For a few months now I have been listening to Paul Thurrott talk about Windows Phone 7 on Windows Weekly and the WinSuperSite. One of the things that impressed him the most was when he logged into the phone for the first time all his “Stuff” just showed up. What stuff am I talking about, well I am glad that you asked. There are different “Services” that you can integrate with your Windows Live ID. For example services like Pandora or Last.FM become part of the overall music experience vs independent and separate applications. Photo sharing services like PhotoBucket, Flickr, Facebook, and Myspace all mesh into your photo gallery and updates for friends. Additionally, when you log into a service like Windows Live Messenger you can receive updates from Facebook and Myspace too. These are just some examples of the integration Microsoft has coming, but I hope you are starting to feel the power. Let me help you get started.
The first thing that you need is a Windows Live ID. You do not have to have Windows Live as your email address, but there is a bonus to having everything in one place.
Once you log into your account go to your profile. At the top right hand corner there should be the link to get to it. This screen acts a little like a dashboard. Here you can choose what type of information is available to others. More importantly you can choose which services are displayed in your feed. On the left hand side you will see what services you are currently connected to and the option to add more.
Click Connect
When you click “Connect” you are presented with all the services that Microsoft can integrate with.
The list is quite extensive and is only going to get bigger. In this case I went ahead with Flickr. If you don’t know Flickr allows you to upload your pictures and share them with the world or just friends. On Windows Phone 7 your pictures from Flickr will show up under the picture hub along with pictures from Facebook, MySpace, and other services or local images.
When you find the services you want to intergrate with your Windows Live ID click the add button. Next you are prompted for credentials (username and password) for the associate service. Normally, you should avoid providing sites your credentials, but with Microsoft they are a large company you can trust not to misuse your information.
Once you successfully log in you will be able to
Share your Flickr activities on Windows Live with the people you choose. Updates appear in Messenger, Hotmail and the rest of Windows Live.
Show off your photos and watch the world on Flickr. Add Flickr to your profile and share photos you’ve posted with the people you choose
Windows Phone 7 is about integration to cloud services and your phone is one window to view the information. I want the same glorious revelation that Paul got when he set up his phone for the first time. He just logged on to the phone and everything showed up, because he initially setup his Windows Live profile. You too can have this feeling by setting up your services first.