Category: Android

Windows Phone 7 update still failing for some Samsung owners

OK, I’ll try not to repeat myself here – hopefully you know what’s happened with the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 update. All Windows Phone 7 handsets are currently getting a “pre update” upgrade which will prepare devices for the much anticipated copy and paste feature. Samsung handsets seemed …

Sarah Harding promotes the HTC Incredible S

Sarah Harding (the blonde one from “Girls Aloud”) has been wheeled out to promote the new HTC Incredible S. According to my wifes’ description she’s pictured “in a black outfit with matching shoes and is sporting a new darker look”. The pictures will no doubt appear in various …

“More than 50” Android apps now thought to be virused

Google pulled 21 apps from the Android Market yesterday after many were found to contain trojan horse-style exploits. Many of the apps were re-packed versions of existing applications, including free pirated versions of paid-for utilities already in the Market. The root exploit used in some of these apps …

Coolsmartphone Recommended App – CircleLauncher Light

CircleLauncher is an app that gives you several shortcuts attached to one icon. Clicking on the icon brings up a circle on which the shortcuts sit. These shortcuts can be frequently used apps, contacts or bookmarks. There is a full version as well that costs £0.85 which allows …

Windows Phone updates start again for Samsung handsets

OK, story so far. Microsoft promised that the copy and paste update would arrive this month. Shortly after an update started but it wasn’t the one we were expecting – this was an update to “prepare” phones for the next update. Things went a bit pear-shaped when Samsung …

LauncherPro – Android customisation done right

Ask any geek why Android is great and more often than not the answer will include the word open. One of Android’s biggest purported benefits is it’s openness, which we’re told leads to more innovation and greater customisability. Unfortunately, I’d argue that in practice it’s also a big …

Motorola Xoom UK pricing back online. Now more expensive!

Just a couple of days back we revealed that PC World had slipped out their Motorola Xoom pricing. At £449.99 it didn’t seem to bad for the Wifi-only version, but shortly after the pre-order page we’d spotted vanished. Luckily the pre-order page is now back but.. err.. guess …

Coolsmartphone Recommended App – Dropbox

Dropbox is an easy way to synchronise files between your phone, your desktop computer, your laptop, your ipad, your iphone, your ipod touch or your blackberry, in fact most mobile devices or computers have software to suit. To sign up for an account is free, you get 2gb …

HTC Event – Watch it all again here

Apple event? What Apple event? 😉 A couple of weeks back we streamed the big HTC event in Barcelona live. It got a number of you watching but, if you missed it, there’s now a YouTube recording of the whole thing. HTC revealed several handsets, all of which …

Tracking the space shuttle, on your Android

Last night I spotted a few tweets about the “ISS” being “bright in the sky”. If I’m honest I had no idea what everyone was talking about but, thanks to Google, I quickly found out that “ISS” was actually a reference to the International Space Station. You can …

The Italian Job

What a trip!  Well, as I promised a little while ago here is a review of some apps that I used while trying to navigate around Rome and Florence on a fantastic sightseeing trip.  To make it easier (and shorter) I will list the apps and what I …

Three Now Stock Galaxy Tab

Three have now started to stock the Samsung Galaxy Tab on their network direct and give you a very healthy amount of data to get through in a month with two options available. The two options for the Tab available from Three are: £15.99 a month on a …

LG Optimus Pad gets a $699 price.

American retailer Mobilecity recently put up a page showing the 8.9″ LG Optimus Pad available for Pre-order at $699, and this is for the Wifi AND 4G version, basically undercutting the Motorola Xoom by $100! I know this is a British based site, but that equates to roughly …

Win some stuff!

Everyone likes free stuff, especially right now when everything is so ruddy expensive, so here’s a couple of competitions for you. Firstly Expansys have a competition to win an Xperia PLAY. It’s just a matter of doing some retweeting to be in with a chance of winning this …

HTC Hero update available

A small HTC Hero update appears to be rolling out right now. Version 3.36.405.1 seems to update the HTC Peep app and xda-developers have seen some other files patched too. Check for updates on your Hero to see if it’s available, otherwise.. just wait longer. 😉 Credit – …

Coolsmartphone Recommended App – DiskUsage

Keeping track of what is stored in our phones memory is at times a struggle. Newer phones like the Nexus S, Desire Z and Desire HD have a large internal memory and large memory cards. Keeping track of what is taking up space is becoming harder. I came …

Marketplace choice increases – 9000 apps available

The number of apps in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace continues to rise. WindowsPhoneAppList.com now reports that over 9000 applications are available – up from 8,200 a couple of weeks back. Nearly a quarter of those apps are games and, although it’s still a small number compared to …

Motorola Xoom UK pricing revealed

PC World have just added pricing for the Motorola Xoom. Are you ready ? It’ll cost £449.99, which is actually a bit less than we were expecting (it’s $799.99 in the US for the 3G version). You can pre-order the sexy 10.1″ tablet now or, if you want …

LG Optimus 2X – Now arriving this month

The LG Optimus 2X was originally scheduled for February but now it seems that the release date has moved back a little. We had a look at the device whilst at Mobile World Congress and we were bowled over by the speed of the thing. The dual-core processor …

Playandroid.com announce a “new era of Android game distribution”

Imagine the scene, you’re down the pub and all around you people are playing games on their iPhone. There you sit with your Android phone, playing Angry Birds and hoping that something equally cool appear in the Android Market so that you can compete with your friends. If …

Android handsets all over the O2 Coming Soon pages

The o2 Coming Soon pages are now awash with Android handsets. In addition to their exclusive white Xperia PLAY and the Xperia Arc they’ll also be selling the HTC Desire S in April. Before that you can now expect to see the Galaxy Ace and Galaxy Mini. Link …

Coolsmartphone Recommended App – Swipepad

Swipepad is a fairly new app that allows you to hide up to 12 shortcuts behind your homescreen. You can add shortcuts to contacts, audio profiles, settings or apps. If used in conjunction with a program like folder organizer you can create many more custom shortcuts it also …

Blog post: So? Where are the Phones and Tablets?

Blog post:These are my thoughts only and not the opinions of Coolsmartphone.com. Well, it’s Sunday and things are quiet on the phone news front, so I’d thought I’d share my thoughts on a few things that are annoying the hell out of me! Phone manufacturers, we understand you …

Coolsmartphone Recommended App – Gmote

I have read no end of “top ten android apps” type articles and they are all very similar. Google maps is usually their top app, followed by some sort of task killer! These articles are great for beginners though, they show new users what is possible with their new …

Sony Ericsson PLAY – Did it first appear 14 years ago?

During our close-up with the Sony Ericsson PLAY we felt that we’d somehow seen the phone before. We couldn’t put our finger on it, but tonight, thanks to ITV1 showing the old James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies”, it all became clear. Here’s the Ericsson device from the …

Samsung Galaxy S2 rumoured for a March release…

Today UK online retailer Clove put the Samsung Galaxy S2 up their site with a suggested release of mid to late March, much earlier than was initially expected. They also put some prices to it as well, the 16Gb version coming in at £510 + Vat and the …

New Windows Phone 7 ads on show

Microsoft have tried various things with their phone marketing these last few years. This recent American ad, which we hope will appear sometime soon here in Europe, certainly steps things up a notch.. Link – YouTube.com

7″ Android Tablets, now from Netto too

Want a cheapish not-so-good tablet? Well, if you fancy a 600Mhz device and a 7″ RESISTIVE screen, pop to you local Netto. While you’re there could you get me some beer? I’m running low. What ? You want more specs? OK. There’s 4GB of storage, 128MB RAM, TV-out …

Angry Birds coming to Windows Phone 7

Angry Birds. We really don’t have to say much more than that. It’s an epic game which has nearly everyone hooked and is the top app across many countries right now. According to the Windows Team Blog the game will be appearing on Windows Phone 7 handsets from …

HTC Incredible S to go on sale February 26th

According to Techradar the HTC Incredible S is due for a UK release via The Carphone Warehouse and Best buy on the 26th of Feb, ramping up for a general release on the 3rd of March.   I admit, the Incredible S isn’t exactly breaking any barriers with …

Android growth in video. In a word, stunning.

Last night I got this rather fascinating video. It shows the growth of Android from October 2008 to January 2011. The video was uploaded and created by Android Developers and shows global activations through the months. Things remain pretty smooth until the latter part of 2009 when all …

Need wallpapers for your Android ?

Want some wallpapers for your Android handset? Head over to this XDA-developers thread where you’ll find over 500 wallpapers and 650 docks / app drawers to choose from. They all come courtesy of member modelstudent – you just need to click into his Dropbox account to see the …

Windows Phone 7 Updates – Further news from Microsoft

Microsoft have now publish a blog post which answers many questions surrounding the recent recent pre-update update and the details around issues with Samsung Omnia 7 devices. Their stats show that 90% of those who’ve received the update have installed it successfully. Those 10% having issues did so …

Apple Event Confirmed For 2nd March

Apple have confirmed an event on the 2nd March and started inviting media out for this. The image used shows the iCal date of the 2nd March over the top of an iPad so it is a safe bet we do not have long to wait until the …

3 HTC Desire’s getting Gingerbread

3 have disclosed in a tweet that they will be bringing Android 2.3 to their customers who have an HTC Desire. Things have been a little quiet in terms of existing HTC devices getting the latest Android OS, but its good to hear that they aren’t forgetting their …

Windows Phone 7 Update stopped for Samsung Omnia 7 phones

On Monday Microsoft started to roll their first Windows Phone 7 update. It was designed to get phones ready for other updates (such as the copy and paste functionality) but appears to have killed a number of Samsung Omnia 7 devices. Some customers have managed to resurect their …

Official Android VNC viewer now available

There’s a few VNC viewers already kicking around the Android Market but, during Mobile World Congress, the official app was announced by VNC themselves. VNC is a system that allows remote access into machines across the web and operates a little like RDP (Remote Desktop). To get it …

Make your own clock widget

Clocks. Everybody needs them but most people use one of the standard ones provided on Android. There’s a selection of clocks in the Android Market but we rather like the look of “Make Your Clock Widget”, a free application to let you create your very own clock widget …

Gingerbread 2.3.3 for Nexus ‘”S’ AND One now rolling out.

Googlenexus tweeted earlier this morning that android 2.3.3 ‘Gingerbread is rolling out Over the Air for the Nexus S AND finally the Nexus One. Thats right, they are finally sending out Gingerbread to the long lost and forgotten older brother of the S – Hurrah! It’s a bit …