Category: General
It’s fair to say that I’m now of a “certain age” and I can quite easily amaze people by detailing a long-forgotten time “before mobile phones”. At school in the 80’s and 90’s, you simply wouldn’t see a phone, and it was only at college that clever new …
LG announced today that their upcoming LG V30 will incorporate an F1.6 aperture camera and glass lens in the dual camera specification. The new specification means that the lens is larger and clearer, which means the cameras can let in 25% more light than a traditional smartphone camera lens. …
Got a Sky or Virgin TV contract? Let me ask you a serious question. If you’re not into sports, are you really using it fully? Enough to warrant the monthly cost? Statistics announced today by Ofcom show that 90% of people still watch live TV every week. Some …
Ubiquiti Labs have announced that their AmpliFi HD Mesh Wi-Fi products are now available in the UK, the price ranges from £132.49 to £359.99 depending on the package. The central routing device camouflages an advanced antenna design features a glowing base LED and a smart LCD display, making it …
Like many households here in the UK, or in fact all over the world now, we have an Amazon Echo… hey it’s the future, it’s… like talking to your house …and it answers back. Our Echo sits in our kitchen and now has replaced our radio, our kitchen …
Just recently Honor announced the new 6A. We covered it in detail here and we mentioned that it would be available on Three UK. Well, today is the day. You can Go Binge with it on Three. Wilkin Lee, who’s a thoroughly nice chap and is the sales …
Got a Sky or Virgin TV contract? Let me ask you a serious question. If you’re not into sports, are you really using it fully? Enough to warrant the monthly cost? Statistics announced today by Ofcom show that 90% of people still watch live TV every week. Some …
Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, have hit the news quite a bit recently. This is why you’ve seen us cover the technology several times in recent days.
Well, I kinda packed in all the details of this post into the title, didn’t I? We featured the MVNO in our “£5 SIM only feature” and they deliver 4G data across the EE network. Here, for £8 per month, you get unlimited texts, 1000 minutes (which is …
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has now signed a law due to come into force in November banning technologies which allow users access to banned websites. These sites are on a list which has been created by the Russian government and extends to virtual private networks (VPN’s) and proxies. …
All is quiet, nothing is stirring, not even a mouse and you shout “Alexa, is my door locked?”. No this isn’t the beginning of a weird Internet of Things horror movie but the introduction to Yale’s Keyfree Connected and Keyless Connected Smart Locks in conjunction with Samsung’s SmartThings. To …
Following on from my Venturer Saturn Pro 10 review, I’m now moving on to review the latest budget tablet from RCA/Ventruer the Mercury 7L. As it is currently priced at £49.99, the Mercury 7L is a direct competitor to the Amazon Fire tablet (which I take with me …
I’m kinda lucky. I don’t need too much help getting to sleep as I’m properly worn out by the time I hit the sack. However, for those who want a bit of help getting to sleep and having a more peaceful kip, the new Nox Smart Sleep Light …
You want a case, but you also want a selfie stick. What to do eh? Just how are you going to take those arty shots and simultaneously annoy everyone in the surrounding area without that selfie stick? What you need, flower, is a Stikbox. It’s a world first …
Yes people, I’m learning the Daily Mail-style of click-bait again, in the vein hope that we’ll have enough advertising revenue to pay for the servers this month (sadly, ad-blocking is killing our revenue). OK, long story short. Imagine you want to create a Portable Gaming System. Something running …
It was an interesting idea. A camera, without a viewfinder, that you randomly carried around (probably with your camera-packing-phone) and generally pointed in roughly the right direction of whatever you wanted to film. We reviewed the HTC Re a couple of years back but now it’s vanished from …
A trading update? That’s normally quite a dry document and not one we’d feature here on Coolsmartphone, but the latest one from Vodafone has a number of pretty interesting points. Amongst mentions of “Q1 organic service revenue” and “acceleration in AMAP”, it also shows that data traffic has …
In an effort to stop people fiddling where their phones whilst driving, the people from the Western Cape Government have taken a slightly different approach. A recent advert appears to have lifted a number of CCTV images showing a phone-relate accidents. There’s people falling into ponds, walking into …
It is a story that is oh-so-familiar these days. Along comes a version of an operating system that could be a game changer, it gets praised and supported by those on the cutting edge. Roll on a few years and things have got very quiet with not much …
I don’t know if you agree with me on this one, but do we need yet another messaging app? Well if the rumours are correct, the retail giant Amazon believes that we do. The company has reportedly been sending customers surveys relating to a new messaging service called “Anytime”. …
In the week the 1MORE triple-drive earbuds drop through the letterbox of Coolsmartphonr Towers, then they drop a news release of over-ear headphones called the H1707. These are a beautiful pair of headphones and a hopeful challenger from China in comparison to Bose and Beats. The headphones feature advanced …
Last year we had a play with the flic buttons for the first time, now we take another look to see how they have changed. The conversation went something like this Ian, would you like to review a button? A button? Yes but it’s a smart-button. Oooo a …
So, here’s the idea. You download either the Android or the iPhone app. You create an account and then, using the app, you find a pushbike in your local area. You scan the code on the bike and off you go. When you’re done, and you’ve reached your …
The trouble with phone cases is that, for the most part, they suddenly make your sleek and sexy phone look like a lego brick. Sure, it’s a necessary evil and we know that we have to protect that precious metal from scratches and that fragile glass from breaking. …
The idea of having a dashcam would’ve seemed a bit weird some years ago but, with bad drivers and nearly everybody lying about everything nowadays, it’s good to get something that can’t be argued with. Thinkware have just launched their new full HD dashcam, which they call the …
In my head this seems like a strange idea, especially in a city which is already well-known for traffic problems. However, Zipcar is now here in London and they’ve added 300 petrol (don’t ask me why there’s no electric) cars to London streets. Their idea, via the new …
Hold tight, because you’re about to see a whole lot more of EE on your high street and even in your local supermarket. EE are expanding their retail footprint and have added a partnership with Sainsbury’s too. This will see 100 new EE stores and 400 additional jobs …
So, your phone breaks. You’ve got no insurance. You have to pay a fortune to fix it, right? Well, yes. Even if you’ve got insurance you’ll still need to pay for the excess, and that can increase wildly depending on who the insurance is with, what you’ve done …
There’s no getting away with it. People love the iPhone. My mate has a completely broken iPhone 5s but he refuses to get it fixed or replace it as he’s waiting for the iPhone 8. The thing is, as soon as Apple launches that new iPhone, getting a …
As recently as last week, we covered the launch of the Brainwavz B200 earbuds which retail at a whopping £156. Not long after that post, the review pair arrived at Coolsmartphone Towers for testing. First impressions? The looked the business. They arrive in a nice box, which included …
I’m going to try and explain this one as best as I can, but to be honest it’s still very, very strange indeed. An Amazon Artificial Intelligence bot, seemingly created to create additional products for a phone cases company, seems to have gone very wrong. Presumably the bot …
OK, simple idea this one. It’s a gadget that you put around the collar of your dog or cat and it’ll provide you with peace of mind when your pet goes wondering. Ever had that sinking feeling when your dog runs off into the distance or your cat …
There’s long been discussion about the share each network has of the mobile spectrum. Three UK, among others, have also started a campaign to stop one or two networks from being able to grab the larger slices. Today Ofcom have revealed that they will indeed put a cap …
Fancy yourself as a secret agent or a bodyguard then you will want these Bluetooth earbuds to match your covert activities. Introducing the Hero Bluetooth earbuds from Winnergear. Just arrived at Coolsmartphone Towers today, the Hero ‘Smallest True Wireless Sports Earbuds’ are gorgeous little beasties and I just had …
Back in June, we wrote a quick post about some new Android tablets destined for our shores, these being the RCA Saturn 10 Pro and the Mercury 7L. They’re said to be some of the best Android tablets around so I’ve been sent both devices through for …
Free data you say? Well, don’t get too excited, you’ll still need to pay for a monthly plan but, if you’re a student, EE are dishing out a 500MB buffer to use when your main package dries up. It’s available.. .. to new, upgrading or existing eligible pay …
Things are definitely changing here at Coolsmartphone. Gone are the days when we used to just get emails about the latest smartphone being launched. Now, instead, we’re getting everything connected with smartphones. We’re getting Bluetooth speakers, headphones, VR glasses and everything to do with the Internet of Things. …
Remember the Nokia devices of old? The ones equipped with the high quality Zeiss lenses? Together the two combined their skills to produce devices that could take stunning images. Take the 808 PureView for example, a device that still struggles to be beaten even next to the smartphones …
The race for high-quality earphones to use with your favourite media player is hotting up this summer already with numerous releases from brands you may not have heard of. The key factors are no longer how the look but how they deliver that rich sound from your MP3s …
The HTC U11 I have on test right now has a very clever system which creates a specially tuned audio profile when you’re using the included headphones. By emitting white noise and then listening for feedback inside your ears, it can augment your listening experience. I’ll be honest, …
