Category: General

Another little addition to the site

I'm always trying to add bits and bobs to the site that I hope are useful. Todays' tweak allows you to view the last 200 news items that have been published right here on CoolSmartPhone. Hopefully this item will help you find "that news item I saw las...

A solution to a night-time problem :)

Way back in the day I used to have a Nokia (yes, I know - I was young and inexperienced, I only have myself to blame) which was absolute pap in comparison to the C500 I have today. However, it did used to be able to turn itself …

BBC Launches PodCasting trial

I see that the BBC are doing a Podcasting trial featuring some of their own radio shows. Very promising. This comes on the back of news that BBC Radio 1 is being picked up and re-broadcast the following day on the US Sirius service. Looks like Podcast...

Pantech PH-S8000T debuts in Korea

Pantech have launched their PH-S8000T handset in Korea today. Running an Intel Bulverde 400Mhz the handset, which has an innovative tilt and twist screen, comes with a mega-pixel camera and Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. Sung-Kyu Lee, President...

Hands-free kits cause accidents too!?

An interesting news item here which quotes research done in Australia showing that hands-free kits don't reduce the risk of having a crash. In fact, they're still four times more likely to have a prang even with a hands-free kit! Researchers questionn...

Krome Spy goes on sale in Australia

Ok, so you know by now that Windows Mobile Phones and Pocket PC's are known as lots of different names around the world. Usually, a company called HTC in Taiwan make them, then they get badged by various networks and providers and sold on. Well, meet ...

UK Orange SPV C500 Update – AT LAST!

The long, long awaited update for the Orange SPV C500 is now available to download here which adds Windows Media Player 10, MP3 ringtones, ringtones from your SD card plus compatibility with the THB car kit. Grab the direct download here - don't forge...

Vodafone VPA Compact to come to UK

Initially only available in Germany, the teeny-weeny HTC Magician is about to make an appearance in the UK as the Vodafone VPA Compact about September time. Orange are launching their variant of this - the M500 - any day now, so it looks like Vodafone...

Get CoolSmartPhone fun in your pockets

Huzaar! Another quick tweak to the site is a special subdomain for those of you viewing CoolSmartPhone on your Smartphone. From now on, you'll need to set your phone to go to .... http://mobile.coolsmartphone.com This will then show the mobile versi...

Another Podcast Online

Despite being put through 2 hours of "Sex and the City" hell on random satellite channels this evening by my darling, I did at least manage to upload the CoolSmartPhoneCast - number 5. This time we have news on the campaign to bring the C500 update to...

Wapipedia.org now online – cut-down version of Wikipedia

Wikipedia.org is a fantastic free on-line encyclopedia which you can access from anywhere. Gone are the days of paying a fortune for editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica, now it's all free and online. But wait - have you tried accessing it on your ...

Kids give all their money to Verisign..

According to several stories today, kids are spending more than £1bn a year on mobile phones and mobile services. Yes, read it and weep - £1,000,000,000,000 spent on phones and crappy-arse ringtones. Jamster is one of the chief money-grabbers, who a...

Orange turns into a full ISP

It seems that France Telecom, owner of Wanadoo and Orange, is going to change the old "Freeserve" name again. Freeserve, which hit the headlines originally by offering an 0845 dial-up without any additional charges, was bought by France Telecom and th...

New T-Mobile SDA to come in September

This T-Mobile Press Release, which goes on about the new T-Mobile Web’n’Walk service, has a note about a new T-Mobile SDA Smartphone..... "Around September, T-Mobile is due to introduce a fourth web’n’walk device, the new SDA model, which will...

2Gb SD cards and loads more to be reviewed!

I've just taken delivery of an incredibly quick 2Gb SD card from MobyMemory.com - yes 2Gb!!! I've still got a Hard Drive that big in a PC upstairs!! The SanDisk Ultra II 2GB SD memory card is the largest capacity card currently available in the SD fo...

My blog is all spanky..

I'm tweaking and upgrading the blog at the minute. The main reason is that I wasn't happy with the way it was working, so I've made the site to do something it's not designed to do - which is to take blog entries and display them in a …

More Orange Developer Centres

ORANGE OPENS DEVELOPER CENTRES IN BOSTON AND SAN FRANCISCO Orange announces today that it has extended its Developer Centre network to the US with the opening of new centres in Boston and San Francisco. This follows the developer event – Code Camp -...

Windows Mobile phones help win awards

Yet again Smartphones have helped people to win awards. This time it's the Microsoft Imagine Cup, which is intended to encourage student creativity. In fact it's the second year that Smartphones have helped win the prize. Last year the guys from Team ...

BT Livetime uses Windows Mobile Phones

BT are using Microsoft powered mobile phones for their BT UK Livetime trial. The trial, currently in London, allows users to get access to Sky news services, a music channel and 50 radio stations. BBC News states.. "BT has drawn up its own designs bec...

Cast number 4!

At last, the fouth CoolSmartPhoneCast with added jingles is now online. You can download this to your phone and listen to whenever you feel. It's the mobile audio version of CoolSmartPhone and you can get the latest installment here. Don't forget that...

How to PhotoBlog

Blimey, it's a bit warm. At about quarter to five last night it was still a blistering 30 degrees C here in Merry Ole England. While I was having a nice boozy barbeque last night (along with the rest of the UK by the smell of it), it …

Right! That’s the last time I miss Top Gear!

I can't remember the last time I sat down to watch some TV because I had nothing else to do. I always miss the good TV shows or I only catch part of it. So, I decided to find a way to work around this problem without having …

DOS Attack

Early this morning CoolSmartPhone was subject to a rather heavy Denial Of Service attack at around 4AM which lasted for 3 hours. The origins of this appear to be an AOL IP address at 172.216.224.73 which hammered our servers with tonnes of requests to...

Wow! You can now log in and STAY logged in!

Cookies! Yeah! They're great! The chocolate-chip ones are my favourite, but alas we're not talking about the lovely cookies you get from the local Morrisons, oh no. We're talking about those web-cookies that store little tit-bits of information, such ...

Goodbye Voq, we didn’t really know you..

Oh dear, the Sierra Wireless Voq is dead. The company announced the news today and we could almost see it coming if we're brutally honest. The handset was big and looked a bit like a prop from Star Trek. Aside from the design of it, Sierra Wireless ma...

I’m bigger than you are, suck my fat lollipop

Crazy Frog is number 1 again, the goverment want to charge us for every mile we drive or something and now apparently there's a recession on. Still, don't worry - you've always got that box in the corner of your room to access CoolSmartPhone.com! :) P...

Orange gossip..

Apparently the HTC Universal will be out on Orange later this year - late Autumn time probably. The "3G SPV" or C600 will be it's name.Also the M500 shown right should be out for business customers some time soon - possibly at the end of this week.Thi...

Un-happy slapping

I mentioned happy slapping some weeks back and how it had been picked up by the media. Known as "Happy Slapping", it is in fact just bullying at best, or mugging at worst. The Crazy Frog generation appear to have started this (yes, he's at number 1 ag...

C550 Still on the way…

There's a lot of hoo-har about the C550 at the moment. Various websites are mentioning release days and shots of the Orange magazine. Although June dates are being mentioned, we're still expecting July 11th to be more realistic, and don't forget that ...

Get HDTV right now!

I've been checking out these videos on wmvhd.com and it's pretty damned excellent to see high-definition TV on your PC. If you've got a fairly pokey PC then you NEED to flex your broadband and download some of some of these vids. This is the next big ...

Orange to launch EDGE next week

According to Reuters.co.uk, Orange are to launch its high-speed EDGE mobile service for consumers on June 9. This comes neatly after the Orange TV announcement too. EDGE will let people get on t'internet and email - plus access TV / Video on demand t...

What do you want to see at CoolSmartPhone.com ?

I'm always striving to make CoolSmartPhone bigger and better, but I need your help. My immediate plans for this site at present involve a cookie login system, which will allow you to log in without having to type in your damned details each time. Howe...

TomTom 5 Price Increase?!

Following our earlier story here it would appear that TomTom have increased the price of the excellent TomTom5 for the Windows Smartphone. Originally we were informed via their website that it'd cost €249, but now it appears to have gone up to €29...

C550 Release date

The latest gossip is that the Orange SPV C550 (pictured) will be launched on Orange on July 11th 2005. Yes, I know.. we said May.. that's what we heard, however, now we're hearing different :) Hey, it's always fun with release dates! :) Oh, and there'...

Come on Orange – where’s the C500 UK update?

French Orange SPV C500's were updated on April 19th 2005. Windows Media Player 10 was included, as were a few other fixes such as the "bleeping" noise when you insert a symbol into a text message. Although the update wasn't major, we're left wondering...

Free call revolution

MSMobiles have picked up on a TV Show called The Money Programme that was shown on BBC2 Friday. In the show a group of elderly people were given the chance to use Skype and call their friends for free across the planet. The programme found that the AL...

Flexiskin and miniBuds Reviewed

I've just added a couple of reviews today - both very good products and well worth splashing some cash on. The first review is the Flexiskin case from Boxwave. It freaked me out a tad when I first got it, but it's the first phone case I've ever …

UPDATE – TomTom Mobile 5 is here !

At last, the news you've been waiting for, the new TomTom Mobile 5 is now available to buy as a complete package here! You may remember our review of the earlier version, in which we praised this GPS navigation solution. The new version 5 brings us ...

Orange TV Launches

Today marks the launch of Orange TV - the UK’s first TV-on-the-mobile service. It operates on the Orange 3G network and brings news, sport and entertainment programmes onto your phone. 9 channels will be available including ITN News, CNN, Cartoon Ne...

Memory cards for your phone just got even cheaper

The guys at MobyMemory.com have just emailed in to say that they've gone a bit mad and dropped their prices even lower than normal. Check out the price of a 1Gb miniSD ! It's now only £82.99 ! 1GB mini-SD - £82.99 512MB mini-SD - £35.99 256MB mini...