Shut-down of Windows Marketplace for Mobile Web Site and My Phone Service Notification

June 8, 2011
Dear Windows Mobile 6.x customer:

Microsoft will be discontinuing the My Phone service for Windows Mobile 6.x. We will also be discontinuing the Windows Marketplace for Mobile web site. Because you may be affected, please review the details below:

Should you be in an area of only intermittent or poor 3G coverage, you may wish to set your phone to 2G only mode to experience a better service until you are next in a better coverage area.

To do this, launch the Phone application from the Start Menu. Press the Menu button and select Options:

Should you be experiencing poor signal strength or no service, it is occasionally necessary to perform a manual roam on your device to de-register it from your network provider and then re-register it again.

To perform a manual network roam on a Windows Mobile Smartphone device, press Start and select Settings
Select Phone
Select Networks (you may need to select More to see this option)
Set the Network selection option to Manual
Press the Menu button and select the option to Find a new network

Should you be experiencing poor signal strength or no service, it is occasionally necessary to perform a manual roam on your device to de-register it from your network provider and then re-register it again.

To perform a manual network roam on a Windows Mobile Pocket PC device, tap Start and select Phone
Tap on Menu and select Options
Tap on the Network tab

Change the Network Selection option from Automatic to Manual

Although not officially announced, Microsoft have begun rolling out Exchange ActiveSync support to the Hotmail / Windows Live email service.
If you want to give the service a try, use the following details:

• Server Address - m.hotmail.com
• Username - your full hotmail email address
• Password - your hotmail account password
• Domain - leave blank

Currently the service supports the synchronisation of email, contact and calendar data but not tasks.

When choosing a remote email solution there are a number of approaches that you can take: you may have decided on a client device type and wish to know what solutions are compatible; you may have a specific feature set you need to be available to your users; or similarly a set of features you don't want to be available. You may have specific security concerns or may have a policy regarding which manufacturers you are able to consider.

Afaria is Sybase's device management solution for the Enterprise market, arguably the solution to choose if you need to manage a large fleet of remote devices running a variety of different operating systems and provide mobile integration with back-end line-of-business applications.

I have looked at Afaria in a previous article here - http://blog.brightpointuk.co.uk/sybase-afaria . In this post I shall look at the new features available in version 6.5 of the product.

Excitor (http://www.excitor.com) is a Danish software development company specialising in remote device management and cost control solutions for the enterprise.
The DME Mobile Solution Suite is Excitor's modular framework that provides a feature-rich, multi-platform device management solution combined with state of the art security tools as well as an optional mobile email and PIM manager.

The Touch 2, as its name suggests, is the successor to the hugely popular Touch, and shares its beautifully-crafted ergonomics and form factor. The Touch 2 is also one of the first devices to feature the new Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, including such new features as the Windows Marketplace and Microsoft's MyPhone service. To quote the HTC web site:

The MyPhone service from Microsoft allows you to synchronise your personal data with the cloud, effectively enabling you to securely backup your data to your personal area of Microsoft's online storage. Data can be backed up automatically on a schedule, or manually as you prefer. Once backed up, your data can be restored to any device of your choosing or accessed directly online via your web browser. Data sources that can be backed up include:

• Contacts
• Calendar
• Tasks
• Text Messages
• Photos
• Videos
• Music
• Documents