Tag: GPS

TicWatch Pro 3 GPS launched

I have a soft spot for TicWatch and Mobvoi, they make some really nice gear and I was a particular fan of their TicWatch Pro that I reviewed here. I have also been using the TicWatch S2 for nearly a year and it has been used and abused …

The new Vodafone Smart GPS Tracker – Curve

This is a little tracker doo-hickey that you pop into or onto your valuables. It’s just £20 from Vodafone to buy, then you pay £2 per month to keep it working. Called “Curve” it’s part of a range of Vodafone smart tech products and will track your stuff …

Subscription now at the centre of Strava

How it happened, I really don’t know, but pretty much everyone I know has ended up using Strava as their fitness tracker. There’s plenty of competition, but Strava seems to be the one we’ve all ended up using. We don’t pay of course. No, that would be mental. …

A super-easy way to share your location

Google Maps is great. If you want to share your location then it’s just a matter of clicking the relevant button. Likewise, if you’ve got WhatsApp, you can share your location or your live location. It’s great if you’re sending to someone via the internet or to someone …

Garmin fēnix 6 smartwatches now available

If you’re an active person and you’ve got a lot of cash stashed away, this could be for you. Garmin tell me that the new fēnix 6 Series smartwatch is .. Built on the exploits of countless explorers. It’s a rugged smartwatch “designed for life” with GPS and, …

MiniFinder Nano wearable GPS personal alarm

Well, this does seem a bit pricey at £210, but it does include a 3 month subscription and we’re going to take a look and review the device very soon. This is a wearable GPS Personal Alarm which, once you’ve bought it and used up the 3 month …

The Android Bike Computer – On test

A few days ago I used lots of cable-tie to strap the ultra-small Unihertz Atom smartphone to my bike. You can have a look at the rather rudimentary fixings here or get up-close with the Atom in my earlier story. Yes, there’s a proper bike mount for this …

An Android bike computer

Remember my overview of the Unihertz Atom? It’s a tiny Android phone which has all the features of a normal smartphone, just with a smaller screen and a very rugged appearance. Available on Amazon for £219.99, you can also get this bike mount for £12.99 to rig it …

Strava problems on Xiaomi phones?

Remember the problem with Strava and Honor / Huawei devices? Well, just a few days ago I went on quite a long ride. I hopped on my bike and did about 2 hours, but Strava had been shut down, presumably by the HiSilicon CPU, at some point during …

SpyTrack Nano – Review

I’m not really a fan of naming these things with words like “spy” in the title. To be honest it takes away from the cool and less creepy things that you can do with the device. This is a very clever GPS tracker. Small, simple to use and …

Back to school. Keep them safe with this clever watch.

I know what it’s like. Right now (if you’re in the UK) you’re running around trying to buy uniforms and shoes. It’s all hectic and you’ve not even been paid yet. Nightmare. However, if you want the little guys and girls to be safe, head to the V …

The best ways to minimize your battery usage

We have all now accepted the unrivaled role of smartphones in our lives. There is rarely a moment they are not accompanying us through the various different activities of our day; at work, during our commute, out with friends and even at the gym. Giving us direct access …

VLC pulls the plug on Huawei / Honor handsets

The battle for battery life isn’t a very complex one. You either leave your GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi on all the time, with background apps ticking along, or you start cleverly shutting stuff down to conserve battery life. A lot of manufacturers have added on board systems to …

Land Rover Explore coming to Vodafone

As a seasoned Coolsmartphone reader, you’ll already know everything there is to know about the Land Rover Explore Smartphone. You can buy one right now from their website. It’s £599. For your money you get a rough, tough smartphone with a Deca Core 2 CPU, Android Nougat (with …

V-Auto by Vodafone – Review

In your car there’s a magical port. It sits under your dashboard usually and you’ll find that the AA man will plug his laptop into it. I remember once I broke down and had to call them out. It was in a car I was renting and his …

TomTom, remember them? Now they’re killing off lifetime updates.

Every. Single. Time someone asks me what TomTom to get, I say, “Why? Use Google Maps”. Across Europe, you get inclusive data, so you can use Google Maps there and benefit from live traffic and routing information. Meanwhile, if you want to go further, you can download offline …

Senior Safety App – Review

If you have an elderly friend or relative, you’re naturally going to worry about them. However, that friend or relative may not necessarily worry. They might be too proud to have alarms or monitoring systems installed in their home and it could be tricky to even approach the …

Want to use Strava? Don’t get an Honor or Huawei handset

Over the years I’ve grown to love the Huawei and Honor handsets. Right now I have the Honor 9 and it’s a fantastic device for the money. Great camera, great performance and great looks. Love it, I really do. Trouble is, there’s one thing it won’t do. For …

Tag your bag. Prevent a scallywag.

The V-Bag by Vodafone is, if I’m honest, actually called the Alcatel MOVETRACK. You can attach this little gadget to yourself, a loved one, a bag, a suitcase, a car, a piece of equipment, whatever you fancy really. Clip it on or put it inside your bag and, …

Vodafone will now help you track your pet too.

Remember when I stuck the Paby Pet Tracker on our cat? The gadget sat on her collar and sent live GPS data back to my smartphone. It meant that I could see where she was on a live map. Now Voda are doing something very similar with the …

Keeping an eye on the little ones

With my son getting to a “certain age”, he’s now off on his own. He plays in the local park and goes on his scooter with his friends. Even as a geeky phone guy, I really didn’t want to give him a phone. Like most kids, I knew …

Paby Pet Tracker – Review

We’ve covered this already here at Coolsmartphone but now we’re lucky enough to borrow one to review. For $79.99, this is a pet activity monitor with in-built GPS, WiFi and a SIM card so that you can see where your pet is, live. Oh, and get this, it …

Sony Xperia L1 Announced

Our coverage at Barcelona brought a raft of mobile phones, but no – Sony have another one for us. Available in black, white or pink, it’s the Xperia L1. This has 2GB of RAM and runs on a MediaTek Quad-core 64-bit CPU running at 1.45GHz. There’s also 16GB …

A smart suitcase. Yes, a smart suitcase.

No, I didn’t know there was such a thing either, but apparently it is a “thing”. To be honest though, after a bit of reading, I became quite interested. A carry-on suitcase that is water resistant, scratch resistant and has GPS and 3G technology built in? Remote and …

Talk to the animals with a KYON Pet Tracker

Watching your pet from work or anywhere else is pretty simple. Just get a camera or perhaps use a spare smartphone to act as an IP camera. It’s a good way to have a quick look at your dog or cat from afar, but… wouldn’t it be good …

Strava not working properly on your Huawei? Here’s the fix

Update – Sadly, after thinking this had fixed it, I’ve since had the app crash or force close again. Read my more recent post on the situation. I’m lucky enough to be using the Huawei P9 at the moment. It’s my main device and as part of my …

ZUS – A car charger with a cool addition. Reviewed.

The people at nonda got in touch with us and wanted to send us a car charger. We said yes. Then, because it was a car charger, it kinda went into our review queue and I didn’t really look at the great additional feature this thing has. Nonda …

findxone tracker from Vodafone – Review

I mentioned this rather handy gadget back in December last year. Vodafone, like a few other networks, are offering up some rather clever connected gadgets now and this, the findxone, is one of them. In effect it’s a little box that you can hang onto something or put …

Strava user has his bikes stolen as home address is revealed

It’s something we’ve reported on before, but sadly someone else has fallen victim after having his bikes pinched. It’s a double-edged sword at times, with people wanting to challenge each other and share their achievements, but you do need to protect yourself. Strava, the activity tracking app and …

Get yourself a pussy tracker

You know those loving, soft cats that come and sit on your lap, wanting some fuss? Yeah, our cat isn’t one of those. If she does see fit to come near you she’ll either just meow or she’ll suddenly pounce on you for no good reason and rip …

Where am I? Help is at hand thanks to OS Locate

My recent charity cycle ride (feel free to donate) was all “on road”, so a quick check of Google Maps would let me know where the next turning was. Now, if you’re planning to go off road then you’re going to need something a bit better. Finding your …

Quick cycle-related news update

Was my previous post just a cheap way to get donations to the Douglas Macmillan Hospice? Well yes, it probably was a bit, but they provide care for those with progressive diseases and a limited life expectancy. It’s a bloody good cause and I’ve only had 11 donations, …

Bebop-alloo-la. She’s my.. err.. Parrot Drone

Parrot have really improved their AR Drone and this is the new Bebop flying machine. It comes equipped with a fisheye lens and uses clever software to chop out bits of video to give you a lovely stable image. A controller can work with an Oculus Rift headset, …

Safeguard your kids with this rather colourful mobile

My initial thoughts on this were a little negative if I’m honest. Kids all-too-quickly get their hands on phones and, before you know it, your five-year-old is sending emails and offering web design services. This toy-like mobile only allows incoming and outgoing calls to four designated numbers and …

Sleep your device when you get home

If you use your smartphone or tablet as a sat-nav system you may find that it goes flat when left overnight in your motor. The reason, if you do choose to leave your device in your car and on display (which is usually a bad idea), is that …

Chrome bandwidth reduction system breaks geolocation

Yesterday I pointed out that the new Google Chrome browser had received an extra feature to help reduce your data usage. The system pushes websites through a data compression proxy to squash down images and compress HTML, JavaScript and CSS. However, there’s a bit of a problem which …

Garmin Head Up Display – Accessory Review

Traditional Satellite navigation systems were once upon a time a must have for anyone that regularly undertook long journeys to far away places. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epSURT21hxs With the launch of Google maps, Apple maps and the vast array of other mapping solutions available for mobile phones the demand for Sat-Navs …

Get yourself a HUD, bud

I live in the UK and, right now, it’s pretty dark. I leave for work, it’s dark. I drive home… dark. Those daylight hours are pretty short at this time of year and, as I learned today to my cost, it’s probably not wise to remind those solar-panel …