We’ve had Windows Phone 8.1 for a handful of weeks, but we’re still learning new things all the time. Remember back on Windows Phone 8.0 and below how much of a pain it was to change your primary Microsoft account email? Adding an alias to your account and making it your primary required a hard reset of the phone to add it. That changes in Windows Phone 8.1. Today you can add an alias to your account and make it your primary without needing to change anything! Here’s how.

Hat tip to Johan van Mierlo (@JohanvanMierlo) for reminding us about this feature coming to Windows Phone 8.1! Here’s how you can change/add an alias to your account, make it your primary and not have to do much with your account settings on Windows Phone 8.1.

What’s an alias?

Don’t worry, they’re not super confusing. Your Microsoft account is capable of supporting multiple aliases. These are email addresses that allow you to sign in and use all the various devices and services that use a Microsoft account. Most folks have one email address associated with their Microsoft account and use that to access their Windows Phone, their Xbox console, their Windows 8 PC or tablet and anything else Microsoft-related.

An alias is another email address that you can use to sign into those Microsoft devices. You get the option to add another email address (Gmail, Yahoo mail, etc) as an alias, so long as it’s not already associated with a Microsoft account. There’s also the option to create a new email (outlook.com) address and use it as an alias.

You will then have multiple email addresses (alias) that you can then use to sign into your Microsoft account. This is perfect for those with email addresses like ladyslayer69@hotmail.com to grow up and get a more mature email address associated with their Microsoft account. Maybe something like yourfirstname_yourlastname@outlook.com instead.

Adding an alias

My Microsoft account was created a long time ago when I needed one to play on Xbox Live. I used my personal Gmail account to create that Xbox Live account. Of course your Xbox Live account is really your Microsoft account, so I’ve been rocking a Gmail email address as my primary Microsoft account for a long time. Not anymore, it was time to get something a little more Outlook-y as my primary email address for my Microsoft account. Here’s how you add an alias.

• Go to account.live.com and sign in with your Microsoft account
• Click on ‘alias’ on the left pane
• Click ‘add an alias’
• Select either ‘create a new email address and add it as an alias’ or ‘add an existing email address as a Microsoft account alias’.

It’s really easy to add an alias. Just follow those steps above. Stuck on the part where you get to the page where you’re presented with the option to create a new email through outlook.com or add an existing email as an alias? Don’t fret. When you create a new email address you’re creating a brand new outlook.com email address to use as your alias. Which means someone can’t already be using that account. You’ll get an error message if someone does, but try till you get the address/alias you want.

Unfortunately you can’t merge Microsoft accounts yet. Which is why you’ll get an error message when you try and ‘add an existing email’ that’s already a Microsoft account. You’re more than welcome to add any outside/third-party email address as an alias. Just be ready to verify you actually own that account.

Make your new alias your primary alias

You just created a new alias, odds are you want to use it all the time over your old email address. When you make an alias your primary alias it becomes the email address that appears on your various Microsoft devices. You can still use any alias to sign in to your account, but the primary alias is the email address that you’ll see when you go to the account settings of your various devices.

At this point you can also remove any other aliases from your account. Assuming you have at least two aliases.

That’s it.

That’s seriously it. Now your Windows 8.1 tablet or PC, your Windows Phone 8.1 handset and other devices will automatically switch from one alias to another. Give it sometime, but you’ll head into the account settings of your Windows Phone 8.1 device and you’ll see your new primary alias in place of the old one. No hard reset required!

Via: Mobility Minded

One way of freeing up space on your Windows Phone device is by deleting photos and videos stored in your camera roll. Want a quick way to delete those files? We’ll show you how. Head past the break to watch the steps on video.

If you have Windows Phone 8.1:

1. Go to photos
2. Swipe left for albums
3. Press and hold on camera roll
4. Click ‘delete contents.’
5. Click ‘delete’ again if you’re sure you want to do this.

If you have Windows Phone 8.0:

1. Go to photos
2. Click on albums
3. Press and hold on camera roll
4. Click ‘delete contents.’
5. Click ‘delete’ again if you’re sure you want to do this.

That’s it! If you need to free up more space, you may also want to check out our guide on how to move or uninstall multiple apps with Storage Sense on Windows Phone 8.1. It’s also a good idea to back up your Windows Phone pictures and videos with OneDrive, so they won’t be gone for good.

Further reading:

• How to swear like a champ using the Word Flow keyboard in Windows Phone 8.1
• How do I tell Cortana where my favorite places are?
• How to uninstall any OEM app on Windows Phone 8 or 8.1
• Windows Phone 8.1 Tips, Tricks and How To

The Lumia 630 is the first Windows Phone 8.1 device to go on sale in select markets this week and is also the first Dual SIM Windows Phone. The ability to use two SIM cards in one device has been a much requested feature amongst potential Windows Phone customers in certain markets like India.

Microsoft claims that the Smart Dual SIM implementation in Lumia 630 offers seamless switching to help people manage their contacts and communication with ease. While we’ll bring a comprehensive review of Lumia 630 here on Windows Phone Central soon, let’s have a walkthrough of the dual SIM experience on the device.

Personalize

The color coding of the two SIM cards keeps calls, contacts and calendars separate so that it is easy to juggle between the two. The Start screen has separate phone and messaging tiles marked 1 and 2 that also notes the service providers’ name. You can also link the individual phone and/or messaging tiles into one unified tile.

You can personalize these names as well for an easy recall, such as  ‘work’ and ‘personal’, ‘home’ and ‘roaming’, ‘wife’ and ‘girlfriend’ (not recommended) to avoiding any confusion between call and messaging history of the two.

While data is defaulted to use one SIM at a time, you can go into settings and configure which SIM you'd like to default for data use at any time.

Easy Switch

For a contact, your messaging thread appears integrated and switching to the other SIM is very easy without running a parallel thread or changing settings. All you need to do is toggle between the two SIMs through the button on the top, and continue the conversation without breaking a beat.

Similarly, for each individual contact and further for each individual number, you can set a default SIM to make calls to that particular number. Of course, you would always want to call your boss from your work number and the girlfriend from your personal number. Again, using the toggle button you can easily change it within the contact's profile details.

Smart Dual SIM

The Smart Dual SIM feature has been built by Nokia on top of Windows Phone 8.1’s support for two SIM cards. The feature ensures that a user is always reachable on both SIMs and calls are forwarded to the available SIM of the intended SIM is unavailable.

As soon as you insert the second SIM, an Action Center notification informs you to configure the Smart Dual SIM settings. When you proceed to configure the Call settings, you get four options for the Smart Dual SIM feature.

• You can keep the setting off, and if one of your SIM is unreachable, the caller on that number would be informed of the same like in a single SIM phone.
• You can configure the option between SIM cards in which case when either of your SIM would be unavailable the call would be seamlessly forwarded to your other SIM and neither you nor the caller would have to bother about broken communication.
• You can also configure the forwarding from SIM 1 to SIM 2 or the other way around unidirectional. This is helpful for example when you are travelling internationally, and you want the calls to your home SIM to be forwarded to your local SIM, but not vice-versa.

Of course, call forwarding would incur the operator charges, but it’s a very useful and well-executed feature.

Dual SIM phones allow consumers to have two phone numbers on a single device and are quite popular in certain markets. The Lumia 630 packs in the functionality with an intuitive user experience that should help the platform win a lot of customers.

Would you prefer to pick a dual SIM or a single SIM variant of the Lumia 630?

When we got our hands on the new Surface Pro 3 yesterday, Microsoft has already attached the Surface Pen to the new Type Cover. While it does a great job at securing the Pen, we’re not completely happy with the way it looks. Check out some of the other ways you can attach the Surface Pen to the Surface Pro 3. Head past the break to watch the video.

1. There’s space between the new magnetic strip and the keyboard on the Surface Pro Type Cover. You can use that to clip on the Pen.

2. If you’re not using the Type Cover, you can attach the Pen to the right side of the Surface Pro 3. The magnets for the AC connecter is in this general area to pull in the Pen.

3. If you’re holding the Surface Pro 3 in portrait mode, you can attach the Surface Pen on top of the left side. The magnets for the Type Cover are in this area to pull in the Pen.

4. Same as number 3, but at the bottom.

5. These next two ways are very impractical, but some of you may want to know about them anyway. If you’re holding it in portrait mode, you can attach the Surface Pen towards the top left corner of the display. There’s a magnet here for the stabilizing strip on the Type Cover.

6. Same as number 5, but towards the bottom.

I’ve already decided to take off the flap for the Surface Pen the new Type Cover. Do you think you’ll do the same when you buy the Surface Pro 3? Let us know in the comments!

Further reading

• Hands-on with the Surface Pro 3 from Microsoft, an ultrathin tablet with a stellar screen
• Check out the Surface Pro 3 in these high resolution photos
• Here are the dates and availability of the Surface Pro 3

Back in the day, Microsoft had a neat little tool under settings called the Windows Experience Index (WEI). It rated the processor, RAM, graphics, gaming graphics and primary hard disk to give you an overall rating of your PC. It was a neat baseline tool used to compare and contrast different computers, with the higher overall score being obviously better. You could also diagnose your computer to see where the ‘weak’ spot was in performance.

That tool came out with Windows Vista and it disappeared in Windows 8.1, but there are a few ways to get it back. Scott Hanselman works on the Web Platform Team at Microsoft, but he also runs an informative personal blog dealing with technology. Last night he posted a neat little trick to get your results for the WEI.

The method involves running a command prompt, entering in "winsat prepop." and then using Powershell to view the scores. You can head to Scott’s blog for the full details (link below), and it should only take you five minutes of your time.

Or just use an app

If, however, you are on the lazy side or command prompts freak you out, you can just download a free app called ‘ChrisPC Win Experience Index.’ It does the same thing and even brings back the fancy looking user interface. It has an ad or two, but otherwise the software checks out. Download the app, run it and let it do its thing (link to the website is below).

*Note: for tablets or laptops, you’ll need to have the device plugged in for AC power before the test will commence

We ran the tests on our Surface Pro 3 (Core i5), Dell XPS 27 and Lenovo ThinkPad8. Here are our results:

• Surface Pro 3 (Core i5) – 5.4
• Dell XPS 27 (Core i7) – 5.0
• ThinkPad8 (Intel Atom) 4.1

As you can see, none of those are particularly impressive, though I am shocked that the Surface Pro 3 beat out my Core i7 Dell XPS 27. That’s due to the graphics, although my Dell does have a dedicated graphics chip from Nvidia, so perhaps something is not reading correctly.

Why did Microsoft remove the WEI? Well, for consumers, the scores were kind of arbitrary and it’s not exactly clear that anyone was using the WEI in a productive manner. Sure, PC enthusiasts and geeks loved it, but it wasn’t exactly practical either.

The real question though is what’s your score? Let us know in comments, including what device you tested on along with its CPU!

Update: For those asking about my wallpaper, here you go.

Further reading and software download: Hanselman.com, Chris PC software

So you decided to bring your Xbox along with you on your road trip, so you could catch up on “Game of Thrones” or unwind with some Peggle 2 when your sight-seeing expedition had come to an end for the day. But when you fire up your console and try to connect to the Wi-Fi that you so easily hopped on with your phone or laptop, you realize that it isn’t quite as simple with your Xbox. The reason: You cannot log in or accept the terms and conditions via your browser, like you can on your other devices.

Fear not, traveler, for not all is lost. Like the countless roads under construction in Massachusetts, there is a detour you can take to once again find your way to the internet. And all you will need is a phone, tablet or computer and a little bit of know-how.

You see, most hotel networks base their Wi-Fi leases on a devices MAC address, a unique 12-character code that is assigned to each and every device with a network interface. When you accept the terms and conditions on their landing page in their browser, the hotel keeps track of that MAC address, so it knows that you have gone through the authentication process.

The trick is to make the hotel’s network think your Xbox should be allowed to connect, even though you haven’t gone through the proper procedure to do so. In order to do this, you need to make your Xbox mimic a device that has properly authenticated. It may sound complicated right now in theory, but it is extremely easy in practice. Here's what you need to do:

Connecting up an Xbox to a Wi-Fi Hotspot

1. Choose a phone or other device to mimic, then find its MAC address.

   On a Windows phone, you can find the MAC address by going to Settings > System > About, then clicking the More Info button.

   For a Windows tablet or PC, you can open up a command prompt (CMD.exe), then type ipconfig /all and press Enter. Under the Wireless LAN Adapter, you want to use the Physical Address.

2. Connect to the hotel’s Wi-Fi and authenticate and/or accept terms through the web browser

3. Disconnect the device from the network – Its work is done

4. Tell your Xbox to act like your other device by mimicking its MAC address

On Xbox 360, go to System > Network Settings > Wireless Network > Configure Network > Additional Settings > Advanced Settings Alternate MAC Address

On Xbox One, go to Settings > Network > Advanced Settings > Alternate MAC Address

      5. Enter the MAC address of the device you previously connected with and save the settings

Once the changes are saved, you should be able to successfully run a network test to the internet.

Though I spent most of my time out and about seeing the sights, this got me up and running on Netflix while on a road trip this past weekend. It’s first time I’ve brought my Xbox along with me when traveling, and it didn’t get a lot of use, but it was nice to have the option.

What about you? Do you ever bring your console with you on trips, or is it a welcome break from gaming and media? Be sure to let us know in the comments section.

Being on a US carrier has quite a few downsides, from high data costs to exclusive Lumia phones, it can be a drudgery. We can add a new one to the mix today too: carrier-branded apps that are outdated.

This morning I wrote about the new Slacker Radio 2.0 update, which brings a new UI and improvements to the app for the first time since 2013. But if you’re on Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint or AT&T, searching for Slacker Radio brings you to their old, outdated branded version. Lame. Luckily, I’ve managed to get the apps to download and install, bypassing the carrier blockage.

Here’s how.

The problem

Searching for Slacker Radio brings up the old carrier-branded version, not the new 2.0 one with a new UI. Clicking the Store link for the new 2.0 version brings up an ‘Item not available’ error message.

The solution

Perhaps surprisingly, removing your carrier SIM and rebooting the phone on just Wi-Fi won’t bypass the Store restrictions. But at least for myself, this little trick did get it to work:

1. Open the Slacker Radio 2.0 link found here and get the error message
2. With your Windows Phone on and connected to Wi-Fi, remove the SIM, do not reboot
3. Refresh the Store link and download
4. (Remember to reboot phone to get your cellular signal back)

It sounds weird but in doing so I was able to view the Slacker Radio 2.0 in the Store, bypassing the ‘Item not available’ message and subsequently download the app. I’ve done this for Verizon and AT&T with no issues. Perhaps many of you know you can do this already, but for myself, it was new.

So give it a go and let us know if you’re able to 2.0 of Slacker Radio on your carrier-branded Windows Phone! (Have an easier way? Having problems? Let us know below)

Nokia's Living Images is a new feature coming to Windows Phone 8.1 and their Lumia Cyan firmware update for the high-end PureView devices, like the Lumia 1020, Lumia 1520, Icon and so forth. Living Images captures a few seconds before you snap a photo, so that when you're browsing through your Camera Roll or StoryTeller, your photos come alive. It's like Cinemagraph, but without having to think, as it just works automatically.

A Nokia Camera Beta update a few weeks ago introduced Living Images, but no one could use it without the Cyan firmware. Even those with a Lumia 630 can't use it as that device is not PureView. But I started getting tips from people who had Living Images enabled, though they didn't know how it happened. Finally, Jason in our comments explained a simple trick to get it working, at least mostly.

Partially enable 'Living Images'

Be forewarned, it's not yet clear how to disable this, once it's enabled. Having said that, there doesn't seem to be any downsides.

• Open up Nokia Camera Beta or download from the Store here
• Open the Menu (use the ellipsis '…')
• Select Settings
• Choose 'Use default settings'
• Restart Nokia Camera Beta (may not be necessary)

The next time you snap a photo, you should see 'Saving Living Image' displayed in the upper left corner. When you scroll through your Camera Roll, you should see your Living Image photo, with a second of video before it.

Oddly, this Living Images trick doesn't work with Nokia's StoryTeller, so it appears to be a loophole in the Windows Phone 8.1 Camera Roll.

To see how it works make sure you watch the above video.

Living Image will be more

I should point out that Living Images will be more than what you see now. The Lumia Cyan firmware is needed to unlock the feature, including any advanced editing functions. In that sense, this is more or less a tease of the feature, rather than the function itself. Still, it should give you an idea of what to expect when Lumia Cyan lands on your PureView Lumia phone in the coming weeks.

I think Living Image will be an amazing addition. For one, you don't have to think about using it as it automatically happens when you take a photo. That solves the current problem of having to think out a scene, and then choose the right Lens, and then capture your moment. Living Image gives you a Cinemagraph like function, but with no delay in capturing and no thought. It's pretty brilliant, and I can't wait to see the real thing on my Lumia 1520.

Big thanks to Jason_tee for the tip!

Related Reading

• First look at Nokia's new Living Images

The World Cup is in full swing after host country Brazil defeated Croatia in the opening match. There's an entire month of football action remaining with the 2014 final taking place on July 13. Yesterday Abby showed you all a bunch of great apps and tricks to stay current with the 2014 FIFA World Cup on your Windows Phone. Here's one more tip from the Windows Phone Central forums that we wanted to point out – how do add the World Cup 2014 schedule to your Windows Phone Calendar so that you never miss a game.

Here's how you get the full FIFA 2014 World Cup schedule in your Windows Phone calendar:

• Go to calendar.live.com on your PC
• Click on 'import' on the top left
• Click 'Subscribe'
• Add the following URL: webcal://www1.skysports.com/calendars/football/fixtures/competitions/worldcup
• Name your calendar
• Select a color and charm (select the ball or trophy!)
• Click subscribe

And that's it! The matches should be converted to your local time too, so you this saves numerous steps and will make sure you don't miss a game! Make sure you went to calendar.live.com and signed in with the Microsoft Account you use on your Windows Phone and Windows 8 machines. Now you'll see all matches appear on your phone in due time. Impatient? Force the calendar sync by going to settings > email + accounts > long press Microsoft account to sync.

Bonus: Bing World Cup 2014 landing page

Here's a cool little site that Bing has set up for the 2014 World Cup. Bing has created a dedicated news experience for EVERYTHING happening around the tournament. Check it on your PC by going to the Bing World Cup 2014 page.

Via: Windows Phone Central Forums

Thanks for the tip DanglingPointer!

Gameplay videos are really popular on YouTube especially the ones with commentary. It's a fact that many people love watching them. For example, you might have heard of PewDiePie who makes $4 million a year sharing gameplay videos on YouTube with his 27 million subscribers. Want to start sharing your own Xbox One gameplay videos on Youtube? We'll show you how to do it without buying additional hardware or accessories.

Head past the break to watch the tutorial!

A really quick way to record a clip is to simply say out loud, "Xbox, record that!" Whatever happened in the last 30 seconds gets recorded. You get a confirmation at the bottom of the screen.

Sometimes, 30 seconds is not long enough. You can record up to 5 minutes of gameplay using another option called Game DVR. You can bring it up by saying out loud, "Xbox, snap Game DVR." You can then select 'End clip now' or 'Start new clip.' Selecting 'End clip now' records gameplay up to 5 minutes in the past. 'Start new clip' will record up to 5 minutes of footage starting now.

You can view all your recorded clips on Game DVR. There's a simple built-in video editor if you want to trim, add voiceovers, picture-in-picture commentary, and templates. Select a video, click the menu button, and then Edit. This opens up the Xbox One's Upload Studio for your editing needs. There are plenty of options here, and the simplest one is to just trim clips. You can select the starting and end points of to take out the boring parts.

To make your videos more personal, try out the Picture-in-Picture option. The camera in the Kinect can be used to record yourself while giving commentary for your clips.

Once you're happy with your video, click Finish. You'll then need to add a title and an optional tag before clicking the upload button. You're not done yet. This appears to upload the video to Microsoft's servers. Continue reading to send over the finished video to YouTube.

Open the YouTube application if you already have it installed or say out loud, "Xbox, go to YouTube." Inside the app, push your left stick on your controller until you see the 'My Uploads' option. Select the Upload option and choose the clip you'd like to upload.

Add a title, set the privacy setting, and then click the upload button. That's it! Watch a sample gameplay below:

While we're glad that we can upload Xbox One gameplay videos to YouTube, we believe the number of steps can be decreased. It would be better if Microsoft adds a YouTube option directly from Upload Studio instead of users having to open the YouTube app separately. Another issue is the 5-minute limit.

If you want to record gameplay that's longer than 5 minutes, you'll need a totally different solution that requires buying additional accessories. Let us know in the comments if you're interested in learning more about that.

Will you be sharing your Xbox One gameplay videos on YouTube? Are you planning to be the next PewDiePie? Sound off in the comments!

We absolutely love MixRadio, even after the recent removal of the Nokia branding. If you haven't heard of it by now, it's a streaming music service that brings you free, personalized music with no advertising. There are hundreds of handcrafted mixes available, so you might even find new favorite artists.

One of MixRadio's key features is offline mixes. You can save your favorite mixes for offline playback so you can listen even without an internet connection. Want to know how to do it? Head past the break to watch the tutorial.

When you open MixRadio, you'll see the 'play me' button and recently played mixes. When you swipe over to the right, you can see more mixes. You can view featured mixes or browse through the categories and genres. To make any of them available for offline listening, follow these simple steps:

1. Press and hold on a mix
2. Click 'take mix online.'

That's it! MixRadio starts downloading and then you can access it in the offline mixes folder when you need to. They can be played without an Internet connection.

An offline mix will automatically refresh every 20 days. That's good to know since you don't want to listen to the same songs all the time. MixRadio needs to be open and connected to Wi-Fi for the refresh to happen. If you want to manually refresh, tap and hold on an offline mix.

Want to know another great tip? You can take the 'play me' mix offline, too. This mix always changes based on the music you like. Use Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down to make the mix better each time you play. The same steps above apply. Press and hold on the 'play me' button and click 'take mix offline.'

Having offline mixes with MixRadio is really useful. It's great for long road trips and flights. What are your offline mixes? When do you listen to them? Let us know in the comments!

• Download MixRadio for Windows Phone

Note: MixRadio feature availability varies by country, which is determined from your SIM.

One of our favorite features on Cortana is setting reminders. We've already shown you how to do location-based reminders and person-based reminders, but there's also another way. You can also ask Cortana to set a time-based reminder. It's really simple. Head past the break to see how it looks on the Nokia Lumia Icon.

To get started, bring up Cortana by holding the search button for a few seconds. You can tell Cortana to remind you at certain times. Need a reminder at 5:30 A.M. tomorrow? How about 9 P.M. every night? Or 2:33 P.M. on Tuesdays? It's up to you. Here are some examples:

• Remind me to throw the garbage every Monday night
• Remind me to take out recycling Thursday nights
• Remind me to call the plumber tomorrow morning
• Remind me to wash the car in 2 days at 7 P.M.
• Remind me to pick up Sheila from the airport on July 17th at 5 P.M.

That's it! Following your request, you can edit the reminder or confirm with Cortana if it is correct. You can say, "Yes," or click the remind button.

To view all your reminders, click the search button once, or the Cortana live tile if you have it on your home screen. Tap the menu button at the upper right corner and then click 'remind me.' If you need faster access to this page, you can pin it to the home screen. Simply click the pin button at the bottom of the screen.

Do you use Cortana for setting reminders on your device with Windows Phone 8.1 Preview for Developers? Has it been helpful to you? Let us know in the comments!

Further reading

• How to set a location-based reminder with Cortana
• How to set a person-based reminder with Cortana
• How to open websites by voice with Cortana
• Windows Phone 8.1 Tips, Tricks and How To

Cortana knows how to sing. She can also tell jokes. She can do a lot of other things, but one feature that we frequently use is setting the alarm. Some of you may know how to do this already, but continue reading if this is new to you. Watch our how-to video after the break.

To get started, press and hold the search button on your device with Windows Phone 8.1 Preview for Developers. When Cortana appears, you can say the following things:

• Wake me up in 15 minutes
• Set an alarm for 5:30 A.M.
• Wake me up at 8 A.M.

If there are any alarms you want to turn off, just say, "Turn off my alarm." Cortana will ask which alarm to turn off. Tell her which one, if you remember. We prefer saying, "Go to my alarms." From there, we can toggle on or off the alarms we've set.

There is another way to bring up Cortana. You can click the live tile if that is set up on your home screen. If you haven't done it yet, here are some reasons why you should pin Cortana to the home screen.

We've tried digging further if we can set alarms for specific dates. It does not work. For example, Cortana does not understand, "Set an alarm for July 10th at 5 A.M." She also does not understand, "Set an alarm at 6 A.M. every Thursday."

Cortana is a feature available on Windows Phone 8.1. It's not widely available yet, but you can try it on your device by installing the Preview for Developers. Another limitation is that Cortana is only available for certain regions. One workaround, of course, is to change the region setting in your device.

Do you think this feature with Cortana is useful on Windows Phone? Will you be setting alarms with Cortana frequently? Let us know in the comments!

Further reading:

• How to manually check for app updates on Windows Phone 8.1
• How to identify music around you with Cortana
• Use Cortana to quickly schedule events from text messages and emails
• Windows Phone 8.1 Tips, Tricks and How To

Here's a super quick tip. I'm going to quickly show you how to disable the touch screen on your Windows 8.1 machine. It will only take a minute to quickly turn off the touch screen capabilities on your monitor. Doesn't matter if it's a tablet, Ultrabook or desktop, this will work.

Why do this?

Honestly, that's a good question, but I've seen some people wondering how to actually do this for a variety of reasons.

Turning off the touch screen on a tablet, like the Surface 2, would be a little silly since that's your primary mode of input, though this little tip does work on devices like that one. This tip probably makes more sense if you're using an Ultrabook. And for whatever, don't care to ever use the touch capabilities of your machine. Believe it or not people like that do still exist. Mary Jo Foley isn't the biggest fan of touch on her Ultrabook, though lately it sounds like she's been warming up to touching the screen.

I'm actually curious if disabling the touch screen will give you a slight bump in battery life on something like an Ultrabook. That's something to test later out, but for now let's just show you how to actually do it.

How to disable the touch screen in Windows 8.1

Please, please have a mouse and keyboard nearby. Those two accessories will be your mode of input after disabling the touch screen.

• Right click the Start button and click Device Manager OR search for 'Device Manager' from the Windows 8.1 Start screen
• Select Human Interface Devices
• Look for a device with the words 'touch screen. In my case, it said 'HID-compliant touch screen'
• Right-click and select disable

That's it! You've now turned off your touch screen in Windows 8.1. To turn it back on, just do the same steps above, but select enable vs. disable for the touch screen.

Again, I personally won't ever need to use this, but I have seen some people curious on how to actually do it.

Do you ever disable the touch screen on your Windows 8.1 machine? Why? Sound off below.

Have a Lumia handset that is bricked or not turning on? You could it send it back for repair. Or you could take the DIY approach and try fixing it yourself using the Nokia Recovery Software Tool. It's a desktop application that is aimed at getting your ailing Lumia back up and running. Here's a quick tutorial on how to use the software.

What you'll need

• A broken (but never down for the count) Lumia
• Nokia Recovery Software Tool

Where can I download the Nokia Recovery Software Tool?

Here you go. Follow the links below to grab the Windows desktop software:

• Nokia Recovery Software Tool (U.S.)
• Nokia Recovery Software Tool (U.K.)

*## *What are the PC requirements to use this recovery tool?**

• Microsoft Windows 7 or later.
• USB cable to connect your phone to the computer.
• Minimum 2 GB free storage space.
• The files downloaded by the Nokia Software Recovery Tool may be as much as 4GB, and may take a long time, depending on your internet connection and phone model.

Does this work with my Windows Phone from HTC, Samsung or another phone maker?

No. This software is just for Lumia handsets from Nokia.

Are you ready to save your Lumia?

Yes. Let's do this.

How to save your Lumia using Nokia Recovery Software Tool – the steps

• Download and install Nokia Recovery Software Tool
• Open Nokia Software Recovery Tool
• Connect your Lumia to the PC with a USB cable
• You'll see which software version you can install on your Lumia – Click install below that
• You will need to acknowledge that the data and content on your phone will be erased. If you can still access your phone, make a backup by going into settings -> backup . You'll also need to know that photos, music and apps will be wiped during this reset process. Click that you understand and then click continue.
• You'll now begin downloading the software. Network speeds vary, but your download might take about 15 minutes.
• The software will now begin installing to your phone. Do not use your phone or disconnect the cable during this step. Just go for a quick walk while your phone and PC do their thing.
• Ta-da! You're done and have just saved your phone!

Have any questions? Sound off below or hit me up on Twitter (@samsabri). Have you ever used the Nokia Recovery Software Tool to save your Lumia? Let us know how it went!

I feel so embarrassed right now. I've had the Xbox One for about 3 months, and I just learned that the Kinect microphone has been on while playing multiplayer games. I assumed that no one could hear me when the headset isn't connected. This means other people may have heard things that I didn't want them to hear. Don't make the same mistake. Turn off that Kinect microphone.

Here's how to turn off the Kinect microphone:

1. Go to Settings. To do this, press the Menu button on your controller, or say, "Xbox, go to Settings."
2. Select Kinect.
3. Uncheck 'Use Kinect microphone for chat.'

That's it! Voice commands still work even when this setting is off.

If you ever wondered why you were hearing other people talk on the phone or having conversations with somebody else in the room, they probably do not know that Kinect is broadcasting. Did you know about this setting? Have you heard some interesting conversations while playing multiplayer games on the Xbox One? Let us know in the comments!

Running out of storage space on your Windows Phone? You've probably filled it up with games, apps, photos, music and more. If your Windows Phone has support for a SD card you're in luck. With a few taps you can move things from to your SD card from your phone's internal storage. In the process freeing up your phone's internal memory. You can also set it up so that new music, videos, podcasts, photos, apps and downloads automatically get stored in either your phone or SD card.

How to move items from your phone to your SD card

The following instructions are for Windows Phone 8.1 handsets and work regardless of your phone maker.

• In Windows Phone 8.1 go to the application list
• Scroll to and open Storage sense
• Tap phone
• Select a category (apps + games, music, videos, podcasts, photos)
• Select the app
• Tap 'move to SD'
• Your app will now be moved from the phone to the SD card

Another way to quickly move stuff to your SD card is by tapping the select button in the app+games page. This will allow you to select more than one app or game and move them to the SD card all at once. Saving you steps and taps.

Automatically install apps, games and more to the SD card

Whew. You just moved a handful of apps and games to the SD card. Can we make future apps install there automatically? Of course. Here's how you do just that using Storage sense on Windows Phone 8.1.

• In Windows Phone 8.1 go to the application list
• Scroll to and open Storage sense
• You'll see four categories on the bottom of the page (photos, apps, downloads and media)
• Tap phone for the category you want to change and then select SD card

Congratulations. You just changed the default storage for your apps from your phone to your SD card. Now you don't have to micromanage your apps when they come in.

You've started to master Storage sense on Windows Phone 8.1. Don't forget you can do more with Storage sense like uninstall multiple apps at once!

• How to move or uninstall multiple apps with Storage Sense on Windows Phone 8.1
• Windows Phone 8.1 Tips

Have any questions about SD cards and apps on Windows Phone 8.1? Ask below in the comments, hit up the Windows Phone Central forums or reach out to me on Twitter (@samsabri).

Nokia Storyteller is an app that automatically groups all your photos, videos and cinemagraphs into individual events called stories. You can browse all your stories on your timeline, modify them, and then view them as slideshows. If you're really happy with the slideshows, you can share them as story videos with friends on Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, and more.

Want to know how to do it? Head past the break to watch the video and follow the steps.

In this example, we're going to create an unboxing video of the bright orange Nokia Lumia 930, using Nokia Storyteller. It's a cool idea that we've seen Stephen Quin shared on Flickr.

1. Take photos. Lots of photos.
2. Open Nokia Storyteller.
3. Open the grouped photos you've recently taken.
4. Nokia Storyteller automatically uses the location information as the title for the video. You can change this by clicking 'Rename story.'
5. A slideshow, also known as story video, has been automatically created with transition effects. Click to watch the video.
6. Click the edit button to make some changes. You can change the music, exclude photos, and even randomize the order. There are 6 tracks to choose from.
7. Happy with the video? Take a look again before saving or sharing. The share button brings up all the apps you can send the video to. This includes Facebook, email, Flickr, and others, but our favorite is the app called Upload to Youtube.

That's it! In this example, we were able to shoot and share a simple unboxing video directly from a Windows Phone device to Youtube. It did not require a lot of work. Watch the sample video below:

We've only used photos, but Nokia Storyteller also supports videos and cinemagraphs. Add Living Images to that list if you already have the Windows Phone 8.1 update with Lumia Cyan. Storyteller is a free download from the Windows Phone Store. It's exclusively available for Lumia devices.

Have you been using Nokia Storyteller? Are you going to use it more often now that you know about this cool feature? Let us know in the comments!

Earlier today, AT&T announced that their Lumia 1520 is now receiving the Lumia Cyan and Windows Phone 8.1 updates. However, it quickly became evident that those with the Preview for Developers installed on their Lumia 1520s did not have an update, but those with Windows Phone 8.0 did. The reason for the discrepancy is Microsoft has put on hold updates for those running the Preview.

As such, those who are on the Preview and who still want the Lumia Cyan update need to downgrade their OS first. This is still Microsoft's position on the situation.

The original issue stems from those who were using the Preview for Developers version of Windows Phone 8.1 and who have BitLocker encryption enabled (through their employer). Although those affected are a small minority of users, when they installed the official 8.1 update, it caused the phone to lockup. As a precaution, Microsoft halted the Preview program for everyone. In a previous statement to Windows Phone Central, Microsoft advised:

"We are currently investigating the issue. We have paused delivery of the update to customers using the Preview for Developers, and will resume once a fix is in place. Customers whose phones have been affected should use the Nokia Software Recovery Tool to return your Lumia to a normal commercial software state before downloading the Lumia Cyan update. More information about the tool can be found at www.nokia.com/support/recovery-tool."

Microsoft is sticking with that statement today, and it applies to those with the Lumia 1520 on AT&T who would like to update now to Lumia Cyan. Presumably Microsoft will eventually push out a fix for the Preview program to allow carrier updates to continue, however, as of today they have no ETA on that update or anything further to add. In other words, it could be days or weeks.

This situation is not limited to Lumia 1520 owners on AT&T, as it applies to anyone who is on the Preview for Developers version of the OS and are eligible for the Lumia Cyan update.

What to do next

Those people wishing to grab the Lumia Cyan update today for their Lumia 1520 need to downgrade the OS to Windows Phone 8.0 first. The option to not downgrade is up to the user, but Microsoft is advising the returning the phone to 8.0. Users can take a wait-and-see approach if they desire.

Before proceeding, you are advised to back up your device first (Settings > Backup > App + settings > Back up now) before starting the restore process.

Download and install Nokia Recovery Software Tool

Now you need to grab the necessary software to restore Windows Phone 8.0.

• Nokia Recovery Software Tool (U.S.)
• Nokia Recovery Software Tool (U.K.)

Proceed to install the software on your Windows 7 or higher PC.

• Open Nokia Software Recovery Tool
• Connect your Lumia to the PC with a USB cable
• You will see which software version you can install on your Lumia – Click install below that
• You will need to acknowledge that the data and content on your phone will be erased. If you can still access your phone, make a backup by going into settings -> backup . You will also need to know that photos, music and apps will be wiped during this reset process. Click that you understand and then click continue.
• You will now begin downloading the software. Network speeds vary, but your download might take about 15 minutes.
• The software will now begin installing to your phone. Do not use your phone or disconnect the cable during this step. Just go for a quick walk while your phone and PC do their thing.

Once you are back on Windows Phone 8.0, you can then proceed to download the Windows Phone 8.1 and Lumia Cyan update from AT&T. As soon as that is completed, you can hard-reset the phone. The reason for the hard reset is so that the OS can offer up the Restore process from the backup you created earlier. Of course, if you prefer to start completely over, then you do not need to wipe the device.

More on the Nokia Recovery Software Tool process is available in our tutorial.

Earlier last week, the Nokia Creative Studio 6.0 update has become available for download at the Windows Phone Store. It has a completely redesigned interface with some new features. The bad news, as some of you have discovered, is that the update is missing Color Pop and Red-eye reduction. Nevertheless, we've spent some time with the updated Creative Studio. Read along to see how you can improve your images using the app.

Before the update, Creative Studio launched straight into the filters. Now it shows various editing options in a menu bar with your image. This includes reframe, filters, enhance, and blur. Blur background and Color Pop are listed under the menu.

Reframe

Choose the reframing option if you want to rotate, straighten and change the aspect ratio of any image. You can change this over and over again, without losing quality. Click the rectangle button to cycle around the aspect ratios. If you're planning to share it to Instagram, select the 1:1 square ratio.

Filters

If you like adding filters to your photo, you can select:

• Warm Copper
• Retro Fade
• Retro Cool
• Vivid
• B&W Fade
• B&W Strong
• B&W Antique
• Pure
• Nightlife
• Warm Horizon

Unfortunately, you cannot change the strengths of each filter. It's all or nothing. Hopefully, that option gets added in an update.

Enhance

If you want more control with the edits, select the enhance option from the menu. This gives you options to change the vibrance, shadows, brightness, clarity, and the temperature. Play with the siders until you are happy with your photo. If you're impatient, select the auto-enhance button to let Creative Studio automatically make your photo look better.

Other image editing tools such as Fhotoroom and Adobe Photoshop Express provide more editing options like sharpening, fade, tint, and noise reduction, but we're happy with the choices provided by Creative Studio.

Bokeh

There are several ways to add blur or bokeh with Creative Studio 6.0. In the blur menu, you can add a circular blur or simulate the effect of a tilt-shift lens. You move and pinch to adjust the sharp area. You can also manually adjust the amount of blur.

The blur background option is available when you click the ellipsis at the lower right corner. This asks you draw on the subject that needs to stay sharp and then draw on the background that you want to go blurry. If done well, this creates a photo that looks like it was taken with a dSLR. The edit tool lets you adjust the blurred areas. Everything masked in red appears blurry while everything else stays sharp. Use the eraser or paintbrush tool to make adjustments. You also adjust the amount of blur to apply.

Is this your favorite image editing app?

What's great about editing with Creative Studio 6.0 is that it provides non-destructive editing. You can keep adding or removing edits on the fly. If you get overwhelmed and want to start all over again, you can do that, too. Click the ellipsis at the lower right corner and then tap 'revert to original.'

Nokia Creative Studio 6.0 is a free download from the Windows Phone Store exclusively for Lumia devices. It's missing a couple of features from the previous version, but it's understandable since it is a complete redesign. That will be remedied in an update.

Is this going to be your main image editing app? Let us know in the comments!