Microsoft My Phone Now in Public Beta

The beta of Microsoft's My Phone service is now available to anyone who wants to try out this free online data synchronization service for Windows Mobile.

Business users with a Windows phone and access to a Microsoft Exchange Server have been able to wirelessly synchronize their data for years, but not consumers. That's changing, as My Phone allows users to synchronize calendar and contacts, photos and other files with a server.

Anyone with a Windows Mobile 6.0 or 6.1 phone who is willing to try out pre-release software can now download and use the service by visiting myphone.microsoft.com.

Responding to Changing Needs
For years, handhelds and smartphones synchronized their data with a PC. While many still do this, the rise of smartphones with high-speed wireless connections has helped synchronizing with an online server become increasingly popular. But that's just part of the reason why Microsoft created My Phone.

Many consumers consider backing up the data on their mobile device to be too much hassle, especially as this group generally never connects their smartphone to their PC. Microsoft hopes an online service will appeal to this group.

The overall plan to to help Windows Mobile compete better against Apple's iPhone, which includes a similar online service called MobileMe.

More about My Phone
Microsoft does not intend for My Phone to replace Exchange ActiveSync; rather with business users -- instead, this is a companion service. On devices that are synchronizing data with an Exchange Server, My Phone will not back up Calendar and Contacts information. However, it handles file backups, not a service offered by Exchange ActiveSync.

In addition, My Phone users are able to go to a web site and access their personal information to make changes, which will be reflected on their smartphone the next time they synchronize.

There are some limitations:  it does not backup email, users are limited to 200 MB of free storage, and this isn't  a push service. Data will be automatically synchronized once each night, but users will be able to manually initiate a sync.

My Phone is now available in all 25 Windows Mobile languages.

Source: Microsoft