Disabling Windows Phone 8.1 screen wake up

One of things that I found enabled when I updated my Windows Phone to 8.1 was the screen ‘wake up’ feature. Basically, this allows you to double tap the screen and it will come to life.

Great idea, but for me it seemed that I was always turning the phone on accidentally. That is no good for optimising the power usage of the device, so after persevering with it for a while I decided that I would prefer to have it off and save the power. If I need the phone, it is easy enough to turn on with my ham-fists.

So here’s how to disable the ‘Wake up’ screen feature as it is buried a few layers down.

From the initial screen navigate to Settings. In my case I have pinned that to the top right of my phone start screen.

Scroll down the option Settings.

Towards the bottom you will find Touch. Select this.

Then set the Wake Up option at the top to Off.

With this set my phone is back to having me turn it on to use which is what I want because I want to maximise the power available to my phone throughout the day.

What’s new in Windows Phone 8.1

Here’s a video of what new features to expect with Windows Phone 8.1 coming soon.

Review – Veho Pebble Smartstick Emergency Charger

Full disclosure – the review unit was supplied by Mobilezap. You can find this device and others at the Mobilezap category pages.

How many times have you needed to charge your phone and you couldn’t find a power point? Or all the power points have been taken by others charging their devices (happens at conferences and at airports a lot). All you need is just enough charge to send that email or make that quick call but without a recharge you are stuck? We’ll here’s a great little gadget to help, the Veho Pebble Smartstick Emergency Charger.

Basically, you charge it up from a USB port prior to stepping out. Then you connect it to your device, with the huge variety of connectors that are provided. This will normally give you more than enough charge to keeping going through the day and get done what you need to do.
Obviously, it takes a while to fully charge the Smartstick but the idea is that you do that the night before from your PC or wall jack. You then throw into your bag as you head out and you’ll be pretty secure that you should be able to get through a whole day not needing to look for a charger.
The really great thing is that it comes with so many connectors that fit just about all your devices. It is small and convenient and quite stylish. It is a little bit heavier than you expect but that’s because it is a battery. However that is not a hindrance at all.
This is a really great travelling accessory and I’d recommend to anyone who have every had to scrounge around for a power point to do some ‘desperate’ charging. Adding one of these to your kit and topping it up before you leaves almost guarantees that you’ll never need to look for a power point during the day.

I want my Windows Phone 8.1 update

Check out all the cool new features.

I can’t wait for my update.

Some cool Windows Phone apps

Take a look at these cool apps on Windows Phone

Office Lens – http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/office-lens/5681f21c-f257-4d62-83f5-5341788a5077

it is basically a OneNote scanner for your pocket. This is really handy addition to your Windows Phone.

News 360 – http://www.windowsphone.com/en-au/store/app/news360/078e239f-4bdc-df11-a844-00237de2db9e

it is a personalized news reader.

Weave – http://www.windowsphone.com/en-au/store/app/weave-news-reader/25f7c2fa-ca89-49a7-9937-c7347be73fec

another personalized news reader.

Security for your mobile devices

The IT landscape today is filled with hackers, malicious software and disasters. Most businesses have these under control for traditional servers and desktops within their business and perhaps somewhat in their homes but when it comes to mobile devices many have adopted the ‘Macintosh fallacy’. That is, it won’t happen to me.
The bad news is that mobile devices are now more than ever the target of the bad guys and are more likely to sustain some sort of disaster (like falling into the toilet). My question is, what are YOU doing about it? Yes YOU.
The first app that I’d be looking at installing on your devices is Lookout.

It will protect your device from malware, scan every app that you download to ensure that it is safe as well as block malicious web sites. It will also backup your contacts, photos and other data allowing you to easily transfer it to a new device. Lookout even allows you to find your device and remotely wipe it if you need to.

Much like the Secunia desktop software, a version now available for Android devices allows you to ensure that all the apps on your device are up to date. This greatly reduces the chance of them being exploited as any desktop user knows.
Both of these are FREE so there is no excuse not to have them running on your device. Both also offer commercial products that provide greater amounts of control for businesses with lots of devices to manage so if you have a fleet of devices you need to manage you should also look at how these products can allow you to create your own BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) strategy.
If you don’t protect your device then you have no one to blame if something goes wrong. Reduce the risk and use these two free apps. I do!

Review – Nokia Wireless Charging Plate

Full disclosure – the review unit was supplied by Mobilezap. You can find this device and others at the Mobilezap category page.
One of the really cool things that Nokia phones come with these days is wireless charging. That means you just place the phone on the charging stand when you are not using it to keep the battery full.
I have been dying to try this out and was recently given the chance to try the Nokia Wireless Charing plate.
In my testing I found the charging plate to work very well. It does take a little familiarization to ensure you get the phone lined up correctly but a little light on the base tells you when the phone is charging. Now obviously it will take a little longer to charge wirelessly than if you plugged in the USB cable but the convenience factor totally makes up for that.
The good things that I also found were firstly, it charges through the cover I have on my Nokia and secondly it seems to also charge the Nexus 5 phone I have! The downsides are that if it needs to have a long charge the phone can get quite warm, but I have seen with other charging methods as well (especially via the car charger).
All in all this is an extremely handy device that you can simply set on your desktop somewhere and then simply place you phone on to ensure it remains full charge. No more plugging and unplugging of USB cables, so for that it is certainly value for money. Because it is so convenient you’ll probably keep your phone charged longer which overcomes the downside of taking longer to charge. Just watch the heating up during long charges.
I’d certainly recommend this to other Nokia phones users (and perhaps those using a Nexus 5). Thanks again to Mobilezap for the opportunity to evaluate.

I got the Lumia Black Update

I received notification of an update on my Nokia Lumia Windows Phone yesterday so I pressed the button and commenced the upgrade.

It all went seamlessly across the air and after a few reboots I am now running the Lumia Black update. If you want to know the details about what the Black Update contains then I’d point you here:

http://www.wpcentral.com/lumia-black

Once you have the Black Update you can also get some new Nokia apps for the Windows Phone. One of these is Nokia Beamer.

Start by downloading the Nokia Beamer App from the Windows Store. Then visit:

http://beam.nokia.com

where you’ll see a QR code like so:

Capture that with the Nokia Beamer App on your phone and then you will see the screen of you Windows Phone in your browser like so:

That’s really cool I reckon and for me really handy as it make doing demos of the Windows much, much easier.

If you have a Windows Phone check to see whether you can get the Black Update. If you can, do it! Then check for the additional cool apps you can now get like Nokia Beamer.