Category: General

Sure, we’ve never heard of “TechPro” either, but £12.99 for a Class 10 microSD card? That’s gotta be worth a gamble, right? Link – Amazon

So you fancy a bit of jelly bean action, eh? Funny how that sentance would have got you sectioned last week.. Anyhow the lovely people at Expansys have the “flagship” Google phone, the Galaxy Nexus at a rather impressive £319-99 with free shipping. Jelly bean will be officially …

Google has given the security of its Face Unlock feature a bit of careful consideration in the upcoming Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release of Android. The feature was introduced with the dawn of ICS as a way to unlock your phone through face recognition, but shortly after it’s …

Now, don’t mis-read that headline. There’s more than three people with the ICS / Android 4.0 update, we’re talking about the mobile network “Three”. They’ve announced that their Xperia S customers can.. err.. “proactively download the Android Ice Cream Sandwich update”. What this basically means is that you …

5000 jobs are set to be axed by Blackberry maker RIM as the company announced a $518m (£334m) net loss in the three months to June 2nd. This, when compared to the $695m profit made in the same period last year, shows how the tide has turned. Sales …

For those of you who have a HP Touchpad, the Open webOS project came one step closer to fruition this week. The Open webOS team have released a package for the Touchpad that allows users to “learn how the TouchPad works, modify your TouchPad experience and then apply …

Well that didn’t take long. Although Android 4.1 will officially be coming in July as an OTA update for existing devices, those wizards over at XDA already have the stock version released yesterday at Google IO available to download and flash to your device. If you know how …

There have been some strange motorsport sponsorship deals over the years. Who’d have thought the clothing company Benetton would have a team, for example, and if I told you ten years ago that a soft drinks manufacturer would have a championship winning team, you’d have looked at me …

The Nokia 808 Pureview is, it has to be said, a strange phone. Without “that camera” it’d probably be overlooked. It runs on a 1.3GHz CPU, it’s got a 360 x 640 pixel 4″ screen and has the usual WiFi, GPS, FM radio, microSD etc However, it’s got …

Let’s be honest. Look at your phone. Did you get a good deal? Many people choose their phone based on a monthly budget, and want the phone for nothing up-front. For many it’s typical to pay around £36 a month for two years, but you can find yourself …

As regulars visitors will know we here at Coolsmartphone are supporters of 4G Britain, Everything Everywhere’s campaign to increase awareness of the consumer and business benefits that faster, more reliable fourth generation mobile services will bring to the UK. A very good example of these benefits can be see …

If you are involved in the development of apps or games then we want to hear from you. Regardless of platform, be it Android, Blackberry, iOS, Symbian or Windows Phone. We’d like you the developers to come to our forums and post details about your products. We can …

Carphone Warehouse have today announced the launch of a new app that they have called “Bill Angel”. Designed to  track your call, text and data usage, the app will warn you when you reach your limits thus making it easier to stick to your tariff allowances. Currently available for …

So, you have a quad core beast of a handset, and it seems a shame to contain all that power to one (admittedly rather large and beautiful) mobile phone display. Step in the official Samsung HDTV adapter for the Galaxy S3.. The included video demonstrates the capabilities of the …

NFC stands for Near Field Communication you may have seen it in shops now as contactless payment basically its a set of standards for smartphones that enables the transfer of data such as text or numbers between two NFC enabled devices. NFC tags, like stickers, key fobs or …

The football may be over for England but the great British summer of sport rolls on with the Wimbledon Tennis Championships starting today and we bring you news of the official Wimbledon app!! Follow all the action LIVE during the fortnight with the official Wimbledon app. The All …

Following the recent releases of large screened super phones from the likes of HTC and Samsung there has been a lot of discussion over whether the mainstream phone market is ready devices of this size. So are we ready for larger screens? Well with the pre-orders for the …

Today Virgin Media are going head-to-head with the Three “One Plan” and T-Mobile “Full Monty” tariff. However, the Virgin “Premiere” plan dishes up unlimited data at a lower price point – just £21 per month for unlimited data and unlimited texts. The network, which piggy-backs Everything Everywhere, is …

Samsung have stepped up their undeclared war with Apple by offering free software to help users defecting from iOS transfer their media, contacts and archived text messages. The software also enables users to continue to use Apple’s iTunes software to manage their Android handset…a sure selling point. Easy …

A little while ago we bought you news that the iOS exclusive app was coming to Android via the Samsung Galaxy SIII. Following leaks and several beta releases we bring you the news that Flipboard is now available on Google Play. The app, specially optimised for smartphones (the blurb specifically mentions …

Just days ahead of Google IO, news of the next version of Android has leaked via an unlikely source: Google’s very own Play Store. Jellybean will officially be Android 4.1 and will apparently be with us soon, according to the listing for the HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus. Not much …

The Gear4 StreetParty Size 0 is a small, thin and light speaker designed for ad hoc music listening. I’ve been using it over the last few days but is it any good? Read on to find out… The first thing I noticed when taking the Size 0 out …

    As a CoolSmartPhone reader, there’s a very good chance you are already aware that on Monday, Microsoft announced their own Surface branded 10.6” Windows 8 family of tablets PC’s and accessories. Microsoft announced it at a surprising presentation. Not surprising that it was a tablet, more …

While Android OEMs have continually shown a tendency to not support their handsets with updates, either promptly or at all, Apple have just announced that the 3GS will receive its 3rd major update with iOS 6. The fact that only 7% of devices accessing the Play Store are …

Microsoft may have decided to leave us Lumia owners out in the cold regarding the Windows Phone 8 update but Nokia have come to our aid, with the warm and comforting shoulder that a good parent should do. As of June the 27th they will begin rolling out …

For quite a while I have been looking for an Alarm app as an alternative to the one supplied in the stock version of Ice Cream Sandwich.  I put a post  asking for recommendations over on our forums and a fellow writer suggested Alarmdroid. Developed by Fabian Lueghausen, the app …

Some of the HTC devices we reviewed last year included these Dr. Dre Beats headphones. They work with the Beats technology in the phone to deliver superior quality sound into your eardrums. You can see them in our Sensation XE review and I remember seeing them in the …

As Olympic fever reaches new heights in the UK, what better time to launch the Official London 2012 game for Android. There are two versions of the game, free and paid (paid version gives you 3000 points and 5 max stamina points) , and an initial small download. The full …

Just a few hours ago, as expected, Microsoft unveiled their own brand of tablets called “Surface”. They will be powered by Windows 8 and have 10.6″ (26.9cm) displays with built-in kickstands. They’re also built with magnesium cases, which Microsoft tell us are a first. You’ll be able to …

Some weeks ago we announced that Coolsmartphone became an official supporter of 4G Britain. Now another 8 companies have joined the calls to enable Britain to have a fully fledged 4G network as soon as possible. The new supporters are  Kier Group, Macworld, Muzicall, Myallsearch.com, Net Trajectory, PC World, Stuff magazine and Zentek Forensics.  This list goes …

Following recently announced roaming deals from Vodaphone and Three, T-Mobile are the latest to announce their roaming offering ahead of the new EU billing rules that apply from 1st July 2012. Known as Internet and Broadband Travel Boosters and available from 19th June, the operator is making several choices …

So you’ve managed to get your hands on a shiny new Galaxy S3 handset. OOooh, shiny! You want it to stay that way, so that means a case. Below we take a look at two great choices from Mobilefun. First up, the Genuine Samsung Galaxy S3 Mesh Vent …

It seems it doesn’t take long these days for a new feature built in to the latest and greatest smartphones to be ported or hacked on to other phones. Yesterday, I looked at Smart Stay (Beta) for Android, today I tried Fast Burst Camera (Lite) for Android. Description …

If any of you have heard the Coolsmartphone Podcast you will have noticed several of our writers mention the loss of a physical keyboard. Many moons ago I owned a Blackberry Bold 9700, the keyboard on the handset was fantastic, I seemed to type more and quicker. Now …

Since I write for CoolSmartphone.com and am very passionate about phones and technology everyone expects me to have the latest and greatest, most people are surprised when I say I own a Motorola Atrix and ask why I don’t have something more impressive! I’ve spent a lot of time fighting …

We here at Coolsmartphone are always on the lookout for new technology, technology that can enhance your lifestyle or make a job easier. One such technology that is currently looking for backing on Kickstarter is Plugbook, an innovative solution to the common problem of not having a charger …

  Monday June 18, 3.30pm, A secret venue somewhere in Los Angeles. That is the time the Microsoft has set aside for a cloak and dagger operation where a big announcement is scheduled within which it is speculated that they will reveal their own branded tablet challenger to …

Can eco-friendly, wooden clad, celebrity endorsed earphones really cut it when it comes to multi-platform mobile entertainment, and being a hands-free kit? After reading Simon’s excellent review of the Klipsch S4a Android earphones I was tempted to grab myself a pair. In fact, there was a pair in …

With the British summer becoming a bit of a wash-out, Vodafone have stepped up with a solution. It’s an umbrella. Sure, we’ve seen umbrellas before. I’ve got a collection of broken ones in the boot of my car, but none of those will act as a high-gain antenna …

It’s not the mosy surprising news in the world, especially when the Android kernel is based on his creation, but the BBC interview with Linus Torvalds is well worth a read. Linus talks about the birth of Linux and why, in his opinion, Linux hasn’t cracked the desktop …