The Stuffs U Didn't Know In Windows Phone 8

[njnbat]

we have many experts here in wpcentral and at the same time beginners too. Many are still exploring wp8 as its gaining popularity and let us all continue this adventurous journey by sharing some useful tips.Can we use this thread to highlight those recently discovered tips that made your life easier with windows phone. It can be anything like a shortcut or something u found out recently from your friends/articles/online that excited you and u feel the other lot wouldn't have experienced it yet.
Let me start off by something that i found out recently.
1.PC Remote Pro app that allows to take remote control of your pc/laptop with wp.
2.NFC tag writer for automating tags.
3. Ability to email the notes to evernote app.
4.Translator in twitter app for wp8.
I am sorry to have a poor list of recently discovered stuffs . I am sure you guys have plenty out there that can excite the beginners out here.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Nice list! :smile:

It should be interesting to see what other people add.

 

[Ray Adams]

Hmm. Recently discovered (on Lumia 920) this:

If you receive SMS while your phone in pocket, when you take it out of pocket, phone turns screen on and shows notification.

 

[njnbat]

What about this one. if you don't wanna attend a call , flip the phone to silence the call (Recent feature from gdr2/amber update) . Just keep the phone down with screen facing downwards .
Really cool.

 

[ohmegabyte]

Hmm. Recently discovered (on Lumia 920) this:

If you receive SMS while your phone in pocket, when you take it out of pocket, phone turns screen on and shows notification.

Not just with 920, also with 820s

 

[ratsttam]

Turn on voice assistance. When you receive a text, it will tell you who it's from, then ask if you want it read to you. You can then use your voice to answer it. I've carried on entire txt conversations in the car, while driving, without ever taking the phone out of my pocket (bluetooth radio)

 

[njnbat]

Use photobeamer to project your mobile photo's to laptops /desktops/SmartTV's . Once projected, swiping the photos in mobile changes it in the big screen too . All wireless

 

[anon(7935575)]

You can download offline maps and wont get lost even if you have no data... Just use location service and here maps.. pretty useful for me.

 

[icstars989]

Hmm. Recently discovered (on Lumia 920) this:

If you receive SMS while your phone in pocket, when you take it out of pocket, phone turns screen on and shows notification.

you have to do it relatively soon after receiving it or it won't do it.

 

[diktea]

For those with GDR2/Amber Glance Screen:
Glance Screen: If you feel the Glance screen is hogging your battery life.... a little tip - Do not put your phone facing upward all the time, put in your pocket or when on the table, on the bed or other places put it facedown (there should be obstruction of the screen) the Glance screen senses the obstruction and automatically switches itself off - It will automatically turn on when you take your phone up to see the time..

Screenshot: Most of us know this i hope but anyway - press power button + Windows Logo (home button) together and you get your screen shot.

Bonus: If you want to get lots of love Turn on Battery Saver... LoL

 

[Josh Harman]

You can download offline maps and wont get lost even if you have no data... Just use location service and here maps.. pretty useful for me.

To add to that, download Lumia Storage Check Beta and you can save those maps to your SD card... if you have one.

 

[VAUROS]

For those with GDR2/Amber Glance Screen:
Glance Screen: If you feel the Glance screen is hogging your battery life.... a little tip - Do not put your phone facing upward all the time, put in your pocket or when on the table, on the bed or other places put it facedown (there should be obstruction of the screen) the Glance screen senses the obstruction and automatically switches itself off - It will automatically turn on when you take your phone up to see the time..

Screenshot: Most of us know this i hope but anyway - press power button + Windows Logo (home button) together and you get your screen shot.

Bonus: If you want to get lots of love Turn on Battery Saver... LoL

You can do that or just set it to turn off after 15 mins like I do. If you keep your phone upward facing for more than 15 mins, Glance will turn off. Flip the phone face down and back up to wake up Glance.

 

[satpal123]

Another tip: If you want to quickly get rid of the Toast notification, just swipe over it to the right!

 

[njnbat]

When screen is locked i used to press power button ,swipe up and then press the camera button to take a picture. I don't do it anymore, simply press and hold the camera button to open the default camera app.

 

[gab1972]

Hmm. Recently discovered (on Lumia 920) this:

If you receive SMS while your phone in pocket, when you take it out of pocket, phone turns screen on and shows notification.

This will only happen the first 10 or 30 seconds. If you get a text and what 5 or 10 minutes to take your phone out of your pocket, the screen will not turn on.

 

[gab1972]

Turn on voice assistance. When you receive a text, it will tell you who it's from, then ask if you want it read to you. You can then use your voice to answer it. I've carried on entire txt conversations in the car, while driving, without ever taking the phone out of my pocket (bluetooth radio)

Works with both bluetooth headsets/radio and with earbuds plugged in.

 

[gab1972]

If you use Pocket (Formerly Known As Read It Later), did you know that you can send anything to Pocket from your WP? Go to your pocket account online (Pocket (Formerly Read It Later)) and go to the "options" page by selecting the down arrow next to the logo at the top of the page. Select "Email Accounts" and enter your email address. Now go into your phone and save a contact called "Pocket" (or whatever you like) with the email address add@getpocket.com. Now, go to IE explorer or anything that gives you the "Share" option. News, photos, anything. Select your email account you saved in Pocket and select Pocket as the recipient. Voila, item sent to Pocket! I also recommend the Pouch application for getting to your Pocket account. I'm not the dev, just like the app.

Did you know you can pin Facebook messenger to your homescreen so that you don't have to go into FB and then select the messenger part?

Did you know that Maluuba offers a great "Siri" like experience? It won't tell jokes or speak all responses, but really, do you want your phone telling you jokes? What will do is give you weather, appointment reminders, tell you what's on TV, play songs, dictate emails, and a bunch of other stuff. Plus it has a great metro UI feel to it.

Ever have a text conversation and want to snap a picture and send it? But you don't want to exit the SMS app, goto your camera, take a picture, exit, and then go back to texting? Next time, while you're in the SMS app, just click the camera button and snap a picture, back out, then press the attachment button in the SMS app.

Want OneNote or IE (or other apps) to always start at a certain point when you open it? OneNote: go into OneNote and open the notebook you want to always start at. Select the Home button on your phone. Go into apps and open OneNote (don't press the back button!). Voila, OneNote will open at that point. Now press the back button and watch it close without backing all the way to the Notebooks screen. This works for IE as well. Go to a page you like (Bing or Google or whatever), select the Home button on the phone (don't press the back button because that will just keep backing you through the history), go into your apps list and select IE. When it opens, you'll start at that point. Of course, you could always just pin your favorite starting point to your home screen...but you already knew that, right? =)

Desktop Mode app works well as a nighttime screensaver on a charger. It displays the time, weather, and your next appointment. It also supports NFC. I'm going to get a tag and see about sticking it to my wireless charger so I can tap it and place the phone down and have this app charge and display the Desktop Mode.

That's all I have. I'm sure a lot of you already knew some of these, but if not, you're welcome.

 

[dinesh84d]

I have seen many people struggling with text editing, they don't know how to move cursor to a specific location.

To do that, just long press the text and a big cursor will appear, move it to the location where you want it to make the correction.

 

[gsquared]

Mah' broda' from across de land digtin' waaay down wid de Inde JIBE.. Wo'd! Right on!

 

[Arjun KR]

an app called wpTorrent,
this app provides support for music hub,you can save your downloaded stuffs to the music folder on your phone,it ads .mp3 extension while saving it,you can rename to obtain original file,so this app is pretty much useful