Category: Android

Arctic P324BT Bluetooth headphones – Review

Taking a pair of headphones out with me running is quite an undertaking, controlling my music whilst I’m out running is also fiddly. The fit is usually not quite right, the volume not quite right, the cables flap around and catch on stuff, the Bluetooth connection to my …

Windows 10 Technical Preview build now available for more phones

As we reported a little while ago the Windows 10 Technical Preview build is now available for many more phones. 35 different devices in fact. To have a try of the new phone or PC operating system you will need to join the Windows Insider program and of course be …

Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge. Yes, they launched today.

James Cordon seems to be making a bit of a name for himself over in the USA and now Samsung have roped him in to promote their shiny new Galaxy S6 handsets. Basically, this is an advert coming up. We can’t get hold of either of the Samsung …

Tesco Mobile properly launches the Samsung Galaxy S6

Tesco Mobile is, like a number of MVNOs, offering some of the very latest handsets at the moment. Using an MVNO is no longer seen as a cheap and cheerful choice. Now it’s perhaps a clever alternative which is just plain better than the main four networks. The …

Getting an S6 today? Don’t forget your case

Today marks the launch of both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the S6 edge. Whether you like it or not, it’s wise to put a case on the posh new Galaxy handset if you get yourself one today. The S6 is pretty much £600 or more depending on …

Lumia 640 available now, 640 XL arriving shortly

Microsoft fans! Remember the Lumia 640 and 640 XL announcement? One of them is now available to buy right here in the UK. We went to get a full hands-on with both in their rather bright shades and you can get the Lumia 640 right now. The Lumia …

Official Twitter Android app receives annoying new update

For many of us using Android, our apps will magically update themselves whenever the developer adds new features or fixes bugs. However, the official Twitter app, which has always been a little buggy on every phone I’ve tried (try sharing an image directly from the gallery for example), …

Hannspree SportWatch fitness tracker – Review

The fitness wearable market is quite a varied one. With many manufacturers creating all different shapes and sizes of wrist bands or watches. A few weeks ago Hannspree announced the Sport Watch which seemed to have the ideal combination of features. They’ve sent me one which I’ve been …

Pre order the Honor 6 Plus SIM free today

Today is the day that me and many others have been waiting for, the rather fancy looking dual camera equipped Honor 6 Plus is going up for pre order. The phone is going to be exclusive to 3 for a while, but you’ll be able to buy it …

Reduce your London cab ride cost – Share the bill with SPLYT

Honestly it seems like we’re getting some sort of taxi app every week here at Coolsmartphone HQ. Today it’s the turn of SPLYT, who’ve raised our eyebrows by offering shared taxi fares to reduce the cost of getting around and 99p rides for a week, beginning next Monday …

HTC announce the One M9+

HTC have this morning announced the much leaked One M9+. It’s to be sold in China, with no mention of other markets. Shame. The various leaks have all been spot on, including the peculiar fingerprint scanner beneath the display. Spec wise it’s a bit different to the One …

Will smartwatches have the same range of apps as smartphones?

Well, that certainly didn’t take long. No sooner has the Apple Watch been announced and we’re already getting emails telling us about apps that’ll run on the thing. That’s expected I guess, but when betting apps also set to arrive on the thing, you know it’ll probably be …

Piper NV – Review

Home automation is something that is only really limited by your imagination, possibly what accessories you can buy and possibly also by how much money you have. You get the idea though…. One of the more intriguing things I saw at MWC was the Piper NV, it is …

EE launch WiFi calling

EE have today announced that WiFi calling will launch on 10th April with the introduction of the S6 and S6 Edge and also the Lumia 640 and 640 XL. Whilst Apple announced compatibility back at their iPhone 6 event, it is Samsung that are getting in there first …

LG announce the human-centric UX 4.0

Every year LG announce a new flagship device and to accompany that they redesign the software running atop of it. This year seems to be no different, in the run up to the LG G4 being announced LG have come out and shown us some of the new …

iFit Announce Integration with the Sony SmartWatch 3

iFit is one of the most popular fitness brands, and today they have formally announced that their services will be integrated into the Sony SmartWatch 3. iFit provides a complete fitness ecosystem to try and mentor you to a healthier lifestyle  and they partner with well-known companies such as …

OfficeSuite Free review

Getting Office documents working on your mobile device can be a hit and miss affair. Sometimes you’ll find an app that opens certain documents but won’t let you edit them. Sometimes you can edit some document types but not others, and you can find that the document will …

Kickstarter mess up, Jide to the rescue

Some of you may be aware that I have been harping on about a Kickstarter project called Remix Ultra Tablet,  well it has been a huge success on Kickstarter so much that the actually sold out the entry level tier of $39 in seconds and the next one …

OxygenOS for the OnePlus One now available

Today is going to be a good day for OnePlus One owners. The eagerly awaited Lollipop update for the OnePlus One is now available for download and manual flashing. This is the version that’s free of all the Cyanogenmod extras, it’s basically just like a Nexus Lollipop ROM. …

HTC unveil the rather familiar looking One M8s

I bet you can remember the above phone right? Last years HTC One M8 right? Wrong it’s the recently unveiled One M8s. Although to give you your due, it is the same phone, just a bit slower. It is best summed up by Peter Frølund the UK and Ireland …

Grab the opening hours for anywhere, just head to your pocket.

The people at OpenHours have sent me a missive about their new Android and iOS apps for checking the opening times of stores, banks, restaurants and more. You can give their website a spin now and put in something like “TSB Birmingham“. It’ll then tell you how long …

Compare the (super)market

Don’t get me started about politics. One group tell you that things are great. The other guys say that things are still rubbish. Me? I’m voting Monster Raving Looney. I think they’re marginally better and my local MP is dressed as a chicken. Brilliant. If you’re not feeling …

Lucy Hedges shows how to f’ing save money

Right, April Fools is now over… unless you’re in America, then it’s probably definitely still on. Either way, I’d like to state up-front that this is definitely an April Fools joke. This is the First Direct Swear Jar app. An app that runs in the background and detects …

Honor 6+ pre-order from April 6th, buy on May 1st

This weekend, while you’re enjoying an Easter break painting fences / wallpapering rooms or perhaps even spending several days in the pub.. if you’re lucky. Today Honor, a Huawei owned company, have announced the pricing and availability. As you lovely people know already, it’ll have a network exclusive …

Alcatel Onetouch Pop D5 – Review

Alcatel have a wide range of devices and keeping up with exactly where each model sits in the range is at times a struggle, when I visited their stand at MWC it took me five minutes to gather myself and work out what was what. Alcatel have sent …

WhatsApp gets voice calling for (almost) all

If you use WhatsApp then I really don’t need to sell this thing to you. It’s a cross-platform messaging app that cuts out the need to use text messages. Instead you send everything over your data connection and you can also keep in touch with people in other …

Microsoft announce the Surface 3

Microsoft have announced the latest in their range of Surface Tablets, the latest being the Surface 3 which is the successor to the Windows RT equipped Surface 2. This time round though it’s running Windows 8.1. It’s summed up by Panos Panay, the corporate vice president, of Microsoft …

Carphone Warehouse & O2 now stocking the HTC One M9

  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 …

LG G4 to be announced next month?

Invites have been sent out for the next LG launch. We’re suspecting it’ll be the LG G4 and it’ll be launched at events in New York, London, Paris, Seoul, Singapore, and Istanbul next month on April 28th and 29th. Other than this invite and the phrase “See the …

Doro Liberto 820 Mini – Review

Doro have found themselves a niche, they have really really thought of everything that a phone should do in that particular niche. A few weeks ago I was introduced to the new Liberto 820 Mini and when I got back from MWC there was one waiting for me …

HTC One E9+ Slips out in China

According to the specs on the HTC China website, this E9+ has a 2GHz 64-bit octa-core MediaTek CPU, 16GB storage plus a microSD card slot for another 128GB. WiFi, 4G and dual nano SIM card slots are included plus an UltraPixel front-facing camera with a 13 megapixel rear …

KitSound Clash, Bluetooth Headphones Review.

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. …

Oppo’s bezel free device leaked.

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 …

More HTC One M9 Plus images leaked.

  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 …

Blackberry financial results show growth

Remember Blackberry? The business phone maker that got absolutely huge when smartphones got cheap enough for everyone under 18 to own and then went out of fashion with the youths? They’re still around and on Friday their Q4 financial results were announced to the effect that they are …

Jide Remix Tablet will be made

The Jide Remix tablet that I mentioned the other day will indeed now be made and shipped to the US, EU and for this here writer, most importantly the UK. To celebrate this I want to share a great video done by Brad Linder of Liliputing that shows …

More phones able to run Windows 10 preview soon

Windows 10 is coming for Windows Phones (hence forward to be referred to as Lumia’s in this article) and work appears to be going pretty well. Windows have just announced a raft of new Lumia’s that will be able to run the preview version of the new OS …

Speck cases for the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge

Whilst at MWC I met the guys from Speck, we had a chat about cases, as you’d expect. They asked me what phone I had and what case I used, I pulled out my Note 4 in an Otterbox Defender case and they actually recoiled in horror. We …

Oxygen OS & CM12 Delayed Say OnePlus

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 …

Acer Liquid Jade S Review

It has been a while since I have done a review of a new phone so when Acer asked me to test the new Jade S I figured I would give it a shot. I had done a small article when the prices were announced a while back …