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View Full Version : Pocket MSN Soft-Launches


Janak Parekh
06-08-2004, 02:30 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://mobile.msn.com/ac.aspx?cid=uuhp_pocketmsn' target='_blank'>http://mobile.msn.com/ac.aspx?cid=uuhp_pocketmsn</a><br /><br /></div>A few weeks ago, Microsoft finally quietly posted a beta of Pocket MSN. For some reason, we didn't pick it up then -- but here's the lowdown.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20040607-MSNMobile.gif" /><br /><br />"Be among the first to try Pocket MSN! You get mobile access to popular MSN services plus a richer experience with these new features*: <li> Familiar &amp; Integrated MSN Experience - Enjoy one-click access to MSN Hotmail, MSN Messenger, MSN Alerts, and browse MSN sites including Maps &amp; Directions**. With Pocket MSN your Hotmail is conveniently integrated into your device inbox and using the MSN toolbar icons you can see how many new emails you have received. <br /><li> More Reachable - Remain available to the people &amp; information that matter most to you, even when your device is in your pocket or handbag. You will be alerted on your device when new email or instant messages arrive. Using these alerts you can immediately join the conversation or read your new Hotmail.<br /><li> Expanded Mobility - With offline Hotmail capabilities, you can read and compose emails when no data connection is available, like on an airplane. Also, send email to offline MSN Messenger contacts.<br /><li> Personalization - Set Hotmail filters to only receive email from the people you designate. Pre-select who can send instant messages to your mobile device and whose Messenger status changes you want to see.<br /><li> Maps &amp; Directions - On-the-fly mapping means finding just about anything on the go." Here's the kicker, though -- you get a 6 month trial free, but after that it's a whopping $24.99 every 6 months, or about $50 a year. 8O I'm not sure it's worth that much for me. Has someone tried the trial, and if so, can you give us your impressions as to how useful it is?

Gremmie
06-08-2004, 02:35 AM
Here's the kicker, though -- you get a 6 month trial free, but after that it's a whopping $24.99 every 6 months, or about $50 a year. 8O I'm not sure it's worth that much for me. Has someone tried the trial, and if so, can you give us your impressions as to how useful it is?

Absurd. I have always thought that Apple has successfully merged their multiple (non-internet) services without extra surcharges or subscriptions. Why can't Microsoft do the same? Pay 20+ for internet per month plus another $4 per month for this? *sigh*

pschultz
06-08-2004, 03:02 AM
I signed up for the trial. It works great so for. I don't know if it will be worth the cost though.

EDIT: I just realized that since the Inbox doesn't support HTML email :evil: , Pocket MSN won't do me much good. Therefore, I quickly canceled my subscription.

jonlien2003
06-08-2004, 03:27 AM
I also tried it out and have mixed feelings about it. I feel the Inbox integration of Hotmail is great. However, there is no option to automatically download the whole message. It only downloads the first 2K of the message. Also, you can only view the first 50 messages.

My colleague who also tried out the software was not able to logon successfully no matter how many attempts he made. He even uninstalled and reinstalled it with no luck.

This is a step in the right direction, but there are some features that definitely needs ironing out before there can be an official launch.

CTSLICK
06-08-2004, 03:35 AM
At that cost I will dismiss this out of hand...I'd sooner pay Yahoo! for pop email

Vincent M Ferrari
06-08-2004, 03:52 AM
That seems a bit steep for my liking...

Jeez...

Jerry Raia
06-08-2004, 04:16 AM
Not for $50/yr. No way.

GF
06-08-2004, 05:06 AM
Can someone tell me whether the MSN messenger will be disconnected when I am using the phone serivice?

Thanks,
Galen

David C
06-08-2004, 05:11 AM
I still feel giped. :evil:

I know that it is up to the manufacture to update WM2003. But I don't like to think that my PPC2002 device is becoming worthless because my manufacture has decided to go out of bussiness.

I see more and more microsoft product not supporting older PPC. Pocket MSN is an example. I think microsoft should come out with their own universal patch that can patch up older PPC to be as compatible as possbile. Especially programs that are not hardware specific, like IE, media player, and other stuff.

I know that I can just buy a new PDA. But there really isn't anything out there that is worth me upgrading right now. I feel that microsoft should do their share in supporting their OS, and not just leave it completly up to the manufactures. Everyone is trying to kick the ball to the other side.

In some way, PDAs are still very new product. If microsoft really want to see PPC take off, they should take care of the people that believe in them and stuck with them the first place: the early adapters.

nirav28
06-08-2004, 05:16 AM
I'll pay $10-15 a year for Pop3 or even HTTP access to hotmail/msn for one year. But thats it. No way I pay would pay more for the other crap msn offers such as money, weather sports..I can easily get all that free from yahoo mobile and sites like pdaportal.com

nirav28
06-08-2004, 05:18 AM
if MSN/Hotmail came up with a way to do email notification like RIM/Blackberrys have (Read:Push email) ,I would consider maybe paying more.

Deus
06-08-2004, 05:43 AM
There are cheaper solutions to download hotmail. Why pay $50 without push?

pschultz
06-08-2004, 06:15 AM
I still feel giped. :evil:

I know that it is up to the manufacture to update WM2003. But I don't like to think that my PPC2002 device is becoming worthless because my manufacture has decided to go out of bussiness.

I see more and more microsoft product not supporting older PPC. Pocket MSN is an example. I think microsoft should come out with their own universal patch that can patch up older PPC to be as compatible as possbile. Especially programs that are not hardware specific, like IE, media player, and other stuff.

I know that I can just buy a new PDA. But there really isn't anything out there that is worth me upgrading right now. I feel that microsoft should do their share in supporting their OS, and not just leave it completly up to the manufactures. Everyone is trying to kick the ball to the other side.

In some way, PDAs are still very new product. If microsoft really want to see PPC take off, they should take care of the people that believe in them and stuck with them the first place: the early adapters.
Did you post this in the wrong thread :?: :lol:

surur
06-08-2004, 07:32 AM
if MSN/Hotmail came up with a way to do email notification like RIM/Blackberrys have (Read:Push email) ,I would consider maybe paying more.

They do, through the use of SMS messages. Thats the good part.

The bad part is you will be charged for the SMS messages sent to your device. No way am I paying £0.12 to be notified of incoming spam! These things add up!

Surur

PR.
06-08-2004, 09:53 AM
I have the trial, I won't be going full time.

The email integration is dodgy it forces you to download as someone said the first 50 emails but I only want the last few days worth. You can't just send recieve you have to sign in. You can't edit the email account settings and after deleting a bunch of folders from hotmail they have remained on my iPAQ... Yer yer I know its beta :)

Darren Behan
06-08-2004, 12:07 PM
$50??? Fugettabahtit.

db

ptjulie
06-08-2004, 03:54 PM
Would love to try it but when I select "Join Now" it takes me to my MSN Mobile settings. Don't see where to download the application. Any one else come across this issue?

David C
06-08-2004, 04:00 PM
Did you post this in the wrong thread :?: :lol:
yeah. I just wanted to rant after I saw the compatibility device list. :bawl:

omikron.sk
06-08-2004, 04:28 PM
$50 / year ? No way. I would consider to give it a try if it would be for free, but $50 / yr? Is MS going mad?

JoshB
06-08-2004, 05:57 PM
Would love to try it but when I select "Join Now" it takes me to my MSN Mobile settings. Don't see where to download the application. Any one else come across this issue?
I've got this same problem. It really ticked me off, because I've been looking forward to trying this out for a long time, and I can't even get to the signup page. :evil:

Even worse, when I go to the Contact Us page for MSN Mobile, and try to enter a problem report, I get a "please enter a description of your problem so we can help you" error every time I try to submit it, even though there are a couple of paragraphs in the text box. I tried shortening it, eliminating line breaks, but nothing would let me submit my problem report. So, not only can I not get to the Pocket MSN signup, I can't tell them that I can't... :evil: :evil: :evil:

I currently use izymail.com ($10/year for IMAP or POP3 access to Hotmail, works great with my Smartphone Inbox) for access to my Hotmail on my Smartphone and iPAQ, and MSN Messenger is built into both. I'd really like to try out Pocket MSN, to see if it adds any value over my current configuration (I understand that MSN Alerts are supported by the Pocket MSN Messenger client, and push email would be nice, instead of check every x minutes), but so far, I have been thwarted in my efforts.

I already pay Microsoft $20/year for Hotmail extra storage, and $10/year to izymail.com for mobile access to my Hotmail, so you can see that I'm a sucker for paying money to access my "free" Hotmail account. Heck, I'd probably spring for the outrageous $50/year for Pocket MSN if it worked well for me, but as of now, I'll never know, because I can't even get to the signup page! :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

adamz
06-08-2004, 07:16 PM
The Mappoint link also becomes accessible after you sign up for Pocket MSN

http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=2398


Adam Z Lein
------
Contributing Editor
pocketnow.com -- it's all about portability...
http://www.pocketnow.com

OneAngryDwarf
06-08-2004, 09:47 PM
For those of you who haven't been able to find the download link I discovered why. What you have to do is click on the change service link then choose wifi and then you'll be able to get it.
On a side note, I'm really hoping they offer this free to MSN subscribers, which I am. I would also hope that this doesn't mean that you have to choose between having support for your phone or support for your handheld.

Jonathon Watkins
06-08-2004, 11:19 PM
For those of you who haven't been able to find the download link I discovered why. What you have to do is click on the change service link then choose wifi and then you'll be able to get it.


:huh: Of course - how logical...... :huh:

Great Avatar name BTW. Looking forward to seeing your Avatar picture. :wink:

JoshB
06-09-2004, 12:30 AM
For those of you who haven't been able to find the download link I discovered why. What you have to do is click on the change service link then choose wifi and then you'll be able to get it.
On a side note, I'm really hoping they offer this free to MSN subscribers, which I am. I would also hope that this doesn't mean that you have to choose between having support for your phone or support for your handheld.Oh, of course. :rolleyes:

So I was able to sign up and download the Pocket PC client for my iPAQ 4350, but I can't sign in because I'm currently connected via passthrough behind a corporate firewall. I'll have to wait until I get home to try it out on my wireless connection.

I really wish the Motorola MPX220 would hurry up and get here, but I would get the most use out of this on my Smartphone, but the software requires Windows Mobile 2003 (probably because of the .NET CF), but my poor MPX200 is only running 2002, with no upgrade in sight. *sigh*

I'm hoping I can go back and change my account from "WiFi" now that I'm signed up, so I can resume getting my MSN alerts via SMS to my Smartphone. If I can't, then I'll be dumping Pocket MSN, because my Smartphone is always connected, but my iPAQ isn't.

fivepetpalace
06-09-2004, 03:52 PM
I'm not sure why anyone would spend $50 a year to get hotmail.

I'm not an IM user, but will soon cave in. Maybe this should be a new thread....but has anyone used AIM on the PPC ?

Michael

JoshB
06-09-2004, 04:38 PM
Well, I've played with it a little now, and I have to say, I'm a little disappointed...

The most noticable addition is a Today screen bar that shows your MSN Messenger status, with an email icon that simply takes you to your Inbox.

I already had my Hotmail account configured in my Inbox via IMAP using izymail.com ($10/year). Installing Pocket MSN did not make any changes at all to my accounts - I expected it to set up a new account for accessing my Hotmail. I tried removing and re-adding my Hotmail account, thinking I might be able to choose a new transport protocol (other than POP3 or IMAP). Nope - POP3 and IMAP are the only choices. So I set it up via izymail.com again. So Pocket MSN didn't really make any changes at all to my email setup, or how I access my Hotmail on my iPAQ. Maybe this is because I already had Hotmail set up, and would be different for someone who didn't.

From the descriptions of new capabilities (able to receive MSN Alerts, etc.), I expected a new or updated MSN Messenger client. This is not the case. The only discernable change I can find is that you can now see your sign-in status on the Today screen. I didn't notice any other changes surrounding MSN Messenger.

The only other benefit I noticed to Pocket MSN is the fact that I can again access the Maps and Directions web page. However, a link to the page does NOT show up on my MSN Mobile portal page. I happened to have a saved bookmark from when the site was available as a preview last year (http://mobile.msn.com/maps/maps.aspx). It works the same as it did before - letting you define locations like Home, Work, etc., so you don't have to enter common addresses all the time. But it's a good thing I had a link to this site laying around, because it didn't show up on my MSN Mobile page, and I didn't see any mention or link to it anywhere else on the MSN Mobile site.

So, in summary, the only benefits/changes I see from using Pocket MSN are a Today screen icon showing my MSN Messenger status, and permission to access the Maps and Directions page if you already know the secret handshake (or know the URL). That's it.

So, is all this worth fifty bucks a year? Not to me, it's not. I'll stay on through the six month trial, to see if there's something I'm missing. I'd also like to try it out on my Smartphone (hoping I can get my hands on an MPX220 before the free trial is over). But unless there's a whole lot of functionality and features that I'm just not seeing, this appears to be a dramatic misstep on the part of Microsoft.

Too bad, because I was really looking forward to this...

ptjulie
06-09-2004, 07:31 PM
I changed my msn service to wifi and download it. (Thanks for the tidbit)

On my Ipaq 4355 msn messenger stopped working after Pocket MSN was installed. When I removed Pocket, msn messenger worked again. One thing. During the install it wanted me to overwrite a few dlls like IM.dll and I said yes to all. Looks like it broke something.
Another interesting tidbit, the file that downloaded an ARM in the title. Well, the Ipaq 4355 is an XScale processor so I wonder if it's a version problem.
I also loaded it on my SD Card rather than main memory maybe that is why it doesn 't work. Well don't know, anyone else have any thoughts? Thanks.

JoshB
06-09-2004, 09:24 PM
The Xscale processor uses the ARM architecture, so no problem there. All Pocket PCs running 2002 or higher use ARM processors. The XScale is just Intel's name for their ARM processor.

I wouldn't install this to a storage card, but there was no warning explicitly stating you shouldn't.

For anyone that hasn't noticed, after you install Pocket MSN, you'll get a new Settings applet under System, where you can control some of the behavior of Pocket MSN (alert delivery, sign-in, etc.). I also got "Pocket MSN" under Programs, but when I tap it just just opens my Inbox. Woo.

Kacey Green
06-10-2004, 02:26 PM
I still feel giped. :evil:

I know that it is up to the manufacture to update WM2003. But I don't like to think that my PPC2002 device is becoming worthless because my manufacture has decided to go out of bussiness.

I see more and more microsoft product not supporting older PPC. Pocket MSN is an example. I think microsoft should come out with their own universal patch that can patch up older PPC to be as compatible as possbile. Especially programs that are not hardware specific, like IE, media player, and other stuff.

I know that I can just buy a new PDA. But there really isn't anything out there that is worth me upgrading right now. I feel that microsoft should do their share in supporting their OS, and not just leave it completly up to the manufactures. Everyone is trying to kick the ball to the other side.

In some way, PDAs are still very new product. If microsoft really want to see PPC take off, they should take care of the people that believe in them and stuck with them the first place: the early adapters.

They used to provide updates, at least for WMP anyway but only for most devices, not all

dragomia
06-11-2004, 07:32 PM
If e-mail integration is what most people want there are less expensive ways to get it. When MS failed provide it natively I decided to write it myself. I'm actually selling the software, HTTPMail Provider, on both PocketGear and Handango for $5. Try it free for 30 days and see if you like it.

Adrian