Author: Ian Furlong
Currently confined to the US Apple Pay, (the tap to buy service that uses the NFC to beam your relevant card details to the vendors terminal, similar to “contactless payment we already have fitted to some UK credit/debit cards.) might not be US only for much longer. …
Back in May, Google started rolling out the Android Wear 5.1.1 update for Android Wear smartwatches. All the current Android Wear smartwatches have received their update including my first gen Samsung Gear Live. But the hugely popular Motorola Moto 360 is still stuck on an older version of the …
Rumoured for a July release, California-based company Microdia announced plans to launch The Microdia Xtra Elite microSD card. It’s the biggest yet at a whopping 512GB, and was announced at the Computex 2015 show (but strangely no working versions were displayed. In that case, keep ’em peeled for the …
Independent UK mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse has announced that it has started sales of the latest LG flagship device the G4, and the retailer has the black leather clad device as an exclusive, while also stocking the brown leather option as well as the plastic-clad grey model. …
Today Sony announced an edition to its Xperia Z3 range, imaginatively titled the Xperia Z3+ The newly announced device is both slimmer (6.9mm) and lighter (144g) than the Xperia Z3, and is available in four colour options to meet your individual taste and style. Choose from classic black, white or …
From the Google Play Store that is. If you either love Android Wear (me) or hate it (James) it appears that one of the first Android Wear devices, the Samsung Galaxy Gear Live has now disappeared from the Google Play Store, no fire sale, nada, nothing, just gone …
Chinese phone manufacturer Oppo is due to announce their next flagship device, the R7, on May 20th. However, prior to the official launch date the company have released some teaser images of the phone. The images appear to show a full metal body and ultra thin bezels. Oppo …
UK retail giant Tesco has recently announced a operating loss of £6 billion This is strange really, considering how many pies the company has its fingers in. Anyway, in an attempt to stem to flow the company has already sold its Blinkbox streaming properties, including movies, music and books. The hope …
Following on from the announcement of the latest flagship from LG, two of the largest UK independent retailers have today started taking pre-orders for device. The G4 appeared just yesterday, with the launch attended by our very own Leigh. You can catch up on his LG G4 overview …
It may or may not surprise you to hear that Cyanogen and OnePlus are parting ways, and the Cyanogen team are looking for new hardware vendors to bring its custom Android OS to market. This possibly surprising news has been revealed by Cyanogen’s Kirt McMaster and Steve Kondik speaking earlier …
A few years ago I was a big online gamer (ooooohh yes, I remember the days of online gaming with a 56k modem. Quake and Unreal Tournament come to mind..). Anyway, my gaming came to a halt about 6 years ago, which funnily coincides with the birth of …
Some time ago I carried out a review of the Inateck iPad sleeve. Inateck have contacted me this morning to let me know of a deal they currently have running on their Amazon Paperwhite Sleeve Case. The sleeve is made from a soft grey felt type material with …
The stylish LG Urbane smartwatch is also on sale from Clove. Earlier today we saw it appear on Google Play. Clove Technology has the watch in stock now ready for delivery. Retailing at £260 you will receive the luxurious Android Wear-powered smartwatch from LG with the following specs.. …
Following last year’s Gadget Show (2014), I was sent a Qi wireless charging car kit and charging pad from Mobile Solar Chargers, which really impressed me. The review can be read here. A short while ago, Tim from the site contacted me again with a multitude of goodies …
A short time ago, we reported that network provider EE were giving away a power bar to customers, and would exchange a “empty” one with a “topped up” in store. Well, it appears that the promotional idea has been taken up by the bargain hunting British public, with the …
On the 23rd of April 2015 the OnePlus One is one year old (to many ones there), and today OnePlus announced that the hoop jumping invite system ( I know I was a hoop jumper, but to be fair I love my OnePlus one) to buy the device …
Last year I was sent through the TravelCard portable charger for review, which is a super slim battery pack designed to fit in your wallet and give your mobile device that all important boost when you need it. I loved the TravelCard charger and it sits happily in …
After somewhat of a delay, Cyanogen have finally began the roll out of Cyanogen OS 12 the Android 5.0 based update for the OnePlus One. The update has all of Google’s features introduced in Android 5.0 including Google’s new Material Design. As always the Cyanogen team, have included tweaks …
It’s the news you’ve all been waiting for (if you’re heading to Spain for your holidays and you have a Three handset that is). Three customers can now head to Barcelona, Ibiza, Benidorm, Majorca, Tenerife and every other Spanish island, city and town without having to worry about …
The world’s second biggest telecoms equipment maker Huawei said profits jumped a third last year, its net profit was 27.9bn yuan ($4.5bn; £3bn), up from 21bn yuan in 2013. The Chinese firm, which is also a major smartphone maker, saw revenues rise by 21% over the year. Our cash …
Independent phone retailer Carphone Warehouse, has been taking pre orders for the HTC M9 for some time now, but today the retailer has announced that you’ll be able to get your hands on the device now. The latest flagship from HTC is listed on contracts that start from £37.50 …
Usually, headphones are a difficult item to review and at the end of the day, you the reader have to take my word for it. We’ve had the KitSound Clash Bluetooth Headphones in for review recently and we’ll start the review off with my good and bad points. …
Chinese smartphone manufacturer, Oppo looks set to release a handset with jaw dropping bezel free display. The new smartphone has been anonymously leaked online, flaunting almost no bezels on either side of the screen and Running Oppo’s own operating system ColorOS. The only other handset without a curve that …
HTC has sent out invites in which it clearly teased a new HTC One M9 variant with the One M8 Duo camera set up. Tie this in with the leaked images from the normally spot on @Upleaks on twitter, and could this be the rumoured HTC M9+? From viewing …
On the 18th March I posted an article about fledgling phone manufacturer OnePlus stating that by the 27th of March this year, their very own Oxygen OS would be available and the CM12 update would be available by 30th March, which you can read here. Since the beginnings …
High capacity internal storage is the realm of top-of-the-range flagship devices, which in turn commands a top price. Today Samsung announced a 3-bits-per-cell flash memory chip that promises 128GB of storage for “mass market” (read: more affordable) mobile devices. The 128GB storage solution is built using the more prevalent …
Remember the good old Orange Wednesdays? If you were a customer of Orange (now EE), you simply sent out a text and received a code to get two seats in your local cinema for the price of one. Deal. This was a very popular promotion for Orange customers …
It won’t be long till all the main manufacturers go along the sealed battery route. I have no problem with this provided they innovated in battery technology, rather than the most megapixels in the camera or the most pixels per inch in the screen. The way forward, however, …
OnePlus – the company famous for their purchase invite system and high spec, low price devices – have announced that due to the declining Euro they will be increasing the price of the OnePlus One in Europe. Currently the 16GB Silk White and 64GB Sandstone Black OnePlus One retail …
Ahead of it’s 10th April release, Samsung today have announced that those of us here in the UK can pre-order either the S6 or S6 Edge on the 20th of March. No doubt our very own Dan will be mashing F5 at 1 second past midnight. 😉 On …
Today One Plus announced that the long awaited Lollipop update will be available by the end of March. They’re so confident of hitting this deadline that they’ll give away five 64GB devices if they miss it. By March 27th OnePlus plans to release their own Lollipop-based ROM, using …
According to a report on TechCrunch, Microsoft has announced that it is collaborating with Chinese Phone manufacturer Xiaomi. They will be providing some customers that currently own the Mi 4 devcie with a flashable ROM that allows them install and run Windows 10 phone version on their devices. Neither Microsoft …
Online serial “leaker”, @Onleaks, has provided the interwebs with what is to be believed to be the next flagship device from Sony – the Xperia Z4. Measuring in at 146.3×71.9×7.2mm, the Z4’s measurements are very similar to the current Z3, as is the actual look of the device. There’s …
Here at CoolSmartPhone Towers I seem to be becoming the resident Bluetooth speaker reviewer, which isn’t a bad thing, as I can compare the qualities of the speakers against each other, as I’m not listening to each one in isolation. The latest speaker to come through is …
Following on from it’s sale by Sony to a local investigative firm, VAIO Corporation has launched the VAIO Phone (VA-10J). It is the company’s first dabble in to the smartphone world, made in partnership with Japan communication. When it was first seen, comments were made that the phone shares …
Some time ago, our very own Leigh carried out a review of the Lugulake Bluetooth speaker, which he was thoroughly impressed with, and you can catch up with the review here. Well the company have contacted CoolSmartPhone towers, asking us if we would like to look at the new improved version …
A number of us here at CoolSmartPhone towers use Chromebooks. I for one am currently writing this post from my HP 11 Chromebook which I absolutely love. Chromebooks are usually inexpensive, with a good battery life, but not that highly specced in terms of RAM or onboard storage, …
Samsung were the first manufacturer to bring us the phablet category and with that came the multi-window technology. As device screens get bigger this multi-window feature is now making its way into other devices, the LG G3 and no doubt the G4, but what about the 6 inch …
Rumoured for a next quarter anouncement, (which fingers crossed is April not May) more leaked renders LG’s next flagship device the G4 are hitting the internet. It’s said to be powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor, having a 20 MP rear camera, a 5MP front-facing camera and …
Following on from their announcement of the New Huawei Ascend G7 4G (which I covered here), I was lucky enough to get sent a device for review. Device Specs. 5.5 inch HD IPS display, 720p resolution. Measuring in at 7.6 mm thick. 1.2 GHz quad core processor capable of …
