35 HTC One tips and tricks

Introduction

The HTC One is the most desirable new phone in the world right now. Metal-bodied, great-looking and a seriously powerful gadget, this is the mobile that could turn things around for HTC.

Interface

How to change keyboards
One of the few software criticisms we made about the HTC One was that its keyboard isn’t exactly the slickest in town. However, one of the neatest bits of Android is that you can swap-out things like keyboards. The first thing to do is to head to the Play Store to find your perfect Android keyboard. The most popular third-party one is Swiftkey.

Once you’ve downloaded your keyboard, you need to select it to act as your main keyboard within the Settings menu, from the Language & Keyboard submenu. However, many third-party keyboard apps have their own setup wizards anyway.

Enabling Swype-style input on the keyboard
There are ways to customise the standard HTC keyboard too, though. The most important is gesture-based input, which we find speeds-up typing no end. Instead of tapping away on keys, you draw a line between the characters and the HTC One calculates which word you want. It works a charm too. To turn this mode on, go to the HTC Sense Input menu within Settings > Language & Keyboard and tick the Trace Keyboard checkbox.

How to customise the apps menu
The HTC One lets you fiddle with the look of the apps menu a little. You can choose how icons are organised, and how many appear in each row. As standard, it displays just three in each row for a chilled, spread out look. To bump this up to four, drag the apps “scroll” down to reveal the app menu’s Settings bar. Tap the 3-pip icon and you’ll see an option for Grid Size. The organisation options are found in the drop-down menu to the left of the 3-pip button.

How to change icons in the HTC Sense dock
The easiest-to-access app shortcuts of all are those in the shortcut dock, which stays on-screen in both the apps menu and your home screens. You can choose what’s in this dock on the apps screen. Just hold a finger down on an icon, whether in the dock or not, until the screen zooms out a little then drag it on, or off, the bar. 

You can add app folders to the Sense dock
Folder functionality lets you keep boxes of apps on the apps menu – just like those of the iPhone iOS software. These folders can sit in the main shortcut dock just like a single app shortcut. They’re added in the same way too.

How to take a screen grab
Unlike most older Android phones, the HTC makes it dead simple to take a picture of whatever’s on-screen. It’s the perfect way to capture an amazing score in a game that doesn’t have some of form of brag function as standard. To take a grab, press the power button and the Home soft key at the same time. The pic will be then saved to the phone’s gallery.

Installing a custom UI
Do you outright hate the Sense UI? Do not fret as you can swap it out for another one. Whenever you press the Home button, it’s actually directing you to a home screen “app”. Install another and you’ll get the option to be directed to one other than HTC’s. Top candidates include Nova Launcher and ADW.Launcher. To find a bunch, just search for “Launcher” in the Play Store.

Adding widgets to a home screen
Here’s a nice basic one that most of you probably know already. To add a widget to a home screen, just find a bit of empty space on a screen and hold a finger down on it. This will bring up the widget control panel. Two-thirds of the screen will be made up of a box of widgets, with the other bit left for teeny versions of your homes screens, onto which you can drag widgets.

How to customise the lock screen
The HTC One lets you control what your phone’s lock screen looks like, but you don’t do this from the lock screen itself. Instead, dive into the Personlize menu within Settings. Here you’ll find options for home screens that incorporate music players, your calendar or photo album. You can even turn off the lock screen entirely.

Modifying LED notifications
A neat little hardware feature that barely gets any attention is the HTC One’s LED notification light, which sits behind the top speaker grille. You can control which types of notifications earn the notification LED flash within Settings > Display, Gestures & Buttons > Notification Flash. You can’t control its colour though, sadly.

BlinkFeed

How to get rid of Blinkfeed
You can’t get rid of Blinkfeed entirely on the HTC One. HTC is clearly that bit too proud of it. However, you can hide it from view. To do this, you need to create another home screen to use as the face of your phone. HTC veterans may want to include the classic HTC clock, which you’ll find in the HTC One’s treasure trove of widgets.

Next we need to set this screen as the default home screen. Hold a finger down on an empty bit of home screen, waiting until the widget drop screen pops up. At the top of this screen you’ll see teeny versions of your home screens. Hold a finger down on one of these and a Set as Home Screen option will appear. Tap it and Blinkfeed will be gone. Well, more or less.

Adding sources to Blinkfeed
Like Blinkfeed? It works best if you customise it with the sorts of info you want – whether that’s tweets, Facebook updates or articles from the internet. To do this, head to your Blinkfeed home page and drag down on its panels to reveal the settings bar. The triple dot button here takes you to an area where you can add Blinkfeed sources, while the drop-down bar to the left lets you pick between types of active source.

Camera

The filter button
 The HTC One’s camera filters selection is so up-front that it’s actually pretty easy to miss. The filters button is the icon that looks a bit like a colour venn diagram, sitting below the camera/video select buttons within the camera app. HTC offers a bunch of filters, including creative ones like a distorting warp and customisable vignetting.

How to turn on Zoe Mode
Zoe mode is one of the key features of the HTC One. It takes a short video clip that can also be sliced up into twenty still images. One of the neatest parts of Zoe mode is that once it’s shared through HTC Share, a short URL is produced that makes sharing the video with friends dead simple.  It also allows re-touching, including removing objects from the video. We’ve had trouble getting this to work properly, but you can find the feature by inspecting a Zoe vid in the gallery, tapping Edit and then Retouch. You’ll find Object Removal in this menu.

Best settings for general use
To get photos with the most detail, we recommend at least trying out using HDR as your go-to photo mode. HDR stands of High Dynamic range, and it combines three exposures to eke out as much detail as possible. As the HTC One is so powerful, the processing only takes a second or two – it doesn’t slow you down too much. Unfortunately, we can’t see any way to get the HTC One to save both standard and HDR shots at the same time, as you can with an iPhone.

How to auto upload photos to Flickr
If you’re a big photo sharer, you can set the HTC One to automatically upload your songs to the ‘net. You’ll find this option right down the bottom of the camera app’s Settings menu. As standard, the only option is to upload to Flickr for HTC Sense.

Wireless camera shutter
A neat hidden feature of the HTC One is that you can use a Bluetooth headset to take photos you’re when within the camera app. Hold down the central button on your remote and the camera will take a shot.

Audio

When to use Beats Audio
 Beats Audio is a signal processing mode that’s used in a fistful of HTC phones. It’s designed to mimic the style of the Beats by Dre headphones – that means a lot of bass for that booming club sound. It works wonders on the internal speakers of the phone, cutting out the harsh mids, but with a decent pair of headphones you’re best off without it unless you have a craving for more bass.

How to turn off Beats Audio
Don’t like the sound of Beats Audio? You can switch it off – as standard I’ll turn on automatically when you play music. You’ll find the switch for the feature on the top layer of the settings menu, under the Phone subhead.

Quick music navigation
If you have a big music collection on your HTC One, flicking through all your tracks or albums can be laborious. To make it quicker, use a two-fingered scroll. This cycles through letters of the alphabet rather than entry-by-entry.

Video

How to play any video on the HTC One
The integrated video player of the HTC One offers much less than flawless video codec support. If you have a library of videos downloaded from the net, many of them probably won’t play. To fill the gaps you’ll need a third-party app, preferably one with its own hardware acceleration. Our go-to pick is mxplayer.

How to transmit video to a TV
The HTC One does not have a dedicated video output socket. However, there are a few different ways to get your videos over from the phone to your TV. The neatest of the lot requires a special accessory, the HTC Media Link, a box that connects to your TV. This lets you swipe any content over to your TV using a three-fingered swipe. Alternatively, the microUSB socket on the phone is MHL compliant, letting you use it as an HDMI port with the right connector. You'll find these online.

Hardware

How to reset the accelerometer/gyroscope
This is one most of you shouldn’t really need, but is useful if you find accelerometer games are way out of whack. You can re-calibrate the accelerometer and gyroscope manually – these sensors can tell what angle the HTC One is being held at. The calibration works much like a spirit level, and is the G-Sensor Calibration option within Settings > Display, Gestures & Buttons. You’ll find it right down at the bottom of the menu.

One way to diagnose touchscreen issues
If your HTC One’s touchscreen has gone a bit dodgy, you can try to diagnose the problem using the phone’s Developer Mode. This is a set of options you’ll find in the Developer Options menu within Settings. The one we’re after is called Show Touches, which shows little circles where the screen is sensing points of touch.

Hard-soft reset
Software misbehaviour can often be cured with a simple reset. You can turn the phone on and off again, but getting the good old “pull the battery out” effect requires an HTC special move. You could rip off the back, but it’s not something we’d recommend. Instead, hold the power button down for ten seconds to simulate the cutting of power. A prompt should pop-up warning you that the hard-soft reset is about to happen.

Battery

Sleep mode is key
The HTC One has a battery saving mode that’s crucial if you want to have a phone that’s able to last more than 24 hours. Sleep Mode, an option found in the Power sub-menu of Settings is one of the most important to switch on, as it turns of 3G when it’s not needed. 3G is a real power-sucker.

You can also select how intensive the Power Saving mode is in other respects. Turn Power Saver mode off in the Power menu, then tap the Power Saver menu option (not the slider) to select which parts of the phone are throttled by the mode – CPU, display, vibration feedback and the data connection.

Apps and Games

Enable non-Google Play apps downloads
Unlike iPhones, Android phones can install apps other than those downloaded from the official app store. However, this feature is disabled as standard – mainly because some (well, many) apps from the net will be infected with malware. To turn off this security measure, tick the Unknown Sources box in the Settings > Security menu. Android apps online are shipped as APK installer files. To install them, transfer them to the internal memory then find and run them using a file browser app like ES File Explorer.

Enabling offline speech recognition
Virtually all top-end phones offer pretty serious voice recognition these days, but you generally need to have internet connectivity for it to work. The HTC One lets you download a pack of offline voice recognition data to let you use it when you have no Wi-Fi or mobile internet reception. You’ll find the option to download the pack in Settings > Language & Keyboard > Voice Search.

How to stop the phone auto-creating app icons
The HTC One automatically creates home screen app icons and widgets for downloaded apps. It’s a way to stop you having to curate your own home screens, but some of you may not like the clutter. To stop the HTC One from doing this, go to Google Play, head to its Settings menu (accessed through the 3-pip button at the top-right of the screen. Here you’ll find a tick box for auto-add.

If screen brightness goes down while you’re playing a game…
One curious thing we’ve noticed while playing games on the HTC One is that the screen brightness can unexpectedly dip. The reason why is simple – the placement of the ambient light sensor means it’s easy to cover the thing up, or shade it, with a hand when the phone’s held in landscape orientation. To avoid this, try turning your phone around. Simples.

Security

Backing up to the cloud
The HTC One comes with an allocation of HTC online cloud storage. You can set the HTC One to automatically back up your data to this storage, or you can use Google’s cloud servers. You’ll find this option in Settings > Backup & Reset. You can also make the phone auto-upload pictures taken to Flickr. You’ll find the auto upload function in the Settings section within the camera app.

Lock screen security
A lock screen security layer is hardly the height of security sophistication, but it’s the best way to stop being stitched up on Facebook if you’re in the habit of leaving your phone lying about when with friends. We’ve all been there. Within the Screen lock menu of Settings > Security you’ll find options to use a Pattern unlock, a password, a PIN number or Face Unlock. Our top tip is not to use Face Unlock as it’s pretty useless as security measures go. And it makes you look silly.

Browsing

Get straight to Google
The quickest way to get to a web search on the HTC One is using a clever Google shortcut. Hold a finger down on the phone’s Home soft key and you’ll be taken directly to the Google search page.

Using Google Now
Google Now is a recently-introduced Google service that’s designed to pre-empt what you’re going to look for. It does this using info cards that appear on the Google Search page. If you’ve been searching for places in a certain location, Google Now might offer up directions as to how to get to that place.

How to go full screen in the stock browser
If you want to make the full use of the HTC One’s 4.7-inch screen when browsing the web, you need to enable full screen browsing. This hides the address bar, giving you that extra bit space for web sites. To find the setting, pull down the address bar and tap the three-pip button to bring up the menu. Scroll down to Settings, tap General and select the Fullscreen tick box.

Next: Read the full HTC One review or find out what's new in the smartphone world.

50 iPhone 5 tips and tricks

Introduction

The iPhone 5 is one of the big daddies of the smartphone market. And part of the reason it’s so popular is that it is so easy to use. However, there are more features than most people know of tucked away in its little aluminium body. We’ve scraped away at the iPhone’s surface to find the top tricks and tips for this top phone.

Hardware

50. A case is a good idea this time around
Apple completely changed the hardware design of the iPhone series with the iPhone 5. Where previous generations were made of glass and steel, most of the iPhone 5 is aluminium.

The positive effect of this is that the phone is very light and less prone to smashing. However, it is also much less scratch-resistant. Aluminium is a much less hard metal than steel, so the iPhone 5 will take much more of a beating in a pocket full of change than an iPhone 4S. Therefore, using some form of case is a very good idea.

49. The black/slate edition shows off damage more
The iPhone 5 comes in two shades, a white/silver one and the black/slate one. Although it looks nifty when in pristine condition, the slate rear of the black edition is particularly prone to damage. It’s not that it’s any weaker, but scratches on the stained metal rear expose the shiny aluminium underneath. You have to be doubly careful with a black edition.

Social

48. You can tweet a photo directly from the camera roll
In the last few updates to the iOS system, Apple has upped social networking integration. You can now send a photo directly to Facebook or Twitter from the camera app’s gallery. Simply press the arrow button when viewing a photo and the Share menu will pop up, which includes Facebook and Twitter shortcuts. You’ll naturally need to have those accounts linked to your phone, though, by installing the respective social client apps.

47. Social apps can expand your address book
The Facebook and Twitter iPhone apps can be used to add information to your iPhone 5’s contacts book. They’ll add new contacts, use photos from people’s profiles and add extra information you may have missed if you added them manually. To allow the phone to do this, you’ll have to enable the feature from within the iPhone’s Settings menu, rather than the apps themselves.

Both Facebook and Twitter have entries a way down the Settings menu. Facebook has a pair of flick-switches that let it send info to your Calendar and Contacts book, and Twitter has an Update contacts button.

46. Post a Tweet or status update from the Notification bar
Twitter and Facebook are pretty deeply integrated into the iPhone 5’s interface. There’s a tweet box in the drop-down notifications bar, accessed by swiping down from the top of the screen, alongside a “Tap to Post” Facebook bar. These are probably the quickest ways to post on your social networks while out and about. 

45. Best social clients
Most people use the standard, official Facebook and Twitter clients, but there are plenty of third-party apps – for Twitter in particular. Favourites include HootSuite, Tweetbot, Twitbird and Twitterific. Some are free, but many come with a small charge of a couple of quid.

Emails, SMS and calls

44. How to add an email attachment
A basic feature that isn’t made nearly clear enough by iOS is how to add attachments to emails in the stock email app. To do so, hold a finger down on the body of the email for a second, let go and a menu will pop up. Scroll right in this “select/paste” menu and you’ll be given the option to add a photo or video to your email. It’s not quite as flexible as the attachments you can add on a proper computer, but it’s something.

43. How to add a new email account
One thing that has foxed many a new iPhone owner is how to add a second email account – because you don’t do so from within the email app itself. Instead, you have to head to the iPhone 5’s main Settings menu. Flick down to the Mail, Contacts, Calendars entry, within which you’ll find an “Add Account” button. It offers easy connections for popular email providers like Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail, among others.

42. You can set custom vibrate alerts 
 If you want to be able to differentiate between the different types of iPhone notification without using noisy ringtones, you can do so with custom vibrate alerts. There are seven preset vibration alerts in total, from the simple “Alert” to the more musical “Symphony”. Alternatively, you can program your own by tapping a Morse code-like pattern using the touchscreen.

You’ll find these options within the Sounds menu in Settings. Each type of alert can have a vibration and sound attached to it. You’ll find the vibration option at the top of each alert type’s submenu. This is a cool feature that hardly anyone seems to use.

Interface

41. Quick top-of-page gesture
Often, you’ll need to get to the top of a page quickly. For example, to call someone from within the SMS app or to get to the address bar in the browser. To fire straight to the top in either part of iOS, just tap right up at the top of the screen, by the clock. This is a real time-saver.

40. Multitasking
Here’s one most of you probably know about already. Double-tap the Home button to bring up the multi-tasking drawer. This houses all your recently-used apps and is the quickest way to switch between apps or games. It’s also the best way to close down apps that are mis-behaving. Exit the app, call up the multitasking menu then hold a finger down on that app’s entry until a red icon appears in its corner. Tap the red icon to close the app down.

39. Do Not Disturb mode
A godsend to those who feel their smartphone is starting to take over their life, Do Not Disturb mode is there to give you some blessed peace. It stops notifications from getting through at certain times of the day, which is especially useful if you like the odd afternoon nap. You can set Do Not Disturb to let certain contacts through at all times, though. You’ll find the mode in the main Settings menu – tap on the Notifications entry below the Do Not Disturb switch to set the parameters of the mode.

38. Taking a screenshot
Simple but brilliant, you can take a snap of what’s on your iPhone 5’s screen at any time. Just press the power button up top and the Home button at the same time. The image will then be saved to the phone’s camera gallery.

37. You don’t need to sync to update anymore
With iOS 6, Apple removed the need to hook up to a computer to download software updated. You can now do it directly from the phone. To do so, go to the General sub-menu within Settings. Here you’ll find the Software update button, which will tell you whether there’s an update ready to download.

36. How to hard reset your iPhone
Contrary to what some people say, iPhone 5s do crash from time to time. And sometimes they crash hard. The easiest fix for a frozen phone is a hard reset, which forces the whole system to start afresh. To do this, press down the top power button and Home button at the same time for several seconds. You will see the screen go black, then the Apple logo should appear showing that the system is starting up again.

35. How to factory reset your iPhone
The other kind of reset is much more dangerous. A factory reset erases all your apps, removes any accounts linked to the phone, making it more-or-less as it was fresh out of the box. This is the reset to do if you choose to sell your iPhone 5, or if it keeps on playing up and other solutions do nothing to help. To perform a factory reset, go to the General sub-menu in Settings and scroll all the way down to the Reset option. Within this menu you’ll find several types of reset. The factory one is “Erase All Content and Settings.”

34. Changing your background and lock screen image
One of the few ways to stamp your personality onto your iPhone 5 is to change the background and lock screen image. You can change these within Brightness & Wallpaper within Settings. Alternatively, select the image you want from within the Photo app, hit the arrow Share button and select Use as Wallpaper. You’re then given the option to use as either lock or home background, or both.

Maps and Navigation

33. Don’t use Apple Maps, use Google Maps
Apple Maps is not good. Apple ditched Google Maps as its mapping partner with the introduction of iOS 6 in September 2012, and it is seen as one of Apple’s biggest blunders in years. Full of hokey and out-of-date information, it’s much worse than the Google Maps solution it replaced. It’s so bad that Apple CEO Tim Cook made a public apology for the software. However, now you can download an app version of Google Maps, which is much, much better. So use that.

32.  If you’re going abroad, download an offline map before you leave home
GPS is free to use abroad, but the data you’ll need to download mapping information while you’re out and about generally is not. To avoid having to pay extortionate roaming charges, download an offline map app of the city you’re heading to. You’ll find such apps for just about any major European city on the App Store. They won’t be as good as Google Maps, but will do the job.

31. How to enter Street View in the Google Maps app
The Google Maps app makes is surprisingly tricky to use the Street View function, which gives you a first-person view of what a place looks like. To use it, search for a location within Google Maps or hold a finger down on a road to bring up its address. This will make a pop-up location menu appear at the bottom of the screen. Drag this up to see more information about the location. If there’s Street View info for the location, there’ll also be a Street View button here.

Advanced/Supergeek

30. Entering Engineering mode
The iPhone 5 massages its signal bar, to make its reception look better than it really is. Want to know what your reception actually is? You need to use the Engineering mode.  Type *3001#12345#* into the dialler and hit the call button and you’ll enter Field Test mode. This changes the bar-based signal indicator to a “proper” numerical figure. There are also menus to tell you all sorts of other signal information, but most – including us – will be hopelessly lost here.

29. How to Jailbreak your iPhone
In early February 2013, a comprehensive jailbreak for iPhones was released. It’s a program that’ll hack virtually any iOS device running iOS version 6.0-6.1.2. We’ve not tried it yet, but we’re informed it’s dead easy to do and relatively issue-free. To download the jailbreak, check out the evasi0n website. Evasi0n is the team of hackers that made the software.

28. Best Jailbreaking applications
One of the main reasons to jailbreak your phone is to install the Cydia app store, which gives you access to loads of apps that would never make it onto the App Store proper. These include apps that can make big changes to the way your phone works – the jailbreak gives apps much greater access to the iOS system’s roots. You’re given much greater control over how your phone looks and feels, and can install things like game emulators – which wouldn’t be allowed (in their pure form) on the App Store.

27. How to fix the “sticky Home button” problem
 One of the most common problems with ageing iPhones is that their Home buttons start to play up. It’s unlikely that many iPhone 5s have started to suffer from this issue, but give it time and the Home button arthritis will probably kick in. If youe Home button starts becoming unresponsive, there are a few solutions. The most drastic is surgery. You can buy iPhone Home button replacement kits online (iPhone 5 ones don’t seem to be available yet), or you can try the software fix.

Start up any pre-installed app (as in an app that’s there fresh out of the box). Then press the power button until the power-off prompt appears. Next, press and hold the Home button to leave the app. This will recalibrate the Home button. Of course, it’ll only solve the issue if it’s a problem of software rather than hardware.

Apps and Games

26. Download AppShopper for bargains
One of the best ways to track price drops and popular new apps is AppShopper. It’s an App Store tracker app that monitors activity and displays it in a much more dynamic way than the App Store itself. You can look for apps that have recently dropped in price, look at the brand-new apps that are attracting attention and setup a list of favourites, tracking when they go down in price.

25. Auto downloads
 iOS 6 lets you leave it to automatically download apps you already own to a new phone. It's handy if you upgrade your iPhone every year, you lucky thing. You'll find this option in the iTunes & App Stores menu of Settings. Here you'll see auto download sliders for apps, books and music.

24. How to delete apps
An easy essential, this one. To delete apps on your iPhone 5, simply hold a finger down on an app icon until it starts to jiggle. This will also make a little red icon appear at the corner of your apps. Tap the red icon to delete the app.

23. Essential apps
There are hundreds of thousands of iPhone apps available on the App Store, and if you’re an iPhone veteran you’ll already have a bunch of favourites that you rely on daily. Some of our top recommendations include note-taking app Evernote, pretty newsreader Flipboard, Facebook, Twitter, BBC iPlayer, eBay and YouTube. Let us know your favourites in the comments.

22. Best free games
 There are thousands and thousands of free games on the App Store, and many of them are downright awful. Freebies worth checking out include Hill Climb Racing, Real Racing 3, the original Angry Birds, Tap Defense, JellyCar, Jetpack Joyride, TapTap Revenge Tour, Triple Town, Dropship and Drop7.

Browsing

21. Private browsing
 Like your desktop browser, the iPhone 5’s Safari browser can be set to Private Browsing mode, which won’t save any of the places you’ve visited for other people to check up on. You’ll find the Private Browsing switch in the Safari sub-menu within Settings.

20. Select Your Search Engine
From this Safari sub-menu you can also select the search engine the iPhone 5 will use for its Internet searches. Your choices are Google, Yahoo! and Bing. We honestly can’t think of a reason why anyone would pick anything but Google, though, short of an irrational hatred for the big G.

19. How to save web images to the gallery
 Another neat half-hidden feature of the iPhone 5 Safari browser is that you can save images easily from within the browser. Just hold a finger down on an image until a menu pops-up. One of the options in the menu is “save image”, which will save the pic to your phone’s gallery.

18. Install a data monitor if you have a mobile data limit
Unlike the latest version of Android, iOS does not currently offer a particularly good way to track how much mobile data you have used. There’s just a global data counter within the Usage part of the iPhone 5’s Settings menu. There are apps that will do this for you, though, and let you know when you’re approaching your data limit. One to try is the freebie Data Monitor.

17. Saving pages for offline reading
 If you want to save some of your data allowance, you can save pages for offline reading in the iPhone 5’s Reading List. To do this, just press down on a page until a menu pops-up. In this menu, one of the options will be “Add to Reading List”. You can access you Reading List by tapping the book icon in the Safari nav bar. Reading List will be the top option.

Battery Life

16. Turn off mobile data
 The best way to conserve battery is to turn off mobile data. 3G is one of the most serious battery leeches in the mobile world. Of course, turning off data will also mean you can’t browse the web unless you’re in a Wi-Fi zone, so it has its disadvantages.

15. Turn off… Everything else
If your battery is low, turning of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi will help eke out those extra few minutes before conking out. The other big contributor to battery life zapping is the screen’s backlight. You’ll find the wireless connectivity switched in the Settings menu, and the screen brightness slider in the Brightness & Wallpaper section within Settings.

Security and Money-saving

14. Increase security with a passcode
 The most basic security measure to make with an iPhone 5 is to add a passcode to the lock screen, making any users input a four-number code once the phone has become locked. To setup a password, you need to go to the General section of the Settings menu and select the Passcode Lock menu item. Here you can choose your four-number code and select how often you want the passcode to be required – from every time the phone goes into standby to once every four hours.

13. Turn off Roaming
Although EU leglislation has limited how much carriers can charge for data while you’re abroad in Europe, you’ll still pay a pretty penny to check your emails. And don’t even think about trying to stream video. Head out of the EU and you’ll pay crazy rates to boot. You’re best off turning off roaming altogether, and relying on Wi-Fi while you’re abroad. You’ll find the Data Roaming switch down the bottom of the Settings > General > Mobile Data menu.

12. Find My iPhone 
 Apple’s ultimate weapon against iPhone theft is Find My Phone. This is something you’re asked if you want to enable when you first start-up your iPhone. Should your iPhone be stolen, it allows you to track the device on a web browser using the iPhone 5’s GPS transmitter. It’s dead clever. Unlike many iPhone core features, it has a separate Fine My iPhone app, available from the App Store. You’ll need a MobileMe account to get it working, though.

Video and Music

11. How to add files to apps
Many apps have their own stores of “associated” files. For example, a third-party video player might have a stash of videos, or an ebook reader a stash of ebooks. These are added to the apps as documents, sync’d over iTunes. You don’t add them to your iTunes library, though, but within the iTunes sync menu when your iPhone is plugged into your computer.

10. Third-party apps will stop you needing to transcode videos
Some of the most useful third-party apps that use these documents are video players. The iPhone 5 can’t play many different video formats off-the-bat, but with a media player solution, the phone can play all sorts including MKVs, without needing to convert them to an iPhone-friendly type.

9. How to transcode videos to iPhone format
 If you want to watch downloaded videos using the native video player, you’ll most likely have to start transcoding files. Bits of software that can do this include Handbrake and Visual Hub. However, transcoding is a laborious process, so we recommend downloading a decent third-party video player if you have a big library of downloaded videos.

Siri

8. Location-based reminders
 Siri is the iPhone 5’s voice assistant. She takes an audio file of what you say over to Apple’s servers, which then decipher it and do their best to help with whatever you’re after. You can ask Siri to make Location-based reminders, which will pipe up when the iPhone 5’s GPS tracker has calculated that you’re in a certain place. To turn on Siri, check out the Siri sub-menu in Settings > General. To access Siri once enabled, you just need to hold down on the Home button.

7. You can Tweet through Siri
As well as grabbing you information from the web, Siri can write tweets for you. However, we strongly recommend checking what she’s made of your words before posting, especially if you have an accent that she might stumble over.

Storage

6. There are accessories to expand your storage
iPhones do not let you plug in memory cards to increase the phone’s storage. It’s not something Apple has ever allowed. However, there are Wi-Fi-based solutions that can give you more room to play with fairly effectively. The last we looked at was the Kingston WiDrive. Devices like these are Wi-Fi transmitters that connect directly to the iPhone, through the medium of an app. They either have their own internal storage or offer a card slot. Files on these data drives can then be imported using the iPhone.

5. What is iCloud and how to use it
iCloud is Apple’s own cloud storage service. It doesn’t get all that much attention, but it’s a massively important part of the Apple infrastructure. By default, it’s used to back-up most of the data on your phone, including photos, contacts, emails and calendar entries. Apple gives you 5GB of storage for free, and should you need more you can pay a little extra for more. You’ll find iCloud info and storage options in Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup.

4. iTunes Match
A more immediately exciting use of Apple’s cloud services is seen in iTunes Match. This is a service that you pay £21.99 a year for, and it lets you stream your entire music collection from the cloud to your phone, freeing-up any internal storage you might otherwise have had to expend on music. You have to “sync” your music library with iTunes Match, and can have up to 25,000 songs.

Camera and Photography

3. Turn on HDR
For casual photographers, there’s little reason not to use the HDR mode of the iPhone 5’s camera app. HDR stands for high dynamic range, and is a mode that melds two different exposures in a single photo to create the most detail-filled shot possible. The iPhone 5 automatically captures a non-HDR shot with each HDR one too. What’s the downside? HDR mode is significantly slower than standard shooting, to make time for the processing of the HDR shot.

2. Use the volume key as a shutter button
Apple lets you use the iPhone 5’s “volume up” button to take photos, as well as the touchscreen. This button is in a near-perfect position to take on the role as a shutter button. This even works when using a three-button remote control, including Bluetooth headsets. So you can effectively use a wireless headset as a remote shutter control. How cool is that?

1. Get a quick look at the photo you just took
 For the first good old while using an iPhone 5, we always used to tap the Gallery shortcut at the bottom of the camera app’s screen to look at photos. However, it turns out this is completely unnecessary. Just swipe left-to-right from the camera preview screen and you’ll instantly be taken to the camera roll, which shows you your photos, starting with the most recently-taken one.

And a few extra tips

Top camera tips
The key to getting good basic shots is about focus and composition. Try and line-up the horizon with the edges of the screen to avoid wonky photos, or alternatively switch on the grid in the camera Options menu if you find this all a bit tricky. Getting photos in-focus is all about staying still, funnily enough. The iPhone 5 has a pretty quick focusing system thanks in part to its decent F/2.4 lens, but try your best to keep your hands still until the exposure has definitely finished to get the best shots.

Best camera apps
If the iPhone 5’s own camera app is just a bit too minimalist for your liking, there are oodles of third-party apps to try. One of the most popular is Camera , which adds a barrel-load of modes and feature, and lets you pick separate focusing and exposure points. Pro Camera gives you the control options that the basic camera app lacks, including ISO, software anti-shake and oodles of filters.

Sony Xperia Z Tips and Tricks

Sony kicked 2013 off with a bang when it announced the Sony Xperia Z. This new flagship Android handset is now in stores offering up its wealth of features to all, so let us show you how to get the most from this new top dog.

Tip number 1: Controlling home screens

The first thing you’ll want to do when you get your Xperia Z is customise it to your style. By default there are five homescreens, but pinching together will let you add up to seven, reduce them down to one and change which screen serves as your default, simply by tapping the house icon in the corner.

Tip number 2: Using themes

Another way to customise your Xperia Z is with themes, again by pinching together on any homescreen and choosing ‘themes’ from the menu at the bottom you can select from a range of themes, each with its own colour scheme and wallpaper.

Tip number 3: Organising apps

All of your phone’s applications can be found in the app drawer, but keeping track of where each one is can get tricky, to try and make it easier, Sony has added a drop down menu which lets you organise your apps to your own order, alphabetically, by frequency or by when they were installed.

Tip number 4: Quick Settings

One of the most useful widgets Sony has included on the Xperia Z is Quick Settings. Adding it to a homescreen grants you fast access to toggling WiFi, Bluetooth, brightness, mobile data, sound settings, GPS, flight mode, roaming, your mobile hotspot and NFC.

Tip number 5: HDR video

The Xperia Z is the first smartphone on the market capable of HDR video, but it’s not immediately clear how to activate this mode. In your camera, rather than just pressing the record button, choose video mode and the option for HDR will then appear on the left hand side, from here you can toggle whether it’s on or off whilst you’re shooting a Full HD movie.

Tip number 6: Stamina Mode

With a quad-core processor and a 5-inch 1080p display, you might find yourself getting sucked into Full HD movies or 3D games and as a result draining the battery a lot faster. Stamina mode helps squeeze every last ounce of power out of your phone before needing a trip to the charger and Sony says it can extend the life of your phone by up to four times. To turn it on, head to ‘Power management’ in the Settings app and toggle STAMINA mode on.

Tip number 7: Getting your phone wet

Typically smartphones and water don’t mix but if your drop your Xperia Z in a puddle or spill a drink over it, don’t worry. Sony has made sure all the important ports and connectors are covered and as such it can survive a quick dip without worry.

Tip number 8: Uninstalling apps

Uninstalling apps on stock Android requires that you wade through menus to find, stop and remove the app you want, with the Xperia Z, choose the uninstall option from the app drawer menu and simply tap the red ‘X’ next to the app you want gone, simple.

Tip number 9: Using NFC

More and more smartphone manufacturers are introducing NFC into their phones. With the Xperia Z, make sure you tick the box in your ‘Wireless & networks’ settings and you’ll be able to transfer media or connect to compatible accessories, with a simple tap.

Tip number 10: Small apps

Widgets permanently frequent your homescreens until you manually remove them, but the Sony Xperia Z also has temporary widgets called Small apps. Tapping the app switching button not only shows any full applications currently running, but along the bottom offers up quick access to a calculator, timer, virtual post-it note, and voice recorder with the option to install more if you want from the Play Store.

25 more tips for  Sony Xperia Z:

1. Importing contacts and email settings

You'll need a Google account to purchase apps from the Google Play app store. Log in and contacts associated with that account will be recognised on the Xperia Z.

2. Install Sony's file transfer manager

PC Companion is Sony's USB file transfer manager, letting you easily move photos, video and more from your computer to your phone, including stuff from your old phone. It can be used to import contacts from your computer too. Tap the Contacts app on the home screen and you'll be offered PC Companion as an import option.

3. Share contacts using NFC

NFC stands for near-field communication, and is another close-range radio tech, a bit like Bluetooth. You can share contacts -- and music and photos -- with friends just by touching your NFC-enabled phones against each other (the Nokia's Lumia phones, such as the 620, can do this too). Enable NFC content sharing in the Settings > Wireless and Networks > More menu. When the phone vibrates, tap the onscreen message that says 'touch to beam'.

4. Manage battery life

The Xperia Z has a gorgeous screen, but it's a battery-zapper. In Settings > Display set the screen to go into Sleep mode after 30 seconds or less. You could also turn off the Bravia screen optimiser and disable the auto-lighting adjustment feature in the Settings > Screen brightness menu. In the Developer options you can also adjust the screen rendering to require less processor power. 

5. Manage mobile data settings

For a more stringent battery-saving regime, activate the Stamina mode in the Settings > Power Management options. This will switch off mobile data when the screen is in Sleep mode. As an alternative, low battery mode lets you select whether Bluetooth, mobile connections, Wi-Fi and auto-sync should become inactive when the battery levels drop below 20 per cent. [pic: Xperia Z 5.png]

6. Manage your apps

Use the dropdown preference list above the apps screen to switch between recently installed, alphabetical list, most-used or your own order. In Settings > Storage there's a list view of all installed apps, plus all those currently running. Click on an app and choose Stop to switch it off.

7. Call up a legion of little helpers

What Sony calls 'small apps' are a bit like the simple onscreen widgets in Windows 7 or the Dashboard on a Mac. Calculator, timer and voice commands can be accessed by clicking the overlapping photos icon at the bottom right of the screen. Use the + option to install more, such as media remote control tools. [pic: Xperia Z 7.png]

8. Boost your storage

The Xperia Z has 16GB of internal storage, but you can supplement this with a microSD card. The phone takes up to 32GB microSD cards -- available online for as little as £15 -- taking the total storage to 48GB. Offload photos, files and videos by going to Settings > Storage. Select Transfer to SD card.

9. Archive photos and free up more storage

Use the Dropbox Android app to automatically archive your smart phone's snaps. Dropbox's Camera Uploads folder stores photos taken on your Android smart phone when you're connected to Wi-Fi. You can then then delete them from your phone.

10. Backup options

Google servers offer a simple backup option. Go to Settings > Backup & Restore and tick the Back up my data option. Your ebooks, apps and digital magazines will be backed up, along with your photos and music.

11. Edit documents

Mobisoft Office6 is preinstalled on the Xperia Z and is useful for working on documents when you're out and about. It's a cinch to log in to your Google Drive, SkyDrive, SugarSync or Dropbox account, then pull down Word or Excel documents to work on.

12. Setting up visual voicemail

Verizon is offering visual voicemail to US Xperia users, while O2 and EE in the UK now give iPhones 5 users the service. There's no word yet about it coming to the Xperia Z here, but we wouldn't bet against it. In the meantime, try the HulloMail app for advanced voicemail management.

13. Tethering your phone using NFC

The Z's preinstalled Xperia Link software lets you provide tethered Web access to an Xperia tablet or other Xperia smart phone. Launch Xperia Link and the Xperia Z's camera will be activated. This is because it's searching for a keen-to-be-tethered device displaying a QR code. Scan this with your phone to make the connection.

14. Tethering without NFC

Bluetooth and USB can also be used to tether your phone. Click on your Xperia Z's device name in the Bluetooth menu to make it visible, and ensure the other device is also discoverable. Click the option at the bottom of the Xperia screen to search for Bluetooth devices and tap on the device you want to pair with. Check the passcodes match, and connect. You also need to check in the Tethering & Portable Hotspot menu that Bluetooth tethering is selected.

15. Push phone content to your TV

NFC can also be used to mirror video content on your TV. Go to Settings > Xperia > Mirroring and have the phone search for the suitably NFC-enabled device. Unfortunately, so far it only works with the Sony Bravia TV with NFC that the company demoed at CES. For any other device you need to use the Settings > Throw feature. It uses the widely supported DLNA tech and your Wi-Fi connection to push video and music to your TV or speakers.

16. Setting up your phone as a remote control

The Media Remote app is not installed by default, but there's a link to the Play Store app so you can easily retrieve it. It works with DLNA-compliant devices such as Sony Bravia TVs and Blu-ray players. Use it to switch TV channels, skip through scenes in a Blu-ray film and browse programmes stored on your PVR.

17. Send music to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi speakers

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct can both be used for media sharing. Ensure Bluetooth is active in the Z's Settings menu and that it's visible to all nearby devices (not just those with which it's already paired). NFC-enabled accessories are in the pipeline. When these launch, you'll be able to connect your headphones and speakers this way and instantly switch output options.

18. Automate frequently used actions

Smart Connect initiates a preset action when you plug in headphones or a charger at a set time of the day. Options include switching data traffic on or off, connecting to a Bluetooth speaker and playing music through it, and sending a custom text message. Paired devices can be controlled using Smart Connect too. Buddy up with your Sony Tablet S, for example, and the Xperia can mirror content to it.

19. How to use Xperia Smart Tags

Xperia Smart Tags are coloured discs used to trigger preset actions. So when you get home, your 3G data could be switched off as you know Wi-Fi is available. Set up a tag by placing it on the back of your Xperia Z phone, and selecting an action. Put the tag somewhere logical, such as by your front door or next to your bed, so you'll pass that location with your phone and trigger the changes to the phone settings. Tags cost £13 for four. The app is free to download from Google Play.

20. Taking photos in challenging conditions

The autofocus on the Xperia Z is effective, and anti-shake is also active by default. For moving subjects, try using the Sports scene option or Burst mode so you take multiple shots -- that'll give you a better chance of taking at least one good one. Use the light metering tools to help overcome poor light conditions. In the image above left, the sharp autofocus means there's little glare, while in the middle image, the macro mode is able to resolve the pattern of my jumper.

21. Taking underwater photos and video

The Xperia Z is waterproof, which theoretically means it can be used underwater for photography or video. Our putative attempts at an homage to Steve Zissou proved less than convincing. For the best results, use the video option and start recording before you take the plunge -- the touchscreen isn't especially responsive underwater.

22. Creating panoramas

Panoramas are easy-peasy. Open the Xperia Z's camera, tap the yellow i-camera option and select Sweep Panorama. Follow the onscreen lead and pan at the pace the moving lozenge dictates. To change panning orientation tap the panorama arrow icon and select your preferred direction.

23. Take a photo while capturing video

In Video Camera mode, you can change the resolution, set the self-timer for 2 or 10 seconds and select scene modes. Choose the Quick Launch > Launch and capture option to enable photo capture while recording video. The camera shutter button will remain onscreen as you shoot video footage. Tap this when you're ready to take a still shot.

24. Editing your photos and videos

Vignettes, lomo, sepia, black and white, and documentary effects can be added, as can particular colour or scene effects and image crops. Tap the bar at the extreme top right of a photo and choose Edit photo. Videos can simply have custom output options. Turn on location settings to have geo-tagging information automatically added to your shots. Bear in mind there's no option to add it afterwards.

25. Sharing your photos and videos

Photos and videos can be shared too. Click the Share button for standard Messaging, Facebook and Twitter options, but if you tap See all, you can share via Bluetooth, Picasa, Google+, Gmail or Notes too.

Nokia Lumia 920 Tips and Tricks

Microsoft took the Windows Phone operating system to a whole new level with the launch of Windows Phone 8. With this revamped operating system it is now possible to make the most out of it by using different tips and tricks. Here are some tips which can help you get the best out of your Nokia Lumia 920.

1. Narrate to text

Windows Phone 8 already has Microsoft’s native speech recognition function ‘Microsoft TellMe’. To add some cheese to it, you can turn on the Message feature only if you have a Bluetooth headset. This feature will read out incoming text messages to which you can narrate your reply and send it.

2. Manage running apps

The physical back button on the Lumia 920 makes it easy to manage the background apps. Pressing and holding the back button will show you all the apps that are running in the background. Pressing the back button within an app will close it, again tapping the back button will take you to previously running app. Tapping the back button several times will close all the running apps.

3. Stay Notified

Another native function this will notify you about the missed calls, text messages, emails and calendars. Go to Settings > Lock screen and tap app to show quick status. This will allow you to choose from what notifications are to be displayed on the lock screen. Getting battery saver along with it, you can check the battery level without unlocking the phone.

4. Taking ScreenShots

Hard luck for Windows Phone 7.5 users as they never got this feature for their phone. Taking screenshots on Windows Phone has never been so simple. With Windows Phone 8, this feature is added natively into the software. To take screenshots press the unlock button and the Windows button at the same time.

5. Unfreeze Phone

In case if your phone freezes and refuse to boot up, don’t worry nothing serious might have happened. In this case, hold down the volume button, the unlock button, and the camera button until the phone vibrates.

6. Lock Screen customization

Bored with the same wallpaper? Windows Phone 8 offers variety of options to bring the lockscreen to life. Go to Settings > Lock screen and tap background. You can auto change the lock screen wallpapers with photos from your camera roll or Facebook or assign an app to do it.

7. Don’t miss any event

Windows Phone reminds you about your events and meetings right on the lock screen. To enable it go to Settings > Lock screen and tap Notifications. The default selection for this is calendar, so all the calendar entries will pop-up as notification.

8. Connectivity Shortcuts

A third-party app named ‘ConnectivityShortcuts’ will allow you to easily access your Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Cellular Data, Airplane mode and Location settings right from the start screen. This is a hassle free way to toggle on and off the features without going into the settings app.

9. Pin to start-screen

Windows Phone provides an ability to pin almost anything to the start screen. You can pin your favorite apps, songs, playlists, contacts, groups, pictures, videos and lot more things. This is the easy way to access them without searching for them.

10. Reach out to everyone with groups

You can make a separate group of people who you want to see updates on. Pinning this to start screen will make it easier to see updates from those groups on their respective live tile.

How to Factory Reset Nokia Lumia 920

Resetting your Nokia Lumia 920 will restore your default settings. It will also delete all your files on your phone, so it is recommended to have a backup files on your computer. Resetting is also applicable when your device is currently frozen. Unlike the other phone, Nokia Lumia 920 battery is has an internal or non-removable battery. So, do not attempt to remove your battery when it is frozen.


Step 1. Press and hole the volume down key together with the power button for about 10 seconds.

Step 2. Your phone should switch to off. Turn your phone back on by pressing the power button.

Step 3. Then update your phone software.

Step 4. To reset your phone.

• On the start screen, swipe left to access the settings.
• Tap on "Settings".
• Select "About", then "reset your phone".

If your issue still unsolved, it is advisable to contact your network service provider or Nokia.

How to Import Contacts From Old Phone to New Phone (on iPhone, Samsung, HTC and Nokia)

Contacts is very important for everyone of us. We can't connect to our friends without a contact number. If you have a new phone, saving contacts on the phone one by one is so hassle. But now, there's an easy way how to transfer or import your contacts from your old phone to your new phone.

Use your PC to transfer contacts to your new phone. This process is applicable in several phone brands, including iPhone, Samsung, HTC and Nokia.


You just need an Internet Connection on your PC, your old and new phone and their own USB cable.

Then you need to install the PC Companion program. This is a free application and the installation files are already saved on your new phone. This program can also be used in updating your phone software.

Please note that if you are using the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system on your PC, make sure that the AutoPlay setting is enabled.

To check your settings:

Click Start > Control Panel, then type "autoplay" on the search box. Click the AutoPlay, and mark the check box Use AutoPlay for all media and devices.

Installing the PC Companion:

• Turn on your new Phone and connect it to your PC.
• On your new Phone, tap "Install" to install PC Companion on the PC.
• On your computer, if a pop-up window that appears notifies you about available PC Software, select Run Startme.exe.
• Then click Install to start the installation and then follow the instructions to complete the installation.

If you are not prompted with a pop-up window to install the PC Companion, you can also download the PC Companion here.

Transferring your contacts to your new phone:

• Make sure that PC Companion is installed on your PC.
• Open the PC Companion application on your PC.
• Then click Contacts Setup and follow the instructions to transfer your contacts.

How to Take a Screenshot on Nokia Lumia 920

Did you just created a nice piece of art on your new Nokia Lumia 920 phone?Or perhaps you've just personalized your screen and want others to know how you've come up with it.Well, take a screenshot and brag it to your friends. Here's how you can capture a screenshot of your Nokia device.

1. Press on the power key on the right side of the phone and the start key simultaneously for few seconds.

2. To see the screenshot, tap on Photos and select Screenshots.

3. Tap and hold the screenshot you wish to send and then tap on share on the options.

There you have it. You've just captured a screenshot.

How to Scan Codes on Nokia Lumia 920

Nokia's latest installment of smartphone, the Lumia 920, allows you to scan QR codes, barcodes and book and dvd covers. Your device will give you further info after you scan the codes. Here's how you can make use of this feature.

1. First, you need to tap

2.  Then tap on

3. And point the camera at the code. Make sure to keep the camera steady on the code and should be completely visible in the camera viewfinder.

How to Save Battery Life on Nokia Lumia 920

Battery Life depends on how you use your device. For Nokia Lumia 920 device, if you want to save your battery to last longer hours, you may need to adjust your settings. Follow these suggestions:

• Turn on the power-saving option on the device. Then lessen the screen brightness and the screen lock timeout. On the Home Screen, swipe left, then tap on the Gear Icon or Settings > Battery saver.

- Be reminded that when your phone goes into battery saver mode, you may not be able to change the settings of all apps.
- If you want to change the settings of the Battery saver, tap on Advanced.

• Turn down your device volume with the volume keys.

• Close any apps or features when you are done using it so they will not continuously running in the background.

• Turn off the network connection if you are out of range so that your device will stop searching for a network signal.

• You should use the latest version of the software update. Software updates improves some features and fixes some bugs on the previous software version.

• Turn off the camera flash.

• The camera viewfinder can be a power drain, so after you've finished taking photos, press the left arrow key.

How to Track and Delete Files Remotely on Your Lost Windows Phone

Did you lose your phone? Or misplaced it? Worried about your files? So many questions but only one answer. Go to www.windowsphone.com. In this site you can track your Windows phone, delete your files, make your phone ring, and locked your phone to show a message to return it.

Find my Phone will make your life easier to find it or it can also prevent other person from using it without your consent.

How to Track your Phone / Map Location:

• Go to www.windowsphone.com.

• Point your mouse on "Explore My Phone" and click Find My Phone. 

• Sign in with the same Microsoft account you used to sign in on your phone.

• If you are not seeing the latest location of your phone, click Refresh.

• You can also print the hard copy of your phone location, just click Print.

• Click Center on Map if you lost the location of your phone.

How to make your phone ring:

• While you are sign in on www.windowsphone.com, click on Ring.

• Just follow the instructions to make your phone ring.

How to Erase your phone:

• While you are sign in on www.windowsphone.com, click on Erase.

• If you are sure to erase your phone, click on Yes! Erase my phone immediately check box.

• To confirm click Erase.

How to Lock your phone and show a message:

• While you are sign in on www.windowsphone.com, click on Lock.

• Just follow the instructions to lock your phone ring.

• If you don't have a password then you need to create one, you will use it to unlock your phone if you get it back.

Nokia Lumia 620 Tips and Tricks

The entry-level Nokia Lumia 620 might be the new kid on the block, but it’s attracting a lot of attention and with great hardware and a tantalisingly low price tag, it’s no surprise that sales of this small Windows Phone 8 handset could well make a big impact on Nokia’s market share.

If you’ve already joined the Lumia 620 camp, or are considering switching, take a look at some tips and tricks which can help add even more functionality to this pint-sized powerhouse.

Quick launching the camera

The camera on the back of the Lumia 620 is a plucky little 5-megapixel snapper with a great pulse LED flash. You could choose to unlock your phone, swipe to your apps menu and open the camera from there, but simply holding down the shutter button on the lower right side of the phone until it vibrates pulls you straight into the camera app and ready to take a snap whilst cutting out the middle man.

Customise your lock screen

With Windows Phone 8, Microsoft added a lot of additional functionality to the lockscreen beyond changing the wallpaper image. Depending on the app you have installed, the lockscreen can be set to show things like images from your Facebook albums, real-time sports scores or Bing photography. To change your lockscreen, head to the Settings app, chose ‘lock screen’ and pick an option from the ‘Background’ drop-down menu. What’s more you can also choose which apps show detailed or minor information from the same settings screen.

Integrate Facebook Chat

The messaging app on your Lumia 620 isn’t just for text messages and one additional function lets you pull your Facebook Chat in so all your real time message are in one place. To set it up, make sure you’ve entered your Facebook details into the ‘email+accounts’ section of the Settings app. Once you’ve filled that in head back to the messaging app and flip the ‘use Facebook Chat’ option on in the settings menu. Then you’ll be able to set your status online and chat with your facebook buddies without ever opening Facebook.

Resize tiles

One of the great aspects of Windows Phone is its aesthetic, the clean tile design really helps the OS stand out from iOS and Android. To make the most of your homescreen, you can choose between two or three tile sizes (depending on the app). To resize a tile, press and hold until the icons start to ‘float’ and dim behind the icon you were holding your finger on. By tapping the diagonal arrow in the bottom right of the selected app you can toggle between small, medium and large tiles.

Filter your contacts

The connected nature of Windows Phone means that the People app can show more than just your standard phone contacts, it can also pull in email contacts from Hotmail, Outlook and Gmail or social network friends from sites like Facebook and Twitter. Sometimes all those contacts in one place can be a little confusing, so it’s nice to have the ability to filter out the unwanted entries without deleting them or logging out of any accounts. Simply go the the People app, open up settings, choose the ‘filter my contact list’ option and check or uncheck the tick boxes behind your linked accounts to filter out certain groups.

Create a group

Speaking of groups, sometimes you want to have quick access to a specific bunch of people; perhaps your immediate family, close friends or work colleagues. With Groups, you can perform simultaneous actions like emails or texts, view posts on social networks and even recently uploaded or tagged photos with your favourite people in. In the People app, swipe to the ‘together’ screen, hit the addition icon at the bottom of the screen and choose Group. Once you’ve named your new group hit the addition icon on the ‘edit group’ screen and choose your desired contacts.

Browse photos by person

If you’ve stored your Hotmail, Outlook, Live and/or Facebook details on your 620 then you might have noticed that the Pictures app shows your photo albums from the likes of Facebook and SkyDrive without you ever having manually added them. The same can be done with your contacts too. In the Pictures app, choose ‘people’, ‘choose contact’ and pick a name, your Lumia will then pull in any albums it can find based on their contact information and display them next alongside you forever more in the people section of the Pictures app.

Get exclusive Nokia apps

Owning a Nokia Lumia handset entitles a user to some unique apps exclusive to Nokia’s Windows Phone range. The Nokia Collection appears in the Windows Phone Store app and offers up a vast array of apps and games from Nokia Transit to Angry Birds Space. Some titles are free but some cost money, so check before you download.

Tap+send

Despite its entry-level status, the Nokia Lumia 620 features the rather premium feature of NFC. Dubbed ‘Tap+send’ this feature lets you tap your 620 to compatible tags and even other devices as a means of sharing or downloading content and even connecting to wireless accessories like speakers and headphones. To make sure you have Tap+send switched on simply look for it in the Settings app. Alternatively, switching it off should help extend battery life.

Changing cases

One of the great things about the Lumia 620 is that if you’re not happy with the colour you bought it in, the back cover simply snaps off and is replaceable with one of five alternative coloured shells. Colours include: cyan, magenta, green, white, black and blue. To change the cover on your Nokia Lumia 620, hold the lower portion of the body on the sides with on hand and push the against the rear camera to pop the shell off the phone’s back. It’s then simply a matter of snapping on a new case from the base first.

How to Hard Reset Nokia Lumia 620

There are two ways on how to reset your Nokia Lumia 620, it can be through the hard reset or soft reset. When you say hard reset it involves on the hardware part, so you need to remove the battery of you Nokia Lumia and reinsert it. Then turn on your device normally. This should refresh the content of your device but will not remove any data.

Software reset will return your device to its default settings. Like a brand new phone, no information or data saved on your device. This procedure will erase all your data save on your phone.

If your Nokia Lumia is frozen, it is recommended to perform the Hard Reset.

You can soft reset your Nokia Lumia in two ways. By accessing it through settings or doing the hard key combination.

Resetting through the settings:

Go to Settings > About > reset your phone.


Hard Key Combination:

Use this option if your device is locked and you don't know the code.

Note: Make sure that your Nokia Lumia is turned off.

Step 1. Press and hold the power key until it vibrates then release.

Step 2. Press and hold the down key volume. If the exclamation mark will be shown on the screen, you can now release the button.

Step 3. You need to input these key combination:

Volume Up > Volume Down > Power > Volume Down.

Your phone will reset and will boot up automatically. This might take a several minutes.

How to Import Contacts From Old Phone to New Phone (on iPhone, Samsung, HTC and Nokia)

Contacts is very important for everyone of us. We can't connect to our friends without a contact number. If you have a new phone, saving contacts on the phone one by one is so hassle. But now, there's an easy way how to transfer or import your contacts from your old phone to your new phone.

Use your PC to transfer contacts to your new phone. This process is applicable in several phone brands, including iPhone, Samsung, HTC and Nokia.

You just need an Internet Connection on your PC, your old and new phone and their own USB cable.

Then you need to install the PC Companion program. This is a free application and the installation files are already saved on your new phone. This program can also be used in updating your phone software.

Please note that if you are using the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system on your PC, make sure that the AutoPlay setting is enabled.

To check your settings:

Click Start > Control Panel, then type "autoplay" on the search box. Click the AutoPlay, and mark the check box Use AutoPlay for all media and devices.

Installing the PC Companion:

• Turn on your new Phone and connect it to your PC.
• On your new Phone, tap "Install" to install PC Companion on the PC.
• On your computer, if a pop-up window that appears notifies you about available PC Software, select Run Startme.exe.
• Then click Install to start the installation and then follow the instructions to complete the installation.

If you are not prompted with a pop-up window to install the PC Companion, you can also download the PC Companion here.

Transferring your contacts to your new phone:

• Make sure that PC Companion is installed on your PC.
• Open the PC Companion application on your PC.
• Then click Contacts Setup and follow the instructions to transfer your contacts.

 

How to Extend Battery Life of Nokia Lumia 620

Battery Life depends on how you use your device. For Nokia Lumia 620 device, if you want to save your battery to last longer hours, you may need to adjust your settings. Follow these suggestions:

• Turn on the power-saving option on the device. Then lessen the screen brightness and the screen lock timeout. On the Home Screen, swipe left, then tap on the Gear Icon or Settings > Battery saver.

- Be reminded that when your phone goes into battery saver mode, you may not be able to change the settings of all apps.
- If you want to change the settings of the Battery saver, tap on Advanced.

• Turn down your device volume with the volume keys.

• Close any apps or features when you are done using it so they will not continuously running in the background.

• Turn off the network connection if you are out of range so that your device will stop searching for a network signal.

• You should use the latest version of the software update. Software updates improves some features and fixes some bugs on the previous software version.

• Turn off the camera flash.

• The camera viewfinder can be a power drain, so after you've finished taking photos, press the left arrow key.

 

How to Take a Screenshot on Nokia Lumia 620

Did you just created a nice piece of art on your new Nokia Lumia 620 phone? Or perhaps you've just personalized your screen and want others to know how you've come up with it.Well, take a screenshot and brag it to your friends. Here's how you can capture a screenshot of your Nokia device.

1. Press on the Power key on the right side of the phone and the Start key simultaneously for a few seconds.

2. To see the screenshot, tap on Photos, the Albums and select Screenshots.

3. Tap and hold the screenshot you wish to send and then tap on share on the options.

There you have it. You've just captured a screenshot.

How to Scan Codes on Nokia Lumia 620

Nokia's latest installment of smartphone, the Lumia 620, allows you to scan QR codes, barcodes and book and DVD covers. Your device will give you further info after you scan the codes. Here's how you can make use of this feature.

1. First, you need to tap the Search icon

2.  Then tap on

3. And point the camera at the code. Make sure to keep the camera steady on the code and should be completely visible in the camera viewfinder.