Author: Iain McLaren
Whether you’re playing World of Goo, Candy Crush Saga, a full-on RPG, or the latest real-money casino games, every mobile user needs to be concerned about security. No-one wants personal details stolen, logins compromised, or credit card information hacked into, but the truth is that attacks are on the …
Due to Ofcom changing the way service numbers (0845, 0870 etc) Vodafone are simplifying their excess charges. These out of bundle charges are what you pay if you exceed your monthly allowance or if you don’t have one. From the 10th August 2015 there will be a single …
We’ve written a bit about not-spots and the various methods the networks and government are using to try and eliminate them; including here, here and here if you missed it. As you may have noticed, progress has been pretty slow to say the least… so Anywhere SIM have taken matters …
Vodafone SIM only deals are becoming more flexible. I don’t mean the SIM card will bend more (please don’t try that at home), rather Vodafone are relaxing the upgrade rules. Previously if you were on a 12 month SIM only plan then you could only upgrade to a …
Apple announced that Apple Pay will be coming to the UK next month, and so all the banks seem to be tripping over themselves to announce they will be supporting the service. We have had press releases from Visa, Mastercard and Santander saying they will be supporting the …
Vodafone today became the latest network to join the home broadband market, with their Connect offer. Vodafone Connect is a fibre service offering speeds of up to 76 Mbps with unlimited downloads. https://youtu.be/Ysjo5PsSb3I Rather than charging for different usage amounts, Vodafone have different tiers based on speeds, up …
Not content with mobile phones, home broadband, mobile broadband and in-car WiFi devices, EE is now branching out into action cameras with the 4GEE action camera. The EE connected strategy focuses on 4 main areas: home; you; car and business. The new action camera is part of the …
The SmartBand SWR10 was Sony’s first fitness monitor and linked in with the Lifelog app to keep track of all your movements, sleep and phone activity. Since then the wearable market has moved on with heart-rate monitors being the main addition. So it should come as no surprise that Sony …
It appears O2 is having a rough time this evening. The network says it is having intermittent problems affecting some of its customers in various parts of the country including London and Birmingham. You can see from their with their own status checker that there’s a number of …
MixRadio, the music streaming service previously found only on Nokia Lumia before appearing on other Windows Phones and other Nokias, is now cross platform and available on iOS and Android devices. The service allows you to choose from a selection of over 10,000 pre-selected mixes (10,409 according to …
Any fans of the Avengers might have noticed a lot of promotion alongside of the Samsung Galaxy S6, with downloadable themes and now there are Avengers cases and wireless charging pad. These official Samsung cases feature some of Earth’s mightiest heroes (Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America and …
Are you lucky enough to own a Samsung S6 or S6 Edge? If so, then you may not be quite so lucky as you think. It seems that a number of S6 and S6 Edges are being a bit greedy with the RAM. It’s not a lack of …
Before we start I should put in a slight caveat that this is just in America at the moment, but it is still an interesting development, especially given the network rivalry over the pond. Google are going to rent network capacity for voice, texts and data from Sprint …
OnePlus, the company that brought us the OnePlus One with the weird invite system have announced something will happen on April 20th. That’s about as much as we can tell you. The date could refer to the end of the invite system, the OnePlus Two, a mini version, a …
EE has announced the launch of a new reward scheme for its customers – EE Power. The new scheme is available for all active EE customers, both mobile and broadband customers. According to a YouGov poll commissioned by EE: Almost 60% of smartphone users find their battery doesn’t …
It used to be that the case that if your phone was lost or stolen and some little toerag ran up a huge bill calling premium numbers or some random far away land then you would liable for the whole amount. In the not to distant future, this …
We have reviewed several powerbanks over the last few weeks and months (here, here and here for 3), now it’s my turn. The PowerpackXL medium is a 4000mAh portable battery pack in a very nice finish, with a 5V 1A output. The powerbank has a shiny black finish …
EE has just committed to spending £1.5 billion, that’s £1,500,000,000 or 5,084,745,763 pints of beer, between now and 2017 as part of a snazzily named new manifesto called “Signalling the Future”. This new manifesto is designed to tackle the digital infrastructure needs of the UK and lay the …
Over the last few years Samsung has tended to keep things quiet at MWC, preferring to hold a separate Unpacked event a few weeks later. This year the Unpacked event will be held at MWC on Sunday March 1st according to the invite sent out. The invite confirms …
Windows Phone 8.1 is officially on the condemned list. Microsoft today held a media briefing and announced that Windows Phone is to be fully integrated into the Windows fold when Windows 10 is released later this year. There will be two new versions of Windows, the only difference …
Alcatel aren’t the only people announcing smartwatches, although in the case of Sony it isn’t a new model rather a couple of new strap options for the existing Sony Smartwatch 3. First up is a new metal body for the Smartwatch 3, similar to the business edition of …
Along with a new smartwatch Alcatel also announced a new tablet and a range of phones. The POP 10 is, surprisingly enough, a 10″ tablet that features an IPS display and is powered by a quad-core processor. Storage wise there is 8GB internal memory, a 5 MP rear camera …
Yes, it’s me again with yet another smartwatch announcement. This time at least it’s from a phone manufacturer rather than a watch maker, Alcatel I choose you. The new Alcatel Watch, yes seriously that is its name, features a round display with a semi-functional outer ring and then …
Recently Tag Heuer announced plans to make a smart watch, now Mont Blanc have gone a slightly different course and announced a smart strap. The e-strap is an optional add-on to the new range of Timewalker Urban Speed watches. The strap features an electronic module made from DLC (diamond …
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects about 1.5% of the population to a lesser or greater extent. It is not all to the extent of the film “Rain Man”, but it does affect how people communicate with others. This varies with each individual but is often demonstrated …
With all the phone manufacturers making smartwatches – Apple, Samsung, Sony, Microsoft, LG etc it was only a matter of time before a watch manufacturer decided to make a smartwatch, the latest is Tag Heuer after Swatch announced it has a model planned for next summer. LVMH’s (the owners …
I don’t generally post about crowd funding projects but this one I’ll make an exception for. You may have already read about PEEK a smartphone attachment that is designed to allow a full eye exam both vision and health of the retina (the back of the eye) to be …
The FES (Fashion Entertainments) watch was a crowd-funding project on Makuake, a Japanese crowd-funding site, that ran in September this tear. The project shows a watch made almost entirely of e-ink, the same technology used in Kindle screens and Pebble smartwatches. The difference here is that it’s not …
A few weeks ago we covered the announcement of Selfy cases, a case with a slide out remote control shutter button for taking selfies, group shots or any other uses you may think of. The guys at Selfy were nice enough to send over a review sample for …
Amidst all the madness of the new iPad announcements (and the network availability from Three and EE) you may have missed one small titbit – the new Apple SIM. No, this isn’t Apple changing the size again, it is a standard nano SIM but one with a little extra …
First there was the selfie, then there was the selfie stick, then the super selfie phones (from Huawei, Nokia and Sony), now there is the Selfy case. The cases combine a simple remote shutter button and with a holder that also serves to protect your phone and …
We are big fans of Three here at Coolsmartphone, a lot of the staff are on the network due to cheap deals and large data allowances. It seemed that they had turned a page on the customer service front, having the least complaints per 1000 customers in the …
I’m not sure if I should be writing this article but if this picks up then I might be out of a job. Following on the heels of the BookBook from Ikea, comes the NoPhone. The NoPhone is a Kickstarter campaign that promises a “technology free alternative to …
Everyone knows the drill by now, you board an airplane and you get a safety message asking you to ensure your seat is upright, trays up, luggage safely stowed and to switch off all electrical devices including mobile phones (or at least put them in flight mode). Now, …
When Phones 4U went into administration, the administrators PwC announced that customers who had pre-ordered the iPhone 6 and 6 plus would be reimbursed for any money they had paid. It emerged this morning that an email was sent round to all customers (with all 136 email addresses …
Apple doesn’t seem to be having too good a time at the moment, with Bendgate going on and numerous reports of bugs with iOS 8. However Apple was quick to react to the bugs and released 8.0.1 which was supposed to address the following: Fixes a bug so HealthKit …
Yesterday we brought you news that the Lumia 735 was available to pre-order SIM free, today we have received official confirmation of the launch date from Microsoft – the 2nd of October. In case you missed it, the 735 is the 4G version of the 73x range, similar …
The Note Edge certainly caused a stir when it was announced, leading to much debate on the podcast with most people wondering what the point was and how it would work. Now it seems that we might not have to worry about that with Clove saying that the …
It seems that Microsoft have started the process of moving the business and branding from Nokia to Microsoft directly. If you head over to Nokia’s UK website you now get redirected to Microsoft’s own website. This doesn’t come as a complete surprise, there have been rumours that new …
As you may have read yesterday, Phones 4u have shut up shop this morning with the firm calling in the administrators. As part of the announcement, Phones 4u owners BC partners attacked the networks, particularly Vodafone for not giving them enough time to sort out alternative arrangements and …
