Conserve Windows Phone battery life

Conserve Windows Phone battery life by managing background apps

We heard and experienced for ourselves some rather crummy battery life with the Nokia Lumia 920Windows Phone. It's a mixed bag of results with some report fantastic battery performance while others are struggling to make it through half a day.

While Nokia is looking into things, they've reminded us that managing the apps that are running in the background could help with battery life.  And this power saving technique isn't exclusive to the Lumia Windows Phones.  If you want to conserve power on your HTC 8X or Samsung Focus 2, shut down some of the apps you don't need that are still running in the background.

To see what's running in the background, go to your Windows Phone's settings and swipe over to the applications page. There you will find "background tasks" setting at the top of the list.

Once inside the settings, you'll see a list of all the apps running in the background. To shut it down, just tap on the app and tap the "block" button. To confirm that you've shut down the app, press and hold the back button to view any open apps.

Nokia has received reports that if Nokia Drive is left running in the background can contribute to high power consumption. They also note that Angry Birds: Star Wars may also be consuming higher than normal power. There's nothing definitive about either, just suspicions that are being researched.

Along with shutting down apps operating in the background, consider disabling the NFC feature (touch + share feature in your settings menu). We aren't sure if there's a connection but over the past two days with NFC disabled, our battery life has improved dramatically.

It's nice to see Nokia taking an interest in the Lumia 920's performance and if we here anything definitive on the 920's battery concerns, we'll pass it on.

Source: Nokia Support

http://www.wpcentral.com/conserve-windows-phone-battery-life-managing-background-apps

HTC 8S and 8X

Site News - HTC 8S and 8X have landed on the Windows Phone Central Forums

HTC announced the 8X and 8S today at its New York Windows Phone 8 presentation. These two new smartphones are the company's Apollo entries to go up against Samsung's ATIV S and Nokia's family of Lumias. 

The HTC 8X and 8S sport new designs and implemented features that are sure to turn heads and demand attention - particularly the choice of colours and Beats Audio support. Both featuring LCD 2 displays and dual-core S4 chips, the new HTC Windows Phones aren't slouches by any means.

We've opened up two new forums -- one for the 8X and another for the 8S -- for these handsets, which can now be discussed as well as any compatible accessories. 

Be sure to head on over to our community forums to mingle with other Windows Phone fans and voice your opinions. Why join the Windows Phone Central forums? Well, we're the largest Windows Phone community out there with bags of activity and a superb readership / userbase. There's never a quiet day and our aim is to continue this trend.

link:http://www.wpcentral.com/site-news-htc-8s-and-8x-have-landed-windows-phone-central-forums

Windows Phone App: Metro.am

Windows Phone App Review: Metro.am

While there is not an Instagram app for our Windows Phone, there are a few client apps available. One such is Metro.am.

Metro.am does a good job delivering Instagram content to your Windows Phone but does feel a little lacking. Lacking because of the inability to sign up for an Instagram account or post images to your Instagram account. And it's not the developers fault for overlooking these features. You can blame the Instagram API restrictions.

Metro.am does allow you to sign into an existing account, view other Instagram images, view Instagram images submitted by nearby members, and view your most recent submissions.

You are able to pan/zoom individual images, like the images, comment on them and save them to your Pictures Hub. Metro.am will also allow you to view your Instagram profile as well as profiles on other Instagram members.  Metro.am will also let you search for photos by Instagram user or tags.

Still, regardless on how nice Metro.am is it is tough to overlook the fact that you can't create an Instagram account or upload images to Instagram from the app. The account sign up can only be done through a iOS or Android device running the "official" Instagram app. Kinda silly that such restrictions are in place but it is what it is.

I ended up borrowing my wife's iPhone to create an Instagram account. There is another workaround that WPCentral Reader Marc sent in. You can download and install the bluestacks software from bluestacks.com on your desktop. Bluestacks allows you to run Android apps on your PC. Once bluestacks is installed, install the Instagram app from your PC and sign up for an account. Once an account is established, you can delete the bluestacks software as it will no longer be needed.

While this will get around the account creation hurdle, there's not a way to get around uploading images to Instagram. It is kinda silly to have these restrictions (or the lack of an official Instagram app for Windows Phone) in place. Maybe one day this will change.

Metro.am may not be a fully functional Instagram client for your Windows Phone but it does what it does well. Which is basically allowing you to view, comment and save images from Instagram. You can't blame the developers for these limitations and they did a good job with what access they had to Instagram.

There is a free trial version available for Metro.am that is basically an ad-support version that lacks the ability to pan/zoom images. The full version (no ads) ofMetro.am is currently running $1.49 and you can find it all here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Thanks, Marc, for the bluestacks tip!

http://www.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-app-review-metroam

Surprise launch for Windows Phone 8

Are Nokia and Microsoft planning a surprise launch for Windows Phone 8?

How close are we to a Nokia Windows Phone 8 device?

If there is one thing we can say about Nokia and Microsoft lately is that both companies have faith in their products. Whatever the sales or marketshare figures show, the Windows Phone OS and Nokia hardware are a brilliant combo.

So we’re relishing the words by Chris Webber, Nokia’s Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, who Tweeted this morning a nice little message to rival Samsung:

“Samsung take note, next generation Lumia coming soon.”

It is a bit unusual for companies to directly call each other out so publicly, which is why this probably has garnered so much attention. If we wanted to deconstruct that tweet a bit we could highlight the usage of “note” by Weber as a hint to Nokia’s upcoming Windows Phone 8 plans. Samsung has quite successfully launched and sold a few GALAXY Notes in recent months (see our hands on when we compared it to the HTC Titan).

While there is no evidence that Nokia will be offering a massive 5”+ device come early September, rumors around the Nokia ‘Phi’ have suggested a device with a quite large 4.65” screen, akin to the HTC Titan series. (We’ve previously expressed to Nokia the desire for large screen devices back at Mobile World Congress; at the very least they were interested in our appeal).

Then again, that’s probably reading a bit too much into it and instead was just a playful jab at Samsung. But it does raise some other interesting questions for discussion.

The Lumia line of phones for Nokia so far have been a critical success but it remains to be seen if they can catch on with mass adoption. With what appears to be an accelerated launch plan, Microsoft and Nokia may be rushing their next-generation devices to market sooner than expected.

Gearing up for production?

Those recent leaks of parts for upcoming Nokia handsets suggest that pre-production units have already rolled out and mass-production is gearing up. That’s good news as we may be getting some Nokia devices with Windows Phone 8 sooner than the previously anticipated “end of October” timeframe.

With Apple expected to announce the iPhone 5 on September 12th, Nokia and Microsoft will beat them to the punch for revealing their next contender for Über-smartphone one week earlier.

But Apple is still predicted to actually launch their phone sooner. That’s because Apple enjoys unparalleled control over the OS and hardware that Microsoft lacks, not to mention the ability to dictate launch-dates to carriers. For even if Microsoft and Nokia have their next-generation Lumia ready, it still needs to bend to a carrier’s launch cycle (presumably AT&T, maybe Verizon) adding a wrinkle to any planned “surprise” unveiling. And that’s really the issue here: How long will we have to wait until we can actually purchase a Nokia Windows Phone 8 device?

At the very least, it does look like Microsoft and Nokia are fast-tracking plans, which shows a new, more agile strategy for both companies.  That’s good news. But are we now expecting too much, too soon?

Let’s hope they adapt well and don’t disappoint come September 5th.

Windows Phone Central will be covering the Nokia-Microsoft event live from NYC, on September 5th starting at 9:30am ET.

Source: Twitter;  Tweet Image and via: Pocketnow

link: http://www.wpcentral.com/are-nokia-and-microsoft-planning-surprise-launch-windows-phone-8

T9 app for Windows Phone

T9 app brings one-handed texting to Windows Phone

We believe Microsoft is working on a one-handed keyboard for Windows Phone 8, but in the mean time if you want to keep on texting without looking on your new Nokia Lumia, like on your old Nokia, developers Stain-Sr have a solution for you.

Their app is a SMS app which implements the old T9 keyboard familiar to us from  old dumb phones.

The app comes with about 10,000 frequently used words and supports English, German, French and Dutch.

It also features a word manager which allows one to add or remove words as needed, and will add a number of other languages shortly.

The app is £1.29 with a fully functioning, ad-supported free trial.

Find the app in Marketplace here.

Via WP7.com.pl

link: http://www.windowsphonenews.com/?p=12374