Stevenson Ranch Computers

Microsoft Hotmail, calendar and contacts can now be automatically pushed to your phone using Exchange ActiveSync technology (EAS). That means that whatever you do on your phone, from reading an email, creating a new calendar appointment, updating a contact, etc. with be automatically and instantly synced with the web service at www.hotmail.com. It also means that emails get sent to your phone as soon as they arrive. And if you access your Hotmail in Outlook with the Outlook Connector or in the free program Windows Live Mail, whatever you do within the software program also immediately shows up on the web, too.

To set up support for ActiveSync on your phone, you’ll need the following info:

• Server / URL: m.hotmail.com
• Username: Enter full email address, for example: someone@example.com
• Domain : Leave this blank
• SSL: Enable this
• Certificate: Accept the SSL certificate when prompted
• Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks: All can be enabled (see the Solution Center article for exceptions on some phones)

Currently EAS is officially supported on Windows Mobile 6.x phones, Windows Phone 7, the iPhone (iPad, iPod Touch, too), Nokia E-Series, S-Series and N-Series. Other devices may work, but support will be limited. Android support is currently not available but testing is underway. For details on your particular device, go here.

(via Windows Live team blog)

An independent Windows Phone developer, Sigurd Snørteland, has created an application for accessing news from Channel 9 on your Windows Phone 7 device. The app, “myChannel9,” will display news and videos from the site and will offers features like the ability to favorite a show, browse by tags or search by keyword. You’ll also be able to use the app to watch videos right on your device, whether in portrait or landscape mode. Screenshots and demo videos of the app are available now on Snørteland’s personal blog. He has also created an app called Wall Street, which, as the name implies, will focus on delivering stock-related information.

(via PocketNow)

Microsoft is reintroducing the Windows 7 Family Pack, a discounted pack of multiple Windows 7 operating system licenses for use in homes that have more than one computer. Starting October 3rd in the U.S., you’ll be able to get 3 upgrade licenses of Windows 7 Home Premium for $149.99. On October 22nd, a discount will also be available to shoppers in Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, Australia and others, a date which also happens to be Windows 7’s one-year anniversary.

If you’ve been waiting around to upgrade your home’s computers, this is a good time to buy. To see if your PC can run Windows 7, check out the Upgrade Advisor here.

(via the Windows Team)

The team from FUSE Labs (the folks behind Outlook Social Connector, Spindex, Kodu, Emporia, Bing Twitter Maps and Docs) have just launched a new project called Team Crossword. This application isn’t a major release like Docs.com, the Facebook-enabled Microsoft Office service, but is rather just a simple but fun social game. At TeamCrossword.com, you and your friends can solve crossword puzzles together online. The site also tracks the fastest time a team took to solve a puzzle, so you can see how you and your friends compare.

There’s a new puzzle available every day via the website. You can get started here by signing in with Facebook and inviting your Facebook friends to join.

(Thanks Steve Clayton for pointing this out!)