Tag: design

OnePlus 8T Concept design revealed

Want to see the OnePlus 8T? Sure, no problem – just read our OnePlus 8T Review. It’s got up-close photos and everything you need to know. However, there’s also a OnePlus 8T Concept phone which we can reveal today. The nice guys at OnePlus have given us some …

Create your own Coolsmartphone face masks

Now that we’re wearing face masks more, you don’t necessarily need to just grab the nearest one you find. Head to sites online and you can design your own. We’ve spotted some at Contrado which are made from non-irritable, latex free, sweat preventative material and, best of all, …

Building a modern, mobile-centric website

Websites, as you have most probably noticed, have changed immensely over the last decade or two. For us here at Coolsmartphone it’s been quite a transition. We had a separate website for mobile phone users, which was a slimmed down and low-tech version. To get the full experience, …

Getting your mobile app design right

What I loved most about the old BBC iPlayer Radio app was the GUI. The design of the interface was straightforward, easy-to-understand and worked well. Whether you were sat still or going for a jog – you had a natural and simple interface that did exactly what you …

Why aren’t more Swiss watchmakers embracing smartwatches?

On a daily basis you’ll find that, like many people, I’m wearing a fitness band. It doubles as a watch / notification device and the battery lasts for quite some time. You’ll no doubt be familiar with devices like this – they’ll keep track of your step count, …

Get noticed when deploying an app with a professional logo

If you’re developing an app, it’s already hard enough to be noticed. There’s millions of apps on the Android and iPhone market and probably many hundreds in the category that you’re aiming to be part of. First, you need a good app – one that does the job …

Our new, friendlier iPad layout

If you use an iPad to browse the site, you may have noticed that everything was a bit squashed. We’ve had a few emails about this so we approached the web design people and they said, “Yeah, we’ll sort it. Here’s an invoice for £2000” Then, after finding …

Design your own smartphone game on paper, then play!

I walked into the kitchen this morning to find my son drawing what appeared to be a platform game on a piece of paper. When I asked what he was doing, he told me that he was designing his own smartphone game. “That’s nice”, I thought, but then …

Why should local businesses rely on just Google and Facebook?

It’s 2017. The internet has been around for quite a long time and, I’ll freely admit, so have I. I’ve seen web pages go from simple blocky creations to Flash-heavy monstrosities. I’ve seen us go from huge CRT monitors and PC’s to tablets and mobiles. Here’s how our …

The future is Perspex

Two devices have recently launched aimed at the sizeable retro, or nostalgia markets. One is the Nokia 3310, a kind of glossed-up redesign of a classic dumb phone, snakes and all, which was so popular and ubiquitous back in its day that even people who didn’t own one …

IFA Berlin 2016 – A Chat With Stil – Mockodile FTW!

Today at IFA in Berlin I had a chat with Stil, makers of premium fashion cases for smartphones. There is  event Stil Mockodile cases. Here at Coolsmartphone.com we look after our devices, and where possible want a premium case to remind everyone that we are masters of fashion …

IFA Berlin 2016 – ZTE Press Conference

ZTE. Definitely not last in the smartphone race despite that alphabetical challenge. The IFA 2016 ZTE Press Conference is happening, so let’s get down to the happenings. Adam Zeng, CEO of ZTE Mobile Devices tells us that ZTE is globally the sixth biggest shipper of smartphones, and the …

Got a Smartwatch? Want wood for it?

Smartwatches are starting to become a proper “thing” now and, with more and more people buying into the sector, there will be more and more demand for accessories. As an owner of a Pebble Time for nearing a year now, I have grown a bit bored of the “de …

Run a website? Time to start making it work on a mobile first.

I was recently watching a BBC documentary called “Britain at the Bookies” and was struck with one particular interview. It was at the races, and the bookies were all lined up to take any bets from the punters who were watching the race. Some had been in the …

Samsung design for new smartwatch leaked

In a recent application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Samsung have given some hints about what they think a new smartwatch could look like and how a user could interact with it.   The answer to the design at least, is very similar to the …

A Thing of Beauty!

Everyone loves a bit of individuality. We see it every day all around us, our clothes our accessories and now, even our smartphones are an extension of our personalities. Whether we admit it or not we all like a touch of something that differentiates us from the crowd …

AppMachine. Develop, design and distribute an app easily

You know something. I’ve been meaning to write about these guys since Mobile World Congress. I popped into see their official launch in Barcelona. It’s basically a slick solution using a building-block system, which lets you easily create a a professional app for yourself or someone else in …

Give me metal!

So we now know what they iPhone 5 looks like, and its a very pretty thing, with its precision machined aluminium back and sides. Indeed a masterpiece of engineering for iOS fans. We’ve also a plethora of Windows Phone 8 devices launched by Nokia, Samsung and HTC to …

HTC discuss the design behind the 8X and 8S

This afternoon HTC have announced the 8X and 8S and boy do they look nice. My decision over which Windows Phone 8 device to get has just got a lot harder. To possibly help you HTC have posted a video about the design behind the new phones. Here …

Google Nexus 7 review – Hardware, Design and Performance

Continuing the Coolsmartphone group review of the Nexus 7 tablet. Now we have Stephen and Garry covering the hardware side of things. Nexus 7 Hardware & Design (by Stephen Murray) Well, where do I begin…? Maybe the bit I found most surprising. The Nexus 7 is light, it …

Jonathan Ive receives a knighthood

Designer of many Apple products, Jonathan Ive, has today received an honorary knighthood and can call himself Sir Jony. Jonathan has been the principle designer of the PowerBook G4, MacBook, unibody MacBook Pro, iPod, iPhone and the iPad. He was born and raised here in the UK and …

Do you wish your Android phone looked like an iPhone?

Do you wish you had a seemingly endless sea of icons? Do you hate useful widgets for music or weather? Do you want a plain old lockscreen that just slides to the side? If you are repeatedly shouting yes, then you will need todays apps. Below are some …

Horace Luke leaves HTC

Well, we weren’t expecting this. Chief Innovation Officer at HTC, Horace Luke, has left the company. We first Horace many years ago when he worked for Microsoft and we were bowled over by his ideas for Windows Mobile. He moved to HTC in 2006 and has worked on …