Author: Ian Furlong

UK Moto G getting KitKat 4.4.4 with added features

Are you the owner of the universally liked Moto G handset ? If so it looks like this your lucky day. The latest update to the Android OS – KitKat 4.4.4 – is rolling out to devices. The KitKat update has mainly been patches and bug fixes, but …

Is this the thinnest smartphone ever ?

Remember the Gionee Elife S5.5? (Me neither!) Well that device was a ridiculously thin handset at just 5.5 mm thick. Now China has certified an upcoming Android handset from the same company, codenamed the GN9005,. It reportedly measures only 5mm (0.2in) thick; that’s half a millimetre less than …

Inateck 4 port USB Desktop Charger – Review

My night time ritual goes something like this, put the cat out lock the doors make sure all the windows are closed and then walk around the house looking like Mr T from the A-Team with a multitude of charger leads and plugs round my neck, as I …

More Z3 pictures leak on-line

A few days ago some pictures of the next Sony’s leaked online. The Z3 has now appeared in yet more blurrycam images, this time showing off the design and subtle changes in this new model. Sony appears to be retaining the “OmniBalance” design language, with just some minor tweaks. The sides …

Uiee – The portable charger with a difference.

Think of the smartphone in your pocket. It’s more powerful than your home PC was a few years ago and from this pocket-sized device you can access the entirety of knowledge known to man… Or look at cat pictures. However, all this functionality requires power and battery power …

One Plus One to get Android L within 90 Days

HTC recently announced that they would bring One M7 and M8 owners an update to Android L very soon after Google have finished it. Today OnePlus havevalso announced a similar timeframe for their elusive One handset. In their official forum, Mike — one of the official staff member …

Lumia 830 images leaked.

According to Chinese social network Web, these leaked images are of the New Nokia Lumia 830 Windows Phone. Design wise the device looks very much similar to the latest Lumia devices with capacitive hardware buttons in the bottom. Ith as a aluminum frame around it with polycarbonate in …

Get a Tesco Hudl for £59

As you know here at Coolsmartphone we love to bringing cracking deals and bargains. The latest that we have found is on the Tesco Hudl tablet. We’ve already written a rather spiffing Hudl review and it was already cheap, but now the thing is down to an almost …

Android 4.4.4 pushing out to Nexus handsets

Have you got one of the current Nexus devices ? Now is the time to start hitting the “check for updates” button. On Thursday, Google started rolling out Android 4.4.4 to the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7 and the Nexus 10. The factory images for the new …

Google Now tells you to get off the bus/train.

Google Now  keeps growing for strength to strength with yet another ingenious feature added, it can now alert you when it’s time to get off your bus or train. If you are using public transport and you open Google Now you may find that it offers you an …

Google Nearby

Google is rumoured set to reveal a new extension to the Android Location Services called Nearby, with the goal to provide increased accuracy for your smartphone to know your exact location and to know what’s around it. The Nearby application will use Bluetooth and audio clues to pinpoint …

20% off Kindle Fire family HDX tablets in Amazon UK sale

Amazon the online retailer has announced a 20% sale off its entire line of Kindle Fire HDX tablets here in the UK. This means you can pick up your own Kindle Android tablet from just £159.20 (7-inch, 16GB, Wi-Fi only). Spec’s Include. A HDX display. 2.2GHz quad-core processor. …

Now watch Google Play movies and TV shows offline on your Chromebook

Are you like Ronnie and I? We are owners of Chromebooks.  Back in May, we were promised the ability to view offline any movies or television shows that had been rented or purchased from Google Play. On Thursday there was an update to ChromeOS that now allows this feature, along with …

Is Apple killing off the 3.5mm headphone jack ?

During a developer session on “Designing Accessories for iOS and OS X” at Apple’s annual World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC), Robert Walsh, manager of platform accessories at Apple, announced the new Lightning headphone module. This, of course, means that those “Made for iPhone” headphones really won’t connect to …

Huawei Mulan Leaked

A new smartphone from Chinese manufacturer Huawei has been briefly spotted on the AnTuTu benchmark listings carrying the model number H60-L02. Rumoured Spec’s include 4.9 inch 1080p display. A 1.3 GHz Huawei Kirin octa core chip. A13-megapixel rear camera. A 5.1-megapixel front camera. 3GB of RAM. Android 4.4.2 …

100 000 LG G3’s sold in just 7 days

It has been recently reported that the LG G3 was outselling the Samsung Galaxy S5 in South Korea, well now we’re learning exactly how well. According to a new report, over 100,000 units of the smartphone have already been sold since its launch in the region on the …

Amazon tease the release of a 3D phone.

Over the past few months the internet has been rumouring the existence of a Amazon phone, to join their line up of e – readers, tablets and now set top boxes. The phone is expected to feature multiple front-facing cameras for a 3D user interface that reacts to …

Which device’s will run iOS 8

Following last night’s announcement by Apple announcing iOS 8, the latest version of its mobile operating system for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch people are wondering which device’s it will run on. For the moment the good news is, that unless you are running anything older than …

Acer Liquid Z5 – Review

I recently received the Acer Z5 budget smartphone through for review, and despite there being a dual-SIM variant, this is the single SIM version. After unboxing my first impressions were… “Hang on, someone has put a Nexus 5 in here by mistake!” Good Points Good feel in the …

Oppo announce the N1 mini with a 5 inch screen.

Following on from the Oppo N1 with its gigantic 5.9-inch screen and a 206-degree rotating camera, today the company has unveiled a mini version of the N1 … called… errr… the mini. Now for a device named “mini”, a 5 inch screen device perhaps isn’t the first thing …

HTC M8 Ace confirmed.

After many leaks on the internet, the HTC M8 Ace has now appeared on HTC China’s website. If reveals the handset in several colours including red, blue, black and white. Making it out of reduced costs but does give the Ace a seamless look, similar to last year’s …

OnePlus One cheap? It’s sold at cost.

The interwebs are constantly chattering about the new high speced device from the fledgling company OnePlus. Their OnePlus One phone is amazingly high spec for a low price and now their CEO Peter Lau has revealed how they’ve been able to bring high-end features with Nexus-like pricing. The …

Google Glass now available to everyone ( in the USA )

Starting today, Google Glass is available for practically anybody in the USA, as long as they are over 18 and have $1500 to spend. The Explorer version of the Google Glass wearable was sold only to developers who intended to write apps for the device, this was changed to a invite …

Pink Galaxy S5 spotted

Not happy with your white, black, blue or gold versions of the Galaxy S5? Well if you’re living in Japan, today is your lucky day. Japanese carrier NTT Docomo has just unveiled a pink color variant of the Galaxy S5. Other changes include the NTT Docomo branding at the front and …

The ArcBook, by ARCHOS Unveiled

Archos has revealed what they are calling the “ArcBook”, which is an “Affordable Mobile Productivity Enhancer”. Errr…  in other words an Android powered netbook. Google™ Certified ArcBook with a 10.1” touchscreen and fully-fledged keyboard designed for students and mobile professionals available in June for under £139.99 Spec’s include.. …

UK Transportation now comes to Google Maps

For some time now Google Maps has shown Transportation info for the USA. However, Google has now updated Great Britain too. You can now get directions for travel using public transportation. The app update is available now for iOS and Android, as well as on the web on …

Moto E spotted before launch day.

Some very official looking shots Motorola’s new device the Moto E, have turned up online over the weekend ahead of it’s launch on Tuesday. The images show the new phone will look similar to the Moto G in design and be available in black and white, and renowned …

Apple hire the head of the “Pure View” camera team

Ari Partinen, the man who introduced Nokia’s “PureView” and had been the head of the company’s photography unit since 2007, has been hired by Apple to work on its iPhone camera systems. We all know that Nokia has been famous for both it’s camera software and hardware. And …

No KitKat for international version’s of the Galaxy SIII and SIII mini

A couple of days ago documentation was leaked showing Samsung’s progress in bringing Android 4.4 KitKat to their older generation devices. These documents unfortunately indicated that the official KitKat update for the International Galaxy S III GT-I9300 had been “canceled for now.” This documentation stated that the hangup …

Tesco to launch its own smartphone and the Hudl 2

Tesco’s chief executive, Philip Clarke, has today told BBC Radio 5 live that the company is going to launch its own Android smartphone by the end of the year. It’ll compete with the Samsung Galaxy S5, but it’ll be cheap too. The smartphone will come with Tesco services …

Huawei Glory 3X snapped

Looking very much like a Samsung lawsuit waiting to happen, this is the Huawei Glory 3X. Apart from the familiar looks of the Samsung Note 3, the Huawei Glory 3X will feature… 5.5 inch 1080p display 13-megapixel rear camera 5-megapixel front camera 16GB of storage 2GB of RAM …

HP to announce an Android powered laptop

Following a very brief appearance on the HP website, the interwebs are now full of rumours of a upcoming 14 inch Android powered Laptop, named the Slatebook 14. The company hasn’t yet officially announced the SlateBook 14, but a video outlining the device’s key features and specs has …

Wireless Chargers Review

Since buying James’ Note 3 (or, if you listened to our podcast, me bullying it off him), I have wanted to look into wireless chargers mainly because it came with the Samsung wireless charging back. Now here comes my dilemma, which is of two parts.. 1. I need …

Google to release Verify Apps security update to Android

Android if full of malware and viruses isn’t it? Well no, not unless you believe the hype. Yes the Android operating system has its weaknesses, but as long as you’re careful and not go around side-loading apps from the less desirable sites things should be OK. This is …

Samsung announces another Galaxy Ace

To carry on with their world smartphone domination plans, Samsung have announced yet another Galaxy Ace device. The Galaxy Ace Style, is aimed at the younger audience and the phone is said to have a “a fun, unique design with an enhanced camera and advanced features for superior …

HTC again reporting losses

This time lat year HTC were under some considerable pressure after reporting the companies lowest profits to date, people were saying that the death knell was sounding for the Taiwanese company. Despite launching two flagship devices the HTC One M7 and now the M8 this hasn’t stemmed the …

Rumoured S5 Zoom Pictured

Following on from the Galaxy S4 Zoom, rumors for the next interation of the Zoom series the Galaxy S5 Zoom have been hitting the internet. We have now had a Mr Blurry Cam photo of the device, now if this is the S5 Zoom (referred to as the …

Nest halts sales of its fire alarm

After finding out that users could accidentally disable the device by waving their arms. Google owned Nest Fire Protection has halted sales of the Nest Smoke detector. The company said the feature, Nest Wave, which allows users to wave their arms to deactivate the alarm, could be activated …

Tips to speed up the Chrome browser on Android

Are you a Android phones user? Do you use the Google Chrome browser on your device? I do and to be honest there is a lot of functionality but it certainly isn’t the fastest browser out there. I’ve found a couple of tips that you can use on …

O2 taking Pre-Orders for S5 and Sony Z2

Following on from Carphone Warehouse, O2 are also taking pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Sony z2 from today. The S5 will be available in either black or white from April 11th, and a little later for the other colours. The Z2 will be in store …