Cortana : Personalised News Topics #windowsphone

I have always agreed that Cortana is a great feature for Windows Phone 8.1. It delivers News Headlines when we open the app. Currently users have to change their region settings on their phone to get Cortana.

Even though region settings are changed, we can still get personalised news for actual region or interested topic.

To personalise news topics, following are the steps:
1) Open Cortana and select the hamburger button
2) Select interests
3) Select the add icon at the bottom of the screen (plus icon)
4) Select news
5) In the search bar, type the name of place or topic for which you need the news (example : windows phone)
6) Select the topic name shown below the search bar and news for your topic will be shown next time you open Cortana

 

 

 





 Finally when Cortana is opened again it will show news for the selected topic or place. In the screenshot below, Cortana on my phone shows Windows Phone News and News from Singapore.

 

Movie Maker 8.1 for @windowsphone 8.1

Windows Phone 8.1 (Developer Preview) is released and it brings along capabilities of movie editing on the phone.

The first app to take advantage of this capability is Movie Maker 8.1.

The user interface is easy to use and self explained. The slow motion effect is cool.

This app is neatly designed with following features
1. Adding/Delete videos, photos and music
2. Trimming clips
3. Change duration
4. Slow motion effect
5. Crop clips
6. Copy/Paste clips
7. Extract mp3
8. Save the edited movie to phone album

The only features missing are
1. Captions
2. Transitions
But I am sure these features will be added soon.

Overall Movie Maker 8.1 is an app with good features and lots of potential in the future.

You can try/buy Movie Maker 8.1 from Windows Store.

Pocket File Manager for #windowsphone

Today my post is about Pocket File Manager. I have downloaded and tried the file manager. After using it, I felt that I must review it on my blog and also let every one know that windows phone also has file manager which can compete with any OS.

 

Lets get to the usage details. I would like to highlight few important features of the app.

1. File transfers via bluetooth can be stored using Pocket File Manager

 

During bluetooth transfer, windows phone gives us options to save the file. One of the options is Pocket File Manager. Selecting this option will save the file to a folder in Pocket File Manager.

 

 

2. Files can be organised into folders
Folders can be created and files can be transferred / moved from one folder to another.

 

 

3. Files can be emailed directly from the app

With Pocket File Manager, any file saved onto folders can be emailed using the SMTP settings in the app. From the screenshot below, we can email any file using the send option. These options are displayed as pop menu when we press and hold on the file. 

 

 



The features highlighted above are some of the options that majority of windows phone users would love to have. Overall Pocket File Manager is a highly recommended app for windows phone and there are more features to be discovered in the full version. It is worth the price of $1.99.

Emailing documents from Windows Phone (Office Hub)

 

Windows phone has some cool features for sharing of photos but I see queries on the forums regarding sharing of documents.

The office hub on windows phone has sharing option for documents saved or created in the hub.

In this post, I have screenshots of office  hub's Share feature.

Press and hold on any Word, Excel or Powerpoint file to select the share option.

Microsoft announces Cortana

She is sexy. She is stylish. Yet she is simple and easily to communicate with.

Yes, I am blogging about the announcement by Microsoft. They announced the much awaited feature for windows phone, Cortana, your digital personal assistant.

The interface is neat with a ring on the screen. It is much advanced that the digital assistants available in the market today.

Just cannot wait to interact with Cortana.

Cortana, we are waiting for you.

#Nokia #Lumia #1020 #windowsphone Crop and Zoom

A picture speaks a thousand words. The above photos justify the statement. The first photo was cropped and zoomed from the second photo.

Fell in love with Nokia Lumia 1020.

OneNote for easy note taking

I have tried various note taking apps on my iPad 2. Recently after purchasing Microsoft Surface RT, I have fallen in love with OneNote.

OneNote 2013 has a very easy interface. I segregate each file for every department meeting. Each file has multiple tabs for different dates and different topics under the same department.

With OneNote also comes seamless integration with SkyDrive. OneNote file created on one device is available on another device without any copying .

Also noteworthy is the voice recording feature. For meeting where discussion is fast paced, we can record the conversation for future reference.

The best recommended app for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 or any other platform.