Microsoft My Phone now live, in screenshots

We won't see Windows Mobile 6.5 or Windows Marketplace until the end of the year, but Microsoft isn't hoarding all the goodies -- the My Phone sync service went live in beta last night, and users who pre-registered got invites. Go on and sign up and let us know what you think, or just hit the link and check it all out in screenshots.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[Ed T @ Feb 17th 2009 12:46PM]

MyLife, iLife, MyPhone, iPhone, do I detect a pattern here?

[aardWolf @ Feb 17th 2009 12:51PM]

It's purely coincidence (and so are Microsoft's two new upcoming products... the myPhone Nano and the widely anticipated myWork.)

The snappleTV on the other hand was entirely stolen from Apple. :-)

[kjb434 @ Feb 17th 2009 12:52PM]

Yeah,

Selfishness and self centered lifestyles!

[Fakedevil @ Feb 17th 2009 12:53PM]

Not entirely true, the equivalent of iPhone is Windows Phone. My Phone is really just a service.

[Josh Ladella @ Feb 17th 2009 1:23PM]

You can buy all of them at the nearest Mapple store.

[Major4Play @ Feb 17th 2009 1:36PM]

@Fakedevil

There is no "i" in Apple they adopted it but other companies used e to denote electric and i to denote intelligent or internet all through the nineties.

[Theli @ Feb 17th 2009 1:48PM]

The names seem to suggest that cellphone owners are particularly self-centric. Who would have though?

[Charles Knight @ Feb 17th 2009 12:50PM]

If (like me) you have live mesh installed and have an exchange account (which I pay $4 a month for), the only thing this does is back up text messages and frankly I perfer the live mesh method of anything I drop into my folders on my pc appears on my phone.

it's all a bit lackluster for me, however I guess it will appeal to the least technical (but why have they purchased a WM device to start with??)

[kjb434 @ Feb 17th 2009 12:53PM]

Many people do you WinMo that are not technically oriented because their workplace gives them the phone.

[Look_Around_You @ Feb 17th 2009 1:19PM]

Many people use it because......hold on to your hats.

BECAUSE THEY WANT TO!

I know, like how could they want to when like all of the people on the interweb tech blogs say how uncool it is. Like dont you want to be cool and junk?

[WixosTrix @ Feb 17th 2009 4:32PM]

@ Charles Knight

I was thinking along the same lines cuz I just starting playing with Live Mesh, not the WinMo part cuz my tilt was stolen, and it kind of doesn't make sense to create yet another separate services when they have one totally capable of accomplishing the same thing, which is also in beta so...Do get Microsoft sometimes.

[Yankees368 @ Feb 17th 2009 12:52PM]

hey, I didnt get an invite :-(

[Eric @ Feb 17th 2009 12:57PM]

Microsoft, 1990 called...........they want their UI back

[scott baker @ Feb 17th 2009 1:02PM]

I was thinking the same thing. Is that really what it looks like?

[Kumar @ Feb 17th 2009 1:10PM]

Probably, but it's a screen you see a handful of times. Once at setup, then a few times after. It's about like the network setup screens, that you hope you never have to access. ;)

[Look_Around_You @ Feb 17th 2009 1:17PM]

"Microsoft, 1990 called...........they want their UI back"

Should it have dancing icons and music in the background, so you then can show up and tell us how it's too busy, and it eats up too much memory to do something so simple?

SELECT DATA TO SYNC and some check boxes. What the hell do you need it to look like?

[Major4Play @ Feb 17th 2009 1:38PM]

You obviously don't remember what 1990 looked like.

[George @ Feb 17th 2009 2:12PM]

That screenshot was taken just before the "Abort, Retry, Cancel?" dialog appeared.

[Paul @ Feb 17th 2009 1:18PM]

Wish my G1 had text backup. I would guess MyPhone is a WinMo only thing, but I'd love to see it come to Android.

I'm pretty hopeful about 6.5. If they speeded up the core it'll be pretty nice.

[STNC @ Feb 17th 2009 1:04PM]

This is just like dashwire...

[bandigolo @ Feb 17th 2009 2:05PM]

Google sync (also just released) works just fine (probably better). Shove your "invite" up your arse.

[George @ Feb 17th 2009 2:22PM]

Sync invites to My Arse? Not yet.

Microsoft isn't releasing their My Arse service until Windows Mobile 7. We're stuck with My Phone until then.

[wyman @ Feb 17th 2009 3:12PM]

Besides the fact that you can't sync anything other than contacts and your main Google calendar?

[bandigolo @ Feb 17th 2009 3:30PM]

Dashwire has done that for months (years?), quite well, and for free.

Seriously, I'm no Microsoft hater, but if you're impressed by this you really need to take a hard look outside of your bubble.

Until WinMo 7 is released, I will remain obstinate in my disdain for Microsoft's (lack of) mobile efforts.

[bandigolo @ Feb 17th 2009 3:38PM]

and your comment is false and misleading. You can very easily sync your Outlook Calendar to your phone using Google Sync (I do). It's seamless, fully automated and fast.

[dcoaster @ Feb 17th 2009 5:14PM]

I love the sarcasm and cynicism going on today at Engadget! =]

[Leindurstit @ Feb 17th 2009 2:18PM]

Storage Card Sync? Ok, that's awesome. Another one-up on the iPhone.

[qpid360 @ Feb 17th 2009 3:07PM]

Mobile Me desperately needs notes and task syncing. DESPERATELY.