Author: Leigh Geary

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 …

Kygo XENON headphones – with memory foam for your ears.

We’ve reviewed some of the Kygo headphones in the past and we’ve always been impressed with them. Check out our review of the Kygo A9/600 headphones as an example. Now they’re launching “XENON” – some new noise-canceling headphones which have been approved and developed by Kygo himself. These …

Nokia 7.1 to join the Android 10 deployment

People do tend to overlook Nokia when looking for a new phone, however – it should be noted that they’re continuing to update a lot of their phones. The people behind Nokia phones – HMD Global – have announced that the Nokia 7.1 will also be joining the …

Honor phones drop in price during January

If you’re after a cheap phone, Honor have reduced the price of many handsets in their range this January. Their Honor 8A smartphone (which has an octa-core 2.3GHz CPU, minimalistic dewdrop display and great power-saving) is now down to just £119.99 from Argos, but you’ve got to be …

Samsung Galaxy A71 and Galaxy A51 landing next month

Yes, we’re actually quite liking the sometimes-overlooked “A range” of phones from Samsung. You may remember our up-close look at the Samsung A70 here, and now Samsung have announced further devices – the Galaxy A71 and the Galaxy A51. These two handsets include the “Infinity-O” display and a …

Galaxy S10 Lite and Galaxy Note10 Lite announced

New phones! We like new phones. Samsung have just announced two new handsets which “build on the legacy” of the Galaxy S and Note series phones. The Galaxy S10 Lite and Galaxy Note10 Lite devices were revealed by DJ Koh, President and CEO of the IT & Mobile …

Free TV being given out with Virgin Media deal

If you don’t need a new LG Smart TV, you can instead bag yourself a £150 credit on your bill. That is, of course, if you take the appropriate TV, broadband and phone bundle with Virgin Media. Either option is available if you bag the Bigger bundle + …

How the home of 2020 looked in 1989

This has been doing the rounds on social media and I think it’s worth a mention here. Back in 1989 (yes, 31 years ago), some predictions were made by BBC technology show, “Tomorrow’s World”. The video is below, so have a look and we’ll go through each point …

CES – OnePlus makes cameras invisible

Our smartphones are now getting more and more cameras. Wide-angled lenses, macro-lenses and more – all packed in there, all clogging up the design. Then, as we’ve seen during 2019, there’s been innovative ways of hiding the camera up front too. Flip cameras, pop-up cameras and in-display lenses. …

Watching shows on your phone whilst driving. Don’t be tempted.

Our smartphones can do lots of very cool things. Lately though, the police have found that we’re watching movies, TV shows and making video calls whilst driving. This, because you’re not looking at the road properly, is very dangerous. In recent years, there’s been a marked increase in …

Coolsmartphone – The 2019 Awards

OK, you know the drill. Its the end of the year and we’re here to give you a run-down on the best of the best in 2019. We’ve reviewed a huge amount of kit but here’s what impressed us the most. Best Bluetooth Speaker – The Tribit XBoom …

Home Office / Gaming Room Project – Part 4. Nearly there!

It’s hard to believe that part one of this project was back in October, but hey – life gets in the way and other things have had to take priority. Our aim was to get this done by Christmas and we very nearly hit that date – just …

Cable TV – The origins in the UK are older than you think

A couple of years ago I decided to bin Sky TV, bin my phone line rental and effectively remove most of my “broadcast” TV. The plan was to switch across to just an internet feed and nothing else. I then went ultra-geeky and changed our existing home phone …

10GB Plusnet SIM-only plan

Sat on the EE network, Plusnet mobile currently have a SIM-only deal on. It’s a 30-day rolling thing, so no big contract to sign off on, and it’ll drop 10GB per month for £10. For your money you get unlimited calls and texts. It’s a full-on 4G Network …

Tesco Mobile Flash deals

I had a meal on Christmas day and didn’t feel hungry again until late last night. That’s normal, right? Crickey, I’ve never eaten so much. FULL! If you’re looking to burn some calories up, get down to your local Tesco – they’ve got some offers on in their …

Merry Christmas you guys!

Since 2002, when things looked like this, I’ve written about smartphones. I’ve seen the rise and fall of Microsoft and the rise and rise and rise of Android, iPhone, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The biggest driver for me is the tweets and the emails from you guys. The …

EE January sales offers kick off

Free gifts and savings of up to £120 are available in the EE sales. Deals are available on the iPhone 6s, Huawei P30 and Sony XPERIA 10. In addition, there’s offers on tablets and smartwatches. The Apple iPhone 6s will get reduced by £72. There’s no upfront cost …

Let the sales commence! Sky Mobile kicks things off

After spending a stack of money in the Black Friday sales and then a stack more money in the run-up to Christmas, what better than another round of sales? Traditionally these would kick off on Boxing Day, but the internet has enabled things to start earlier and run …

Updates ahoy for Asus owners

If you’ve got the ZenFone 6 or the ROG Phone 2, get checking for updates. A new over-the-air update should be rolling out today which will update your OS from 17.1810.1910.73_M3.18.40.6_20191119 to 17.1810.1911.110_M3.18.40.10_20191216 It includes an updated security patch, updated APN settings, new boot animation, additional languages and …

5G – Not quite ready yet

Back in August I parked up near Wembley Stadium to do some “real world” tests with a 5G phone. I did this because I’d seen testers competing to get the highest speeds possible. Usually this involved someone waiting for a quiet day – like a Sunday morning – …

Turkey for Christmas, but it won’t be getting any Google Apps

So, very much like “the Huawei problem” and the Trump Trade block which is preventing Google Apps from appearing on upcoming Huawei phones – Turkey will soon have the same issue. Google started having a few issues in Turkey after Russian internet company Yandex decided to file an …

Mixcder HD901 Bluetooth Headphones – Review

The nice people at Mixcder sent me these back in July. Yes, July. It’s now December and I’ve literally just found them. What makes this whole thing worse is the fact that they’re really very good indeed. Why? Well, let’s kick off with the price shall we? At …

emporia – User-friendly smartphones for all

Back in 2013 we had a chat with a nice guy called Chris from Doro whilst touring the stands at Mobile World Congress. We met him again in 2015 as Doro continued to grow, offering accessible smartphones for the elderly, hard-of-hearing or those with sight problems and so …

Honor MagicWatch 2 Unveiled. Available to buy shortly.

This badger costs just £159.99 as a pre-order deal via on the Amazon website or the eBay store, then it’ll no doubt pop up on the official Honor site too. Headline stats then, and this has a 14-day battery, a Huawei Kirin A1 CPU, an ultra-thin profile, Bluetooth …

Unlocked handsets could soon be the ONLY type you can buy

Regulator Ofcom is looking into a ban on the sale of phones which are locked to particular networks. Networks that currently don’t lock their phones include Sky Mobile, Three UK, iD Mobile, BT Mobile and giffgaff; but other networks do. The origins of this came from the fact that handsets …

OnePlus 7T Review – Part 3

It’s fair to say that I got a little distracted doing this review. It’s now three parts long (part one is here and part two is here), but I started writing this a month ago now. The truth? It’s become my daily driver. This is a stand-out phone, …

National Lottery celebrates 25 years, and people still queue!

Unbelievably, despite me being just 3 years old (cough), I remember buying a National Lottery ticket on the first ever draw. In 1994 I paid a whole one pound to have a go, and everyone I knew just assumed they’d win. They didn’t, I didn’t. The 45-million to …

More selfies than ever!

The nice people at Honor have gone and commissioned a London-based street photographer to capture images on their new Honor 9X. Shane Vincent has grabbed snaps on the phone as research reveals that 85% of Brits admit they’re posting more selfies than ever before – and men are …

Kippy Evo (V-Pet Tracker) now down in price

Down to just £49.50 (instead of £99), the V-Pet Tracker also includes 12 months of free tracking service so that you can see exactly where your furry friend is, even when they’re out of sight. Not only that, but the WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS-capable tracker will keep up …

Fairphone 3 now available on Vodafone

The eco-friendly and easy-to-repair Fairphone 3 is now available on the Vodafone network. You can bag it from just £32 per month with a £49 upfront cost but, if you choose an Unlimited or Unlimited Max plan, you can add Amazon Prime Video, Spotify Premium and more for …

Go, vote. NOW.

Here’s how the different age ranges voted in the Brexit referendum… But here, by age, is how many actually voted.. If more of the “smartphone generation” had gone to the polls, things would have been so much different. But wait – the older generation will change your future …

Mobvoi’s TicWatch Pro 4G Now available

This is £249.99 and available here. It’s only available in black and measures 45.15 x 52.8 x 12.6. It’s made from polyamide and glass fibre with a stainless-steel bezel and an aluminum back cover. The screen is a 1.39″ AMOLED (400 x 400 px) + FSTN LCD with …

Huawei Watch GT Active – Now (just) less than £100

It’s in dark green, but you can grab it now from Amazon for £99 and you can perhaps change the strap if the green colour isn’t your thing. It packs a 1.39″ AMOLED color touchscreen, 2 weeks of battery life and it’s great if you’re planning to keep …

I bought a car that I’d never even sat in

In the last year we’ve continued to see changes in our shopping habits. However, based on the recent Black Friday sales and a range of recent surveys, we’ve seen thing change far more than ever.. Payment Methods The traditional high-street has seen a huge amount of transformation of …

Voxos Smart Glasses – In use

Yesterday I took a look at the Voxos Smart Glasses. They’ve got proper polarized lenses and come with an innovative bone conduction system to play tunes into your ears without blocking them. This, added to the downward-facing speaker sections on the arms, means that you can listen to …

Voxos Smart Glasses – Review

It’s the middle of winter here in the UK so the perfect time to check out some .. err… sunglasses. These, though, are a bit special, because they also play sound into your head via bone conduction technology. What? Well, imagine a cool-looking pair of headphones first of all. …

Quick! Little Christmas addition. Grab a microSD card.

Right now on Amazon there’s a great deal on a 64GB Transcend microSD card. Whack it in your phone (and don’t forget to check that you’ve got a slot to put it in). It’s just £6.49 and has class 1 performance, UHS Speed Class 3 and up to …

Get a personal trainer in your ear. Auro.

At this time of year my inbox is a mixture of Christmas gadgets and keep-fit ideas for the New Year. However, as we mentioned in our earlier story about Peloton, you shouldn’t really have to spend a fortune on getting and keeping fit. This one, though, is another …

Get Christmas Gadgets for less

I love not spending stacks of cash on Christmas gifts. In our regular “Features” section I’ve previously covered ways to get shiny, and normally quite expensive, gifts for less. There’s lots of ways to do it – trading in old phones, getting cashback and using discount codes if …