Using your Windows Mobile phone with Windows Vista - in my case a Palm Treo 700w

ShadLar — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 07:08:00 GMT

I have a Palm Treo 700w which has been a great phone. It is Play for Sure compliant and I use it as my phone, MP3 player, portable media center, you name it. My typical day to day use is syncing my URGE subscription content to the phone which I typically do via the USB connection. In addition I sync Outlook, OneNote, and my misc. files to my phone using a Bluetooth connection - there is a reason for this that I will cover on another day.

In order to do all of these great things in Windows Vista there are several things you must do first - some of this you can do using standard built in feature of Vista, while others require you to install and configure the Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC).

Using Sync Center

When you plug your phone in it is detected by the OS and by default you will get a Autorun dialogue asking if you want to sync any content to the device with several options. In addition you can use Sync Center directly to establish a sync relationship and sync schdule to keep your music, pictures, videos, and other files up to date. Think of Sync Center as your one-stop-shop for managing all of your sync relationships with various devices, offline files, network folders, etc.

Using Sync Center: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/f611d649-a80f-4172-bb98-ade6b6cf62801033.mspx
Troubleshooting sync problems: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/608639ce-27c8-42d5-ad3a-4bc641c9ca711033.mspx

Using Windows Mobile Device Center (the replacement for Active Sync)

Windows Mobile Device Center (pic) works with Sync Center and serves as the replacement for Active Sync on Windows Vista. You use WMDC to install programs, sync with your Outlook or other programs, browse your device, etc. You maintain the same capabilities as Active Sync but have a much nicer looking interface which I think is easier to use - it has great integration with Vista.

Windows Mobile Device Center - Installation & Setup: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/devicecenter.mspx

Syncing with Windows Media Player 11

Most people think of Windows Media Player as the application for playing music and video - but with WMP11 you can also use it to browse your pictures and even view your recorded shows from Media Center.

Now as much as I would like to do so, I am currently unable to sync content using my Bluetooth connection and Windows Media player. My Treo is detected and I can do any number of other tasks via the Bluetooth connection, but I am not able to setup a WMP11 sync relationship just yet... once I get this figured out I will post an update.

Using the USB conection I sync my URGE subscription content to my phone using the Shuffle option which randomly selects from the content I have downloaded and sends it to my Treo. This keeps my content fresh with lots of variety. While I have not used my Treo much with headphones I use it almost every day through the AUX input in my Honda. For road trips this has been awesome as I can get a good mix of music and books on tape stored on the Treo's SD Card.

Setting up Windows Media Player to sync with your device: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/fc37ace2-5e86-48e2-a844-d2782993204d1033.mspx

I hope you find this info at least somewhat useful - please leave comments on what you would like to see or if there is more detail you would like on any of these areas. Thanks!

Shad Larsen's Technology Blog : Palm Treo 700w

Using your Windows Mobile phone with Windows Vista - in my case a Palm Treo 700w