WP8 Newbie Tips

[hopmedic]

When you exit application by pressing windows key it stays and is not always frozen - sometimes it is still running in the background, eating your battery away.
To correctly shut down the program, you have to open it and press "back arrow" so many times you're taken back to default system tabs (main screen/app list). This way application gets closed permanently and does not cause unnecessary battery drain!

If this was Android.....

But this is only true with those applications that are allowed to continue to run with other apps running. Those that play audio, those that use location services... I think that's all (though I could be mistaken - I'm going off the top of my head, here). Pressing the start button puts apps in a suspended state unless it is one of those apps that use these special services (this is where it is good for you to actually read the services that an app uses, in the list in the Marketplace - if it's not listed, the app can't use it). If an app is suspended, then it is using zero, zip, zilch, nada, none of your battery's precious electrons. And for background tasks, if you have enabled them, they will run whether you back out of the app or you start out of the app. Those you need to disable either in the settings or in the app's settings, using whatever method the developer gave you to disable them. And with location services, one of the app certification requirements is that the developer MUST give you a way to disable location services from being used in the app.

 

[Quin 2013]

Does anyone know about screen captures for wp8?

My tip is, if you misspelled a word or would like to add a letter etc, if you highlight the word and hold your finger over it, a cursed pops up and you can match be it to where you want to edit.

 

[Slai]

Quin: Screenshot is taken by pressing Windowskey+Lockkey at the same time .

 

[Quin 2013]

Quin: Screenshot is taken by pressing Windowskey+Lockkey at the same time .

awesome!

Cool thing I noticed was that the pic is saved in a folder of its own under albums.

 

[Blkacesvf41]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but I discovered something neat when using tunein Radio. When using headphones, pulling them out automatically pauses whatever you listening to.

 

[rajkumr]

You can double tap the space bar to end a sentence with period. Makes it much faster to type.

You can press and hold the number keys 1,2 & 3 for entering fractions and power of 2 & 3.
? ⅓ ⅔ m? ?

You can press and hold the number 0 for the degree sign.
90?

Double tap the shift key to type in all caps.

Press and hold the language key in the kb for additional language keyboards. (you need to add,additional languages in settings).

Pressing and holding the parentheses key will give you additional types like square, flower & angle.
( [ { <

That's all for now!!!

 

[SanderLeopard]

When you swipe to the left on your start screen to reveal your app list you can tap the magnifying glass in the top left corner to search for apps on your phone-- but you can also tap 'search in store' to, you might already guess it, search for it in the store. It's so much faster!

 

[gapost]

When you go to the Search button, swipe left and right for other Bing things, like News, Movies, Videos, etc.

 

[apinkel]

If you link your email accounts and want to view just one email account, press "..." and select "folders" to view the inbox or any other folder of just one email account.

In the browser, on occasion the device back button navigates back to an app instead of back thru the browser history. So use "..." "recent" to see list of recently visited sites, or as an alternative, add forward and back links to your favorites... details at http://forums.windowscentral.com/wi...o-back-internet-explorer-how.html#post1623878

If you like a more monochrome look to your homepage or if you have an amoled device that is more battery efficient with a black background head to Settings-->ease of access-->High Contrast-On to switch from colored tiles to black tiles.

 

[rohan fernandez]

I initially ignored the "kids" feature, because I don't have kids and i don't give my phone to anyone. But now am using it as a quick access feature with calculator/camera a few of my games etc. Only bad part is you have to unlock your phone with a password ever time.

 

[kyle7286]

-Listens to music and displays the name.
This feature is accessed by the following:
1) From Home screen, press the SEARCH (bing) button on your phone.
2) On the bing screen, press the musical note icon.
3) Let it listen and it will find the song for you.

 

[phatone17]

May be a no brainer for most of you, but if you need to skip a song or pause it, from anywhere else in the phone other than whatever music app you're using, just hit the volume up or down and you'll be able to (obviously turn up or down the volume) also be able to skip tracks or pause from the dropdown menu. This was a nice thing to discover, and I believe was already on 7.x

 

[tositem]

Hi all, i'm a new comer for wp8, and rather asking than giving tips

Found lot of info here, but i want to ask about the rooms feature in People hub, if i invite my friends to the 'room,' should they own wp8, too?

Thanks for the kind reply

 

[msdugn]

Check out Rooms here: Use Rooms and Groups | Windows Phone How-to (United States)

And the Rooms and Groups FAQ which details some of the limitations: Rooms and Groups FAQ | Windows Phone How-to (United States)

And here's how to access Rooms in Windows Phone 7 and iPhone: Rooms on Windows Phone 7 and iPhone | Windows Phone How-to (United States) - but it has a number of limitations (all features are in WP8, group chat is missing in WP7 and iPhone, nothing for Android).

I love Rooms since my wife and I can share multiple grocery lists (grocery store, warehouse store, etc.), share private photos, IMs and such. I use Groups to keep track of social networking and emails from certain groups of people. I use Rooms for more closely-tied interactions. I hope that helps.

 

[Dave_97865]

Customize Lock Screen
Mine is set to HTC?s local weather conditions.

View attachment 23346

I have apps for the Lock Screen, but do not see weather. Does anyone know if I need a certain weather app to get this (Nokia Lumia 822)?

 

[tositem]

Check out Rooms here: Use Rooms and Groups | Windows Phone How-to (United States)

And the Rooms and Groups FAQ which details some of the limitations: Rooms and Groups FAQ | Windows Phone How-to (United States)

And here's how to access Rooms in Windows Phone 7 and iPhone: Rooms on Windows Phone 7 and iPhone | Windows Phone How-to (United States) - but it has a number of limitations (all features are in WP8, group chat is missing in WP7 and iPhone, nothing for Android).

I love Rooms since my wife and I can share multiple grocery lists (grocery store, warehouse store, etc.), share private photos, IMs and such. I use Groups to keep track of social networking and emails from certain groups of people. I use Rooms for more closely-tied interactions. I hope that helps.

 

[tositem]

Like everyone, i surf the internet a lot. But it's kinda frustrating to close the EI, because when you hit the back button, it'll take you to the previous page. And you have to go backward after the first page comes out and finally close the EI.

So, i changed the browser setting, toggled the address' bar button from 'stop/refresh' to 'tabs', and everytime i want to close the EI, i just simply hit the tab button, tap the close icon on the tab overview, and hit the back button, and it closes.

Not the most practical, i know, but this 3-times-tapping is time saver rather than tapping the back button a hundreds times. Hope it'll help.

Maybe anyone has another tips?

 

[hopmedic]

Like everyone, i surf the internet a lot. But it's kinda frustrating to close the EI, because when you hit the back button, it'll take you to the previous page. And you have to go backward after the first page comes out and finally close the EI.

So, i changed the browser setting, toggled the address' bar button from 'stop/refresh' to 'tabs', and everytime i want to close the EI, i just simply hit the tab button, tap the close icon on the tab overview, and hit the back button, and it closes.

Not the most practical, i know, but this 3-times-tapping is time saver rather than tapping the back button a hundreds times. Hope it'll help. 

Maybe anyone has another tips?

There is no "need" to back out of IE. This is not Android, where you have to manage memory and processor time. This is Windows Phone, where the phone does the work. Unless you want to back out of IE so that someone can't see what page you were looking at, you can just hit the start button and be back at the start screen.

With the exception of apps that use certain services, (location, audio playback / streaming, VOIP?), when you hit the start button, apps are suspended - they are kept in memory, but do not use any processing resources. If the number of suspended apps exceeds a certain number (I think 7 in WP8 - it was 5 in WP7), the oldest one is tombstoned - current state saved in storage (provided the developer programmed it to do this), and the app is removed from memory. If resources are needed, apps can be tombstoned from suspended even if they don't exceed that number (7?). Other than the apps that are allowed background processing, apps do NOT run in the background like they do on Android, so you gain zero resources/battery life by killing apps with the back button. Some examples of apps which use the background services are Nokia Drive, Skype, and the music hub and/or Nokia Music.

So don't stress about closing IE. And welcome to Windows Phone. Welcome home from the wild west.

 

[Blkacesvf41]

@hopmedic
I just did a little test and with WP8 you can go up to 6 suspended apps before the oldest one gets tombstoned. So you were close.

 

[hopmedic]

@hopmedic
I just did a little test and with WP8 you can go up to 6 suspended apps before the oldest one gets tombstoned. So you were close.

Keep in mind that memory used has something to do with it, so it could be 7 if they are all small memory-footprint apps. I'm almost 100% positive I've seen 7 written somewhere.