21 September 2008

Sync Your Phone Wirelessly
Microsoft Phone Data Manager Beta Released

Microsoft just released the first beta version of its Phone Data Manager application which looks like a serious alternative for some of the Nokia PC Suite features as it support wider range of mobile devices including most of the Nokia S60 2nd and 3rd edition phones.

Welcome to the world of not having to worry about losing key information that you have stored on your phone.

Microsoft Phone Data Manager Beta is a PC application that enables you to have a worry free mobile life.

With this application, you no longer have to fear the unfortunate circumstance of misplacing your phone or corrupting its contents - your contacts, precious pictures and videos and music files can be kept safe.

Microsoft Phone Data Manager Beta is an application that is designed to take away the worry of losing data on your phone - specifically contacts, music, pictures and videos.

It does that by synchronizing your phone contacts with Microsoft's Windows Live Contacts store in the cloud, or by helping you download files from the phone to your local computer.

Contacts: Microsoft® Phone Data Manager Beta synchronizes the contacts present in your phone with your contact store on Windows Live Contacts, which is the same store that your Hotmail contacts uses. This way, your phone contacts are always present on the internet, accessible via the contacts link on Hotmail. If you lose, or simply change your phone, all you need to do is to synchronize the contacts using Microsoft® Phone Data Manager Beta, and all the contacts that you stored in your Windows Live Contacts store will be downloaded to your phone. You can synchronize your contacts as many times as you like so that the changes you make (edits, additions or deletions) on your phone, or on the computer on Windows Live Contacts are always reflected on both your phone and the Windows Live Contacts store.

Music, Pictures and Video: In its current form, Microsoft® Phone Data Manager Beta will download the music, pictures and videos present in your phone to a local folder on the computer you are using this application on

Communication with your phone: Microsoft® Phone Data Manager Beta can communicate with your phone via a wireless standard known as Bluetooth, or via a USB cable.

In order for you to synchronize contacts, you will need to have a Windows Live ID (any Hotmail ID is a valid Windows Live ID). If you do not have one, you will be prompted to create one while you use the application.

Phone requirements: For contacts synchronization, your phone needs to support the SyncML standard, and for file download it needs to support OBEX. It also needs Bluetooth or USB connectivity. In general if your phone has a Windows Mobile OS it’ll work. On Windows Mobile phones, Microsoft Phone Data Manager Beta will work only via a USB data cable connection. You can find a list of phones they tested here.

System requirements: Windows XP SP2 or SP3, Windows Vista 32 bits, there is no 64 bits version of the software available at this moment. 256 MB of RAM and 200 MB of available disk space. Minimum screen resolution of 800x600. Bluetooth Connectivity: inbuilt Bluetooth hardware support (e.g. most laptops have Bluetooth inbuilt), or an external USB Bluetooth dongle compatible with the Microsoft Bluetooth Stack. USB Connectivity: make sure you use a cable that works with your phone and have the latest available cable drivers installed.

List of phones that we have tested & know that they work with Microsoft Phone Data Manager Beta you can find right here.