» WP How To

Update any Windows Phone to Version 7.8

Nirmal — Thu, 09 May 2013 10:20:25 +0000

We had previously covered the free tool Seven-Eighter which allows you to force update your Windows Phone to version 7.8. Seven-Eighter did not work with all phones and worked perfectly with Lumia series. But now we have another useful app which can force update any Windows Phone to version 7.8.

Sharp7Eighter is a free tool which updates any Windows Phone to the latest 7.8 version, through a nice, user friendly wizard.

Disclaimer:Before you update the phone using this method, please note that you will have to update at your own risk WPXBOX will not be responsible for any issues caused because of this update.

Requirements:

Windows Vista, 7 or 8 (XP is not supported)
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 (already installed in most PCs)
Windows Phone Support Tools (you can download it through the tool)

You need to run Sharp7Eighter.exe file inside the zip file and follow the instructions.

Some of the FAQs provided by the developer;

Is my phone supported?
Any Windows Phone in the 7 series (LG, HTC, Samsung, etc.) is supported, even if these updates have not been officially announced for your phone.
Is it dangerous? Can it brick my phone?
Bricking your phone with these tools is almost impossible. Just carefully follow the wizard (it’s really easy) and you’ll be perfectly fine.
Will I loose my data after the update(s)?
No. After you update your phone, all your Apps, settings, contacts, emails, texts and everything else will be there waiting for you. However, it’s recommended that you make a backup just in case something goes wrong
I unlocked/SIM unlocked/jailbroken my phone, will this work?
Yes, it will. But there’s some risk, when using it on versions prior to Tango.

You can download the tool from here.

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Lumia Storage Checker : Use SD Card for Offline Maps but Cannot Move Existing Ones

Ashish — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:38:56 +0000

Nokia is playing a major part even when it comes to software updates which actually Microsoft should have addressed. Right after tons of people were hit by Storage issue, one of the software updates from Nokia introduced Storage checker which worked well when compared to Storage Clear app which tricked the OS.

Keeping the efforts up, Lumia Storage Checker team has thrown up another advancement in their Storage Checker app which now allows you to move Maps data to SD card.

This is a big time boon for Lumia users who own devices like Lumia 520, 620, 720 and 820, well everyone except Lumia 920 users. The same update will be available to even Lumia 920 users except that moving maps to anywhere else has no meaning here. Though nothing is sure, but Microsoft or Nokia might allow games to be moved to SD card also. Lets hope for the best.

According to Nokia Beta Labs, apart from moving Maps to micro SD card, you can also view your videos data separately. You will also be able to launch the Maps section in the setting right from Storage Checker.

Watch on YouTube

SD Card ? Yes but you cannot move existing maps

Now here is a big catch; The storage checker clearly says that you cannot copy existing maps to SD card but only can set where the Maps will be stored from there after. This means that if you have any existing map that you want to move to SD card, first change storage option here and then download the entire map.

IMO this clearly points out that there is no API to access the stored data or at least Nokia does not have access to it, but since they have control over their apps, this setting can let you set destination of the Maps.

Who can try this?

Technically it can be installed on any Lumia user having any of the below mentioned updates:

Lumia 820 or Lumia 920: 1232.5957.1308.0000 and higher
Lumia 920T: 2041.0009.1308.1002 and higher
Lumia 520, Lumia 620 or Lumia 720: 1030.6407.1308.0000 and higher

I was able to install this on my Lumia 920 which already has the Storage Checker update rolled out couple of days back. I don’t see any option which points to SD card (because there is none) but you can launch the Maps right from there which you see in the second screenshot above.

Download Lumia Storage Checker:

You can download by following this link or by scanning the QR Code below. In case you aren’t able to install this, it means that either the phone you are checking on is not supported or the software update is not installed on your phone. This will get installed in your App Listings and will not appear in your phone settings.

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How to use Here Maps Offline to Find Directions in Windows Phone

Ashish — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:40:23 +0000

I had a couple of readers asking on YouTube and over email about Here Maps, previously called as Nokia Maps – if it can be used in Offline mode and what are its limitations. In this post I am explaining the same.

Here Maps in Windows Phone has a strong integration. Starting with Windows Phone 8, the maps can be downloaded in the system area i.e. System > Maps. While in Windows Phone 7.8 it was downloaded within the app. Now, when I say maps can be downloaded I mean along with maps every other related data is downloaded too. This includes, directions, places of interest and other landmarks.

Nokia Maps Offline ( Airplane Mode)

Understanding GPS and A-GPS.

A-GPS or Assisted GPS functionally uses Satellite Signals, Cellular Towers and Wi-Fi Hotspots to find the exact coordinates of your phone. While GPS is pure Satellite signals. GPS module works out its position by calculating its distance from at least four different satellites. This is then converted into location co-ordinates.

Using Here Maps Offline

Once you have the Maps on your phone, you can keep your data on or off, launch Here Maps. Now when you search for directions and use it for navigation, it will not use data to download maps as it is already there.

Best part is, you can search for directions even if you don’t have SIM in your phone. It gives you turn-by-turn directions similar to what you see with data on.

This is the beauty of Here Maps. Find landmarks, directions, places of interest without data connection. Below is a video where I have demoed the Offline mode.

Case 1: Using with Data Connection Off

When data connection is turned off it means you cannot connect to Internet but your location can still be found using A-GPS. Your phone can quickly find directions using cellular triangulation and in worst cases using GPS.

That said, when you launch Here Maps in this mode, you will be smoothly navigation using turn by turn voice navigation and there is no need to even pop your head out of window to ask landmarks.

Case 2 : Using in Airplane Mode or Without a SIM

When in airplane mode GPS module in the phone can only use GPS data which is coming from Satellite. So now if you are using it in Aeroplane (Very High Altitude) it will find your exact location but when you use it in urban area where there are a lot of interferences, locking down your exact location will be nearly impossible.

Now, let’s say you have turned on your Airplane mode and roam around city using Here Drive Navigation feature, it will be inaccurate most of the time. There are two primary reasons. One, there are a lot of barriers to find where you are. Second, your car is always on the move which makes it even more difficult to pin point you.

That said, if you start using Here Maps in this mode you will be able to use it but with difficulty. Signals will go on and off, your location cannot be tracked.

So when using this mode you will have to combine it with your driving skills to reach your destination. Here Maps gives you every detail of every direction in offline mode as seen above so you will never get lost.

Note: I am getting a video done on this soon and will be able to show a live video on this. Stay tuned.

Then How do navigators work in cars if GPS is not accurate ?

I had the same questions when I discussed along with friends. Here is the deal, Navigation systems used in cars like TomTom uses very sensitive GPS Chips which are much more powerful that the ones used in phones. They are specifically designed to work in urban areas where there are a lot of spots where GPS signals don’t reach easily. You can read more about it here

The post How to use Here Maps Offline to Find Directions in Windows Phone appeared first on Wpxbox.

Windows Phone : How to Transfer Songs / Videos over Bluetooth & NFC

Ashish — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 07:16:52 +0000

I got a request on our YouTube Channel asking for a video that can explain on how to share songs and videos from Windows Phone. Though this looks like a very simple task, problem is that the absence of a dedicated File explorer in Windows Phone results in different approach for media sharing. Windows Phone lists these files in their apps i.e. Music + Video, Photos, PDF, etc.

So to share Music or Video follow the steps as below:

First turn on Bluetooth and NFC on Windows Phone. The OS acts dumb by not listing Bluetooth and NFC when you choose sharing if it is not turned on. Also make sure to connect with the Bluetooth device prior to sharing files. This will speed up sharing.

Now Launch Music + Videos App.
Select Music or Video depending on what you plan to share.
This will list the respective files.
If you are sharing Music, Switch to Songs View. Here you will see individual music files listed.
Long press any of them and choose SHARE.
Next you will have option to choose Bluetooth or NFC.
The same goes for Video files.

Demo Video:

That Said, Bluetooth file sharing in Windows Phone is still incomplete. Not only does it suffers from the drawback of missing Received and Send Section, it also suffers from standard difference when it comes to different devices. I have seen file transfer failing over NFC and Bluetooth a couple of times.

Windows Phone 7.8 users are lucky to have Bluetooth Share app from Nokia. This app has dedicated notification system and can be used as one stop app to share files. I hope Nokia will release this to Windows Phone 8 users.

The post Windows Phone : How to Transfer Songs / Videos over Bluetooth & NFC appeared first on Wpxbox.

How to Hard and Soft Reset Nokia Lumia 920

Nirmal — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 11:55:53 +0000

There are many instances when you smartphone fails to boot up or instance when it become non-responsive. This can be due to hardware or software or a combination of both. Similar to any other smartphone, Lumia 920 also has its share of issues. When the phone was released, lot of users complained about the random rebooting and also phone not responding and not booting.

In such cases you can try out soft reset and if nothing works out, you can try hard reset. So how do you reset your phone if it is not working.

1. Soft Reset:

Soft reset for Lumia 920 is pretty simple, all you need to do is to press and hold the volume down button and the home button, together for almost 10 sec. After some time, you might see your phone vibrating and see the booting screen once again. This step can be useful if you phone is not booting or crashed while working or even not responding when it is in on position.

Once the phone restarts, you can release the button.

2. Hard Reset:

According to the official method, to reset the phone, you can open the Settings-> About-> Reset your phone. This will bring back the phone to factory defaults. Now what if your phone is not responding for a hard reset? You can still use the hard reset using the hardware buttons.

Please note, hard reset isn’t documented in the manual, so please do it at your own risk. We request you to take the phone to customer service in case you are not sure.

Hard reset is handy if the phone is completely unresponsive. You can perform this by pressing the volume down + power + camera buttons together until the phone vibrates, then release the power button only and hold the other buttons down for another five seconds or so, then release all the buttons.

Many users who have done this method claims that hard reset using the hardware buttons did not delete the user data, but if you plan to do hard reset (planned), we recommend you to take a backup of the data.

The post How to Hard and Soft Reset Nokia Lumia 920 appeared first on Wpxbox.

How to Replace the Battery on the Lumia 920 [Video]

Nirmal — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:10:13 +0000

Nokia’s flagship phone, the Lumia 920 does not ship with replaceable batteries. This means you cannot carry an additional battery with you and replace it when the charge is out in the main battery. The battery in Lumia 920 is sealed and cannot be replaced unless you take it to Nokia service centres.Now, if you want to experiment with Lumia 920 by replacing the batteries sealed inside it, here is a video to help you out.

The video is basically a disassembly and assembly for screen and case replacement.

Tools needed to replace the battery on the Lumia 920

Torx T2 T4 and T5 Screwdrivers
One small flat blade screwdriver
Plastic Knife
Tweezers
SIM Tray Removal Tool ( included in the Nokia Lumia 920 box )
Glue

Important Note: Please do not attempt it if you are not sure what you are trying to do. Following this manual might break the warranty of your phone.

Via 1800PocketPC

The post How to Replace the Battery on the Lumia 920 [Video] appeared first on Wpxbox.

Manually Configure IMAP settings in Email Accounts, If Default Fails (Windows Phone)

Ashish — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:38:03 +0000

When trying to add a Gmail account to my Lumia 620, I was being redirected to Advance Settings where it forced me to choose either Exchange Sync or Internet Email. Seems like something recently happened which did not allow me to add Gmail account Windows Phone using the standard Gmail option which is available in Settings > Add Email Account > Gmail.

My Lumia 620 has the latest update ( Firmware version 1030.6407.1307.0001) because Storage Checker is available in it.

Manually Set Port Number:

The only option was to use POP3 or IMAP. I chose the latter but was totally confused because if you check on the configuration settings of Gmail IMAP4, you need to mention the port number. The option to enter port number for Outgoing and Incoming Mail server is missing in the Windows Phone Setup. You may try without it but it will fail as it failed for me.

Finally after thinking a bit, I thought of giving this trick a try.

For Incoming server type in imap.gmail.com:993
For Outgoing server type in smtp.gmail.com:465

What I did was add a colon(:) and port number along with the server address in the field which was asking me for it. The screenshot below gives you much clear idea.

And the sync worked just fine after that. All the emails were downloaded. However this has a major drawback, You cannot sync contacts and calendar.

Lumia 920 Post Portico Gmail Settings:

When I tried it on my Lumia 920, the sync worked properly and without any issue and never asked me for advance settings. Now when I went ahead and checked Sync Settings for that email, it has very similar settings as the above screenshot. This will only show up when you add a new Gmail account. These settings on the contrary allow you to sync contacts and calendar.

This situation is kind of strange and should not happen to most of you. But if you fall into the same situation, you can always add port number to the end of the server URL along with a colon. Hope it helps a couple of you there!

The post Manually Configure IMAP settings in Email Accounts, If Default Fails (Windows Phone) appeared first on Wpxbox.

How to Use White Balance on Lumia 920 Camera [Video]

Nirmal — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:49:14 +0000

Nokia’s flagship phone, the Lumia 920, has one of the best features in the form of PureView camera. The camera is one of the best we have on a smartphone with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and excellent low light captures. Although there are only few settings available on the Lumia 920 camera, you can still adjust these to get the perfect shot. Nokia has now made available a video on how to effectively use the white balance feature on Lumia 920 to get the best shot.

The video explains on how to improve your photos under a wider range of lighting conditions. So if you use a Lumia 920, check out the video.

The post How to Use White Balance on Lumia 920 Camera [Video] appeared first on Wpxbox.

Windows Phone “Other Storage” : What you can do about it, A Small Analysis

Mark — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 17:39:38 +0000

Word on the internet is that due to cloud storage being deeply integrated into Windows Phone, storage isn’t a real matter these days. Hardware manufacturers like HTC even go so far to release devices with only 16 GB of build in storage, without any SD card slot available, even though Windows Phone 8 officially supports this now. Nokia doesn’t support SD memory either, but at least their flagship device comes with 32 GB of internal memory.

Update: Check out the Storage Shrinker App for Windows Phone. It helped us getting 5Gb free of the other storage.

Like Nirmal just recently revealed, storage is still an issue, no matter what people are trying to tell you. Well, at least if it comes to Windows Phone, that is. The fact that Windows Phone lacks a true cache management and doesn’t even clearly show what files get cached, by simply hiding the information behind a mysterious “other” inside the device’s capacity information sooner or later leads to storage issues.

One solution, a pretty dramatic one in my eyes, is a hard reset. Not only will you lose progress in all your games and even app settings, it’s very time intensive. Not to mention, that it will not protect you from suffering the same issue again after a while. Fortunately users indeed have at least a little control over the cache, which will of course not solve the issue entirely – this is up to Microsoft – but reduce the amount of wasted space.

Skydrive

The largest issue, which Nirmal already pointed out, is that images, which you’ve uploaded to SkyDrive, are moved to a certain folder on your device that you don’t have access to. It doesn’t even matter if you manually upload the images from within the pictures hub or use WP’s automatic upload feature. They’re transferred to that other folder either way.

I suppose these images are removed after a while, but if you’re not willing to wait for this to finally happen, you can sort of force it.

Just login to your SkyDrive by either using a browser or any dedicated app and move the uploaded files from their current folder to any other. You’ll notice, that you quickly regain the storage space previously occupied by said images.

Editors Note: It seems there WP maintains some information about every image in others. One such example is the message you add when sharing any picture on twitter or Facebook. However if the image is removed from Skydrive Upload folder, it syncs and removes that metadata from the phone also.

Before and after moving previously – automatically – uploaded images to another folder (12 MB of images). I had almost 0.02 GB (20MB Approx.) of space free after that.

Cached Thumbnails:

Images stored on SkyDrive are responsible for a lot of space wasted on your device. All folders you’ve declared as containing photos on SkyDrive automatically appear on your Windows Phone. This isn’t much of an issue, as long as you don’t actually open the according folders from your pictures hub.

As soon as you open these folders though, thumbnails are being downloaded and temporarily stored on your device. If you tap one of these images to see it full screen, it’s downloaded full size. The latter won’t stay long on your device. It seems to be just a matter of 1 or 2 days. Thumbnails though stay a couple more days.

There’s no way you can force to remove them from your device. But you can easily tell when this happened. As soon as the folders don’t show an image in your pictures hub anymore, you can be sure all thumbnails have been removed and the space occupied by them has been set free.

Emails

There are of course loads of other system apps that demand storage space. One that’s completely underestimated is the email application. If you have set your sync options to sync the last 30 days, or even more, and you receive/send a considerable amount of emails in that time, even these few KBs per mail can sum up to a couple of hundred megabytes. Here a couple of suggestions how to reduce the space occupied by your email communications:

Set sync options to “last 7 days”.
Only Synchronize folders that you really need
Both Outlook.com (Hotmail) and Exchange accounts support search on server. So even if you need to find an email that is currently not on your device, you’ll still be able to find it with the server search feature and read it on your phone

Internet Explorer

If you’re an avid browser user like me, the cache files created by the Internet Explorer can quickly eat up huge amounts of your storage space. Especially if you visit graphics/images intense sites. There are two ways to clear things up, but both have their downsides.

Manage Storage:

The first thing you may want to do is to check whether you have allowed websites to store files on your device. If you did so, you can delete files which are no longer needed by going to settings -> Internet Explorer -> Advanced Settings -> manage storage and tick every checkbox of files you want to be removed.

If you don’t want to do this over and over again, just untick the checkbox “Websites are allowed to store files on my device”. You may as well open your Internet Explorer and access these settings from there. However, unchecking said setting results in slightly longer loading times for affected websites, as whatever files had previously been stored have to be downloaded again.

Browser Cache:

Next stop: browser cache. You should regularly clear your browser history, as it manages all your cached image files. You’ll be surprised by the amount of storage freed after performing that clean up. The downside is, that you will not only lose all cached images, but also stored passwords and cookies. Well, I rather enter all information again than having my IE take up heaps of my available memory.

Office Hub

This could as well have been filed under email, but I thought it deserved a separate mention. If you open any kind of document, be it doc, xls, pps or even pdf, from an email attachment, it is stored on your device. You would naturally look these up in the phone section of the Office Hub, but that’s not where they go. They’re – obviously – stored under email in the Office Hub. Tap and hold each document you want to remove and choose “delete from phone”.

Music and Video Hub history

Let’s be honest, this last step can easily be skipped, as no matter how huge your history is, it doesn’t waste much space. But if you still want to remove it, you can use WP Tools to do so. Grab it from here.

Conclusion:

That’s pretty much all you can do. Everything else is controlled by the OS itself. Microsoft definitely needs to add options to clear the cache manually. Let us know how your experience was and if these things actually helped you in someway. We are eager to listen.

The post Windows Phone “Other Storage” : What you can do about it, A Small Analysis appeared first on Wpxbox.

How to Force Install Windows Phone 7.8 Update

Nirmal — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:22:28 +0000

The Windows Phone 7.8 update which brings in some of the features of WP8 to first generation devices were rolled out yesterday and the process will continue till February. The update will be available for your unlocked phones depending on your location. So if you want to install the update, you need to connect your phone to Zune Software and then check for updates.

But in case Zune is still showing no new updates, you can actually force the update on your Phone. A new tool has been developed by Windows Phone Hacker, called Seven-Eighter which will install the updates directly on the phone.

Disclaimer: Before you update the phone using this method, please note that you will have to update at your own risk WPXBOX will not be responsible for any issues caused because of this update.

This simple little tool to automate the process of downloading and installing the updates to your phone. The application is compatible on Windows and you need to connect the device to PC using the cable and then run the tool. Click on the button Install WP7.8 updates.

This will prompt you to select the languages. Please note you need to select all the languages which are currently available on your phone. Click on OK. Now your phone will reboot an will start installing the update. On the phone you will see a white progress bar indicating the installation of updates.

Once the installation is complete, you will see the phone booting again with the sucess message of installation of updates. Please note if you have not updated the phone for quite some time, you will have to install all the previous updates before you can get WP7.8. So you might have to follow this procedure multiple times.

Download Seven-Eighter

The post How to Force Install Windows Phone 7.8 Update appeared first on Wpxbox.

Video : Whats new in Windows Phone 7.8 and How to upgrade

Ashish — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 05:17:19 +0000

Finally!! After I heard the updates were getting rolled out, I plugged in my Lumia 610 to see if there was any update. This time there is one and the first one to appear was : Nokia Lumia Update for Windows Phone. This update has two major feature listed :

Provides Support for phones without physical camera button.
Provides other Windows Phone Improvement

The first point is interesting because I haven’t see a Lumia phone without a camera button and the second update looks like some kind of bug fix as there is another update waiting to roll in after you finish updating it.

How to update :

Make sure to have Zune installed on your computer.
Connect your phone with PC using the USB cable.
Once Zune detects your Phone, Go to Settings > Update and check if you have an update.

In case you don’t see an update and are ready to take some risk, check out the Force Update Method!!

How to update ( Video)

Watch on YouTube

So here the actual 7.8 Change log :

Start Screen resizable tiles
Accent colours bumped to 20
Improves the lock screen experience with accidental wipe protection feature and the Bing image for daily wallpaper.
Expands Windows Phone Marketplace & Xbox Live Support to new countries and regions
Enhance Chinese Fonts and improves the appearance of Arabic and other languages.
Some of the missing features are now fulfilled i.e. Internet sharing, Bluetooth sharing
Apps : Camera Extras, Contact Share, Play To and Nokia City Lens.

Video Tour of Windows Phone 7.8:

Watch on YouTube

The post Video : Whats new in Windows Phone 7.8 and How to upgrade appeared first on Wpxbox.

Guide to Manage SD Card on Windows Phone

Ashish — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:30:45 +0000

Windows Phone 8 supports microSD card, which acts as, extended storage if your phone has low internal memory e.g. Lumia 620 and 820. When windows phone team announced the SD card support, they not only announced that it will act as storage for Music, Videos and Photos but also rolled in App Installation feature. In this post, we take a look into bits and pieces of what happens when you insert an SD card in Windows Phone.

Fresh Install :

As soon as you insert an SD and reboot your phone, you will be prompted about it. In this prompt, you will be able to confirm that it can be used to store media files. This prompt appears every time you insert a new microSD card or when you format it.

Watch on YouTube

Configuring microSD Card usage:

Since it extends your storage, you can find all the settings under Settings > Phone Storage. This section displays the amount of space occupied by your phone and the SD card.

In the same section, you can individually configure Music + Videos & Pictures storage location. A drop down lets you choose between the phone storage and SD card.

Advantage of using SD Card for Media

The real advantage shows up when you switch your phone. If all your media is stored in SD card, they will be available instantly under Photos, Videos and Music App like it was on your previous phone. If you choose differently, the new phone will have pictures located into two different places.

Formatting & Removing SD Card:

If you tap on SD card storage, you can see details of space occupied by individual media types. Right under that, you have two options :

Remove SD Card: Use this option when you plan to take your SD card out of the phone. This will make sure that none of the files are in use, and will keep your data intact.
Format SD Card: This comes in handy when you insert an SD card from other phone. I installed an SD card which I was using in BlackBerry, but it was not recognized by Windows Phone. Though visible in Windows Explorer, I had to format it to use it on Windows Phone.

Installing Apps from SD Card:

In a scenario where you need to install the same app on multiple Windows Phone device, Corporate or for Family Members, downloading every time is a waste of bandwidth.

You can use the SD card to install the apps offline on any number of phone.

Download it from Windows Phone Marketplace.
Connect the device over USB and drop the XAP file in SD card.
Unplug and wait for SDCARD option to showup on Windows Phone Store. You might want to reboot if its taking of time.
Install the app offline. You can also batch install multiple apps.

Remember, when the apps get installed, they will be verified against the store and your account. Free apps can be used instantly while paid apps will have only trail version installed. Apps which do not have trail version need to be bought from the store.

So the basic idea of this feature is to save your bandwidth of your Mobile Data or when you need to install on multiple devices.

The post Guide to Manage SD Card on Windows Phone appeared first on Wpxbox.

Enable Text Reply Incoming Calls and Add more text presets on Windows Phone

Ashish — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 02:41:53 +0000

Recent update to Windows Phone also included Text Reply feature. This allows you to send a text message after rejecting an incoming call when you are busy or cannot pickup the call.

Text Reply option only shows up when there is an incoming call, along with Answer and Reject options. Now for some reason if you don’t see this, first make sure you have the latest update for Windows Phone installed ( Settings > Phone Update > Check for Update).

If you have the update then go to Settings > Applications > Phone > Turn on Text Reply. This will make sure the option shows up on the next call.

Add More messages :

Many of us like more options when sending a message in these kind of situation. Some would like to add sophisticated “Call You back, Busy in Meeting with Boss” while other would want “Whats up Doc!!”. So Windows Phone team decided to support 4 of such message types.

Tap on Edit Replies button(right below Text reply) and you will have 4 text boxes. In each of these, you can add your own message. So next time you get a call, you can pick any of them from the option.

If you need to send anything else and not any of the predefined messages, you also get an option to type a new message along with the above list. It will first reject the call and open the message box to type the custom message.

Video Demo:

Watch on YouTube

The post Enable Text Reply Incoming Calls and Add more text presets on Windows Phone appeared first on Wpxbox.

IE 10 features in Windows Phone 8

Ashish — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 23:53:04 +0000

Windows Phone 8 comes with IE 10 as its default browser. Compared to its version on Windows Phone 7.5 there are some useful enhancements which came both from developers and user requests. So lets take a look at them :

Replace Refresh / Stop button: Now you can change this button and replace it with Tab or even Favourites. This is particularly useful for users who loved to switch between pages quickly. However if you keep track of just one page and need to always refresh, stick to the default settings.

Change Search Provides: Windows Phone 8 now allows you to choose between Google and Bing as your default search provider. Though there is no option to add any other but this addresses most of users request.

Do Not Track : IE 10 now supports do not track i.e. it sends information to website not to track your browsing data. However it is up to the websites to honour it.

Website File storage :

It is possible that websites you visit would like to store some data like RSS feeds. IE 10 now allows you to manage this as it takes space on your phone. You can choose to delete it on per website basis.

Data Sense Service :

This is a carrier dependent feature which reduces amount of data download while browsing. This is an excellent feature but since its not available on all mobile operators, chances are you will be missing it. As far as I know, its only available with Verizon, US.

Did you spot anything new? Let Us Know?

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Guide to Me Card on Windows Phone

Ashish — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:04:34 +0000

Windows Phone right from its first version has concentrated on making your phone personal which means it should be able to integrate and bring in a lot of stuff you do all the day both online and offline. This resulted in Me Card which is digital resemblances of yourself on your phone. So if, you are new to Windows Phone, lets get started to know the ins and outs of it.

What is Me Card?

Like I said, Me Card is you which in turn is your integration of two social networks i.e. Facebook and Twitter. So when you add the accounts to your phone, it automatically pulls in your latest update, lets you see what was posted on your time line, who interacted with you, what are the new pictures and so on.

Me Card looks like just another Windows Phone App except that when you pin it, it has a picture of you (Facebook or Twitter Profile) in the front and any mention or notification on the back.

What you can do with the Me Card?

Share Screen :

First section is your picture, followed by latest status update and a couple of action points below it. The action points are Post an Update, Check In and Set Chat Status.

Update Picture : If you tap on the picture, it lets you select a picture from your phone in the next screen. You have a choice to update Profile picture on Live Messenger or Facebook.

Post an Update : This allows you to quickly post your update to Facebook and Twitter at the same time without launching any other app. This not only saves a lot of time, but you can also live without a twitter or Facebook app.

It also respects your Facebook privacy Settings. You can choose to share a private update, with Friends, Friends of Friends, Public or use the default settings of Facebook.

If you wish to skip the update for Facebook or Twitter, it’s possible to skip any of them.

Check In : This allows you to check in using the Facebook Location feature. This is like a status update to Facebook using the little marker icon on the Status Update Windows.

Set Chat Status : This is more like a messenger status update where you can appear Online, Offline, Busy, Away and Invisible. This is connected with Facebook Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and in the future this is going to integrate with Skype status too.

Notifications : This screen displays notifications from Facebook and Twitter. You can refresh this or tap on any of them and reply or comment.

What’s New : This lists down your status from Twitter and Facebook. They can be in the form of Twitter mentions, Facebook etc. If you have comments or reply there, you can directly interact there, and it will be posted to its respective sources

How to pin Me Card in case I unpinned it:

This is one of the questions I have hear often and its not users fault to get confused. If you have ever unpinned Me Card from Start screen, follow the steps below :

Slide left on your start screen to open list of all the apps.
Open People App.
Here, you will see your profile picture along with your latest update.
Tap on it.
Here, you will see Pin to Start Screen icon.
Tap on it and you are done.

Summary :

This ME Card is the soul of Windows Phone and its idea of putting you first. Not only it makes sure you are connected, but it also lets you reply back on your social network without the need of any app.

The post Guide to Me Card on Windows Phone appeared first on Wpxbox.

How to Protect or Lock SIM Card with PIN

Nirmal — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 11:46:22 +0000

To prevent misuse of SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards when they are lost, every SIM is enabled with PIN. You can use a PIN for the SIM card in your phone to prevent people from making unauthorized phone calls. So in case you want to protect your SIM card you can turn on SIM security. After turning on SIM security, you’ll be prompted to enter your SIM PIN each time you start your phone.

In this article we will guide you on how to enabled SIM security with PIN.

Related Reading: 4 Tips to Keep your Windows Phone 8 Secure

To enable PIN protection on your SIM card, go to Phone and then click on the three dots (…) available at the bottom of the screen and select Settings. At the bottom of the settings, you can see the option SIM Security. Slide the option to turn it on.

You will be prompted to enter the SIM PIN, the default PIN set by your operator. If you do not know this, please call your operator and confirm it. Do not try to enter wrong pin as it will get locked if you wrongly enter it three times.

Important Note: If an incorrect PIN is entered too many times, the SIM card will be blocked by your mobile operator. If this occurs, you’ll need to contact your mobile operator for a PIN Unblocking Key (PUK) code. If an incorrect PUK code is entered too many times, your SIM card will be permanently blocked, and you’ll need to get a new SIM card from your mobile operator.

Related Reading: How to Find your Lost or Stolen Windows Phone 8

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How to Find your Lost or Stolen Windows Phone 8

Nirmal — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 04:53:49 +0000

Whether you have lost your phone or misplaced it or someone stole, it is always a cause of worry. your phone might contain your personal files including documents, photos and videos. If you are using a Windows Phone 8 and lost or misplaced your phone, there are various options available to find it. Find My Phone is a service from Microsoft which allows you to track your lost or stolen phone.

This free service in the My Phone section of windowsphone.com can ring, lock, erase, or show your phone on a map from any Internet-connected computer. Find My Phone makes it easier to recover your phone—or to prevent someone from using it without your permission. When you visit the My Phone section (http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/my), you can see the option to trace it.

When you open this link, you can see your phone shown in the map if it is connected to Internet. Now here you have three options- Lock the phone, Ring the phone and finally Erase the phone.

Lock the phone service will lock the phone with a password. If you have not set the password, you will be prompted to enter it and when you find your phone, you will have to enter it. You can also type a message on the lock screen.

Your phone screen will have this when you remotely lock it.

Ring the phone as it says will make your phone ring remotely. This is useful if you have misplaced it somewhere in the house or office. The final option is Erase the phone. This will factory reset your phone deleting all your files and apps.

Erasing the phone is the last step as it will lose the contact with Lost my phone as well as delete all your files. Apart from this, you can also configure the settings for Find my Phone from your phone.

It’s a good idea to let your mobile operator know that you’ve lost your phone.

The post How to Find your Lost or Stolen Windows Phone 8 appeared first on Wpxbox.

Tips to Improve Battery Life on Windows Phone 8

Nirmal — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:26:36 +0000

One of the major problems with any smartphone, be it Android, iOS or Windows Phone, is the battery backup. Even though mobile technology has reached big levels, there hasn’t been any advancement in battery consumption of phones. Most of the smartphones available today have only battery backup of less than a day with normal usage. Battery backup is one of the most important aspect when you are travelling.

Now if you own or using a Windows Phone 8 device, you can improve or save battery backup with these few tips.

1. Battery Saver:

If you instantly want to save battery, you can turn on Battery saver from the Settings of you phone. Once you enable it automatic email receiving will be paused, apps will not run in background and also live tiles wont update. This will provide better battery backup for your phone. You can set when you want to enable the battery saver option.

2. Screen Brightness:

This is one area which can consume too much battery. If you are mostly using the phone indoors, you can set the screen brightness to lowest level.

3. Email Sync:

Although you can set push email notifications for new emails, if you are running on low battery you can select manual sync from the options in email settings for the account.

4. Lock Screen:

Lock screen is set to time out by default after 1 minute, but you can set it to lower value to conserve battery.

5. Theme:

Windows Phone 8 comes in two background, dark and light apart from the accent colors. It is always good to choose dark background to save battery.

6. Turn of Unwanted connections:

If you have turned on Bluetooth, the phone will be continuously searching for new devices and trying to connect to them. If you aren’t using this service, it is better to turn them off.

These tips should definitely able to squeeze another one or two hours extra from the normal battery backup.

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Windows Phone : Find the phone number from which an SMS is received or Sent to

Ashish — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:13:34 +0000

Have you ever able to figure out from which number you received an SMS when a contact has multiple phone numbers. In fact the same problem happens with a received call but thanks fully you can find out by tapping on it.

So the question remains that how do you identify the number from which the SMS was received from or sent to. Well you cannot identify with a tap but you can do with these extra steps :

Open the SMS thread for which you want to check.
Tap on the Switch button
Next you will see a list of numbers associated with that contact, and the one which is highlighted with the accent colour is the number to which either the SMS was sent to received.

Even though this looks to solve the problem, but there is another problem. Since the SMS is threaded, you can only find the number associated with the last SMS sent or received. There is no option that pops in when you long press or select one of the SMS.

In case the contact is connected with its respective Facebook account, you can also see that highlighted if your last conversation was on Facebook chat.

Thanks Farby at Nokia Discussions

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Nokia Lumia 920 is not Responding, What should I do?

Nirmal — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 08:14:43 +0000

Every phone has its own problems, it could be hardware related or software related. Nokia Lumia 920 is the latest flagship phone from Nokia running the Windows Phone 8 OS. Nokia Lumia 920 also has its share of problems with many users in US complaining about random reboots. while few other users have complained that suddenly Lumia 920 gets hang and does not respond at all. Unlike other phones where you have the option to restart by removing the battery, Lumia 920 does not have this option as battery is not removable. So what are your options?

Sometimes, your phone might freeze, with no keys or touch responding or sometimes it fails to start up. If your phone isn’t responding, you have few options available.

Do the following:

Press and hold the volume down key and power key at the same time for about 10 seconds. The phone restarts. To switch your phone back on, press and hold the power key.
Update your phone software.
Reset your phone. This restores the factory settings, and erases all your personal content, including apps you’ve purchased and downloaded. On the start screen, swipe left, and tap Settings > about > reset your phone.

If none of these tips works, you might need to take the phone to nearest Nokia care. We are hoping that these minor issues will be solved with the update Nokia will be releasing soon. Please note that this tip can be tried on other Lumia phones as well.

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