Tag: windows 8

A look at the Tesco Connect 7″ Tablet

£70 doesn’t buy you much in the technology market, right? Normally a £70 tablet wouldn’t provide a great user experience but recently a new development has hit the market in a wave of cheap Windows 8 tablets, including the Connect 7″ Tablet from Tesco, but how does the device …

Acer Switch 11 Review

Acer Aspire Switch 11 Intel Atom Quad-core 1.33GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, microSD reader, 32GB flash memory and 500GB drive in the keyboard “base” section. Windows 8.1 (32 bit), 11.6″ Active Matrix LCD IPS LED back-lit multi-touch / touchscreen at 1366×768. WiFi IEEE 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, 8550mAh battery. I’ve …

Microsoft Remote Desktop app released for Windows Phone 8.1

  The Developer’s Preview version of Windows Phone 8.1 has, by all accounts, been downloaded millions of times around the world.  Clearly people are not prepared to wait months for the final release and are happy to put up with a beta version.  The same might be said …

My time with the Hanns.G HT231 23″ LED monitor

Touchscreens have become part of my life, be it in my pocket, on my wrist, my laptop, my tablet, trying to order foreign train tickets on holiday, controlling the music in my house and amazingly up until now not on my desktop PC. Well sort of anyway, as …

Lenovo Yoga 2 11″ – Review

In my continued hunt for the ideal tablet/laptop I’ve stumbled into the fascinating world of the flexible Lenovo Yoga 2, it’s an 11″ touchscreen bendable flexible hybrid. I mainly use Windows 8 devices like large tablets that you can run normal desktop apps on when the store stuff …

Rumour – Microsoft considering free Windows Phone version

Windows Phone, as an OS, has a cost attached to it. It’s an actual financial cost that needs to be paid by manufacturers who use the mobile OS. Trouble is, Microsoft have just bought the phone-making side of Nokia, and guess who provided the bulk of their Windows …

Flipboard is released for Windows 8

Flipboard is possibly the most gorgeous news reader app EVER. It originated on iOS, eventually moved over to Android and it is now coming to Windows. If you’ve never heard of Flipboard and you have a Windows 8 computer or tablet then you are in for a treat today. This …

Acer Iconia W700 – Review

Windows 8 has been one of the most intriguing OS launches that I have ever seen. Manufacturers have been given an OS that lends itself to any shape or form that they can think of. Off the back of that we have seen a variety of different shapes, …

LG to show their Tablet – Notebook hybrid at MWC

Ahead of our RyanAir flight, I am packing my very small and lightweight bag ready for Mobile World Congress. This year, if I’m honest, we’ve seen more and more companies launching their phones outside of the event. This gives us chance to cover even more gadgets and companies …

Nokia Drive+ Beta now available on all Windows 8 phones

Nokia have announced their turn-by-turn navigation software, Drive+, is no longer a Lumia exclusive, and is available on all Windows 8 handsets in the US, UK, and Canada. It is specifically noted that the software is in Beta, so don’t expect perfection just yet (*cough* Apple maps *cough*). …

Audible for Windows 8/RT now available

Audio book lovers rejoice, Amazon’s Audbile service is now available on Windows 8 and Windows RT devices. The app lets you listen to your audio book collection on your tablet/computer and currently offers a free copy of Life of Pi for new sign ups. As expected, it’s been …

Windows 8 gets aped on an Android tablet.. for children

Whilst randomly browsing around I stumbled across this rather interesting Android tablet at ToysRUs. The tablet and the interface is designed for children, and the fairly low-end device has a 10.1″ screen with front camera, WiFi and micro-SD expansion. But I couldn’t help noticing the similarities between this …

Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing revealed

Over in the US pricing for the Surface with Windows 8 Pro has been announced. The 64GB version will be available for $899 and the 128GB version will sell for $999. It’ll be available in January, although when we checked the UK site is a little more…. errmmm.. …

Windows Store surpasses Mac Store app levels

We here at Coolsmartphone have a long tradition of bringing the latest mobile tips, news and reviews to you – 10 years, in fact. Recently, with the introduction of Windows 8 and, a bit further back, Ubuntu 12.10 and OSX 10.8, the mobile and traditional computing worlds are coming …

TV Catchup Now in Microsoft Apps Store

TVCatchup, the service that enables you to watch live UK television on your computer, phone or other devices connected to the internet is now available to download from the Microsoft Apps store for Windows 8 and Windows RT. The app, also available on iOS and Android is a fantastic …

Microsoft Surface with Windows RT – Initial Impressions

A lot has been said about Windows 8 recently. A lot of it has been negative and mainly about the metro new tiled interface. I didn’t buy into any of the negativity and when the Surface with RT tablets came up for pre-order I went ahead and ordered …

Windows 8 Launch Webcast Live at 1830

So after what seems like an age (well to me anyway) it seems we are here… Come join the webcast now to find what, if anything, new things MS have to offer. View the video by skipping forward to the first blue line on the video below (1.17).

Learn more about Microsoft Surface

Two videos in one day! Boy Microsoft are spoiling us. This one shows the Surface tablet and a few of it’s features. Nothing astounding really but interesting if your like me and you’ve pre-ordered a Surface.

The making of Microsoft Surface

Today we have another video featuring the now up for pre-order Microsoft Surface tablet. This video looks at the making of the device and the choice of materials. It also shows them testing the strength of the device by driving it into a hard surface. Me and a …

Microsoft Surface RT: UK, US and European Pricing Revealed

Earlier today Microsoft posted the above info to their online store which appears show the pricing for the Surface RT Tablet with and without the touch cover. Pricing starts at $499 for the entry level 32gb without a touch cover. If you want the touch cover its $599 …

The Surface Movement

The release of Microsoft Surface with Windows RT is soon going to be upon us. The upcoming tablet from Microsoft looks amazing and has specs much the same as the other Windows RT tablets coming out around about the same time. So what differentiates it then? Well it …

Bluestacks to come pre-installed on new Windows 8 AMD PCs

We all remember Bluestacks right? They have been around since late 2011 and they make a piece of software to allow normal Windows PCs to run Android apps and games. Sounds great doesn’t it? Yes it sure does, Bluestacks have massive potential to make something brilliant with their …

Surface tablets and Windows Phone – Ballmer talks

CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, has been chatting with The Seattle Times and has dished out some expected prices for their very own Surface Tablets. The details are still quite vague, but he did say that the Windows 8 slabs would hopefully reach a “sweet spot” of… Probably …

Windows Phone 8 – The details

So, Joe Belfiore stepped onto the stage today to announce Windows Phone 8. It’s a second “reboot” of the Microsoft mobile strategy following the news that Windows Mobile 6.5 users wouldn’t be able to upgrade to Windows Phone 7. Now, the same is happening yet again, with existing …

MWC – Hands on with the Novero Solana tablet / laptop hybrid

Remember the Solana tablet / laptop combo we mentioned recently? It’s from Novero so we popped along to see them today. The demo unit they showed us is still in the early stages but switches in a similar fashion to the ViewSonic VIewpad we saw last year. As …

Can’t decide between a tablet or a laptop? Step forward Solana

We’ve seen hybrid designs before, and if I’m honest when I first heard about the Solana I thought someone was talking about the hotel in “Benidorm”. Not so, this is the new Android tablet slash Windows 7 laptop from novero. It’s got a 10″ screen and has a …

Are Qualcomm planning gesture control for Windows 8 tablets?

This is just me speculating here. I have pieced together several facts to do with Windows 8 and come to this conclusion. It all starts with a Canadian company called GestureTek who came up with a clever way of tracking movement, using several different sensors and cameras. The …

Windows 8 on show, tablet-centric UI

No, it’s not Windows Phone 8. This is a first look at how Windows 8 might look on future Microsoft-powered tablet devices. Initial impressions are good, with a lot of the interface looking similar to the Windows Phone GUI. The tablet-optimised experience should run existing Windows 7 applications …

Dell 2011 Roadmap revealed – Windows Phone 7, Android and Windows 8

Dell have just experienced a leak of epic proportions. Their 2011 roadmap has just spilled all over the web and includes the Wrigley, Gallo, Sterling and many other strange codenames. Windows 8 is even mentioned here as a supposed OS for their “Peju” device scheduled Q1 / Q2 …