News
The News app offers the latest news stories
from various categories, which are listed on the main News screen and
include World, Technology, Business, Entertainment, Politics, and
Sports. The main screen also includes a Top Story section and a section
related to news from your region. To see a list of the sources used by
the News app, right-click the screen and then click Sources. In the
Sources screen, you can also click a source to see articles from just
that media outlet.
Note
By default, News shows you stories tailored
to your current Windows 8 regional setting. To see articles from a
different region, press Windows Logo+I (or display the Charms menu and
click Settings), click Settings, and then use the Display Content From
list to choose the location you want. Restart News to put the new
setting into effect.
Most usefully, the News app includes a My
News screen that enables you to display articles on those news topics
that most interest you. Here’s how you set up the My News screen:
1. In the News app, right-click the screen and then click My News. The News app opens the My News screen.
2. If you have no sections added, click Add a Section (+). Otherwise, right-click the screen and then click Add a Section.
3. Use the Add a
Section text box to begin typing the news topic you want to follow. As
you type, News displays a list of matching topics, as shown in Figure 3
Figure 3. Type the news topic you want to add as a section in the My News screen.
4. When you see the topic you want, click it.
5. Repeat steps 2–4 to add other sections that interest you.
People
The People app may be the most ambitious of
the default Windows 8 apps. Why? First, it’s a competent contacts
manager that can store a wide variety of information about each person,
including name, company name, email address, web address, street
address, phone number, and job title. More significantly, People acts
as the social networking hub for your Windows 8 PC. Not only does
People automatically connect to the social network associated with your
Microsoft account, but it can also connect that account to other social
networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (see Figure 4).
To add a social network account, click Add More Accounts and then click
the account type. From there, you log in to your social network and
give permission for your Microsoft account to access your social
network profile.
Figure 4.
You can use the People app to connect your Microsoft account to a
number of social networking accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, and
LinkedIn.
Once you’re connected to other social
networks, your contacts from those networks—for example, your Facebook
friends, LinkedIn connections, and the people you follow on Twitter—now
appear in the People section of the app. You have various ways to view
and interact with these contacts. To do this, you use the two main
headings at the top of the People app screen (if you don’t see these
headings, right-click the screen and then click Home):
• All—Displays a list
of all your contacts. To view information about a contact and see that
person’s latest social network activity, click the contact in the All
section. The screen that appears enables you to view the person’s
profile, view the latest updates, and see the latest photos.
• Social—Displays
links to your social networks. To see the latest updates (tweets,
Facebook posts, and so on), click the What’s New link. Note, too, that
you can interact with these updates. For example, you can like or
comment on a Facebook post, and you can favorite, retweet, or reply to
a tweet. To see notifications from your social networks, Twitter
mentions and direct messages, and similar items related to you, click
the Me link.
Tip
To disconnect a social network from your
Microsoft account, click Connected To in the upper-right corner to open
the Accounts pane, click the account you want to disconnect, and then
click Manage This Account Online. Windows 8 switches to Internet
Explorer and loads the account’s settings page. Click Remove This
Connection Completely and then click Remove when asked to confirm.
