Category: iOS

News gathering for the iPhone 5 launch

So you, like us, are probably watching anxiously for the iPhone 5. You’re wondering how to cut through the incredible load of rubbish that’s popping up on Google News – multiple re-reports of the same stuff, baseless rumours, spam and nonsense – and get to the meat of …

iPhone 5 – Is It Nearly Here?

Apple loves to keep everybody guessing at what is to come and when. The good news is Al Gore let us know that there is definitely something coming next month. Al Gore, who is one of Apple’s board members let slip “Not to mention the new iPhones coming out next …

Apple Event 4 October

Well that’s the rumour of the day anyway – this will be most likely the opportunity for Tim Cook to make his debut launching the latest Apple news since he took the reins from Steve Jobs. The iPhone 5 / 4S is sure to be announced and I’m …

One in ten primary school kids have an iPhone

It’s fair to say that we get lots of emails about surveys. This one, though, stood out quite a bit. A survey of 2000 parents of children aged 10 and under has revealed that 10% of kids own an iPhone. Shockingly, the survey also found that 10% of …

Hardware Review – Android Bluetooth Soundbox with Hands-Free

I should start this review by saying I’m not a big fan of Bluetooth speakers. They usually sound awful and it’s usually more practical to carry round something larger rather than sacrifice sound quality. I was pleasently surprised with this one though. The sonic performance of this green little fella is not …

iPhone 5 Almost revealed

Apple bosses are probably sitting in their offices with a big fat smile on their faces. Rumours, blurry photos and overheard release dates are keeping “iPhone 5” at the top of every search engine and Twitter search. Today this shot appeared on case-mate.com but it swiftly vanished again. …

Come on, you want one of these in your garden

This rather splendid video has been knocking around the t’interwebs for some months, but strangely it’s only appeared in our inbox today. The T-Mobile advert, which was put together by Saatchi & Saatchi, transforms the marvellous Angry Birds game into real-life. Sure, we know that the majority of …

Apple sues Samsung in the UK

If we’re all brutally honest, this is getting utterly boring and annoying. Apple has now sued Samsung right here in the UK. This is a countersuit after Samsung filed a suit against Apple in June. ZDNet states… Apple says Samsung’s Android smartphones and tablets infringe on Apple patents, …

iPhone 5 – October 15th?

The CEO of France Telecom (Orange/T-Mobile’s parent company) has been a little too loose talking again, and claims the iPhone 5 release date will be 15th October. That rings true with lots of other rumours calling a mid-October release date, but 15th October is a Saturday, which would …

The iPhone is not cool…

Well according to the (acting) president of HTC America that is.  On the iPhone 5 hype: “Apple is innovating. Samsung is innovating. We are innovating. Everybody is innovating. And everybody is doing different things for the end consumers. I brought my daughter back to college — she’s down …

Review: Happy Owl Studios ‘The Wallet’ case for iPad

I’ve been looking for a case for my iPad to replace the standard Apple one for best part of a year now. I wanted something that would let me carry more than just my iPad so I didn’t have to juggle phones and wallets whilst showing off my …

Get social – Blendr available for iOS

If you’re gay you may have used the Grindr app to quickly locate and socialize with local men. Using GPS technology it’ll map out other guys close to you, then you can share pictures and information straight away. Now the makers of that app have created Blendr, a …

PingMe – Instant Messaging across Android, iPhone and BlackBerry

Instant messaging has always been a tricky thing to perfect. The biggest problem usually getting people onto the right IM platform. Are your friends on Google Chat ? Windows Live ? ICQ ? Enter PingMe, another messaging app which offers real-time chat, group chat and geo-location. It’s easy …

Smartphone shipments outstrip feature phones

It’s official, more smartphones are sold that feature phones here in Western Europe. Stats from research firm IDC shows that Samsung is ahead with 13.9 million phones sold in the second quarter of 2011 (feature phones and smartphones), with Nokia behind on 9 million followed by Apple and …

App Review – Retro Recall

The idea behind this app, as the name suggests is to provide images of various retro films/toys/songs etc and includes a link to the relevant Wikipedia website for that particular subject. The app has the ability to set favourites and you can also share items by email, Facebook, …

HeyTell – An app that should be in all smartphones

It’s not often that an app causes me to record a video review, let alone two, but I’ve been using my Android phone in totally new ways recently and wanted to share the love. 🙂 I’ve tried “Touch To Talk” apps in the past and I’ve seen, many …

Android almost doubles UK market share according to report

Just in case you weren’t aware, Android is continuing to rise in popularity. Research from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech shows the sheer seismic shift in the market share for Android. Android now has a 47.1% share of the smartphone market here in the UK, with BlackBerry some distance behind …

AmpKit 1.2 released

Agile Partners have updated their truly excellent AmpKit guitar amp simulator for iOS. For this release Agile have 4 new partners – Budda®, Rocktron®, Fargen™ and Sonic Edge – with new amps and effects from all of them, as well as some other new additions. Overall sound quality & …

Review: MEGASTUNT Mayhem

I realised that I didn’t have much in the way of entertainment installed on my iPhone 4 that didn’t depend on the internet – of course I only noticed this when I didn’t have internet, when does that ever happen?! I’d long since exhausted all the Angry Birds …

App Review – Lingvo Dictionaries

There’s no doubt that the iPhone has made my life easier when it comes to travelling – from booking accommodation, to finding places to go and viewing a map of how to get there. Aiming to become the latest addition to my arsenal of travel-assisting apps is Lingvo …

App Review – ParcelGenie

OK, this one is for you busy people. The idea behind ParcelGenie is sending a gift to any recipient in your phone via the ParcelGenie app (there are other ways too, including Facebook). You don’t need to know the recipient’s postal address, just their phone number or email …

Review: Amazing Breaker

Well I’m told this is ‘#1 Ice-Smashing Game’.  Apparently.  All those other Ice-Smashing games are nowhere near as good as this one, the Number 1, the daddy of all Ice-Smashing Games.  Righhhhhhhhht… I’ve got to tell you, I wasn’t expecting much.  For every A+ big budget mobile game …

MotorMusic app review

I’m imagining here that most, if not all, folks who own an iPhone 4 use it as a direct replacement for their MP3 player. Convergence is fantastic when it prevents you having to carry additional devices and the single device works as well as your previous music player. …

Apple loses another unreleased iPhone

So you’re about to launch you next generation device set to rock the world, what do you do? That’s right – you go down a Shrimp & Tequila bar in San Francisco …. and leave the device there… deja vu ?? Details from cnet.com state.. It was taken from a Mexican …

Samsung ban may not include UK

Apple have yet again taken aim at Samsung by getting an injunction to ban the sale of Galaxy handsets. The embargo is due to kick off in a few weeks time and concerns an Apple patent for an interface to “view and navigate photographs on a touch screen …

Steve Jobs resigns as CEO at Apple.

Can’t really add much to the title! Big news as Steve Jobs IS Apple to a lot of people, he is widely credited with turning Apple into the massive company it is now. Edit: Apple shares have dropped 7% approximately an hour after this was announced. Personally I’m not …

8GB iPhone4 rumours emerge

Reuters has reported that some Apple suppliers are gearing up for the production of a reduced capacity iPhone 4 variant. Whilst there’s a definite indication that some aspects of this story are true – despite Reuters being cagey about its sources – there’s no confirmed comment on it …

iOS 5 the new standard? (cont)

So here as promised is the follow up article reviewing iOS 5 beta. In this article I will be focusing on the negative aspects of the new software. Before I get started however I do want to address some of the comments that I received from my last …

ExpenseMagic App

Do you work for a company? Do you work for yourself? Then the one thing you’ll be all to familiar with is the Expenses routine. Claiming for milage, train tickets, meals, etc. is all too painful an experience nowadays! Even worse when you lose one of those tatty old receipts… Well …

iOS 5 the new standard?

So I have decided as my first review as a guest reviewer for Coolsmartphone should be on iOS 5. I have been using the platform now for about a month and it is my day to day OS on my iPad 2. I would like to cover the …

LinkedIn reworks its iPhone app from the ground up

LinkedIn (“Facebook for business” for the uninitiated) has always had a bit of a ‘me-too’ approach to its iPhone app. The interface of the previous incarnations of its application looked and felt like a sort of business-flavoured clone of the Facebook app, complete with a nine-icon grid for …

HTC to sue Apple for Patent Infringement

It’s fair to say that we’re slightly losing track of who is suing who now. Today HTC are to take action against Apple, claiming that the iPhone, iPad and iPod all infringe HTC patents. At first glance the patents seem a little generic and are used in many …

Apple documentation against Samsung queried

The BBC is carrying a very interesting story surrounding the continuing battle between Apple and Samsung. Apple have recently secured an injunction to stop Samsung selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android Tablet because is “slavishly” copied iPad designs. A number of images and comparison shots have been filed …

Some rather strange iPhone accessories

This particular iPhone accessory freaked me out quite a bit when it appeared in the b3ta.com newsletter. According to the website selling it they try and qualify the need for a childs hand to be stuck to the back of your handset.. You could hold hands with your …

Updated….Apple blocks Samsung from selling 10″ Tab in Europe.

Ok, the title isn’t exactly right, but there isn’t room to put the detail! According to BGR Apple have won a preliminary injunction in Germany that could effectively block the sales of the Galaxy Tab in all Euro union countries except Holland where there is a similar case ongoing. Samsung could …

Facebook launch Messenger for Mobile

Facebook have announced the imminent launch of new messenger apps for Android and iOS. The app allows you to easily chat with your friends either one to one or in groups. The apps integrate with Facebook Messages and aggregate all your messages including texts, chats and emails. This …

Google+ now available on iPad/iPod Touch

Google have now made their Google+ available for all the iPad and iPod Touch users who were left out  when the app originally launched on iPhone last month. There aren’t any discernible differences between the new version and the previous iPhone only one so it’s unclear why the …

Hungry House for iPhone

Now right away I can see advantages to this app. I travel frequently on business and am often looking through the Hotel’s/B&B’s brochures for local take-outs before making my mind up. In the past I’ve found that some unscrupulous take-outs remove competitors menu’s from the stands.. oh dear. …

Apple Release iOS 5 Beta 5

Today, Apple let out it’s latest addition to the iOS 5 Beta’s to developers, Beta 5. Just a minute though, before jumping in and downloading this update or updating via OTA from Beta 4, let me make you all aware of something else. If you have registered your …

Cut the Rope sequel out now (updated)

Zeptolab will be releasing a sequel to the much loved Cut the Rope later today. The original has been raking in the cash on iOS for many months now and also found it’s way to Android back in June. The new game is dubbed Cut the Rope: Experiments …