With the upcoming release of the Trophy, I thought I would give you all some tips so that you're ready for your phone when you get it. With a little pre-planning, you can walk out of the store with all your contacts in the phone. Or open the box, and have it full of contacts in less than 5 minutes.
1. If you don't have a Live account (email ending in live.com or hotmail.com), set one up. This is what your contacts will sync with.
2. I think you can sync contacts with gmail but I have not tried.
3. If you use Outlook, and your contacts are there, you can no longer sync directly with Outlook through your computer/data cable. You can use the Hotmail/Outlook Exchange Connector, and sync your Outlook contacts to your Live account. Google it - the directions are pretty easy to find.
4. If you don't have the Zune desktop software installed, install it. That is what your phone will sync with through the computer, and that is how you will get software updates for the phone. No more Windows Mobile Device Center.
5. You can search Marketplace from Zune or from the phone. If you do it with Zune, before you get your phone, you can't install. Once you sync up the phone with Zune the first time, you can click install anytime, whether the phone is connected to Zune or not. When you connect the phone to Zune, it will install any apps that you have clicked install on while the phone was not hooked up.
6. If you install an app through Zune on the desktop, if you ever erase your phone and start over, any apps installed through Zune will reinstall to the phone automatically (though no data will be recovered). Any that were installed through Marketplace on the phone will have to be manually reinstalled. This is the case with getting a new phone, as well.
7. When you get your hands on your phone, first thing you do is sign into your Live account. Once you do that, it will begin syncing your Live contacts to the phone right away. SWEET. This is handy if you change phones.
8. Speaking of changing phones, if you need to erase your phone, click settings, about, reset your phone. You will get not one, but two confirmation boxes. It's as simple as that.
9. Setting up gmail accounts is a piece of cake, as is yahoo. Haven't tried any others (use Advanced for others).
10. Lose your phone? Go to your computer, log into your Live account, hover over Live at the top, then click Devices, and you can map where your phone was last (hopefully you turned on location services before you lost it), you can lock it with a code, and put a message on the lock screen, you can make it ring, even if it is on vibrate, or you can erase it completely, if you think you'll never see it again. All from right there on live.com. SWEET.
11. Use Twitter? MoTweets is the one I use. Nice. Looking for a FourSquare app? 4th and Mayor is the best, hands down. Facebook? Depends on how much you use it, but the MS app isn't too bad, and Facebook integrates with the People and Picture hubs as well. Gas Buddy is a handy tool, and I like the Geocaching app. Netflix app lets you stream movies to the phone. ShopSavvy will let you take a picture of a bar code, and will search for the item online, giving you both online and local prices, though I have had quite a few errors out of it. Where's my car is a good one if you find yourself in unfamiliar areas often, and have to walk some distance from your car. Mark the GPS location of the car, take a picture of where it is, and you follow the Bing map to the car when you're ready to go back to it. Oh, and if you're on a diet, and use WeightWatchers points system, download PlusPoints - that's my app (shameless plug)!
I hope that this proves helpful to all of you who will be getting your hands on a WP7 device for the first time this week. If I think of more, I'll post them. Got questions? Ask!
