Live Tile Setup A tile has to be pre-configured by the app developer to be live. The app feeds information to the tile. For some live tiles to be able to show information, the corresponding app has to be launched once. After that, the tile starts getting content from the app. The Finance app has such a tile. After the app has been launched, it starts showing the share information of different companies. There are some apps that need to be configured before they can feed some information to its live tile. For example, the Mail app needs to have a mail account configured so that it can show unread mails on the live tile.
Live Nature of Tiles
The live tiles keeps changing its contents, thus feeding large amount of information in a small space. For example, my Finance app tile animates three different types of information, as shown below.Content of Live Tiles
The type of information depends on the app. A few examples are listed below.- Weather Tile
- Mail app Tile
It shows unread mails as well as the number of new mails since launching the app.
- People app Tile
This tile shows photos from locally stored contacts as well as services like Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.
- Photos app Tile
This live tile displays photos from services like Facebook, SkyDrive, Flickr, local Pictures Library and any device connected to PC.
Toggling Live Tiles
If you feel too much overloaded with information, you can turn off the live tiles. To do that (and vice versa), right click on the desired tile to select it. A contextual menu will slide up from the bottom of the screen. Select the option “Turn live tiles on/off” to turn the tile on or off. [caption id="attachment_20641" align="alignnone" width="640"]
Figure 1 Toggle a live tile[/caption]
Conclusion
Live Tile is one of the most innovative concepts of Metro interface. It is nice to see a screen full of live tiles, each trying to feed you some tiny bit of information – all on a single screen. There is always the option to turn them off if you feel that too much information is leaking out of your screen.]]>
