Right after doing a hard reset of my Windows Mobile phone, I realized that my phone’s contacts hadn’t been backed up. Now that’s a disaster! I had Kalen Delaney’s and Paul Nielsen’s cell phone numbers on my cell phone – not something to lose. From the MVP newsgroup for Windows Mobile devices, I found out about the beta version of Microsoft MyPhone. It’s a limited beta and it took a few days before my application was accepted. After installing MyPhone on my phone, I used MyPhone’s sync feature to backup my data to the cloud. I can now resync my Windows Mobile phone from the web. Even if I lose or damage my phone, I could sync a new phone from the MyPhone website and be back in business quickly.
Speaking of damaging a phone, have you ever wondered what to do with a phone that gets wet? Assuming you drop your phone into relatively clean fresh water, one of my neighbors has a repair technique that has served her very well more than once. She boils the water out. Think back to your physics class. Boiling doesn’t have to mean hot. Lower the atmospheric pressure and the boiling point temperature is depressed. My neighbor rushes her wet electronic devices over to her father’s house. He puts the phone or other device in a bell jar and uses a vacuum pump to reduce the pressure until water is boiling at room temperature. After a short period of time, all of the water in the phone is boiled away.