Category: News

Sonos hike prices in UK due to Brexit

Unfortunately the UK is in for a rough ride in the next few months as the decline of the pound starts to affect prices of just about everything. We have already seen price jumps from OnePlus, steep hikes from Apple, and now Sonos are increasing their prices considerably. …

Huawei Mate 9 available on Three UK

In my opinion it’s one of the best phones to have been announced last year. Now it’s available on the high street for the buying public. Three and Huawei have just announced that the Mate 9 is going on sale in some of the Three stores and also …

Three provides power for The Breakfast in A Bag team

Let’s be honest we all often knock Mobile Networks, sometimes a little quickly, so it’s great to be able to report on a Network making a positive move to support a community. Breakfast in A Bag are a team who support the homeless in London by providing free …

Google employee suing company over spying programme

It’s often said that in current years, everything leaks. It is now rare not to find out everything about a product long before it launches. Even the uber secretive Apple now suffers leaks from product lines and even people that leave the product in a bar! One Google …

Apple Set to Appeal EU Tax Ruling This Week

Silicone Vally is not having an easy time at the moment. The worries of the incoming Trump administration have started to show, it turns out no one can work out how to do cars, and it appears their long replied on Irish tax loop hole is closing fast. …

Samsung Touchwiz renamed in new Galaxy Beta Programme update

Android skins are one of the most polarising subjects in the geek world, and Samsung’s Touchwiz receives most of the love and hate in equal amounts. Once the do it all approach of weird gestures and strange features, it has become much tamer in later editions. Now, it …

Apple reveals intentions to build self-driving car

It’s only a few weeks that reports suggested that Apple’s ambitions to enter into the car market had pretty much ground to a halt. Despite lay-offs and hints to suggest priorities have changed, Apple is very much back in the self-driving car game according to recent letters. A recent letter from …

Transport for London will track travellers through free WiFi

As citizens of the UK, unfortunately it seems we must accept monitoring of our daily lives. Not just from the government through its new Investigatory Powers Bill that will go to unpresidented lengths to monitor us, but now from private firms and public transport. Transport for London (TfL) …

Eve V 2 in 1 computer Final Specs revealed.

So I have been following this community driven computer for the last 6 months. During that time there has been a lot of discussion within the community about what the specs should be. After much toing and froing the final specs list has been revealed. I can honestly …

The modular phone is dead.. for LG

We can talk about what comes after the smartphone until the thing is actually released. However the long touted next step towards the future has died a death before it even got started. According to the Electronic Times, LG is abandoning its modular approach that it launched with …

Opposition to new Apple data centre in Ireland

Athenry, in County Galway, is a small town on the west coast of Ireland. A long long way away from the glitz and glamour of Silicon Valley. Although at the moment it is a battleground for Apple over its proposed new Apple Data Centre, as some local residents …

“Crowd-sourced” 2-in-1 named with specs – Eve V

Some of you may recall I wrote an article earlier in the year about a company called Eve-Tech. They were going down a different route with the design of a laptop / 2 in 1 device. Now they have crowd-sourced the whole design process. It is the community …

Lessening cash flows for continued HTC woes

I still love HTC. I really do. Sure, they’ve made some missteps over the years in terms of product, and they may have put out one too many phones that are pretty much exactly the same bar shape and look, but Nokia did the same thing when they …

‘Allo, Allo’, Monsieur Google!

Allo yes, this post may have the worst title but I couldn’t help it. Back at the Google I/O Developers Conference in May, they announced two new applications, Duo and Allo. The Duo app was released about a month ago, which is the simple video chatting application if you’ll recall, and …

NatWest gets abreast of Android Pay

Well, they took their time, but it’s happened – Android Pay now works for NatWest customers. We heard reports from a couple of our readers that they received an email from NatWest to announce that Android users can finally use Google Pay at tills and checkouts across the …

Eve “crowd sourced” computer close to being launched. UPDATED

Since the initial publication of this article, I have been given some new information that is relevant. All the updates are in Italics Some of you may have come across a company called Eve (not the game!). Last year they launched a tablet that was designed to be …

Jide brings Marshmallow sweetness to Remix OS

We here at Coolsmartphone towers are big fans of Jide and their Remix OS. For those that have only just come across this, this is a desktop-friendly Android OS with windows and toolbars providing a full desktop experience. It is one of a number of Android x86 projects, …

A trip to China with LeEco – MWC Shanghai

So, I have been quiet over the past few days. This has been because I have been off living the life of the jet set again. About this time every year the Chinese Mobile community all gather in the city of Shanghai to attend MWC Shanghai. This year …

Remix Pro 2 in 1 Hands on – MWC Shanghai

Jide Tech recently announced that they were making a follow up to the Remix Ultra Tablet. This was funded through Kickstarter last year. I was very lucky to find one if these devices at MWC Shanghai on the Qualcomm booth. The device I found was all setup for …

Jide Announce its next Remix, the Remix Pro

It has been a bit of time since we last heard any news from Jide (the makers of Remix Ultra Tablet and the Remix Mini). They have been working very hard on a few different projects and building their portfolio up. So, what have they been working on so …

Xiaomi’s Mi Max launched

I am a fan of big screened phones this is something that I don’t try to hide at all. One of my favourite devices of all time was the Xperia Z Ultra from Sony, I have owned 3 of them in the past. I just really liked the size …

Honor due to release their version of the P9 soon?

Huawei have released their P9 and P9 Plus and we will be seeing them in store very very soon. The phone looks to be a fantastic bit of kit and we are very excited about as you may have been able to see from Leigh’s extensive coverage. However, …

Apple Announce the iPhone SE and a Smaller iPad Pro

So size does seem to matter in Apple’s world after all it seems. Following a couple of years increasing their screen sizes, they have now announced a couple of downsized versions of their most popular devices. They are the new iPhone SE and an iPad Pro with a smaller …

MWC – A tour of the SanDisk stand

I went out to SanDisk earlier today and thought it would be a good plan to check out thread latest wares. Unlike last year where they announced the 200GB memory card -the largest on the market – they did not have such a huge amount to shout about …

MWC – Lenovo Tab3 series. Hands on.

Lenovo had a slightly smaller presence at MWC this year. but nonetheless we still went out to see them and to see what other new products they were announcing. Phone-wise we have already seen most of their stuff for this year. That is taken care of under the …

MWC – Acer Jade Primo hands on

We took a chance to go out to see the Acer booth and whilst we were out there we came across the recently announced Jade Primo Windows 10 mobile. Now we have already covered this one during our IFA coverage from last year. Although we covered it there …

MWC – Sony Xperia X Series

Sony has just finished their announcement for MWC 16 and along with some interesting looking non-phone devices, they released the new Xperia X Series. This series will come in two different versions; the Xperia X and the Xperia XA, there is also a Xperia X Performance but unfortunately …

MWC – HP Elite X3 brings Windows 10 Mobile back in the game

Long when we thought Windows 10 Mobile wasn’t going to see any support further than the Lumias and the Acer Jade Primo, HP has surprised quite a few people with the announcement of the Elite X3. Yes, that’s right – not only are HP going in on Windows …

Virtual Reality and the Fight against Depression

If you have listened to this week’s podcast, (if not, stop right now and listen here) you will be aware that we are currently trying to raise awareness of mental well-being issues after the experiences of our man Dan. Virtual Reality  is a bit of a buzzword in …

5G and the ‘Internet of Things’

5G and the ‘Internet of Things’ sounds like a movie title, however it will be a reality sooner than we think. The ‘Internet of Things’ is about everyday devices like fridges, TVs, washing machines and kettles all connecting to the internet to make our lives more connected. We …

David Haye Boxing Match to be Recorded in VR and 360 Degree Video

Update 15/01/16 – You can download the Android App to watch the David Haye fight in VR and 360 Degree video here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.im360.davidhaye Whilst recording this weeks Podcast we became aware of some Breaking News that just been announced by top British boxer David Haye. Tonight David Haye …

CES – Huawei Watch range expanded

Huawei has announced that they will be expanding their Watch range with two new models. These have been designed for the fairer sex or those who have skinny wrists – i.e. me! The new watches do add an element of glamour to the proceedings with some bedazzling ornamentation. The …

Acer release a new Windows 10 phone – CES

We first saw this phone being discussed way back in September at IFA, but at that time we were unable to get any hands on time. Now that it is official we can bring you the specs of the phone and it looks good. Specs Operating system- Windows …

GoPro’s first drone will be called called ‘Karma’

GroPro’s first drone, due to arrive in the first half of 2016 will be called ‘Karma’ (a potential dig at DJI for not partnering with them?), but that is pretty much all we know. Back in October, GoPro did tease us with test footage that was filmed with …

Cortana is bridging the OS gap UPDATE

Those of us who use Siri and Google Now will be familiar with the difficulties and idiosyncrasies of using a voice assistant. They sometime work and sometimes….. they don’t. They struggle with regional accents (if you are a Brummie or Glaswegian, you get me). Sometimes they are just …