Problems sending Messages via Voice with Windows Phone 8

Problem

So I started having issues after moving to Windows Phone 8 sending texts via voice. I would press and hold down the Windows key to get it to accept my command.

After doing this I would state my command of "Text (Person's Name)" and if I said it without food in my mouth it would recognize the command and show the next dialog box.

It would then bring up the next screen giving me the option to "say your message"

After stating my message whatever it was, in this case it was "Purple people eater" then it would show me this screen.

Now if I continue to do everything by voice as well as sending then everything works, but their are instances where I manually want to add some additional text that it is having a hard time recognizing. To do this pressing on the pencil in the middle, aka "Edit", allows you to do just that and brings up the next screen. I can then add what I want and then press the "Send" button.

 The problem is that I then get an error shortly after sending it.

If you have a sharp eye then you noticed in the last two pictures it is actually showing two recipients. Now I never added the second recipient. When you press "Edit" it for some reason adds just the last name of your recipient. This last name does not have any number associated so it errors out although for some reason it thinks it has an email address of the last name as shown below:

 

This can be re-created as many times as you want. I am using Windows Phone 8 running on a Nokia Lumia 920 running the portico the latest update through ATT. Now enough with the problem.

 

Solution



So I started thinking it was odd that it was just the last name. I remember there was a way to change how contacts were displayed in the "people" hub. So if you go under "Settings" and then "Applications." Clicking on "people" brings up the people settings.

Now changing the "Sort list by" either to "First name" or "Last name" results in the same behavior. So I decided to change the "Display names by" setting from "Last, First" to "First Last."

 

Upon testing the same procedure show above, clicking on "Edit" shows the following message screen.

As you can see above there is only one name now. Sending this message does not result in any error being displayed later.

 

So if you are facing the follow behavior you can either change your "Display names by" to "First Last" or you can delete the last name of your contact out of the "To:" field each time. Either way I hope this gets fixed in a future patch.

 

Sorry for the large number of images, just wanted to properly document this bug.

 



 

 

Communication Error when Printing PDFs from Windows 8 Reader

The Problem

I recently installed Windows 8 and did an upgrade from Windows 8. This worked great and I have been enjoying it for the last couple of days. Today I ran into an issue though. I was trying to print out a PDF using Microsoft's Reader.

With Windows 8 you do this by bringing up the charm bar on the right of the screen in the app you want to print and clicking on devices.

To bring up the charm bar for a device with keyboard/mouse press "Windows Key + C" or take your mouse to the very upper-right or lower-right of the screen and it will appear

After clicking on Devices it should display your printer as well as some other devices. You then click on your printer. After doing this you should get a Print Preview as well as some options that allow you to print out the document.

In my case though instead of getting the preview as you see to the left I got an error, which I wish I had print screened but sadly didn't. It stated something along the lines of not being able to communicate with the printer. This was odd for me and I guessed it had some issue with the driver. The odd thing though was that when I was in the "Desktop" mode than the printer printed fine. I guessed then that the driver from Windows 7 was not compatible with the Metro section of Windows 8.

This was odd to me since the print drivers for Windows 8 are awesome in that they are supposed to provide basic print functionality for pretty much every printer. Meaning that unlike what many people did when they upgraded to Vista or 7 you don't need to purchase a new printer. You can read more about this here: MSDN Blog Article: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/07/25/simplifying-printing-in-windows-8.aspx

The Solution

I went into the printer properties for my printer and it showed the right driver. I then deleted my printer. I then went to re-added my printer. I noticed one of the other ways didn't work so the way that worked for me to find my printer was to open "Devices and Printers" and click on "Add a Printer"

My printer was then discovered and I added it. It then used one of the class drivers which provide compatibility with printers that are not compatible with Windows 8, called "Brother Laser Leg Type2 Class Driver". This was for a Brother HL2070N.

I thought that the fact that Windows 8 had picked this driver I was probably in a better place. Sure enough opening my PDF, bringing up the charm bar then devices and clicking on my printer brought up the print preview and allowed me to successfully print out my PDF.

So my recommendation for people having printer problems would be to delete them and then re-add them. Windows 8 will select the best driver and you should be good to go.

Hope this helps everyone using the Microsoft Reader, athough I am guessing this would have been a problem with Adobe Reader too if it is metro compatible.

 

Windows Phone Time and Battery Status

Problem
I am a Windows Phone user of which previously I owned the LG Quantum, Nokia Lumia 900, Samsung Focus Flash, and currently a Nokia Lumia 920. I really enjoy the OS. It allows me to quickly move from one task to the next while staying productive. Additionally full versions of Office are a must for a Business professional or a user desiring to be productive.

There is an issue that I have seen many people claim is a problem, although I think they have just been trained this way, which is the inability to know what time it is, or the current battery level at all times. IOS(iPhone/iPad) and android have a static status bar that shows these things and people have grown accustom to this. Windows Phone does not use a always on status bar instead freeing it up for the user. Change is a rough thing for us people, but it can be for the better.

Solution
There are a couple of ways to see the time and battery status of a Windows Phone device at any time. First when you wake up your phone it will show you the time and battery status on your phone, on the lock-screen as well as the date and your next appointment and various other tidbits.

This is great for when you use your phone in spurts but what about if you are using it in length and want to know your current batter status there are three other quick ways to determine this. On the home screen as well as in some other applications just touch above the top of screen and swipe down just slightly onto the top portion of the screen and the status icons appear, although they only stay about 10 seconds or so. Some applications do not support this though.

Another application that I use a lot that allows for a quick way to determine the time and battery status is Internet Explorer. IF you are browsing in IE. while holding you phone vertically instead of horizontally.Click in the address bar or swipe up on the three dots that are in the bottom right corner. This will cause the status bar to appear at the top of the screen. This is probably the one I use most besides the other three methods.

The last method can be used anywhere and at anytime is probably the one I haven't seen shared before, although it might have been, so I will display the whole picture so you can see it more clearly. No matter where you are, just click and hold the back button until the app swapping screen pops up. Touching right above the top of the screen and swipe down onto the screen at which point the status bar appears. I see this as the most powerful method since it can be done anywhere and anytime.

It can also be done in horizontal mode swipe the same way and from the same spot above the screen or on the speaker swipe your finger onto the screen. and the status appears.

Conclusion
I favor Windows Phones for numerous reasons particularly Nokia due to the amount of software they provide for free for their phone owners. Windows Phone can do what is wanted by most users, its just a method of thinking differently. Hope this helps.

New Job = New Angle

So I transitioned jobs in June. Actually June 11th was my new start date. Due to this then I don't have access to the old equipment that I found fixes for in reference to my posts(ie Windows Server EBS 2008 and Avaya IP Office). I mention this because if someone asks me about that stuff I can't really help out there, except from memory. This is part of why there has been a drop in the number of posts I put here. Also this comes from the fact that I have less time with the new job and doing school.

With that in mind than I will try and post information that I find useful at home. Now my new job will also allow me to share helpful information on different products, but I will have to be a tad more vague due to the sensitivity of my new job. I also may post information that describes best security or network practices.

I hope to begin posting useful stuff again soon.
Thanks

Best Buy $1000 Gift Card Text Scam

I was recently contacted by someone regarding a text they got from Best Buy. It said the following: "Your entry last month has WON! Goto http://www.bestbuy.com.wgmc.biz/?claimid=912" They were asking me if it was a legit offer. Well it wasn't much longer tell I received the text myself later. Here is a picture of it:

The Scam in text form

At first appearance it may look like a legit link. Sadly that is not the case. The first sign of this being bad is that at the tail end of the link you see: .wgmc.biz. Sadly someone has registered wgmc.biz and then created a subdomain to add the info in front to make it appear as if it was from bestbuy. You can look at the whois info by following this link:  http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/wgmc.biz

The above picture is a screenshot of the scam intro. Here you are supposed to put in the winning code. Another bad sign though is that you can actually type in whatever code and it always says that you have a winning code and then takes you to another link. This one is biggerbidder.net, so another sign to stop, even though it shows the BestBuy images below:

I put in a a fake GMail account and random zip code info. If you proceed past this then you get a pop up and some additional offers. It also forces you to sign up for two different offers. At this point I stopped. At this point it is obviously a scam. These guys should be dealt with since our phones shoud be a sanctuary from scam, but guess it was only a matter of time.

Bottom line this  is a SCAM

Note: It says the call is from: 1 (310) 849-7742. Hopefully someone stops them.

UPDATE 5/4/2012 - I noticed the scam they used in the text they sent me for the scam no longer works, either it got pulled down or the server did. Either way I am sure they have rebounded and using new domains and/or servers. So even though it may not match the URL everything else should still apply. Be Safe