Making Valentine’s Day Special with Help from HP (Day 4)
So, only a couple days left until Valentine’s Day! Are you excited?? Someone here will be waking up to an email that says they’ve won a HP ENVY X2 Laptop (that seamlessly doubles as a tablet) AND a Photosmart eAIO 7520 printer!! HOW EXCITING IS THIS?? I really can’t wait to see whose name will be randomly drawn from Rafflecopter once we hit midnight into February 14th! WOOT!
So today, I figured it would be a good day to show how you can organize the Windows 8 Start page to better maximize your time for upcoming holidays. It’s truly simple, though not readily apparent, so hopefully this will help a few of you out. (Click on the images below to see the larger sizes.)
This is a bit of what my Start/Metro Screen looks like for my laptop. With 8 Apps bunched together and placed right where I’ll see it first when the screen loads, I can access the files I need right away. I obviously won’t need these apps grouped together after Valentine’s Day, but it’s easy enough to drag the tiles from one group to another, so that’s not something that I’m concerned about. Come February 15th, I’ll separate these Windows 8 applications into groups that are more suited for day-to-day usage.
Tile groups are created by dragging the icons around on the Start screen. If you right-click a tile, there’s an option on whether to make it smaller or larger (whether the icon takes up one space or two.) It did take me a while though to figure out how to label the group… you know, just so I wouldn’t forget why these apps were grouped together; but it’s probably one of the easiest things to do in the Metro screen.
This tip I’m going to show you requires a mouse. If there’s a way to do the same thing while in touchscreen mode, I have yet to find it!
First thing to do is to click the “-” box at the very bottom, right-hand corner.
You will see all of your Metro tiles in pint size (and if you want to get out of this screen, just click anywhere around the tiles.) Right click the tile group you wish to label/rename; this will bring up a hidden bar at the bottom of your screen as shown below.
Click on the Name group button, and label the group as you see fit. Once you’re done with your labelling fun, click anywhere around the tiles to get out of this “hidden” screen.
Now let’s check out the group of Apps that I’ve chose for Valentine’s Day!
The CyberLink YouCam is an easy to use camera app with up to 8MPs of clearity! Even while using your tablet as your music player, this app will take all the gorgeous photos you want it to on the 14th. It also doubles as a video camera if you want to turn your kid’s antics into a timeless moment! Also? Thanks to the Photosmart eAIO 7520 printer from HP, you can print those pics right away without any other setup. Click the ePrint button, and as long as there’s photo-paper in the right trays, your photos will be printed instantly.
For those whose significant others are not close by for Valentine’s Day, you can still keep in touch (and even have a simulcasted candle-lit dinner if set up beforehand,) with your loved one. 🙂
Enjoy photos from your past over your special meal. Windows 8 has a beautiful collage app that automatically rotates images from your selected sources (as shown below.)
Between Netflix and xbox video you have a TON of awesome movies and TV shows to watch on demand. Imagine snuggling up with your partner and watching Skyfall in your lap, lol. This is a movie that The Hubs and I have yet to see, so am going to bring on the Puppy Dog Eyes of Doom to convince him to rent it for the night.
I spoke about this app at length yesterday, though I did make an edit today! Turns out there is a super-simple Search function. All you have to do is swipe open the Windows 8 Charms from the right hand of the screen and use the Search icon to find exactly what you want right away.
Using the Windows 8 App store, I found a multitude of cook books to choose from, but even at a cost of $4.99 the iCookBook app sounds like THE app to use to find recipes. A great free alternative is AllRecipes (which is always in the top three results whenever you search for a recipe on google.) The awesome bit? I found a bunch of Cheese and Chocolate fondue recipes, so I’m all set!
And finally Evernote! Oh the love I have for the Evernote app! It’s fabulous for taking notes (so if I want to write out a poem to go into The Hubs’ card, I’ve got an app for that. Grocery list for dinner? Yep! Really any type of note-taking you need to do, Evernote is fab to keep it all together; especially as one Evernote account can be synced with your desktops, laptops, and smartphones – essentially, any internet-enabled tech can launch Evernote so that you can view your notes whenever and wherever you need.
If this is the first post you’ve seen for this series, you have a chance to win the HP ENVY X2 laptop (that doubles as a tablet) AND eAIO 7520 Photosmart Printer! Complete the rafflecopter ballot box to enter below.
This blog post has been compensated, but please rest assured that it in no way affects the information that I’m imparting to you. I want you to have the best that’s available out there, so you won’t ever find “lemons” from me.
54 Responses
I think the Window8 App store to find cookbooks to make a fab dinner would be most helpful to plan Valentines Day But the Netflixs to plan a great movie would be a great for after dinner! Cathy Notnac aka Cathy Canton Love all the ideas BTW
The iCookBook app sounds awesome to make your sweetie a nice V Day dinner!
Skype for long distance relationships and the Music app to set the mood.
Skype is a good app to have.
I think the iCookBook app would help the most.
skype
I love the CyberLink YouCam. The apps are better than I had imagined. This is just so awesome. Makes my old notebook look very shabby!
Iove this contest – thank you Aeryn and thank you HP!
i like the skype app because i need it for work and personal use.
I think Skype would help me on Valentine’s Day. I can say “Hello” to my loved ones.
Netflix! Great for catching up on shows when I can’t sleep or I’m up late with the baby.
Skype would help the most so we could talk
Definitely Skype! It’s the next best thing if you can’t spend the day together in person.
Netflix would help the most this Valentine’s Day. We won’t be going out for Valentine’s Day, so watching some movies together on Netflix sounds good.
I think youcam would be loads of fun for Valentine’s Day
Skype!
I rely on Netflix for most of my entertainment.
Skype for when my son is away at college.
Evernote! To keep everything organized and laid out as opposed to scribbles on a paper that start out legible but turn into some kind of abstract art that I’m suppose to read from.
I’ve got a serious softspot for Evernote, but I figure iCookbook is going to be the most useful for Valentine’s Day.
The CyberLink YouCam app would be very useful for taking great photos on Valentine’s day.
I think the iCookbook would be amazing for Valentines
The iCookbook would be really handy!
Netflix would be fantastic to keep my daughters entertained, not to mention snuggling up on the sofa with my lovely hubby 🙂
Skype
I think the Icookbook would be the best! Mostly because I’m always looking for new dinner ideas.
I think Netflix just so we could find a film we have not seen before
meikleblog at gmail dot com
I think music so I could set the mood.
skype to wish family far away a happy valentines day 🙂
I would use Evernote for all of my note taking
The Netflix app would be perfect for watching a movie with my family
I would use the iCookBook app to find a great meal to make my hubby!
Windows 8 Charms used for music is perfect as I could set up the music let the computer go to sleep and when my wife wakes the computer the music would start to play
I would use Netflix to see some movies on Valentines day.
icook book app
I think the collage app is great – really nice to look at the various pics of previous great times spent together. very cool app!
entering in rafflecopter as jen s.
The netflix app will definitely help me pick out a nice romantic movie to watch with hubby tomorrow night after the kids are in bed.
It looks really great!! Ahhh I’m so jealous, though — I’m still running Windows Vista on my laptop and Windows XP on my netbook because I can’t find compatible drivers for new OSs…
The iCookbook app would have been really useful to help me for making baked goods!!
These look like awesome! I think I’d love the iCookbook to find a super yummy sweet treat for myself and my husband!
Skype! Being able to connect with family on Valentines!
Netflix to watch movies!
I am a subscriber to Netflix so this is the app that I will be using…it will be hard to choose which movie to pick though…
Netflix to watch a romantic movie – ginette4
evernote would be handy for typing up a little poem for the card i will make. Or even leaving a note on screen for him when he wakes up
Netflix to watch movies together.
I like the iCookBook app the best.
Netflix for a sweet romance/comedy chick flick ♥ to enjoy together…then an action adventure to please Mr. Toothfairy ☺
The icookbook app would help me the most.
Netflix for a night in with a great movie
Netflix for watching a nice romantic movie. 🙂
Netflix on the Envyx2 would be awesome. With the double battery, you should be able to play music and watch a movie without wires — and not have to charge.
Most definitely Skype!!! This is how my ‘date’ will be possible as my partner is on the other side of the world.
Ooh, I like the cookbook app. That would be awesome!
Oh snap! How did I miss this contest?!! Grr….also just when windows goes and does something cool like Windows Eight, I am all like let’s buy a Mac instead for a change. I do kind of wonder how cool Windows 8 is.