Microsoft Lumia 640 Tips and Tricks

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 Wi-Fi router. Then make sure the phone is connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

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

While in the Music player, you can enable Replay mode. Just open a Song, then press on the Album. A Replay symbol should then appear.

To protect your phone from kids, Windows Phone comes with a Kids Corner feature.

To activate it, go to Settings – Kids Corner and enable it. You can then enable or disable certain content that you want to prevent access to. Options include games, videos, music and apps.

Once it is setup, swipe from Right to Left and you should see Kids Corner. And then swipe Down to Up to remove the Lock Screen.

To open websites in a new browser tab, then simply Press and Hold on a hyperlink and select Open in new tab.

To make a sound when you receive emails, go to Settings – Ringtones & sounds. Then choose a sound for email

To maximise the viewable area when viewing websites, then you can rotate the phone to landscape mode.

This has the effect of hiding the menu toolbar and address bar so that you can see more of the website.

A neat future of Windows Phone is the Glance settings for your Lock Screen which allows you to setup a number of useful Glance or Peek features when your phone is in Standby. Normally on your lock screen you can Glance at the time, but there are many more options.

To find these options, go to Settings – Glance Screen.

From here you can setup quite a few options, including a timeout if you’re concerned about using your battery when using this feature. You can also set it up so that when you Glance at night, it will show a dark colour rather than a white glare which is hard on the eyes.

If you would like your phone to announce who is calling you, then from the homescreen, scroll to the right and choose Settings. Then Easy of access. Then press Speech for phone accessibility.

Because of the touch screen sensitivity, it can be hard to position the cursor within a certain word. To get around this, Press and Hold on a word. While dragging the cursor along the letters, pull your finger down. The cursor will move along, but you will be able to see it as your finger will be out of the way

There is a way to filter your contact lists, however by default your Contacts list will show all Contacts for the various accounts you have setup on your phone. This list may include Facebook and Twitter and the list can become quite long.

To filter your contacts, go to Start, then flick left to the Applications list. Then press Settings – Applications – People. Then select Filter your contact list. Then choose the accounts you want displayed on your Contacts list.