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

"While Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Mobile 6.5.3 came with a couple of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 enhancements, these enhancements weren't available for Windows Mobile 6.1 phones. However, Microsoft has recently released an "Office Outlook Mobile" update for the use of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. With the update, Windows Mobile 6.1 users can benefit from some of the new features - including grouped E-Mails by conversation, improved free/busy lookup and the ability to sync SMS text messages. The Outlook Mobile update is available for all Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional (with touchscreen) and Standard (without touchscreen) smartphones."

What's this? Microsoft delivering a free software enhancement for the messaging application over the air? Sounds like science fiction based on the lack of updates we've seen over the years, but somehow Microsoft has managed to deliver an update for Exchange 2010 users, directly to the device, bypassing the phone carriers and OEMs. I'd guess it's because the update doesn't touch the phone/network bits. Looks like some nice added functionality! Anyone using it yet? My hosted Exchange provider, 4smartphone [Affiliate], doesn't seem to be offering me Exchange 2010 yet, so I haven't seen this in action.

"In these two videos Adam Glick from Microsoft demonstrates the newest Exchange 2010 features for Windows Mobile 6.1/6.5. Features like conversation view, ignore/move conversation, voice mail preview, voice to text, get free/busy, the new allow/block/quarantine phone list and reporting built in to Exchange 2010 are shown."

Exchange 2010 is looking cooler by the minute. WM Poweruser has a couple of videos showing off the features for our 6.1/6.5 devices. Many of the tools seem much more comprehensive than what we're using now. The voice to text feature is especially cool. If you're an IT pro, there's a video for you too. So if you've wanted to see how the two interact and what the future holds, just follow the link.