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

By now most of you know that Office 2010 is in an open beta for anyone to download. I was perusing the release notes when I ran across something in the Outlook 2010 section that bothered me a bit.

• Programmability / Add-ins:Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) no longer operates when 64-bit Outlook 2010 is installed on 64-bit Windows.
• Upgrading 32-bit Outlook 2007 to 64-bit Outlook 2010 could also result in data loss during first sync with WMDC.
• The WMDC will not be upgraded to work on 64-bit Windows when 64-bit Outlook 2010 is installed.

All of the fixes and workarounds revolve around retaining a 32 bit version of Office 2010 rather than a 64 bit version. I cannot tell if this is a temporary issue during the beta phase or a permanent one. If the latter, it means WMDC is nearing the end of its life. I think Windows 7 is the last 32bit OS Microsoft will release for desktops and it is likely that the next version of Office may be 64 bit only as well.

Before anyone jumps up and asks why anyone is using WMDC anyway, just remember, not everyone has a cloud solution to sync with and even if they do, some apps like eWallet or PocketBible still require WMDC to do record level syncing with its desktop counterpart. I am sure those apps and others are headed towards online syncing, but in the meantime, if you still need WMDC, keep the above warnings in mind when deciding between a 32 bit and 64 bit version of Office.

It seems Microsoft will be able to recover most, if not all, of the user data originally thought to be lost forever.

"We plan to begin restoring users’ personal data as soon as possible, starting with personal contacts, after we have validated the data and our restoration plan. We will then continue to work around the clock to restore data to all affected users, including calendar, notes, tasks, photographs and high scores, as quickly as possible. "

There is a brief explanation of what went wrong, though it is very light on details. I'm glad though that the data is being recovered. Originally, T-Mobile was saying there was little or no chance of recovery. This is good news for those that have the device, and hopefully a lesson learned for the entire industry providing cloud services.

"To sync tasks you need a compatible device (iPhones don't have tasks support yet but Windows Mobile, Nokia and Palm Pre phones do). Register for a Toodledo account (free or pro). Enable and configure tasks on our web site---enter your Toodledo username and password."

A few months ago I wrote about NuevaSync's Push GMail Solution which beat out Google's official support for GMail through Exchange ActiveSync by quite a few months. Now that Google has caught up, NuevaSync has again decided to up the ante by adding Tasks support! The catch is - the tasks sync isn't with Google Tasks (Since it's pretty bare bones and doesn't have a published API), it's with a task managing service named Toodledo!

I hadn't used Toodledo before so I signed up this morning and tried it out - and I'm pretty impressed. I can now manage my tasks from the cloud (even from within GMail thanks to the Labs "Add a gadget" feature), and have them synced on my device. Oh yea - Toodledo also has a native Android client! So if you're a Google user or cloud patron that just wants to keep his or her to-do list in check, take a look at Nueva's latest premium offering!

"On Wednesday we brought news of Microsoft's Live Mesh cloud-based storage service, giving you 5 gigs of space for your files to come and go as you please. Today, the big M unleashed mobile-optimized access to the service, meaning you can get to your data while you're on the run. It's not the full-on Windows Mobile client we're hoping for, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. If you're already signed up for the tech preview, point your favorite mobile browser (yes, even the iPhone's) at https://m.mesh.com - note the secure site - and have at it."

Not to get ones hopes up but this is not the speculated mobile client that will make transferring data from the cloud to your handset as easy as pie. However, what this web application does, it does pretty well. Signing into the service you can browse through your Live folders and even download files that are in there. At the time of posting this I was unable to test downloading any other filetypes besides images so I am unsure if you could download a Zip archive or EXE file to your handset but if you wanted to get some images from your desktop computer to your handset and did not want to deal with the hassle of pulling out your USB cable and syncing, I would suggest giving Live Mesh a try.