Update: The Skybox service, renamed My Phone, is based on technology from Mobicomp, a company Microsoft acquired last June. It has nothing to do with Live Mesh.
It looks like Microsoft is finally ready to roll out the mobile version of Windows Live Mesh, it data syncing service that competes with Apple’s MobileMe (which ran into problems at launch). Live Mesh was first announced last April, and currently only supports Windows PCs and a Webtop in the cloud. Mac and mobile versions are shown to be “coming soon.”
Tom Warren at Neowin reports that Microsoft is set to launch a mobile syncing product called SkyBox at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February. This builds on earlier reports based on job postings. SkyBox sounds exactly like Live Mesh (it syncs pictures, calendar, contacts, emails and text messages between your mobile phone and the cloud):
“SkyBox” is a service for users to sync a phones information with the web. Microsoft will be offering automatic backup and restore services, access and management of phone data and provide easy communication and sharing with others. The service will also allow syncing of contacts, email/SMS, calendar items and pictures into the cloud, similar to Apple’s MobileMe. The difference from Apple’s offering is Microsoft could be set to offer this out to non Windows Mobile devices.
Live Mesh seems to be working best with HTC handsets right now. iPhones, Blackberries, Palms, Nokia and Motorola phones all seem to have some issues. Maybe Microsoft can resolve these before SkyBox launches.
In addition to SkyBox, Microsoft is set to launch two other services as well, according to Warren. They are SkyLine (an enterprise version of SkyBox that plays nice with Exchange) and SkyMarket (an app store for Windows Mobile apps). Live Mesh won the Best Technology Innovation prize at this year’s Crunchies.
Live Mesh for mobile is already in beta. I’ve had it on my Windows Mobile phone for a while.
Yes, it’s been available in beta on Windows Mobile devices since the end of October:
http://blogs.ms...ows-mobile.aspx
Live Mesh Supports adding a Mac, today.
SkyBox sounds familiar:
http://vividskyco.com
It has been available in beta for the mac for a few months and works great.
the author has no clue what s/he is talking about. live mesh mobile beta has been out a long time now.
however, the part that made me chuckle is: in the beginning of the article the author said live mesh only supports windows pc and webtops, then after the quote the author said live mesh works best on HTC devices, what?
I don’t know what to say, and I’m not saying you are doing this but don’t copy and paste unless you understand what you’re actually copying.
I couldn’t agree more with what krenshaw said, this is another typically useless piece of reporting by Schonfeld. All he’s done is taken a rumour and embellished it with his own assumptions about Mesh.
When he said it works on HTC devices he meant the web experience at http://m.mesh.com. He didn’t say that though did he? Crawl back to your hole schonfeld – go and find something you’re good at cos accurate reportage aint it!
Interesting development by Microsoft.
@krenshaw
My thoughts exactly. Should Live Mesh even of been included? Other blogs have reported on Skybox and this is the only one that tries to link it to Mesh but makes no sense.
You are ignoring the elephant in the cloud, Nokia.
Nokia Ovi Suite for 20 models of Nokia phones has been available for last 6 months. Runs on Windows XP and Vista.
Cloud backup, storage and synchronisation for contacts, calendar, photos, video, maps, favorite files and folders etc.
Download from http://www.ovi....t/nokiaovisuite
I think tying these products together is wishful thinking. MS is like a collection of companies with competing technologies. I doubt that the synchronization features that they’re about to release are connected to Live Mesh. I hope they are – but this is probably another ‘tactical’ synchronization solution.
Erick, Live Mesh “won the Best Technology Innovation prize at this year’s Crunchies”, don’t you think you should have had a better knowledge about it before writing the article?
Actually, technically, the Windows version is “Beta” the Mac and Mobile versions are “Tech Preview” (which is less than beta), but are functional. The Mobile version is only available via limited promotional codes (my understanding is that it is less stable currently).
I don’t know if Mesh is related to the SkyBox offerings or not (although it would make sense).
Right now, Live Mesh won’t sync outlook .pst files (as well as a few other file types), so syncing mail/contacts/calendar does NOT work if you’re using non-Exchange Outlook.
If you ARE using Exchange, you don’t need Live Mesh to perform these functions anyway.
So, are they planning on supporting this as of Feb? The article says that calendar/mail/contacts sync is already supported, but it clearly isn’t for Outlook, which is a lynchpin of the Office suite.
Color me confused.