Must Know Tips For Windows Phone Mango

Well it’s almost 2 months since I’ve been using different mango versions and now the RTM. Well for the people who are still waiting for it, I am pleased to announce that “You gonna love it!”.

If you are totally new to windows phone then read my previous article Must Know Tips For Windows Phone 7 .

Well as you all know there is 500 new features introduced in this version and we are just going to have look some few tips which help you use the most out of the phone. 

• Applications – Quick Switch

  • Now you can quickly switch between multiple applications / background running applications by making a long touch on the back button.

• People – Groups

  • You can create a group of your contacts and can keep your contact list more organized. You can text or send email to all the members on the list on a single touch. Above all these, the group gives you the option to see “What’s new”, “Pictures” only from the group people. As every contact you can even pin it to the home screen.

• People – Filter

  • You can also filter people from based on the source account. Say you don’t want to see the followers of you on the People, you can set the filter. People –> Settings –> “filter my contact list”. Check / Uncheck the accounts based on your like. Also you can opt for the posts / updates only from the people who are in your contact list.

• People – History

  • Now you can check the history of a person / contact in terms of communication by selecting the person from the “People” and swiping to the history tab. It shows a unified list of message / mail / phone calls etc.

• Check in

  • A brand new feature introduced in mango which allows you to set the place you are in. Me –> Check in and you will provided with a list of places around your area; well if you don’t find the place you are in, you can always enter the address you are.

  • So what it does? It helps you to find your friends who are near by and also return the Bing search result based on the check in location. Pretty cool isn’t it?

• Messaging – chat

  • Yeah the chat is here and pretty much you will  be knowing how to use it. What you may not notice is that you can switch mode of chat with a single touch; i.e., you can switch from sms / mms to facebook chat by just touching the switch icon on the message thread. Always remember the switch icon appear as per the contacts you have. It will need at least two modes of messaging registered say sms and facebook.

• Messaging – Auto read

  • Settings –> Speech and select your option to read out the incoming messages. Ideal when you are driving.

• Mail – Link Inbox

  • Hotmail already has the facility to bring all your mails to a single inbox but this slightly different from that. You can still have multiple email account in the phone and when you want to get a notification / read a mail, you can opt to have single inbox for multiple accounts. Open the inbox of any mail and touch the ellipsis and you can select the “link inboxes” option and then select the email account for which you need a unified inbox.

• Mail – Automatic Replies

  • Now you can also set automatic replies from the mail box settings provided your mail server supports it. Goto your mail and select “Settings” and then “Automatic Replies”. If you don’t see the button there, then your mail server doesn’t support it.

• Office – Templates

  • Office –> Add icon and you will see an option to create a blank document / excel as well as templates based on which you can create a document.

• Office – SkyDrive

  • SkyDrive is now more closer to windows phone than ever. You can directly browse and edit the office documents from the office workspace in the windows phone.

• Bing – Scout

  • When you are in a new place, all you have to do is open the Bing and press the scout button and it will come up with the list of places and interests around you. The best part is that you can pin this feature to the home screen so that you don’t have to press the search button every time.

• Bing – Music

  • Well if you have been using some app to find out what’s the music you are hearing then , you don’t have to need the app anymore. It’s incorporated with Bing where all you need to do is to touch the music icon on the Bing.

• Bing – Vision

  • One of the most cool feature is vision. If you need information about a product, then all you have to do is touch the vision and then show the camera over the bar code and you will get the basic info about the product till price and reviews. You can do the same thing to find more about a book.

  • You can also use this feature as an OCR where it allows to scan the text using the camera and can copy it to the clipboard.

• Videos – Seek Slider

  • Now the Zune video player has a slider which can be moved by touch.

• Videos – SkyDrive Streaming

  • Any video files uploaded to SkyDrive can streamed in the windows phone video player. Just open the SkyDrive and select the file to start streaming.

• Artist – Wallpaper

  • Open Settings –>  lock + wallpaper and switch on “show artist when playing music”. This will show the picture of the artist on the wallpaper and Zune player background. I love the way when the wallpaper transits to the album artist.

• Picture – Shuffle Background

  • Open the “Pictures” and go to settings and select “Shuffle Background”

• Sound – Camera Shutter & More

  • Now you can disable the camera shutter sound and many more from Settings –> ringtones + sound

• Battery Saver
  • One of the best feature of Mango is this. When you enable the battery saver it will switch off auto mail sync, and all background applications when the battery falls below the threshold.
  • There is another checkbox which will allow the phone to get into battery saver mode till next charge. This is a very thought through feature which will be very helpful when you are travelling and you don’t know when will stop for a phone charge.

  • It shows the remaining battery life as well.

• Maps – Read directions

  • Settings –> Maps “Read directions aloud when tapping”.

• Maps- Auto Rotate

  • Settings –> Maps “Rotates with my current direction”. This will make your Bing maps rotate along with the direction you move.

 I will post few more tips on Mango shortly. Send in your tips or feedback if any.