How To

Do you use LinkedIn for networking with colleagues and co-workers? Would you love to receive updates from this social platform on your phone in PeopleHub, alongside Facebook? Good news – this is easily achievable in just a few steps.

Ensure your Live account is synced to your Windows Phone 7 device before we proceed. To get linked in (get it? heh) on your phone, follow these steps:

1. From your computer, log-in to your Windows Live account and scroll down to “Messenger Social” on the dashboard/main page, click Add.
2. Select LinkedIn from the list and fill in your credentials in the newly opened window.
3. Configure the settings to your preference as to what is to be synchronized between your Live and LinkedIn accounts.
4. Hit Save, and we’re done!

Simply open PeopleHub on your phone and any status updates from your friends on LinkedIn will now populate the list as well as Facebook. Before you begin experiencing horrid thoughts about your contacts list being imported from the social platform to your phone, fear not, this only synchronizes status updates. 

Have a lot of friends on Facebook? Do you have people added on your contact list that you don’t know, possibly residing in a different continent? If you don’t contact them via the social giant, why would you want them accessible on your phone?

Although Windows Phone 7 performs extremely well with integrating with Facebook, some of us just wish to have a more personal experience with our phone should our social network contact list be rather large. Many potential WP7 users are asking (and have previously asked) about turning the synchronization feature within the People hub in the OS off.

While you can’t completely turn it off without removing the Facebook account, there’s an easy and simple setting within the People configuration section that sets between “Show all my Facebook friends” and “Only add Facebook information to existing contacts”. To achieve the desired alteration, go to the following location:

Settings > Applications > People

If you’d like to have your Facebook friends added automatically again, simply reverse the change. Personally, I began kicking people off my friends list and kept my phone synchronizing everything.

We often get questions about the Xbox Live service on WP7 devices and how it correlates to the Xbox Live service on Xbox 360 consoles or on Windows PC's (where it's called Games for Windows - LIVE!).  Oh look! Here's one now from ericesque:

In general, I'm just fuzzy on how gaming on WP7 ties to the Xbox 360. Specifically, I'm wondering if I buy a game on my xbox, will I have to pay for a copy for WP7 too? Also, have we seen any games that let you play with friends on xbox if you're on WP7? I couldn't find any good learning resources from Microsoft. Hoping the experts could help.

Currently, gaming on WP7 is separated into two categories - games, and Xbox Live games. The Xbox Live service on WP7 is not so incredibly different from the Games for Windows - LIVE! service on Windows PC's. Downloading games and game demos from the marketplace is present and accounted for. A great deal of the social ins and outs is present too. With Xbox Live on WP7 you can easily see what your friends are up to - be it gaming or watching a movie or listening to music.

Friend requests and game invites are also present but will often lend itself to signing in on your Xbox 360 to accept a request. Game invitations, or rather, asynchronous multiplayer isn't currently set up for anything other than Uno and Chess in Game Chest: Logic Games. Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst works in tandem with Xbox 360's version of Crackdown 2 in that unlockables will become available in each version of the games with playthroughs from each other.

So far, the majority of the Xbox Live games on WP7 aren't companions to anything available on Xbox 360 and must be purchased separately. Ilomilo is the most recent game to come out for Xbox Live Arcade that is also on WP7 and is very much the same game as its WP7 counterpart, but each must be purchased separately.

No game, as of yet, can be played 100% synchronously with other people. The tie-in that you speak of doesn't exactly exist other than that it's just an extension of the service - of the same name, on a different device. A copy of a game on PC can be completely different from the Xbox 360 version and the version of that same game on WP7 will be worlds different in format, control, fun, and especially mobility.

See our Xbox/Windows Phone 7 Guide for more info.

A few weeks ago, we reported on a tweak to boost the sound on the Samsung Focus (as if it wasn't loud enough). Turns out, we were a little premature as the settings did not stick.

Flash forward 10 days later and looks like the folks at XDA figured it out, so we figured we'd do an update. We also have a new one that boosts the volume when using a headphones (the Focus turns the overall volume down for obvious reasons).

The process is similar: using the Samsung Diagnosis app, enter in some values. Done. For this, we can definitely confirm the headphones are much louder...probably too loud, but you can decide. And both stick after a reboot. Post results in comments or our Focus sub-forum!

Full instructions after the break...

One of the nice things about having Office Mobile is the ability to not only view those Office docs on the go, but to edit them as well. But getting those files to your device can be a challenge. We already saw one homebrew solution, which basically creates a local server for you to download files to your device.

Another, more simple solution is to just use Dropbox. While we still don't have a mobile application for the service (crosses fingers) you can use their site through Mobile Internet Explorer, which works just a well. In fact you can easily grab your files on the go this way. The only downside is you cannot upload Office documents, just photos, to Dropbox and for some that is a no-go. Then again, the free service "Send to Dropbox" allows you to easily email your modified files back to Dropbox, which we think is pretty darn cool.

A few days ago, a hobbyist developer named keyboardP did a proof-of-concept trick using a modified PNG image as a lockscreen wallpaper for Windows Phones. The result is a transparent effect whereby you can see through to your homescreen. Kind of neat if you want to check the temperature without unlocking the phone.

The first one he did was simple: claw marks that made it look like someone had torn your screen.

Since then, members over at XDA have started to create many different variations, coming up with some real unique designs. Over at keyboardP's site, he has also accumulated a mini-gallery that is growing as users submit them.

Now, there are three things to know about doing this: one, you must email yourself the PNG file as syncing won't work (Zune only recognizes JPGs), two, the trick only works once you "touch" the screen and three, it won't work if you have your device password protected. Other than that though, it's pretty sweet and easy to do. You can see in the picture here that I went for a very simple all black that goes smoky when activated. Anyways, if you're bored, give it a go. Feel free to discuss and post your creation here in our forums.

Source: Phone 7, Gallery, XDA Forums

For those of you leaving on the edge of your Windows Phone 7 software (e.g. Google Maps, ringtone manager), you would be a little experienced with installing .XAP files (pronounced "zap") which are basically the WP7 version of .CABs. While installing them isn't that hard (Start Menu --> Windows Phone Developer Tools --> Application Deployment --> Select file), looks like someone wanted to make it even easier.

If you remember the old add on .cab installer for Windows Mobile called CabViaActiveSync, this app by Tom Condon should be very familiar: it basically allows one-click install of any .xap file on your computer. Simply download the zip, extract the .exe and Run As Administrator. Now, whenever you click on a .xap file, you'll get the above dialog screen allowing direct installs to the phone.

While many of you haven't unlocked yet and the Homebrew scene is still in its infancy, we recommend you bookmark this or make a mental note as this app will be very useful later on.

Source: XDA Forums

Entering week two of Windows Phone 7 and we're moving right along with those hacks and tweaks. First was USB tethering (here & here), now we have USB drive support via MobilTechWorld, something we thought wasn't supported. Well, it's not. Officially.

The good news is that this is an easy hack to do. The bad news is it's computer specific, meaning you can't just use your WP7 device as a universal USB drive on any computer, just the one that you modify and sync with. But hey, it's a start.

The trick is quite easy and will take you less than 5 minutes to do, so it's well worth it, even if just to try.