from my pocket

How to Cancel a Zune Pass

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 17:26:45 GMT

On your desktop computer, open up your browser and go to Zune.net and sign in to your account.

Click on the down arrow just under your Zune Tag (and avatar), select "My Account"

Click the "Manage Zune Music Pass" button

Select the "cancel subscription or free trial" option, then click the "Next" button and proceed through any remaining prompts as directed.

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Here’s an easy way to print files you create on your Windows Phone

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Currently, there are only a very limited number of ways to print files that are created on a windows phone 7 device. Many of the options only provide a way to print photographs that were clicked form a windows phone, while others provide some kind of subscription based service where you upload or email a document to the service and the service sends the file to a networked printer.

I recently read a really great article, called "Print Files from any Mobile Phone using Dropbox" on the digital inspiration blog. I tweeted a link to it, but then I thought I'd modify some of the steps that are laid out in the article to clarify how you'd use this method with a windows phone.

Step 1: If you don't already have a Dropbox account, go sign up for one and install the Dropbox software on the computer that is connected (either by wired or network connection) to a printer.

Step 2: Download the ePrint.zip file from digital inspiration's website. Unzip the file and click on the eprint.vbs file. This will create a PrintQueue subfolder within the My Dropbox folder on your computer.

Step 3: Email the files you want to print from your phone to your unique "sendtodropbox" email address. If you haven't already connected the "send to dropbox" service up with your Dropbox account and gotten a unique email address, go to the "SendtoDropbox" website and do it now; then create a contact on your phone called "Dropbox" and input your unique email address into the email field. (The SendtoDropbox service provides you with a unique email address to use to send documents to your Dropbox account - emailed files will be automatically uploaded and stored in an Attachments folder).

Step 4: Move the files that you want to print from the Attachments folder to the PrintQue folder in your online Dropbox account. I'm using a third party application called BoxFiles for Dropbox on my phone to manage my online Dropbox files and this application makes it really easy to move or copy files from one folder to another:

Open up the BoxFiles for Dropbox app and find the file you want to share
Tap the icon to the left of the file name, then tap "Copy" or "Move" (see the fifth & sixth options in the screenshot to the right)

If your computer is turned on the files will be synced from your online Dropbox account to your computer and the files in the PrintQue folder will be automatically queued up and printed on the local default printer that is connected to your computer.

Go over to digital inspiration's blog and read through the article there to watch a video and learn more about how the PrintQueue folder and the eprint.vbs file works.

Final Comments

Okay, I know you're not really printing files from your windows phone 7.you're actually printing files from your desktop computer, but the process sure makes it easy to download and print files that you create on your phone. If you are away from your office, but leave your computer turned on, you could queue up files to print from your phone while you're on the go and then when you return to your office your printed files will be waiting for you in the printer tray.

BTW, you can also use this method as a quick and easy way to print files while you're seated at your computer.just copy the files you want to print from any folder on your computer to the My Dropbox > PrintQueue folder.

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Technorati Tags: Dropbox, Print, windows phone 7

Upload videos to YouTube from your Phone

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:30:00 GMT

One of the new features you get with the Mango update to Windows Phone 7 is a way to share videos with others directly from your phone via email or by sharing (uploading) videos to Facebook or SkyDrive. This means you can now post videos to your YourTube account by emailing your videos to a unique YouTube email address!

Before you can upload videos to your YouTube account, you'll need find out what your unique email address is by logging on to your YouTube account from your desktop computer. Click the down arrows just to the right of your user name (see the upper right hand corner of screenshot below) and click the "Settings" option. Then click "Mobile Setup" under Account Settings to find the unique email address you can use to upload videos to your account.

Create a contact on your phone for YouTube and save your unique email address to it. Now whenever you want to upload videos to YouTube from your mobile phone:

Tap the Pictures tile on the phone's start screen
Tap camera roll
Find and tap the video you want to share to open it up
Press & hold your finger on the video, then tap "share.."
Select an email account
Tap the + sign to the far right of the "To:" field and select your YouTube contact
Input a title in the Subject field of the email
Tap the Send icon.

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Technorati Tags: YouTube, windows phone 7, Mango

Manage & Share PDF files from Windows Phone 7

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:15:00 GMT

A fundamental difference between the Windows Phone 7 operating system and its older Windows Mobile operating system cousin is the way files are handled on devices. Windows Phone 7 does not expose its file system to the end user, so there isn't a way for you to browse, sort or manage all the files that are stored on the phone from a single application. Instead each application plays within it's own "sandbox," which means each application operates, in many respects, as a stand alone entity within the windows phone operating system infrastructure. The application controls how users interact with its files. It is left to the application developer to provide options to users for retrieving, backing up, renaming, and organizing files and to provide ways for users to share its files via text message or email.

The Adobe Reader software that Adobe developed for Windows Phone 7 is missing some important options. The application does not provide a way to share PDF files that are stored on the phone with anyone else, nor is there a way to copy or back up PDF files from the phone to the web or to a computer.

PDF files can be moved into the Adobe Reader sandbox easily enough (via email, downloaded from websites, etc), but the application is tasked with moving data from its own sandbox once the data is stored in it. Since the Adobe Reader application does not provide a "Send To" or "Share" feature, there is no way to email or share documents that are stored in its "sandbox" with any other service or device, so once a PDF is stored on a windows phone, there's no way to move it off the phone (unless you delete the file) or share the file with other users. Until Adobe updates the Adobe Reader application to address this deficiency, I'm using a workaround I formulated to get around this limitation.

How I manage & share PDF Files from my Windows Phone

I share PDF files from my Windows Phone by storing PDF files in the cloud where I can easily download files to my phone or share my files from the phone. The advantages of storing your PDF files (and other files) in the cloud are:

The files are available to you from any connected computer
The files are available to be downloaded to a new phone or a recently reset phone
You can share your [PDF] files with anyone else by emailing a link to them
The cloud is device and OS neutral. Storing your data in the cloud makes it very easy to transition from one device to another without being locked into a particular operating system.

Of course you need to take the usual precautions when storing data in the cloud (maintain a strong password that you change from time to time; don't store really sensitive data in the cloud like bank account information, etc.).

For this article I evaluated several different cloud based services (Box.net; SugarSync, SkyDrive; and Dropbox) and decided Dropbox was the best choice.

Store PDF files on Dropbox

Set up a Dropbox account: If you don't already have one, go sign up for one right now. Once you sign up with Dropbox, you'll download a client to your computer. Then you can set up a folder (and related subfolders) to store the data that you want to automatically sync to Dropbox.
Move the PDF files to a folder within the My Dropbox folder on your computer. The files will be synced to your online My Dropbox account.

Download PDF files to your phone

You can use your phones mobile browser or a third party Dropbox application to download files to your phone.

Use the phone's mobile browser: Open up Internet Explorer on the phone and navigate to the mobile Dropbox website (https://www.dropbox.com/m/). Log into the Dropbox, then navigate to the file you want to open on the phone, tap the file. The file will open in Adobe Reader and will be automatically stored in Adobe Reader documents listing.
Third Party App: There are several good Dropbox apps in the WP7 Marketplace that you could use to download Dropbox files to your phone. (I'm currently using BoxFiles for Dropbox).

Forward emailed PDF files to Dropbox

If you receive an email on the phone that includes an attached PDF file, you can open the file on your phone and save it to the phone, but if you think you'll ever want to send the PDF file to anyone else, you can use your unique Dropbox email address to upload the PDF file to your Dropbox account.

Sign up with the "SendtoDropbox" service. SendtoDropbox provides you with a unique email address to send documents to your Dropbox account (emailed files will be automatically uploaded and stored in an Attachments folder).
Create a new contact on your phone called Dropbox that includes your unique SendtoDropbox email address
Forward any emails that include PDF file attachments to your "sendtodropbox" email address by opening the email, tapping the respond icon on the lower edge of the screen, tap forward, and enter your unique sendtodropbox email address in the To: field. The files will be uploaded to the Attachments folder of your Dropbox account, which will be synced to your computer and where the files will be available when you want to share them with others.

Share PDF files from your phone

With all your PDF files stored in the cloud, it's pretty easy to share them with others. I prefer to use BoxFiles for Dropbox to share files from my phone since the Dropbox mobile website is not fully functional on windows phone 7 (the share option doesn't display). To share a file,

Open up the BoxFiles for Dropbox app and find the file you want to share (the icon to the right of the file distinguishes PDF files from folders and other types of files - see the third file in the screenshot to the left)
Tap the icon to the left of the file name, then tap "Email link" (see the fourth option in the screenshot to the right)

As an aside, this method should work on any mobile device and is not limited to just windows phone 7 devices. If you have a different device that runs a different mobile operating system, you'll use a different third party application to manage and share Dropbox files than the one I use, but I believe there are similar Dropbox applications in the iPhone and Android Marketplaces.

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Technorati Tags: Dropbox, Windows Phone, PDF

Keep Track of Purchased & Downloaded Windows Phone Apps

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:33:00 GMT

The Zune desktop software helps you keep track of your purchased and downloaded windows phone applications. To view the list of applications that you've installed to your Windows Phone, open up the Zune software on your computer and log into the Windows Live account you used when you purchased/downloaded the apps. Then click SETTINGS (I've highlighted the SETTINGS option with a red rectangle in the screenshot below).

Then click ACCOUNT > Purchased History > Apps

Unfortunately, all applications you've ever installed to your phone shows up in the list, including trial apps you may no longer care about. Also, there isn't a way to delete apps from the list, nor is there a way to force a manual reinstall of an App from this screen.

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Posting to the blog from a Windows Phone 7

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Sat, 21 May 2011 15:06:01 GMT

Diarist for Windows Phone 7 is now in the marketplace. I've used this application on my windows mobile phones and my pocket pcs and I'm glad to see that I can now use it on my windows phones. It's free and you can get it here: http://zune://navigate/?phoneappid=3ab0d3d2-5680-e011-986b-78e7d1fa76f8

How to restore contact pictures to your windows phone

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 07:24:00 GMT

If you've set up the Outlook Hotmail Connector to sync your contact and appointment data to your Windows Live account, and then sync this information to your windows phone, you've probably noticed that pictures that were included with your Outlook contacts did not sync to Windows Live.

Windows Live accommodates photos with contacts, but the only contacts you'll see in your Windows Live Contacts that have photos are your Live Messenger contacts who have posted a picture of themselves to their Windows Live account.

You'll need to manually restore the photographs to your contacts on the phone.

The easiest way to restore your contact pictures to your windows phone is to upload the pictures to your Windows Live account and then sync the pictures over to your phone.

Upload the Pictures to your Windows Live Account

Gather together all your contact photos and place them in a folder on your computer
Then, using Internet Explorer, login to your Windows Live account > go to Photos > Select the Mobile photos album > Create folder > input "Contact Photos" in the space provided (or whatever you prefer to call the album) > Next
Open up File Explorer in a new window on your computer, navigate to your contacts folder and select all the contacts.
Drag all of the pictures to the "Drop photos here or select photos form your computer" box in Windows Live (the drag option will only work if you are using Internet Explorer)

Sync the Pictures to your Phone

On your phone, open up the Pictures hub > tap all > now you'll see a "Contact pictures from Windows Live" album. Open up the Contact pictures album and tap each picture to download it from your Windows Live account, then tap the three periods in the lower right hand corner of the screen and tap "Save to Phone"
Go to the people hub
Select a contact that you want to add a picture to and tap the pencil icon
Tap "add photo" and then select the picture from your Saved Pictures.

When you sync your phone to Windows Live, the pictures will also sync to Windows Live. You won't see the pictures there, but if you get another phone and sync to your Windows Live account, the pictures will be synced over to your new windows phone.

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Technorati Tags: Windows Live, Windows Phone 7, People Hub

Use Windows Live to handle tasks on a Windows Phone

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 06:29:07 GMT

There is no task application on Windows Phone 7 and so there's no way to sync tasks from Outlook to WP7. Windows Live includes a task option that is buried within the Calendar, but it is very limited and it doesn't sync either.

I recently published an article that documents one method you could use to handle your tasks on a windows phone, which you can read here. At the time I also mentioned another method that I was formulating. This method is more complicated to set up, but is free and integrates nicely with Outlook and the phone's calendar.

I've figured out a way to use Windows Live and Outlook to manage tasks.

Setup Windows Live to accommodate your Tasks

Create a new Windows Live account that is different from your primary Windows Live account.

Select Share > My Calendar > select Share My Calendar and place a checkmark in the box next to "Share your calendar privately with friends and family" > select the "Add people" button

Input the email address for your primary Windows Live account in the "Enter a name or email address" space, then select the down arrow underneath "Choose how much these people can see and do" and select "Co-owner." Select the Add button and scroll down to the bottom of the page and select "Save"."

Select OK to send an email to your primary Live ID account to complete the set up, then log-in to your primary Windows Live account and select Hotmail. Open up the email that was just sent from your other Windows Live account and select the Orange "Accept" button in the upper right hand corner of the email.

Select Hotmail > Calendar. Now you should see a new calendar button in the left hand control panel called "My Calendar". Click on the new calendar and rename it to "My Tasks." Now you can view, modify and delete items from the new Windows Live calendar.

Move Outlook tasks to your new Windows Live Calendar

To gain access and sync to your new Windows Live Calendar, you should have already set up the Outlook Hotmail Connector to sync your primary Windows Live account information with Outlook. If you've already set up the Connector, when you open up Outlook and select Calendar, you should now see the new Windows Live Calendar in the left hand control panel.

In the screenshot below, the Windows Live Calendar I'm using for my appointments is labeled "Julie's Calendar" and the Windows Live Calendar I'm using for tasks is labeled "Julie's Tasks" (you can click the screenshot to see a larger version of it).

Right now your Windows Live Tasks Calendar is empty. You could start manually inputting tasks to it, but you can also export the tasks that are stored in your Personal folder to a CSV file and then import the CSV file into your new Windows Live Tasks Calendar.

Export your Outlook tasks to a CSV file: Select File > Import and Export > Export to a file > Next > Comma Separated Values (DOS) > Next > select Tasks (This computer only) > Next > select the Browse button and navigate to the folder and create a file name for the file > OK > Next > Finish > Change date range to accommodate all your Tasks > OK.

Before you import the CSV file into your new Windows Live Calendar, open up the file in Excel and edit the file as follows:

Input a date in the Start Date. This field must have a date in it or else the record will not import into your Windows Live Tasks Calendar
- For tasks with Due Dates: I copied the Due Date to the Start Date field (or you could map the Due Date to the Start Date field when you import the file into your new Windows Live Tasks Calendar)
- For undated tasks: If you want to track these tasks on your phone, you'll have to input a date in the Start Date field.
- Input a date in the End Date. If you don't input a date in the End Date field, Outlook will treat the task as an all day event with a start time of 12:00 AM on the Start Date and an end time of 12:00 AM the next day. (See the screen shot below)

Add Start Time & End Time columns and input a time in them. If desired, you can add start time and end time columns in your CSV file and input whatever time you desire for each task or you can import the tasks into your Windows Live Tasks Calendar and then move them around on your calendar in Outlook.

Import the Tasks CSV file into your new Windows Live Tasks Calendar: Select File > Import and Export > Import from another program or file > Next > Comma Separated Variable (DOS) > Next > select the Browse button and navigate to the folder where the CSV file is stored > Ok > Next > select your new Windows Live Tasks Calendar > Next > you can select the Map Custom Fields to make sure the fields in your CSV file are mapping to the right fields in the Windows Live Tasks Calendar

Then select Ok > Finish. Your tasks have now been imported into your new Windows Live Tasks Calendar. Finally press the F9 button to synchronize the tasks to your online Windows Live account.

Create some Outlook Views to Handle Tasks

Now that your tasks are stored in the new Windows Live Tasks Calendar, you can create some views to help you work with tasks as if they were still stored in your Tasks folder. I replicated some views that parallel the views I've used to work with tasks for several years, which include the following fields: Icon, Attachment, Importance, Subject, Complete, Status, Start, End, Duration, Categories, Created, Flag Status. I've created three different views that show these fields, and included the following advanced filters:

Active Tasks:
- Start: in the next 7 days
- Flag Status: equals UNFLAGGED
All Open Tasks
- Flag Status: equals UNFLAGGED
Completed Tasks
- Flag Status: equals COMPLETED

You can view your Windows Live Tasks Calendar and your main Windows Live Appointments Calendar individually and you can also overlay the Tasks Calendar with your main Appointments Calendar in the Day/Week/Month views by placing or removing checkmarks in the boxes next to each Calendar in the left hand control panel. If you go back and review the screenshot of my weekly calendar which appears earlier in this article, you'll see an example of this.

Now you are ready to set up your windows phone to synchronize to your Windows Live Tasks Calendar.

Synchronize the Tasks Calendar to your Windows Phone

One really nice feature that windows phone 7 offers is the ability to sync multiple calendars to the phone. Once the calendar data is on the phone, you can display each calendar's entries in a different color on the phone's master calendar and you can toggle the calendar displays on and off.

To synchronize the new Windows Live Tasks Calendar to the phone, go to Settings > email & accounts > add an account > Windows Live > input your Windows Live Id and Password for your second Windows Live account. Then all the data that is stored on that account will synchronize to the phone (you can modify this account later to change the account name, set the sync times, etc to your preferences).

To change the color for the calendar display or to turn the calendar on and off, open up the Calendar on the phone, tap the three dots in the bottom right hand side of the screen. Then select "calendars" to change the color of the calendar items and to turn the calendar display on and off.

Final Notes

It took some time to get used to seeing my tasks included in with my calendar items, but now that I've become accustomed to it, I really like it. I also like the idea of scheduling blocks of time in my calendar to work on tasks. I may not get the satisfaction of checking off my tasks on my phone, but I can do that in Outlook and I'm finding it very useful to organize my week in Outlook's weekly view, where I can move tasks around and schedule my tasks. All-in-all, I think this method will actually make me more effective and more focused on getting things done.

Try this method out and let me know what you think of it.

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Technorati Tags: windows phone 7, Outlook, tasks

Manage Your Tasks on a Windows Phone with Remember The Milk

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:49:12 GMT

Windows Phone 7 does not include a tasks application and there's no way to sync Outlook tasks to the device. Even if there were a way to sync tasks, there's no place to store them once they get there. This to me is one of the greatest deficiencies of windows phone.

A few years ago I signed up for a free "Remember the Milk" (RTM) account. At the time I didn't have a prevailing reason to move my tasks to the cloud and there was no windows mobile support for RTM, so I didn't seriously consider using it.

But now with windows phone 7, I had a strong incentive to find a different way to work with tasks on my phone, so I rummaged around and found my RTM login credentials and took another look at this well known, well regarded, cloud-based tasks application. I figured I could at least have access to my tasks through RTM's mobile website.

Then last week, I discovered WinMilk in the Marketplace (in the Productivity category). I downloaded it to my phone, set up my Remember the Milk login credentials and all my tasks information synced beautifully to my phone.

Getting Remember The Milk ready to Sync to a Windows Phone

1. Sign up for a free account with Remember the Milk

2. Use MilkSync to Move your Outlook Tasks to your Remember the Milk account.

The easiest way to move your tasks from Outlook to your Remember the Milk account is to install the 14 day trial version of MilkSync to your computer. MilkSync is RTM's Outlook connector.

After you install MilkSync to your computer, you'll enter your RTM Username and Password in the login screen and set up a few parameters to manage how you want to sync your data.

MilkSync runs automatically in the computer's taskbar. You can force a sync or change the RTM Account Settings by right clicking on the RTM taskbar icon.

Notes about Syncing Outlook Tasks to Remember the Milk

Remember the Milk doesn't use categories, but instead organizes tasks into Lists and Tags. When you sync your Outlook Tasks to RTM, RTM converts the categories that are associated with a task into Lists. When you select the List view (see 2nd screenshot below), you can enjoy filtered views of your tasks.
If you create tags in your RTM account and attach tags to your Tasks, the tags will be synced back to Outlook and show up as categories with a pound symbol (#) preceding their name (i.e., #Personal)

3. Use WinMilk Task Manager to Sync Your Tasks to your Windows Phone.

WinMilk is a free Remember the Milk client that you can find under the productivity category in the Marketplace. WinMilk lets you view your tasks by date, list, or tag and you can also edit and delete tasks on your windows phone.

Here's some screenshots of the various screens you'll work with on your windows phone:

First screenshot shows the detail of a specific task. If you tap a task, you'll see detailed information about it in this screen.

When: this is the task's due date
List: this is the category that is used with Outlook
Tags: shows any tags that you've associated with the tasks. When synced back to Outlook, the tag information will be included with the task as another category that is prefaced with a pound sign (#).

While in this screen you can edit and delete tasks. These screenshots are not up-to-date, but now when you tap on a task to see the detail you'll see four icons that run along the bottom of the screen that shows a checkmark, an arrow, a pencil (to edit), and a trash can (to delete).

Second screenshot shows the search screen. You can search tasks by selecting the magnifying glass on the tasks, lists or tags screen (see the three screenshots above).

Third screenshot shows the smart add option which is accessed by tapping the plus icon on the tasks, lists, or tags screen.

Before you can use WinMilk on your phone, you'll have to log in to your RTM account from the phone and authorize the application, so the first time you open up WinMilk you'll be prompted to login to your RTM account.

WinMilk then takes you to the Remember the Milk login page where you can input your RTM login Name and Password. The screen is small, so just tap (and keep tapping) the screen to get the screen large enough to see and enter your login information. After you login you'll be asked to grant WinMilk authorization to your RTM account. Afterwards you'll tap the "done" icon on the lower edge of the screen. Then WinMilk will automatically sync all the data in your RTM account to the phone.

WinMilk syncs changes back to your Remember the Milk account. If you decide to upgrade your account to a professional account, which costs $25 a year, you can continue using RTM's MilkSync to sync the tasks back to Outlook on your computer.

I'm still running the trial version of MilkSync on my computer, but since I plan to continue syncing my older windows mobile devices to my computer, I'll probably upgrade my RTM account to a pro account so I can continue using MilkSync beyond the 14 day trial.

Stay Tuned! I've figured out another option you could use to manage your tasks on your windows phone. This other option is a bit more complicated to set up and I'm still working out the details, but it is completely free and integrates nicely with Outlook on your computer. I'm still refining and testing the process and will be documenting it in an article that I plan to post to the blog next week.

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Technorati Tags: Remember the Milk, Tasks, WP7, windows phone

Using the Outlook Hotmail Connector

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 04:16:00 GMT

Windows Phone 7 devices do not sync contacts and appointments to a local computer via ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Center. Instead WP7 syncs directly to data that is stored in the cloud, that is, it syncs to web-based services, such as Windows Live, Google, or Exchange Server.

Since I plan to continue syncing my older windows mobile devices to Outlook on my computer, and in anticipation of Windows Phone 7, I spent some time exploring the Outlook Hotmail Connector as a way to manage my contacts and appointments on my local computer while also providing a way to make the data available for my new Windows Phone 7 device.

So here's all you need to do to get the Outlook Hotmail Connector running on your computer. Then you'll be able to sync your new windows phone 7 to your windows live account, and you'll still be able to sync your older windows mobile devices to your computer.

Set up Outlook Hotmail Connector

Download Outlook Hotmail Connector and install it to your computer
- Outlook Hotmail Connector 64-bit
- Outlook Hotmail Connector 32-bit
After you've installed Outlook Connector to your computer, open up Outlook. You'll see a "Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector" box with the question "Would you like to add a Hotmail Account?" Select the Yes button.
Input your Windows Live email address and password in the space provided

After you select Ok, exit Outlook and then restart Outlook. When you restart Outlook, you should see your windows live folder in the Mail Folders panel. You will also find an Outlook Connector menu item has been added to the top navigational menu. Give Outlook a few minutes to sync the windows live folder structure on the computer. Then you can copy your contacts and calendar data to the windows live folders.

Copy Contact & Calendar data to the Windows Live folders

Copy Contacts from the Local Contact folder to the Windows Live Contacts folder

Open up the Contacts Folder in Outlook's Personal Folders
Display the "Phone List" view
Select Edit > Select All (Ctrl+A)
Select Edit > Copy (Ctrl+C)
Select the Windows Live Contacts folder
Select Edit > Paste (Ctrl+V)

Copy Calendar from the Local Calendar folder to the Windows Live Calendar folder

Open up the Calendar Folder in Outlook's Personal Folders
Display the "All Appointments" view
Select Edit > Select All (Ctrl+A)
Select Edit > Copy (Ctrl+C)
Select the Windows Live Calendar folder
Select Edit > Paste (Ctrl+V)

Now you'll need to change a few Outlook account settings to make the transition to Windows Live as transparent as possible.

Change Outlook Account Settings

Open up Outlook on your computer, select Tools > Account Settings

Data Files: Select the Data Files tab > highlight your Windows Live ID account and set it as Default

E-mail: If you're like me and use Outlook to manage a couple of different POP/SMTP email accounts on your local computer, you'll want to check the E-mail tab to make sure your primary email account, which is not your windows live account, is set as your default account - otherwise all your email will be sent from your windows live account

Address Books: Because you won't be using the local Contacts folder to store contact information you'll select the Address Books tab and removed the personal folders from the list of Address Books

Now you can continue using Outlook to manage your contacts and appointments, continue syncing your older windows mobile devices to your computer, and sync your new windows phone to your windows live account. Any changes you make to Outlook or to your windows live account will be synced. Your contacts and appointments on your computer, your mobile devices and your windows live account will always be in sync with each other and up-to-date.

NOTE: Before you sync an older windows mobile device to your computer, you'll need to delete its earlier ActiveSync or WMDC partnership and set up a new partnership.

NOTE: If you are still syncing email to Outlook's Personal Folder, you'll need to leave your Personal Folders open. Within this folder are folders for Calendar, Contacts, etc. Since you won't be using the Calendar or Contacts folder, you can delete the information that is stored in these folders, but you won't be able to delete them.

What About Tasks?

When you install Outlook Connector, you'll see a new Tasks folder called "Tasks (This computer only)." Unfortunately, this is just another local folder. Even though this tasks folder is considered part of the windows live set of folders it does not get synced to Windows Live.

If you plan to continue syncing to an older windows mobile device, you'll want to copy your tasks from the Tasks in Personal Folders to the Tasks (this computer only) folder.

Unfortunately, there's not even a tasks application included on windows phone 7 devices. I rely on tasks to keep me organized and so I had to figure out a way to workaround this huge deficiency. But I've settled on a workable solution, so stay tuned to the blog. I'll be publishing another article about how to manage tasks on a windows phone 7 device that you might find useful.

Technorati Tags: Outlook Connector, windows phone 7, windows live, outlook, syncing

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Windows Phone 7 is in my Pocket!

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:21:31 GMT

A few weeks ago, I received a much anticipated FedEx visit and have been consumed with my newest phone ever since.

I got my first look at WP7 last February when I attended the MVP Summit in Redmond, WA.

I had mixed feelings about what I saw and learned during the summit, but I decided to take a wait and see position in regards to the Windows Phone 7 OS. I wanted to refrain from formulating an opinion of it until I had a chance to spend some time working with a WP7 device.

Nonetheless, I saw enough of Windows Phone 7 that I knew it would provoke mixed reactions from users once it was finally released to the public. Because I wanted to maintain an objective orientation for this new OS, I purposely distanced myself from blogs and forums that showed leaked pictures of WP7 phones and all the corresponding speculation and hyperbole that surrounded this new operating system.

Now that I've had a few weeks to work with windows phone 7, I am prepared to field questions from users and I'll be powering up the blog with lots of "how to" articles. There's a lot of missing functionality with WP7 right now, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it evolves and improves in the coming months. WP7 is far from perfect, but it is a refreshing change from windows mobile and I think it has tremendous potential.

Because of it's current deficiencies in regards to some of the primary tasks I rely on a mobile device to handle for me, I'll be carrying both the WP7 phone AND one of my windows mobile devices until 1) I've figured out a good workaround; or 2) Microsoft updates the OS to address the deficiencies; or 3) there's third party applications that address the deficiencies.

In the meantime, I am busily working out things to help me improve my use of WP7 and to work around some of its deficiencies. I am organizing and formulating my thoughts about how I can present this to my readers. Stay tuned for some articles that detail:

How to use Outlook Connector to manage one set of contacts and calendar items that can be synced to WP7, windows mobile 6.x and windows mobile 5.0, 2003 and earlier devices. If you have multiple windows mobile devices, like I do, you really can have it all.
How to manage tasks on WP7. WP7 does not sync tasks and there's no tasks application included on the device. I've been monitoring the tasks applications in the Marketplace and have not found any that satisfy me. Instead I am working out a way to handle tasks on WP7 that is free and easy. My workaround won't completely solve the problem of a missing tasks application, but I think it will work out to be a pretty good workaround until something better and more comprehensive comes along.
How to "sync" Excel, Word and Powerpoint documents easily to WP7 if you don't have access to Sharepoint 2010.

I've also been thinking about hosting a weekly twitter chat with folks who have questions about WP7. If you'd like to get some of your questions answered you can also chat with me through the "Chat Me Up" button that can be found in the right hand column of this blog. If the little live messenger icon is green and you see my name on the button, I'm online and would be happy to field any questions you might have.

I'm not planning to abandon my old windows mobile devices. But after spending a couple weeks with WP7, I can tell you I'm enjoying some of this WP7 goodness and don't want to go back to the every day clunkiness of windows mobile.

Loading up the HP Glisten

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 18:56:33 GMT

I've been using the HP Glisten since January and I'm impressed at what a fine Windows Phone it is. The 3G signal I get with the HP Glisten is better and more consistent than any of my other 3G phones and I haven't experienced any disconnection problems with it.

The HP Glisten is definitely a business device. It's a fairly pristine phone insofar as it doesn't have many superfluous applications already installed to it. I prefer a barebones phone over one that is loaded with lots of third party software that cannot be deleted or updated, so I don't consider this a drawback. Nevertheless, I was surprised to discover that the Glisten does not include some software that I have come to expect on a mobile device: Google Maps, Instant Messenger, Windows My Phone.

If you get the Glisten, you'll probability want to install some software to it to make it functional enough to meet your needs. Here are mobile links to the "must have" software I've installed to my Glisten:

Free Applications

Opera Mobile: One of the best Windows Mobile browsers around. Just input m.opera.com into your phone's mobile browser to tap the link to download the software directly to your phone.

YouTube: I don't watch much YouTube on my computer, and hardly ever watch YouTube on my phone, but this seems to be a popular thing to do on a windows mobile device, given the number of threads I see about it on the HP IPAQ forum and other windows mobile forums. Just input m.youtube.com into your phone's mobile browser to find a link that you can click to install the software directly to your phone. (See "Viewing YouTube on a Windows Phone" if you need more information.)

My Phone is Microsoft's free web-based backup service. You can backup contacts, appointments, tasks, pictures, text messages, and other documents to this service, although it is not a complete replacement for Outlook & ActiveSync syncing - so you should still plan to sync your device to your computer. See these articles for more information about Microsoft My Phone:

Live Mesh is one of Microsoft's "cloud" computing services. Live Mesh allows me to synchronize files from my HP Glisten to my computer through the cloud. It's an easy way for me to keep my most used files available and up-to-date on any computer or most windows mobile devices. See "Cloud Computing with Windows Live Mesh" for more information.

Total Commander 2.52 beta 2 is a great file management software and one of the first applications I install to all my Windows Mobile devices. See "Take Charge of Your Files" for more information about this software.

PockeTwit: I tried out a couple of different twitter applications on my windows phones, but I always come back to PockeTwit.

Null Keyboard doesn't do much except prevent the onscreen keyboard from popping up.

Palringo is a nice, free instant messaging client that lets you login to multiple instant messengers (MSN, GTalk, iChat, Yahoo, AIM, GG/Gadu-Gadu, AOL ICQ, XMPP/Jabber, and Facebook chat) at the same time. Just input www.palringo.mobi into your mobile browser to download and install the application directly to your phone.

Of course, if you are a fan of Windows Live you can also go to Windows Live for Mobile and get Windows Live Messenger:

Purchased Applications

Profile applications: Today screen plug-ins are not needed if you plan to use the Windows Default today screen, but you'll probably want to install some kind of profile manager to automate the ringer and other things on your phone. I used Phone Alarm on the IPAQ hw6925, but I installed Phone Weaver on the Glisten

SKTools is my Windows Mobile Swiss army knife. I've written several articles about this wonderful application and I find new uses for it all the time. SKTools is an indispensable application that I highly recommend.

AgendaOne is a fine PIM application that is easy to navigate either through the 5 directional toggle or by finger scrolling through the option. Here are screenshots of the Contacts, Tasks, Agenda, Daily, Weekly and Monthly views.

Mobile Navigator 7 is my GPS software of choice for the HP Glisten. You can purchase Mobile Navigator 7 at PocketGear or Smartphone.net, and it's on sale for under $50 until 6/14/2010! Mobile Navigator is all inclusive, which means you don't need an "always on" data connection to use the software - the maps are stored on the windows phone so you'll need to reserve 1.5 GB free on your SD card for the maps.

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Technorati Tags: HP IPAQ Glisten

Listening to Sirius Internet Radio all over the place

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Sat, 29 May 2010 13:00:00 GMT

Now that I'm able to play Sirius Internet Radio on my Windows Mobile devices, I've been searching for ways to leverage my monthly subscription. Over the last few weeks I've purchased some accessories that allow me to enjoy Sirius internet radio in lots of different places. All of these accessories port music to external speakers by plugging them into a device's 3.5 mm stereo audio port. I use adapters on some of my devices to accomplish this (2.5mm to 3.5 mm adapter; HTC 3.5mm 2.5mm headset adapter converter). Now I can enjoy Sirius internet radio around the town, in my home and on the deck or anywhere else I happen to be.

Around the town

An advantage of driving an older car is that it has a cassette player incorporated into its sound system. I tested out the Griffin iTrip Auto Universal Plus FM Transmitter and the Griffin Direct Deck Universal Adapter to pipe Sirius Internet Radio through my car's stereo system. Because the sound quality of the cassette tape adapter is exceedingly better than that of the FM transmitter, I purchased the Griffin Direct Deck Universal Adapter (COST: $17.99).

To ensure I've always got plenty of power to listen to the radio on my windows mobile phone, I also purchased the Griffin PowerJolt Dual Universal USB Car Charger (COST: $19.99) to recharge the battery when I'm on the go.

Throughout my home

I thought about buying an internet radio like the Grace Wireless Internet Radio (Cost: $138), but I really didn't want to get another appliance that would be dedicated for one purpose. Then I figured out I could purchase a few inexpensive accessories and use my Windows Mobile devices and some existing speakers instead.

Livingroom: I'm using a Philips Mini to RCA Stereo Cable (Philips SJM2101/27) to pipe Sirius internet radio from my HTC Fuze through my home stereo system. I'm plugging one end of the cable into an unused port on the stereo receiver (DVD, I think) and the other end of the cable into the windows mobile device headphone jack. (COST: $4)

Bedroom: I'm using the Griffin Direct Deck Universal Adapter that I purchased for my car to listen to the radio through the speakers of an old clock radio. (The picture below shows Sirius playing on the HTC Fuze)

Kitchen: I'm using a pair of powered Sony portable speakers that I purchased for a portable CD player years ago. (The picture below shows Sirius playing on the IPAQ Voice Messenger)

On the deck/at the beach/anywhere else

The JBL On Tour Portable Speaker System (COST: On clearance at Walmart for $35.00) serves as a portable boom box. The sound quality is amazing! (the picture below shows Sirius playing on the HP IPAQ Glisten)

Now I can listen to Sirius internet radio wherever and whenever I have a wifi or data connection.

An added bonus is that I can use all these accessories with my Zune or any other mp3 player!

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Technorati Tags: Sirius internet radio, Windows Phones, HTC Fuze, IPAQ Voice Messenger, HP Glisten, Zune, MP3 player

Sirius Radio on a Windows Phone

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:00:00 GMT

A couple of years ago, I wrote an article about how I was able to listen to Sirius radio on a Pocket PC. Around the time of the Sirius/XM merger, the SiriusWM5 application that I used on my Pocket PCs stopped working. A few months ago, I discovered and installed a new Windows Mobile application for Sirius internet radio called SXRadio2. I've installed SXRadio2 to the following Windows Mobile devices:

IPAQ rx1950 (runs WM5.0): The application installed okay, but won't play. I think this is because the rx1950 is memory constrained. You might have better luck with a more powerful WM5.0 device.
IPAQ Voice Messenger (runs WM6.1 standard - no touch screen phone): Runs great! The screenshots you see below were taken from the Voice Messenger
HTC Fuze (runs WM6.1 professional phone): Runs great!
HTC Touch Diamond2 (runs WM6.5 professional - touch screen phone): Runs great!
IPAQ Glisten (runs WM6.5 professional - touch screen phone): Runs great!

SXRadio2 is free and supports Sirius and XM subscription and guest accounts. Additional features include:

What's Playing (with mode selection)
Album Art, when available
Lyrics, when available
Twitter Integration: If activated will post 'What's Playing" to your twitter stream
Presets: You can save your favorite stations
Plays Standard and High Quality Streams

SXRadio2 does not circumvent a required subscription to Sirius - you still must subscribe to Sirius internet radio before you can listen to the radio:

New subscribers can try out Sirius' 30 day, free evaluation subscription. If you like what you hear, you can subscribe to Sirius internet radio for $12.95/month.
Current Sirius Satellite Radio subscribers already get free, standard internet radio (32 kbs), but you can upgrade to the 128 kb, CD-quality premium service for an additional $2.99/month.

Sirius internet radio includes many of the same channels as Sirius Satellite Radio - you can review their channel guide to see the channels that are included with internet radio versus the channels that are included with satellite radio.

Start Listening Now!

Listening to Sirius internet radio on your Windows Mobile device is easy:

If you don't already subscribe to Sirius Satellite Radio, go to the Sirius website to sign up for your 30 day trial.
Download and install .Net Compact Framework 3.5 to your windows mobile device if it is not already installed.
Download and install the SXRadio2 cab file to your:
- Windows Mobile Standard (non-touch screen) phone
- Windows Mobile Professional (touch screen) device
Connect your Windows Mobile device to the internet, either through WIFI or GPRS/Edge/3G connection
Set up SXRadio2:
- Select/Tap Start > Programs > SXRadio2
- Select/Tap SXRadio2 > Settings
- Input your Sirius username and password in the space provided. If you want to automatically post a tweet for what's playing on your phone (spamming your twitter followers relentlessly, risking being unfollowed by everyone who really doesn't care to know what you are listening to every minute of the day), you can also input your twitter username and password on this screen.

Select/Tap Save. The first time you log on to Sirius internet radio on your phone, it will take several moments to load up all the channels.

Now any time you open up SXRadio2, you can resume listening to the last channel or select a new channel and ENJOY!

You can see from the screenshots shown below (taken from the HP IPAQ Glisten) that the windows mobile professional version of SXRadio2 is practically identical to the windows mobile standard version.

NOTE: If you use a GPRS/Edge/3G data connection, you'll definitely want to be sure you subscribe to an unlimited data plan through your cellular provider.

Tomorrow I'll post another article that shows how I've extended my use of Sirius Internet Radio to listen to it all over the place.

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Technorati Tags: HP IPAQ Voice Messenger, HP IPAQ Glisten, Windows Mobile Professional, Windows Mobile Standard, Sirius internet radio, SXRadio2

Editing the Registry of a Windows Mobile Device

Prof.Julie@pocketprimer.com (Prof Julie) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:56:25 GMT

Sometimes to gain some functionality on a Windows Mobile device you may need to modify its registry. There are several different registry editors you could use to do this, such as SKTools or Total Commander's registry editor.

For this article, I will use PHM Registry Editor to modify the registry of a WM6.5 phone so that all email messages and related attachments are stored on the installed storage card (by default these items are stored in main memory). The required registry changes are:

To store EMAIL messages to the storage card: HKLM\System\Inbox\Settings\PropertyPath - Create a new string value called PropertyPath, if necessary, and input the new path to use for Email messages (i.e., \Storage Card\Windows\Messaging)
For store Email attachments to the storage card: HKLM\System\Inbox\Settings\AttachPath - Create a new string value called AttachPath, if necessary, and input the new path to use for email attachments (i.e., \Storage Card\Windows\Messaging\Attachments)

Making the Changes

Open up PHM Registry Editor and select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (referred to as HKLM). Navigate to System > Inbox > Settings. Then tap Edit > New String Value.

Replace the default value name to PropertyPath or AttachPath (depending on which string you are creating) and input the entire path where you want to store your email messages and email attachments.

NOTE: You need to create these folders before you can use them. See "Take Charge of your Files" to learn about the software you could use to create folders and to manage files on your windows mobile device.

After you've created these keys, exit the registry editor and soft reset your device.

Caution! Caution! Caution! Caution!

Before you start poking around in the registry, be sure to backup the entire contents of your mobile device. Then be very careful when messing around in the registry and don't experiment unless you know what you are doing. Deleting or modifying registry keys could render the device useless, requirement a hard reset to return the device to working order.

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Technorati Tags: PHM Registry Editor, windows mobile, WM6.5

from my pocket

How to Cancel a Zune Pass

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Here’s an easy way to print files you create on your Windows Phone

Final Comments

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Upload videos to YouTube from your Phone

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Manage & Share PDF files from Windows Phone 7

How I manage & share PDF Files from my Windows Phone

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Keep Track of Purchased & Downloaded Windows Phone Apps

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Posting to the blog from a Windows Phone 7

Recommended Readings for Windows Mobile Newbies

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How to restore contact pictures to your windows phone

Upload the Pictures to your Windows Live Account

Sync the Pictures to your Phone

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Use Windows Live to handle tasks on a Windows Phone

Setup Windows Live to accommodate your Tasks

Move Outlook tasks to your new Windows Live Calendar

Create some Outlook Views to Handle Tasks

Synchronize the Tasks Calendar to your Windows Phone

Final Notes

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Manage Your Tasks on a Windows Phone with Remember The Milk

Getting Remember The Milk ready to Sync to a Windows Phone

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Using the Outlook Hotmail Connector

Set up Outlook Hotmail Connector

Copy Contact & Calendar data to the Windows Live folders

Change Outlook Account Settings

What About Tasks?

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Windows Phone 7 is in my Pocket!

Loading up the HP Glisten

Free Applications

Purchased Applications

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Listening to Sirius Internet Radio all over the place

Around the town

Throughout my home

On the deck/at the beach/anywhere else

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Sirius Radio on a Windows Phone

Start Listening Now!

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Editing the Registry of a Windows Mobile Device

Making the Changes

Caution! Caution! Caution! Caution!

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