WMPoweruser.com has just posted a new image of the Windows Live Phone service that will be a companion, cloud service for Windows Phone 7 when the devices are released. The image shows a few of the functions that will be available on the service; this followers a blurred image we had seen of this service via Long Zheng.
In the above image the options are all for the “Find My Phone” functionality of the service. Users will be able to see approximately where their phone is on a map which suggests a real-time fix rather than using the phone"s last GPS "check-in" location. Users will also be able to ring their phone even if it’s on silent and lock their device and provide a message for someone else to read on the lock screen. Or, if things get drastic, users will be able to erase their phone. However with so much of a user"s data on the phone also being stored in the cloud, erasing shouldn’t be as terminal as suggested but is probably not recommended.
When launched, the service will be accessed through Windows Live Devices which will also be used to manage computing devices a user owns. These devices will then be kept in sync and share program settings through Windows Live Mesh. Very little has been announced by Microsoft as to what Windows Live Phone will offer in terms of functionality but it is hoped that it will be possible for much of the data on Windows Phone 7 devices to be stored on Windows Live SkyDrive. In fact from the picture taken by Long Zheng it would appear that at least photos are stored on Windows Live using the Windows Live Phone service.
Earlier this week Microsoft announced that Windows Phone 7 had been “released to manufacturing”, meaning that the code is now complete for Windows Phone 7 version 1.0. The company has yet to announce when devices will be available.