Category: Microsoft

Incoming Gadget – Huawei E589 4G Mini Wi-Fi Modem

Just a heads up that I got myself a new mobile broadband modem in the form of a Huawei E589 4G Mini Wi-Fi modem this week to replace my existing 3G USB modem. I thought this would be a suitable replacement given the inability of the Microsoft Surface RT tablet to connect to cellular networks …

Continue reading

Desktop Apps for Windows RT

It didn’t take long for desktop apps to be ported over to the ARM-based Windows RT operating system soon after an exploit was found to remove the artificial restriction imposed by Microsoft. Anyway, there is a growing number of apps available over at XDA Developers, including: 7Zip, Audacity, DOSBox, KeePass Portable, Notepad++, OpenTTD (one of …

Continue reading

Forcing the Battery Saver on Windows Phone 8

Here’s another quick tip for Windows Phone 8. If you know you’re going to be a while before you are anywhere near a charger you may want to preemptively put your Windows Phone 8 handset into battery saver mode. Normally, this kicks in automatically when battery charge drains to 20% which may be too late …

Continue reading

How to get the Fitbit Base Station Working with Windows Server

Admittedly, this is perhaps a narrow topic but something I would share given power saving efforts at home. Given that I don’t want to leave a desktop and/or a laptop computer on for the off chance that I might walk past wearing my Fitbit I thought it’d be best to piggyback off the home server …

Continue reading

Disabling the Ringer on Your Windows Phone 8 Handset

Here’s a quick tip for Windows Phone 8 users. If you’re looking to mute your phone while you are in a meeting or at the movies then all you need to do is turn on your device and hit the volume up or volume down button. Up in the top right corner will be an …

Continue reading

Pebble Shipping Date Locked In

It’s been a while coming but it looks like the Pebble smart watch will start shipping on January 23rd, 2013 after such a popular response to its Kickstarter campaign. That said, it could take up to eight weeks from that date for backers to start receiving their smart watches so you may need to exercise …

Continue reading

Logging Out of Skype on Windows Phone 8

If you’re using the beta version of Skype for Windows Phone 8 and you’re conscious of preserving battery life you may have been looking for the option to logout of Skype in the various menus. I’ll save you further grief – it’s not there. For whatever reason, you cannot log out of Skype for Windows …

Continue reading

Fitbit Companion for Windows Phone

Fitbit Companion - Sleep Screen

Following on from yesterday’s blog about an official Fitbit app for Windows 8 and Windows RT you might want to have a similar experience on your Windows Phone handset. Unfortunately, there isn’t an official app for Windows Phone app just yet but I’ve found one that I really like in the form of Fitbit Companion. The …

Continue reading

Fitbit App for Windows 8 and Windows RT

Just a quick one. Fitbit have released an app for Windows 8 and Windows RT which will allow you to keep tabs on your personal fitness statistics in full screen glory (or shame as the case may be). It’s a very slick app indeed with the ability to look at step count, weight, floors climbed, …

Continue reading

VLC Gains Funding for WinRT Version

While Windows itself supports a number of mainstream audio and video formats you may still want the peace of mind of a “Swiss Army knife” solution – an app that will pretty much play anything you can throw at it. VLC on the desktop is a fine example of such a solution. The good news …

Continue reading