Regardless of what device you are using – if your Mobile Device has a web browser and Internet access you can check out several of your Windows Live services on your phone by going to http://mobile.live.com.

Here you can see what http://mobile.live.com looks like on my Samsung BlackJack II running Windows Mobile 6.1:

Here you can access your Windows Live Hotmail Mailbox where you can read and reply to email. You can check your Windows Live Space, Search the Web with Live Search, and check out MSN!

BETA ALERT: For a preview on what’s coming next with mobile access for Windows Live click here to view my post on the Windows Experience Blog on the new Windows Live Home website!

I get this question a lot from folks: what is the difference between Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live FolderShare?

Windows Live SkyDrive is your personal harddrive “in the sky”. The Internet is commonly referred to as “the cloud” so you will often here Windows Live SkyDrive referred to as “cloud storage”. With Windows Live SkyDrive you get 5GB of storage for your files for FREE. You can store any file you want (that is under 50MB in size). Your files are private unless you implicitly choose to make the folder you are putting the file in public. You can also customize who has access to certain folders and it’s files by contacts as well.

Windows Live FolderShare is a service that lets you create Libraries for PC-to-PC sync. You add PCs you want to sync with to the Library and Windows Live FolderShare will sync the files within that Library to any PCs that has the FolderShare client installed and configured for that Library. A Library can be a single folder of files on your PC or a folder with multiple folders with files within them. Unlike with Windows Live SkyDrive – no files are stored in the “cloud”. Files within the Libraries are synced to PCs and sit on the individual PCs.

So essentially you have one service for storing files on the Internet and another service for syncing files with multiple PCs. Two different scenarios. Now might we see integration between these two services? Maybe one day! The same Team at Microsoft is responsible for both Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live FolderShare so you can expect them to be looking at how both services can work together. However many users simply like having a simple way to upload files to the web or a simple tool to sync files with multiple PCs.

Today I use Windows Live SkyDrive myself to store photos and share files with friends and family. When a friend wants me to share a file with them (like say a Word Document or Photo) – I add the file to a folder I’ve shared out and my friend logs in with their Windows Live ID to download the file. I can make them a editor of the folder and allow them to also upload their own files too. And I use Windows Live FolderShare to sync several Libraries with almost 6 different PCs! My Libraries are mostly single folders. I have several friends who use Windows Live FolderShare to sync their Internet Explorer Favorites with multiple PCs. This allows them to have the same Favorites on their desktop PC at home and on the road with their Laptop. Together – these two Windows Live services really make my life a lot easier with managing files on multiple PCs and getting files to people.

There is much more to these services than what I’m saying here. But at the risk of this post running REALLY long winded – I’ll save specific deep dives for both Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live FolderShare for a later date!

NOTE: Undoubtedly someone will ask or leave a comment about Live Mesh. Live Mesh is a new platform (key word here) currently being tested by Microsoft and is not currently a consumer-facing product like Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live FolderShare is today. It isn’t a Windows Live service currently. It’s a platform that one day the Windows Live services might take advantage of. Currently, Live Mesh is a very early Tech Preview (Pre-Beta) at www.mesh.com to a limited amount of people.

For work, I have a Microsoft Exchange account that I use for all-worked related email, events, tasks and contacts. For my own personal “life” stuff I use Windows Live. I use Outlook 2007 for work and Windows Live Mail and Messenger for personal email and contact management. In some cases (such as with Windows Live Messenger) there is some crossover between the two.

Sometimes on my PC I have two email clients running on my PC (Outlook 2007 and Windows Live Mail) – because I like keeping things separate. I know I could use the Outlook Connector (which many people use such as my father) and use one single application but I really like what Windows Live Mail gives me for email capabilities as well as its connection to Windows Live Messenger. With Windows Live Mail, I get multiple email accounts, newsgroups, RSS – all in a single application. w00t!

I live in Windows Live Messenger for both work and personal communication with co-workers, friends or family. Windows Live Messenger is great as it serves as a single point of communication for everyone.

On my Windows Mobile device (BlackJack II running Windows Mobile 6.1) – I use Windows Live for Windows Mobile to *sync* my email and contacts to my phone. I have my phone syncing email from Microsoft Exchange AND Windows Live Hotmail. I’ve subscribed to my contacts updates to their contact cards via Windows Live Messenger so that their phone numbers for work, home, and mobile are automatically updated and synced to my phone.

With Windows Live – I have anywhere access on any PC (with web access) as well as my mobile phone. No matter if I am sitting at my home PC, on my work PC, or on my mobile phone – I get the same information (contacts, email, Spaces, etc). Not a lot of people understand the full scenario that Windows Live provides TODAY.

Note: I also use Windows Live Calendar to manage my important events but is currently accessible via the web only and does not provide any sort of client or mobile phone sync. I’ve also used Windows Live Events for certain events.

I am loving the “What’s New” Page for Windows Live Spaces (aka the “Spaces Home” page). This page allows you to keep tabs on everything your friends are doing in your Windows Live social network. If they upload files to Public folders in Windows Live SkyDrive they appear in the What’s New feed, so does any post you make on Windows Live Spaces, when your friends become friends with other people (and people you might know!), and when people upload images to Windows Live Spaces.

So how can the “What’s New” page in Windows Live Spaces get better? Simple. Let me import RSS (xml) from other web services I take part in. I want whenever I post to Twitter – for my “tweets” to appear in my What’s New feed where all my friends in Windows Live can see them. If I upload to Flickr – I want my friends to see those images I’ve uploaded. I’d like to see a more “open” functionality of What’s New – not entirely different than say FriendFeed.

The Windows Live Spaces Team should also look to the developer-side by creating API’s for the What’s New feed in Windows Live Spaces where other web services can take advantage of linking to the What’s New page – perhaps in the way of plug-ins that are published to Windows Live Gallery?

The possibilities are endless with the What’s New page in Windows Live Spaces and I want to see it grow. I check my What’s New page a few times a day and its often great to see some of the stuff my friends are writing on their Spaces or photos they’ve uploaded.