Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

Over at the Microsoft Answers forum, there's a very long thread where many users are chiming in on the same subject: the lack of desktop Outlook sync with Windows Phone 7 is a big problem for them. Microsoft forum software is pretty bizarre, so I can't tell how many posts there are in this thread, but I'd guess it's at least 100+. When any discussion thread reaches 100 posts, you know it's a serious issue.

I remember when I first heard about this decision; it was at the Mobius 2009 event. You could hear a pin drop when Aaron Woodman announced that Windows Phone 7 would be completely cloud-centric: there would be no way to get email, calendar, contacts, or even files via the desktop...it would only come via the cloud. The repercussions of this decision were huge, and long-time Windows Mobile users were shocked when the product shipped without the ability to do any sort of local sync. Is it a problem for you? Vote in the poll, but keep reading...

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David over at Nuevasync was kind enough to let me know about Nueva's Yahoo! Contacts sync feature a month or so ago when they were testing it. My reaction was (almost embarrassingly) "Yahoo! has contacts?". Yes, it has been a long time since I used Yahoo! Mail for anything and didn't realize that their address book had been fleshed out in recent years. If you're a Yahoo! lover or just user, and want to sync your Y! contacts with your Windows Mobile (or other Activesync compatible smartphone), Nueva has a new feature for you!

Earlier this week, synchronization service NuevaSync announced their latest addition to the platform, push e-mail. NuevaSync already had calendar & contact sync from Google to Windows Mobile, iPhone, and pretty much any platform that supports the Microsoft Activesync protocol. Since I've been using Google for the last month or so (in lieu of my exchange server), I thought it may be interesting to give this service a shot. After all, only $25 for a year of service isn't too pricey (.002 cents per hour if you want to think of it that way...).

The first thing you notice about NuevaSync is it's no-frills website. This makes it mobile friendly, and still usable on the desktop. Their site was a bit disjointed (with a Wiki and Blog loosely linked up, with recent navigation improvements) but it gets the job done. After upgrading to Premium (for $25 a year), you can access the e-mail action. This is where you link up your IMAP e-mail account. Any IMAP server that supports the IDLE command should work just fine with their service, and they have an express setup option for GMail users. Contacts & Calendar set up easily as well, and as a premium user you can select which Google Calendars you want to sync with your device. Read more...