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How to sync files like notes and tasks on your Windows Phone 7

As I noted in my post with tips on moving from an iPhone to a new Windows Phone 7, I also touched on how to sync several files – namely notes. A number of folks asked how to sync notes and files with your new Windows Phone 7.  There are different ways to sync files on your phone, depending on the type of file and where i’s stored. To learn more, take a look at the article on syncing files with your phone.

I’m a huge OneNote fan and OneNote Mobile lets you take notes and sync existing OneNote notebooks with your new Windows Phone 7. It integrates easily with Windows Live SkyDrive (I love having 25GB of free online storage in the cloud).

To sync a notebook on Windows Live SkyDrive for the first time

  1. On Start, flick left to the App list, and then tap Office.
  2. Flick to OneNote, and then tap All .
  3. Tap Refresh.

  4. Tap Yes in the Sync with SkyDrive? message box. Wait while you’re signed in with your Windows Live ID.

  5. Afterward, a personal notebook named Personal (Web) will be created in your My Documents folder on Windows Live SkyDrive and synced on your phone.

  6. Type your notes.

For more info about saving Office documents to Windows Live SkyDrive, see Save a document to Windows Live from Office 2010 on the Microsoft Office website. For more info about getting started and using OneNote Web App, see Introduction to OneNote Web App on the Microsoft Office website.

You can also read Notes on Office.Live.Com – there’s more than one way to skin a cat (so to speak). An easy way to view Outlook Notes on my Windows Phone is by using my folders on office.live.com. In Outlook, I can click on a Notes file and save as a .txt file, which in turn I can post to my SkyDrive (aka, office.live.com) and view on my phone.

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For information about syncing notes between your phone and SkyDrive, see Use Microsoft OneNote Mobile.

Also see this post from Julie, one of our MVPs, on pocketprimer.com on sync’ing tasks with Remember the Milk.

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.

 

Tags: articles, what I read, blogs, Microsoft, travel tips, Windows Phone 7.

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Of interest: Daylight Saving Time Issues with Alarms on Apple iPhones

As I noted earlier today, It’s Time To Fall Back An Hour in the US and Canada as Daylight Saving Time Ends This Sunday.

I know of several customers who use Apple iPhones in their Windows environments and of note is an issue in Apple’s iOS that impacted their European customers recently…

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/iphone-bug-leads-to-mass-european-sleep-in/10187

Apple notes this issue in their article on iOS 4.1: Repeating alarms may trigger incorrectly before or after DST change (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3542):

Symptoms: In some regions, shortly before or after the daylight saving time (DST) change, repeating alarms created in the Clock app may work incorrectly.

Products Affected: iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (3rd generation), iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch (2nd generation)

Resolution: To resolve this behavior for existing alarms, set the repeat interval to Never. You will need to reset these alarms for each day you need them. After November 7th, 2010, you can set your alarms to repeat again.

Users of the iPhone and iOS should please note that there may also be a problem for systems over this coming weekend (thanks, Will) with the move to DST in North America: 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/11/05/apple.alarm.daylight.savings/index.html

Users who depend on the iPhone to wake them up should create one-time alarms specifically for Monday morning, said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Harrison.

"We suggest customers set nonrepeating alarms for now and reset after November 7 to resolve the issue," she told CNN.

Of course, good to know that “Later this month, Apple will release an updated version of its mobile software, iOS 4.2, which will permanently fix the problem, Harrison said.”

It’s not clear whether or not this update will be available prior to the upcoming "fall back".

 

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time,DST:

References to DST on Bing: 15,400,000 (up several million items); 15,500,000; 2,890,000.

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It’s Time To Fall Back An Hour in the US and Canada: Daylight Saving Time Ends This Sunday

Microsoft Office Clip ArtYes, it’s that time again if you’ll pardon the pun, to fall back in much of the Northern Hemisphere.

Daylight saving time ends at 2:00AM local time on Sunday, November 7, 2010, in much of the U.S and Canada, except in parts of the countries (including Hawaii and Arizona). You can read more than you’ll ever want to know about DST here and on our official Microsoft Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center at http://www.microsoft.com/time.

This year, DST in much of the US and Canada ends in accordance with the US Department of Energy’s Energy Policy Act of 2005 that was passed into law. DST will end later than it did prior to 2007, on the first Sunday of November (in 2010, November 7); more details on the new DST start and end times can be found here). This results in a new DST period that is approximately three to four weeks longer than in previous years.

The switch to daylight saving time also means the time zone suffix changes, now using Daylight Time: for example, Pacific Standard Time is now Pacific Daylight Time (aka PDT). The other time zones move to Mountain Daylight Time (MDT), Central Daylight Time (CDT), and Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

As I noted in this article, Microsoft strongly recommends that DST and time zone updates be installed on all affected systems, devices and applications to ensure consistency with current DST rules and time zone settings worldwide. Customers should review the product updates available and posted on this site and at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_prodlist for the latest and updated information of Microsoft products affected by daylight saving time.

Fox News offers this commentary on DST, for your viewing pleasure.

More info

of interest from Bing:

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time,DST:

References to DST on Bing: 15,400,000 (up several million items); 15,500,000; 2,890,000.

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Up for auction: Halo’s Master Chief costume for the Microsoft Giving Campaign 2010

clip_image001The Giving Campaign Auction is in full swing, and I’ve posted an item in time for Halloween: a kid’s Master Chief costume! (folks at Microsoft should search for auction item 3365.)

Last year I offered a number of cool items that netted quite a bit for the Giving Campaign. (http://bit.ly/2Wh2Gw) This year I’ve been busy and haven’t had the time to wrangle up a bunch of items, (tsk, tsk) but I’m hopeful for this one. It’s the well-worn and “as seen on TV” costume from the Halo series. Folks at the company might’ve seen this Spartan wandering the halls at Microsoft in the past, filling a large pillow case with candy. Sadly, the boys have outgrown this trusted costume so up it goes on the auction block for charity (auction ends 10/27).

This costume features a full suit, gloves, custom-fabricated Spartan helmet and (where allowed 😉 foam battle rifle. The helmet is hand-made and fiberglass coated, as is the rifle (it was a quick assemble).  Our son made the local and national news in this getup. Sizing is for a 7-9 year old.

BTW, I’ll match dollar for dollar the winning bid. So, Microsofties: bid high to see your bid turn into a 4X donation!

(Please note that the large retail package and child pictured are not included in the auction. 😉

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Andy Grove: On Innovation, Manufacturing

 

MP900321177[1]This week I discussed with associates at work how Andy Grove is right: if lose manufacturing capability & understanding and you break the chain of experience & innovation (as posted here on BusinessWeek).  The article from Grove hit quite a chord with people in business, particularly tech. So much is gleaned from the act of building that if you fail to understand the value of manufacturing – something that people think is only as important as the monetary value – that without it you miss much of the innovation process.

Take one such inventor prior to the adoption of off-shore production: the incandescent light bulb. This invention had a history dating back to 1850, when Joseph Swan started his work building a light bulb. Thomas Edison started his work in the late 1870’s building on the work Swan had started in his effort to bring electric light to the UK. (Not to mention the fierce competition between Edison and George Westinghouse on the light bulb.)

Edison and his staff of scientists were tinkerers: what would have happened had he off-shored the manufacturing of the first imperfect but somewhat practical light bulb designs? Would Edison and Westinghouse have come up with the refinements needed to perfect the invention? 

Probably not. 

When a product is seen as a commodity, do we lose sight that many of these so called commodities provide the building blocks for new products that can spring new fields of products? Grove is right in that when we lose manufacturing capability and understanding, we break the chain of experience.

Just a thought for a Friday afternoon. Now I’m off to dig out the Legos and ErectorSet for my boys, in addition to their Kodu skills.

Tags: Thomas Edison, Andy Grove, innovation.

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