calendar

The Outlook team has released a rather welcomed addition to its Outlook.com service. Calendar has now been added, utilising the new user interface to provide a stable and clean experience. As with all Microsoft products these days, the new "Modern" look ensures that the focus is on content rather than unrelated chrome and visual effects. Should you use Windows, Xbox or a Windows Phone, you'll feel right at home.

Google is set to cease supporting Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for its array of online services, including both GMail and Calendar. This will prevent consumers from setting up accounts on Windows Phones with both contact and calendar support (but will not affect those who already have email configured on Windows Phone). Consumers who make use of said features will have to go through workarounds to get connected, or switch across to Outlook.

AppoinTile is a Windows Phone 8 app that you can use as an alternative to the native calendar tile and bring a little more information about your schedule to your Start Screen. AppoinTile's live tile can display up to four upcoming events with the backside of the tile displaying a 42 day calendar with markers on days with activity.

AppoinTile was recently updated to version 2.1 and brings lockscreen support to the table. AppoinTile's live tile will show up to four upcoming appoints and the new lockscreen support will display three upcoming appointments and the number of appointments left in the day.

Microsoft has released some more information detailing the Windows Live services for the next upcoming instalment of the software giant's operating system. As the company continues to move away from the Windows Live and Zune brands, Microsoft Account begins to take over with services such as Messenger and Hotmail being rebranded for easier recognition.

The UI hasn't been the only element of Windows to be redesigned, as one can see in the below table the Windows Live services will all be renamed to match the simplistic new approach Microsoft has undertaken.

Those who have actively used Windows Phone will feel right at home with Mail, Calendar, People, Messaging, Photos / Videos and other new branding that will be present in Windows 8. It's interesting to see just how far the services have come. Skype isn't mentioned, but we're sure we'll see more details as to how VoIP will be further integrated into Windows 8 and Windows Phone. We've also yet to hear more surrounding Microsoft's new music service.

"Windows Live reimagined" (check out the video on the official blog post at MSDN for more information) will see the Microsoft Account act as a key to the storage of personal information and settings. Simply connecting the account to a Windows 8 PC will automatically setup and integrate contacts, email, calendar events, photos, SkyDrive and more. The same experience will be present on the big screen (and tablet) as it is on the smartphone.

The future's bright; the future's the cloud.

Source: Building Windows 8 (MSDN Blog)

Here's an interesting app for your Windows Phone. Appointile generates dual live tiles for your Windows Phone Start Screen that list your appointment agenda.  AppoinTile is an ideal app for those who are wanting to see more than just one upcoming appointment on their Start Screen.

When you first launch AppoinTile you are taken through a set-up wizard where you choose which calendar to tie into (Windows Live, Google, etc.), how you want your tile to look (number of appointments, days in advance, etc.) and pinning the tiles to the Start Screen.

AppoinTile allows you to list up to four appointments and will reach out as far as thirty days in advance. The back of the tiles can display the date or a 42 day calendar with markers placed on busy days.

The AppoinTile tiles will sync automatically with their respective calendars on a schedule you set within the app's settings. You can also restrict synchronization to only over Wifi/USB.  If you need to change calendars, you can access the calendar settings from the three-dot menu.

If you need a little more information displayed on your Start Screen with regards to appointments, AppoinTile is a Windows Phone app worth considering. There is a ten day trial version available and the full version will run you $2.49. You can grab AppoinTile here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Should you have multiple Google calendars set up and used frequently you'll smacking your head against a brick wall when it comes to adding them in Windows Phone 7. Luckily, with Mango, Anthony Chu (lead developer of Wonder Reader for WP7) has posted a tutorial on how to enable multiple Google calendars. It's actually really simple and takes no more than five minutes (unlike attempting to use other Google services).

Requirements for this are as follows:

• WP7 device running Mango
• More than one Google calendar set up
• Safari (for Windows/OS X) 

With the above requirements met, what we need to do is get to the section on the Google website where you can select which calendars to synchronise with devices that are connected to your account. By default, this seems only viewable to iOS devices and presumably Android handsets. We need to change our user agent in our browser to fool Google into believing we're Safari on iOS.

In the walkthrough below, Anthony uses Safari as it has built-in ability to manipulate the user agent easily and quickly. Any desktop browser will do so long as you can alter the UA. Head on past the break to view the steps. 

A good number of us are tied within the realm of Google, mainly for documents and emailing, but how can one explore the goodness of Windows Phone 7 when there is such a strong connection with the search engine giant (which makes Android a more feasible choice)?

Justin Willhite, of UK LifeHacker, has published a killer of an article that should help any avid Google fanboy (or post-Android owner) with the conversion process. It should be noted that the solutions provided by Justin (apart from native mail support, of course) do not support push-notification and must be updated/refreshed manually. So, how's it all done?

There seems to be a lot of work going on over at Windows Live. We've seen ActiveSync support show up and now LiveSide.net is reporting that the Calendar is now accessible from any web-enabled mobile phone. Supported phones and browsers include: iPhone/iPod Touch with Safari 3.0+, Opera on Windows Mobile 6.1.4+, S 60/5th Gen+, Blackberry 5+, Opera, Palm, Android.

Just type in calendar.live.com into your mobile browser and you will be prompted to enter in your Windows Live ID/password.  From there you will either go directly to your calendar or you will receive an interesting message that reads, "Windows Live is designed for you, but maybe not for your browser". The message continues to say "the website works best when viewed using Internet Explorer 6 or later, Safari 4.0 or later, Firefox 3.0 or later, or Google Chrome 4.0 or later".  All of which is a little confusing seeing that these are desktop browsers.

You do have the option to disregard this message and continue with the cautionary statement that, "some webpages may not work correctly." In using Opera 9.7 on an AT&T Tilt2, Windows Live Calendar "mobile" crashed the browser about every other time. In using Internet Explorer, while I still received the warning message but continuing worked better.

When Windows Live Calendar "mobile" worked, it worked just as it would by accessing it through a desktop computer. I could not replicate the nicer, cleaner graphics and interface of the "mobile" version on the Tilt2. Oddly though, I was able to access the mobile version using an iPhone.

In a jam, being able to access your Windows Live Calendar via your mobile browser will but the inconsistency of appearances and performance is really disappointing.  One would think a Windows Phone would reflect the "improvements" to the Windows Live calendar before another device would.

I just can't help but think Microsoft could come up with a more effective, efficient and easier way of making Windows Live truly mobile.