<p>Google has confirmed in a blog post that it will perform some "winter cleaning" to its service platform by shutting down a few services on January 30th, with the biggest one being its longstanding Sync service.</p><p>Google Sync was Google's answer to the lack of a unified service for synching PIM and calendar information across multiple platforms and services.The shutdown will begin by disallowing new devices to be registered to the service on January 30th on all platforms, with Google Calendar Sync already refusing new devices from being registered since Friday.</p><p>However, all is not lost as the service will be grandfathered in a minimal form for devices already registered on the service regardless of platform after January 30th. However, the biggest change that Google is making concerns access to SyncML, a key service that Windows Phone and Symbian rely heavily on for information and contact management and will greatly be affected by the January service shutdown despite Microsoft Exchange remaining in service for both operating systems.</p><p>As the current workaround to use GMail on Windows Phone 7 and 8 requires the use of SyncML and Mail for Exchange to properly populate the Mail app after registering the account credentials the first time, the loss of Mail for Exchange access will undoubtedly make using GMail and related services much more difficult than normal, even with Exchange as a grandfathered backup for already registered devices. The biggest irony is that solely using Exchange on Windows Phone makes using GMail and Google-related services more difficult in general without the presence of dedicated apps, apps that have yet to be made available on Windows Phone despite being available as a platform for nearly 2 years.</p><p><a href="http://www.phonenews.com/google-to-shut-down-sync-service-with-microsoft-taking-the-brunt-22035/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.iclarified.com/26231/google-drops-exchange-activesync-support-for-syncing-mail-contacts-calendars">Google Drops Exchange ActiveSync Support for Syncing Mail, Contacts ...</a> (iClarified)</p><p><a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/14/3768274/google-gmail-activesync-windows-phone">Google drops a Gmail-shaped bomb on Windows Phone</a> (The Verge)</p><p><a href="http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/google-to-make-gmail-sync-less-often-on-wp-mobiles-50009987/">Google to make Gmail sync less often on WP mobiles | CNET UK</a> (CNET UK)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=d5zTC9aHakhoWgMEDjAPXluThrn8M&ned=us">252 additional articles.</a></p>