Nokia Lumia 521 Tips and Tricks

Go to your Pictures tile. Select the Picture you want as the background. Press and Hold on the picture. Then select Change background. You can then adjust the picture by zooming or panning. You can also allow the phone to randomly choose a picture by pressing, holding and selecting ‘Change it for me’

If a URL is wrong, then it will often be cut off the screen. To see the whole thing, simply swipe left or right on the text to view the whole address.

A neat feature is the idea of Rooms, which allow other Windows Phone users to share pictures, chat, make appointments and so on.

First, go to the People Hub and the word ‘together’ should appear. From here press the ‘+’ key at the bottom and then choose Room. Then choose a name and press the save button (floppy disc symbol) at the bottom.

Next, you can press the ‘+’ at the bottom and add people to the room, just like you would navigate your Contact list.

When you’ve added everyone you want to include, press the Tick symbol and your contacts will now be told about the new Room (assuming they have a Windows Phone).

To delete maps history, start from the homescreen and scroll to the right.

Then choose Settings – Applications. Then select Maps.

From here you can delete various parts of the maps history.

To put your phone in flight mode, or offline mode, go to Start – Applications list – Settings. Then press Flight mode.

If you want to type a word with a capital letter, you can press and hold on the Shift key, then slide your finger to the letter and then release. This saves having to press Shift then pressing the letter.

The same thing works for numbers – press and hold the &123 key, then slide your finger to a number and release. The keyboard will then return to the Alphabetical keyboard so you don’t need to toggle between the two

Windows Phone 7 comes with a handy service whereby you can remotely lock or erase your phone should it be stolen. You can also use it to call your phone if you have misplaced it around the house. You can also find your phone on a map. Go to windowsphone.live.com to set this service up

If you want to change the text (or font) on your phone, then go to Settings – Ease of Access.

From here you can move a horizontal bar to change the font size. You will also see some other accessibility options like high contrast and TTY/TDD.

You can use your smartphone as an Xbox controller.

First, download and install the Xbox SmartGlass App (formerly known as My Xbox Live). Once this is installed go to Xbox hub and make sure your Xbox is turned on and connected to your WiFi router. Then make sure the phone is connected to the same WiFi network.

If that is all setup, then the App will sign you in and you can start controlling your Xbox with the phone.

Instead of copying and pasting text you see on a website, you can highlight a word. Then press the Search button to search for the word on Bing