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Microsoft fixes Windows Mobile synch problem

news
Jun 7, 20072 mins

Upgrade solves problem that made it difficult for users of the most recent Windows Mobile devices to synch with PCs running Vista

Microsoft has fixed a problem that made it difficult for users of the most recent Windows Mobile devices to synch with PCs running Vista.

Tuesday night, Microsoft launched Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1, an upgraded version of the software that lets Windows Mobile users manage their phones.

The Mobile Device Center was designed for Vista users as a replacement for ActiveSync, the software that let’s PC users synchronize content like calendar items and transfer content like music between their Windows Mobile phones and PCs.

However, early users of Windows Mobile 6.0 devices have complained that the Device Center doesn’t synch files at all or in some cases it may lose updates to files.

“In the past, some users reported installation and compatibility issues with Windows Mobile Device Center [WMDC],” said John Starkweather, group product manager in Microsoft’s mobile communications group, in an e-mail statement. “We have released an update to WMDC intended to improve the overall user experience.”

Mobile Device Center 6.1 supports file synchronization for all Windows Mobile 6.0 devices including smartphones, according to Mel Sampat, a program manager for Windows Mobile who blogged about the new version.

Other new features in Device Center include synching HTML-formatted mail, allowing data connections on the phone when connected to the PC and automatic device authentication.

Microsoft also announced that in the third quarter, Windows Mobile will be compatible with Office 2007. That means users of Windows Mobile 6 Professional and Standard devices as well as Mobile 5.0 touch screen phones that already have Office Mobile will get a free update that will let them read and edit Office 2007 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

Also in the third quarter, device makers will be able to start shipping Windows Mobile 6 devices with Office Mobile 2007 preinstalled.

Correction: This story as originally posted did not fully describe which Windows Mobile users would get a free upgrade to Office 2007. The article has been amended.

nancy_gohring

Nancy Gohring is a freelance journalist who started writing about mobile phones just in time to cover the transition to digital. She's written about PCs from Hanover, cellular networks from Singapore, wireless standards from Cyprus, cloud computing from Seattle and just about any technology subject you can think of from Las Vegas. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Computerworld, Wired, the Seattle Times and other well-respected publications.

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