Category: Quick Tip

With Black Friday just a day away, it is now well past the time for getting prepared.  Sure I will be running Black Friday and Cyber Weekend deals here on the site but I know some of you just have to get out there and mingle in the crowds looking for that gift or bargin.  If you are one of those who will be up at 4:00 AM – or maybe not go to bed given some stores are opening at Midnight – there is a great built-in tool for you to use on your Windows Phone.  Bing!

With the release of Windows Phone 7.5, the Search function (powered by Bing) on the devices become much more powerful.  Now Bing includes BIng Vision, which brings you the ability to scan barcodes but also books, DVDs and CDs for reviews.  And of course, it is free because every Windows Phone running Mango has it.

To use Bing Vision, just press the Search button on your Windows Phone to open Bing.  Next, tap the eye icon at the bottom.  Now you can scan a traditional barcode, QR Code or Microsoft Tag and get pricing information about that item.  If you hold your phone over a book cover, CD or DVD you will get links to reviews of that item to see if it is something you really want to purchase.

Bing Vision on Windows Phone

There is no doubt as you shop on Black Friday or any other day that Bing Vision can be a real time saver and give you great information and reviews on the products you are interested in buying.  If you haven’t tried it out before, take your phone to your bookshelf or find a barcode to scan at home see what Bing Vision can do.

It’s the end of the day and you notice that your Windows Phone has just a sliver of battery life left according to the battery indicator.  How can you conserve that precious battery power until you get into your car or home to charge it again?  Easy, just remove some Live Tiles.

Like applications that are running in the background, Live Tiles use up power by regularly using your 3G antenna or WiFi connection to keep information in them up-to-date.  Logically this makes perfect sense as they are after all “live” tiles.  So removing some of them can help cut down on the battery consumption your phone is using in a pinch.