Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: winmo, 6.5, upgrade | Themes: Windows Tech Talk, Smartphones
5. Back Up My Phone
After the recent problems with Sidekick data in the cloud, the Microsoft My Phone service might not seem attractive, but it has nothing to do with Sidekick and has been working well since this spring, when the beta launched. It can save your phone's data once a day over the cloud and you can view it on the Web or copy it to a new phone. We’ve backed up photos, documents, music, and text messages from one phone and transferred them to other devices, just by signing in with a Windows Live ID and letting the service sync.
If you get your email and calendar appointments from an Exchange server, they don't get backed up to My Phone, but everything else does get backed up on your phone except for applications (which you can re-install wirelessly if you get them from the Windows Mobile Marketplace). Being able to see your text messages on your PC is particularly handy.
This is actually one of the most flexible phone backup services available, although there are some drawbacks. It’s limited to 200 MB of data and you have to specifically tell it to back up your storage card as this is turned off by default. It doesn’t back up OneNote Mobile files and files have to be in the My Documents folder or sub-folders (or on the memory card). You can set up accounts with social networks like Flickr and publish photos from your phone or the Website (but you have to do it one at a time as there’s no option to automatically publish all the photos you take).
You also have to turn on the option to include the location of your phone when My Phone syncs or publishes photographs. That way, if you can’t find your phone you can check where it was last time it connected, so you know whether you left it at home or whether it’s been stolen. If it is missing, you can pay $4.99 to make the phone ring even if the volume is turned off to locate it, lock it, or delete all the content. Considering the rest of the service is free and the site will tell you whether it can reach your phone before you, My Phone is definitely worth using. Also, while it’s nice that it’s pre-installed, you don't need Windows Mobile 6.5 to use the service as it will install on any Windows Mobile 6.0 or 6.1 device.
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I upgraded from windows 5 last week to the HTC Touch 2. Even though there isn't alot of hype at the moment there will be. My contacts, photos, calendar, sms's automatically copy to the net a few times per day. This happens even though i am on prepaid with no internet plan. I go into a secure myphone website put in a password and everything is there. If i copy the contacts from the computer they also automatically copy to the phone.
I think is a step in the right direction. I've been using WM 6.5 for several months now and I like the changes that were made. That being said, it's still nowhere near as polished as the iPhone, or the Palm Pre. The real beauty of Windows phones is the work that the makers put into customizing the software. HTC does a great job and the Leo looks absolutely fantastic. Samsung's Omnia II looks to be a killer phone also. The real upgrade is going to come once Windows Mobile 7 comes out...
Of course you should upgrade IF your phone manufacturer offers it. If not there might be an unofficial rom thats been cooked up for your phone too. I'm running an unofficial 6.5 build 23069 on my lg incite, and it works great. This is more current code than any official upgrades. The only thing that's been driving us crazy is the accelerometer driver from 6.1 does not work well with 6.5 and causes a lot of issues, so we're crossing our fingers on an official release from lg so that we can grab the newer drivers out of it and incorporate it into our cooked builds.
An article on WinMob6.5 on the 19th of October. When did they release it again? Point made.
I do prefer 6.5 over 6.1 BUT it's not enough. Even though Windows Mobile pretty much offers the same level of facilities and in some cases, more than other manufacturer's, the damage has been done with previous releases. Heck, 6.1 on a qtek 9090 flies with NO junk from providers installed. Funny that.