile client to your Windows Phone (or Windows Mobile 6.0 or 6.1 phone). To get it on your phone, go to WindowsLiveforMobile.com, input your mobile number, and send yourself a text message with the download link. From there, you’ll be asked to identify your carrier in order to configure Messenger, and install the app. Sporting a new simplified look, Messenger and Hotmail integration (but not much more) and Mail and Contacts sync, this new app may be stripped down, but looks like a much better Messenger interface than we’ve had previously. No MPOP (multiple points of presence) though, so signing in to Messenger on your phone signs you out everywhere else.

There’s still lots we’d like to see from a Windows Live mobile experience (not the least of which is to clean up the confusion between MyPhone and Windows Live for Windows Mobile, why do we have to re-invent the “don’t be confusing” wheel with every Microsoft product release?). And unfortunately here we don’t have our hands on a true Windows (6.5) Phone, so our experience is limited. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Windows Mobile Marketplace is live (for WM 6.5): new Windows Live for Windows Mobile

Kip Kniskern — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:40:00 GMT

Our friend Picturepan2 is hard at work (even on his birthday!), and has screenshots of Windows Mobile Marketplace in action:

The Marketplace is only available now for Windows Mobile 6.5 phones (one of which is already on sale), due to be released tomorrow, Oct. 6. Along with Windows Mobile Marketplace, a new version of MyPhone is included. And of course the big news for us is that there is a new version of Windows Live for Windows Mobile available. Picturepan2 provided us with some screenshots, we’ll have more soon (unfortunately no 6.5 phone here to give it a spin (yet)):

(more screenshots in the full post!)
(also note that the new Windows Phone website is up, a day early. Marketplace link is locked down, though)

MyPhone

includes Photo Sharing to Windows Live and other Social Networking sites, and lots more choices for sync:

Windows Live

Windows Live Photo goodness:

Picturepan2 likes designer skins :)

Windows Live Messenger:

More Windows Live:

According to Picturepan2, no Bing apps yet in the Marketplace, so there’s still lots more to come…

Race To Market Developer Challenge

Sunshine — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:42:00 GMT

Are you a (Windows Live Mobile) developer? Now is the time to submit your applications to the Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Not only will your app be one of the first available in the marketplace when it launches, but you also have a chance of winning one of the following prizes:

A Microsoft Surface table (30-inch) and developer kit

Online marketing and promotion

A one-of-a-kind trophy

The Contest Entry Period consists of a Submission Period during which applications are accepted in the Marketplace, and a Download Period during which entries are counted for the purpose of this Contest as follows:

Submission Period
Begins at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) on July 27, 2009, and ends at 11:59 p.m. PT on Dec. 31, 2009
Download Period
Begins at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) on the date that the Marketplace opens to the public and ends at 11:59 p.m. PT on Dec. 31, 2009

You are eligible to enter the Race to Market Challenge if you are an ISV or application developer residing in a country/region where Microsoft Marketplace for Mobile is available*, have met the criteria for the Marketplace application certification process and have agreed to the terms of the Marketplace.

Entries will be divided into four pools based on geographic region as follows:

USA/Canada
Southeast Asia
Europe / Middle East / Asia
Latin America

and will be judged on:

Most downloads of a free app
Most valuable app (downloads x price)
Most useful (as judged by Microsoft panel)
Most playful (as judged by Microsoft panel)

The names of the winners will be posted online at http://mobilethisdeveloper.com. This list will remain posted until February 1, 2010. Further details are available at http://mobilethisdeveloper.com and in the announcement post.

Good Luck!

* Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States

New Windows Live Mobile client available

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:15:40 GMT

Just out this week is a new client for Windows Live Mobile, and an official announcement about Hotmail for Mobile (which we told you about last month). The new Windows Live Mobile client’s most significant change is that it now includes Windows Live Messenger, which had been removed from the last version.

You can get the new version by going to the web page and having a text sent to your mobile device:

or going straight to the mobile download link:

As we told you last month, you can also get straight to your Hotmail account, from any web enabled phone, at www.m.mail.live.com

CTIA Keynote Preview

RyanRCRea — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:04:52 GMT

On April 2…. yes April 2nd ,Robert Bach will take to the stage and make the day 2 keynote at CTIA’s 2009 trade show.

He is president of the Entertainment & Devices, a group that includes Zune & Windows Mobile. You can expect the usual dog & pony show for Windows Mobile 6.5 and its upcoming app store.

According to sources close to MS, You can expect at least one surprise announcement related to Windows Live wave 4. Which is due this fall

The announcement may be the long rumored Windows Live-Facebook integration. Which would allow users to link both networks together and view Facebook’s updates on www.home.live.com.

It would seem Microsoft is very intent on making Windows Live a one stop social gateway. With the ability to view Tweets from Twitter & now with the addition of Facebook updates, You have a very well rounded social experience.

Keep a close eye on the keynote.. you’ll be glad you did.

An introduction

RyanRCRea — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:24:00 GMT

Hello LiveSide!

My name is Ryan RC Rea, I’m the newest blogger here at Liveside

I will be covering Zune & Windows Mobile, as well the rest of Windows Live. I’m as excited as you are about future of Windows Live, Windows , Windows Mobile & Microsoft's entertainment Devices\Services. I hope you enjoy my posts.

There is a lot of cool stuff in the pipeline for the next few months, stay tuned right here for all of the latest.

For now I’ll leave you with a video of Windows Mobile 6.5 running on Sprint HTC Touch Pro. Provided by another site I write for (www.phonedog.com)

I’m running Win-Mo 6.5 as my primary mobile OS, The Phone in the video below is my completely stock Touch Pro running a early beta ROM of 6.5

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Windows Live For Windows Mobile: Push Hotmail Issue Cause Found

Sunshine — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 12:37:31 GMT

Issues have been reported about push Hotmail not working consistently and after quite a bit of investigation the team has now found the cause and provides tips to get the correct push-email behaviour whilst they are working hard on the fix (server side). These issues only occur if you have your mail set to synchronize “As items arrive” in the “Sync schedule” settings and if you are also signed into Messenger in certain ways.

The workarounds for now:

- If you are signed in to Windows Live Messenger on your PC and your status is “Online” or “In a call” you could see interruption of push mail working on your device. The workaround is to have Messenger on your PC in any state other than “Online” or “In a call”.

So to those of you who have disabled “Show me as Away when I’m inactive for…” and/or “Show me as Busy and block my alerts when I’m running a full-screen program…” : turn it on again (Tools > Options > Personal)!

- If you are signed in to Windows Live Messenger on your Windows Mobile phone you could see interruption of push mail working on your device. The workaround is to sign out of Messenger on your Windows Mobile phone.

Very inconvenient for those who use messenger a lot from their mobile, but well ehhmm…it’s the only way for now. We’ll notify you once the issue has been fixed.

The team has also received reports about contacts synchronization and has already fixed that. And they made discovery of the download for Windows Live for Windows Mobile easier: when setting up Hotmail from Outlook Mobile, the wizard will take you to the download page if you don’t already have Windows Live for Mobile.

Windows Live For Windows Mobile Team Blog
Windows Live For Mobile
http://wl.windowsmobile.com (on your mobile browser)
Windows Mobile

Windows Live For Mobile Updated

Sunshine — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:46:39 GMT

While we are all eagerly waiting for the release of Windows Live Essentials, let me ask you this: are you used to all those new services yet? I for one love them, especially the new Homepage. This truly is the one-stop-page to keep up to date with what your friends are up to AND holds all the links to the other services. Did you know you can have this same experience on your mobile phone? On any mobile phone (as long as it has an internet browser)?

You can! As the Windows Live Services for mobile have also been updated, as we announced it would earlier.

Text messaging
Access Windows Live via SMS. Get mobile alerts and more…coming soon you will be able to send SMS commands (update personal message, add people to your network, check calendar etc.) to Windows Live and Windows Live will send you a text message with the result! To get started, sign in and add your mobile.

Home - mobile.live.com
What you are used to on your PC now also on your mobile device, stay up to date with your friends whereabouts and links to all the other services.Just like on the homepage on your POC you can also change your personal message from this page.

Hotmail - mobile.live.com/hm
Email on the go! Read, write and delete!

People - mpeople.live.com
Your Windows Live Contact list. You can even search for a specific contact and call him/her, if he/she has that set up, by clicking on the Call link.

Photos - mphotos.live.com
Save, share and view Photos from your mobile device. You can view your own and your friend’s pictures (and comments on them) on your mobile and…
Yes, you can upload all those pretty pictures you took straight to Photos (skydrive) and share them with the people you wish to share them with. No more waiting until you can connect your phone to your PC or mobile photo blog services that come with some phones.

Messenger - mim.live.com
Chat with your friends from your phone.

Search - m.live.com
Windows Live Search to find what you need on the go.

MSN Mobile - http://home.mobile.msn.com/en-us/default.aspx
News, sports, weather and more.

Spaces - mobile.spaces.live.com
Express yourself on your space right from your phone by using blogs, photos, customization and lists.

Profile - mprofile.live.com
Manage your network on the go.

To learn more, get a preview of what the mobile experience looks like for you and/or to register your phone, visit http://mobile.live.com. Want to go look for yourself and experience it on your phone?

As you can see, in this day and age in which our mobile device becomes more and more important to us, you can now also enjoy Windows Live on the go!

Windows Live for mobile Wave 3 – take your social life on the go

damaster — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:39:00 GMT

Since Wave 3 first surfaced, we’ve been talking about the Windows Live Essentials clients suite, and we’ve been discussing the online portion of the Windows Live services, but there’s actually a third part to the Windows Live Wave 3 release – Windows Live for mobile. We’ve produced the matrix below that summarises what mobile services will be offered as part of the Wave 3 release. Each mobile service is marked against the three different channels of how Windows Live for mobile will be available for the mobile users – through Client-based (for Windows Mobile and other supported mobile devices), Web-based (for WAP or GPRS-enabled mobile web browsers), or SMS-based services:

Here’s a summary of what’s new and updated in each of the above mobile services:

Windows Live Home for mobile
- What’s New feed integration – just like the normal web version, you’ll be able to see all your contact’s What’s New feeds at a glance on your mobile device

Windows Live Hotmail for mobile
- Mail Search – search within the contents of emails using the Web-based service
- Rich email – HTML rendering of email with images and links
- SMS new email alerts

Windows Live Photos for mobile
- Ability to upload your photos on your mobile phone (including those just taken with the phone camera) directly onto Windows Live Photos using the Client-based Windows Live Photos for mobile
- New Web-based service that allows users to view albums and photos on their mobile web browser and add comments to the uploaded Photos
- What’s New feed integration – similar to the one for Windows Live Home for mobile, but filtered to display only Photos-related feeds in your Network

Windows Live Profile for mobile
- New Web-based service that allow users to view their own and other people’s Profile information in the mobile web browser, manage their friends requests, and also with the What’s New feed integration

Windows Live People for mobile
- New Web-based service to allow users to search for contacts in Windows Live People and view their contact’s information using the mobile web browser
- For supported mobile devices, the Client-based version of Windows Live People for mobile integrates contacts in the mobile phone’s address book with your Windows Live contact list
- SMS-based service allow users to send SMS to a Windows Live SMS shortcode to look up a contacts information in their contact list

Windows Live Calendar for mobile
- SMS-based service allow users to SMS the text “today” or “tomorrow” to a Windows Live SMS shortcode and receive a list of appointments and events for the particular day on their mobile phone

Of course, all the above-mentioned service will also get a face-lift and will feature the new “Wave 3”-look for mobile. Most features, particularly the new SMS-based services, are expected to be released in early 2009. Click on the pictures below for a larger preview of some of the new services.

In the coming months, you will be able to access most of these services from http://mobile.live.com . Of course, don’t forget that Live Search for mobile also recently got an update over at http://m.live.com

Stream Video And Location Together With GPS-Enabled Mobile Video

Sunshine — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:20:35 GMT

Want to show off your route along with your position on a Virtual Earth map? Take people on a tour with you without them physically there? All possible if you have a Windows Live Mobile phone with GPS. Chris Pendleton, VE Evangelist, reports:

Inca Mobile is rolling out some interesting technology to simultaneously stream video from a mobile phone while leveraging the onboard GPS to track position of where a user is and is moving to and from. The software, called Live Media GPS, currently in beta, runs on Windows Mobile 5 and 6 on phones (with GPS and camera) and is available for free download. You can then watch the video in real time, tracking the position of the camera on Microsoft Virtual Earth.

The application above embeds a Silverlight Streaming video with a Virtual Earth map to show the video coming across the wire side-by-side with the camera geolocation in real time. So, while you're watching the video you can still navigate the map, switch to the aerial photo map style or even 3D. There are a couple other videos you can watch which illustrate highlighting the GPS trail of the route, positioning starting and current position points, and visualizing, rotating and navigating the map using the Virtual Earth 3D interface.

On the site there are several (YouTube) videos you can watch including this demo video:

YouTube - Live Mobile GPS tracking with Video

Hungry for more vids in Silverlight? Check out the Live Media GPS website.

Sounds cool eh? Want to give it a go? Go ahead, get your free download today!

Just Released: Windows Live For Windows Mobile

Sunshine — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:10:42 GMT

A new version of Windows Live for Windows Mobile has just been released:

Wait no more! The latest bits for Windows Live Client for your Windows Mobile are available for download. To get yours now, point your mobile browser to http://wl.windowsmobile.com

If you have Windows Live already installed on your device, you will need to uninstall it first. To do that, go to Settings->Remove Programs, select Windows Live entry from the list (if any) and click Remove. If you don’t find Windows Live on the list, then you are good to go.

With Windows Live client you will be able to:

Synchronize Live contacts with your contacts on the device

Synchronize your Live email (msn, hotmail, live)

View graphics, web links and contact photos in emails

Respond to emails with voice recordings

Upload photos to your Windows Live Spaces

Windows Live for Windows Mobile team blog

Windows Live Messenger For BlackBerry

Sunshine — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:40:00 GMT

Messenger Stuff discovered Windows Live Messenger is now also available for the BlackBerry:

Now Windows Live Messenger is compatible with the current leader in smartphones, the BlackBerry.

…The client in simple and lightweight, but like the BlackBerry's user base, is designed for productive users. All in all this is a simple application, but if you're a Blackberry user, who natively uses Windows Live ID, it is a must.

This also comes with access to Windows Live Hotmail and was promised in May.:

SEATTLE, Wash., and WATERLOO, Ontario — May 12, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. and Research In Motion (RIM) today announced an agreement to provide Microsoft Windows Live services on BlackBerry^® smartphones. As a result of this collaboration, BlackBerry smartphone customers will enjoy easy mobile access to Windows Live Messenger and an enhanced level of integration between Windows Live Hotmail and the BlackBerry platform.

The integration of Windows Live services into the BlackBerry platform will allow customers who use Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger on their BlackBerry smartphone to benefit from the BlackBerry platform architecture with the ability to communicate in real time using push technology, and an exceptional mobile communications experience. Customers will also be able to seamlessly access their Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger account from their BlackBerry smartphone by simply entering their Windows Live e-mail address and password once.

Windows Live Hotmail for BlackBerry will allow customers to do the following:
• Use BlackBerry “push” technology for automatic message delivery and message synchronization so customers’ online account is up to date with actions taken on their BlackBerry smartphone
• Use a dedicated inbox for Windows Live Hotmail messages, which are automatically delivered to the smartphone. Customers can also choose to receive their Windows Live Hotmail messages, along with messages from other e-mail accounts, within a single inbox on their BlackBerry smartphone
• Display HTML e-mail with the ability to view graphics, Web links and contact photos in e-mails

Windows Live Messenger for BlackBerry will allow customers to do the following:
• Send instant messages and join group chats
• Set status and see the presence of friends and colleagues within Windows Live Messenger or their contact cards
• Customize status messages
• Save conversations
• Showcase their Display Picture (Avatar)
• Send and receive pictures and files
• Use more than 60 emoticons

Download Windows Live Messenger for the BlackBerry

Check out LiveSide on your new iPhone!

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:01:46 GMT

OK if you to have to go out and buy a new iPhone, that doesn’t mean you can’t keep up with the latest Windows Live news and information, and in style.

A few months ago we wanted to make it easier to get LiveSide on your phone, and we signed up with MoFuse. They do a great job of presenting a quick view of LiveSide on your mobile device (they basically take our RSS feed and style it up a bit). Today they announced that they’ve updated their iPhone experience, just in time for the release of the new iPhones.

You can check out LiveSide on the iPhone (http://m.liveside.net/iphone), or if you have a ~~real~~ Windows Mobile phone (or any mobile device) you can read LiveSide on that (http://m.liveside.net/), too (and type on a keyboard, and get Live Search and Windows Live).

Thanks to David Berube and the people at MoFuse for the updates, even though we feel a little sorry for them for using all those Macs.

(you can also reach LiveSide at www.liveside.net/mobile)

New Windows Live Mobile homepage launches into beta

Chris — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:08:07 GMT

A new Windows Live Mobile homepage has just been launched into beta over at http://mhome.live.com. Thought its just the first milestone, the new page features several nifty features. These include:

The “What’s new” summary, showing recent updates made by your friends
Ability to query Live Search direct from the homepage
Easy access to the other mobile Windows Live services (mail, messenger, spaces)

Key here is the implementation of the “What’s new” feed, that is also currently available on the PC through spaces.live.com. This is something that Facebook has developed into a must-have feature for social networking, especially by making it available through their mobile site.

Obviously this is just the first beta for the new mobile homepage so the currently implemented features are the basics. We’d expect to see more advanced features like photo update notifications and mailbox previews in the next milestones, but the question is whether the team can innovate in this area.

Click to enlarge the screenshot, or check it out at http://mhome.live.com on your mobile device.

Windows Live for Windows Mobile (G2) now available from Microsoft

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:35:00 GMT

Jason Landridge posted today that a link is available for the first time from Microsoft if you want to install Windows Live for Windows Mobile (known also as "G2"), on your Windows Mobile 6 device.

Up until now, it depended on what your mobile operator decided to install on your phone. I'm on T-Mobile, for example, and I've had the G2 functionality on my Shadow all along. Others (such as AT&T, I'm told) haven't made it available, so that up until now you've been out of luck.

Included in the download are functionality for:

Hotmail "push" access (your mail is "pushed" to your phone, you don't have to go get it)
Windows Live Contacts synchronization
Live Search bar for the home screen
One-click photo upload to Windows Live Spaces

What isn't included is Windows Live Messenger. However if you don't have the Hotmail push access and Windows Live Contacts synch, go get it now, it's great.

Download Windows Live for Windows Mobile from http://wl.windowsmobile.com.

(Via Steve)