Category: General

BravoWin 10KT MiniPC – Review

About a week ago I unboxed a new 2-in-1 PC that had a retail value of £150, and I posed the question of ‘can a machine this cheap be any good’? I also mentioned that I was going to be able to compare this to a more standard-priced …

Who is that calling? Metal, that’s who!

Ringtones have changed quite a lot since the days of polyphonic and monophonic but yet there are certain ringtones we automatically associate with certain brands. Well ToxixEternity, aka Jack Fliegler from YouTube, and a death metal band called Singularity has taken the Apple iPhone ringtone we have grown to …

Three change their mind – The LG G5 arrives

When we were in Barcelona ogling over the LG G5, we were contacted by most of the usual networks to say that they were ranging it. However… we noticed someone who wasn’t coming to the LG party. Three. We got in touch, and they told us that they …

Now Vodafone add inclusive roaming too

It’s something we’ve already seen Three and Tesco Mobile doing, but now Vodafone have added some roaming goodness as well. Inclusive roaming across 40 locations is now available, and it’s 4G roaming t’boot. The list of countries look to be European and are as follows… Albania, Austria, Belgium, …

Vodafone now selling the Huawei P9 on the cheap too

Consider, for a moment, the fact that the Huawei P9 (unlocked) is £449 to buy on the Huawei store. Now, if you head across to the Vodafone site, you can get the phone on Pay as you go for just £300! Don’t forget that that giffgaff are also selling …

Huawei P9 now available at giffgaff

How does £17.06 per month sound for a top-end phone on a 2 year deal? Well, even with the addition of a £10 monthly goodybag on giffgaff it’s still pretty good. The Huawei P9, which we’ve already looked at in detail, is available to buy out-right on the …

BT investing £6bn in faster broadband

Following on from a reported 15% rise in annual profits to £3.03bn, BT has announced plans to invest £6bn in faster broadband and mobile services over the next three years. The company plans to offer their “ultrafast” broadband to 12 million premises by 2020. With speeds of 300 …

1byone Portable Bluetooth Speaker – Review

When you’re young and full of beans you really enjoy writing about tech. Mobile phones, gadgets, gizmos – it lights your fire. Then, after several years of looking a Bluetooth speakers, you start to wane a little. You get sent dozens and dozens of the things. Some are …

Is HTC finally about to release a smartwatch?

This has got to be one of the longest-running rumours of the tech world. The first suggestions that HTC were working on some sort of smart wearable surfaced back in 2014, when a picture of this appeared online: Even by 2014 standards it wasn’t the most glamorous of …

Minecraft on Gear VR

  Minecraft. Everyone in the world seems to be on it. It’s getting more interesting now, especially for the ones looking at a more immersive ways of playing the game. How does it sound to be in the middle of the world you’ve just built, or exploring a …

Player FM update brings cool new functionality

Podcasts have exploded in popularity since they first came onto the scene in the early 2000’s. The move to smartphones and busy lifestyles with commuting, has only increased this popularity to the extent that phones seem to have become the main medium for consuming them. In such an environment, a good …

SyncMate

SyncMate is a powerful sync tool that allows syncing data on Mac with Android devices (phones and tablets running Android 4 and newer). Free edition of SyncMate will sync contacts and calendars while Expert edition allows syncing images, videos, folders, music and lot’s more; with Expert edition you …

Chromecast Audio, back again for £15

Hey you Coolsmartphoners! If you guys and gals have been out in the wilderness over the Bank Holiday weekend partying, here’s a great deal that might not have caught your bleary eyes. The ever-fantastic Chromecast Audio is out there for a mere 15 quid again, if you missed …

LG Stylus 2 first DAB radio equipped smartphone coming to O2

UK carrier O2 has announced they are going to exclusively carry the new LG Stylus 2, which is the first smartphone with DAB radio support*, meaning you’ll be able to enjoy your favorite radio stations without using your data allowance. The device is available right now on O2 …

Will.i.am adds totally free music to his new dial watch

Want music but don’t want to pay for it? If you get a dial watch from Three then that’s exactly what you can get. Now, before we start, be prepared for some names and references that musical mad-man will.i.am has made up. The “dial” watch, from “i.am+” runs …

ChatSim Review

I saw these guys at Mobile World Congress and their offering is certainly an interesting one, and remarkably simple too.. Start with the ChatSim chat plan. It’s €10 a year and this will let you send unlimited and free text messages and emoji anywhere in the world. Wait …

FreeFly VR Review

This was arguably the most fun I have had doing a review in a long time. The Freefly VR (not Firefly as I say twice in the video!) was so fun and compatible with numerous smartphones, great purchase for any gadget geek and can be bought from here. …

Huawei P9 now up for pre-order on EE

Did you like the look of the new Huawei P9? Did you see our video review? Are you ready to order it? Good news people, because it you’re aiming for EE, you can get the 32GB P9 for absolutely nothing on £30.99 plans. That’ll get you 1GB of …

BagsByBlack Review

Yesterday we did our first live broadcast on Periscope of the BagsbyBlack BUDDI bag. We first saw this bag at Gadget Show 2016 with LEXI bag, the article can be read here. If you like our podcasts, please follow us on Periscope and YouTube for more of these …

Get yourself a new iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

As you’ll no doubt be aware by now, I’m terrible at organising my photos and videos. I’ve got the Meem cable to backup my stuff when I’m charging, but what if you want to have a flash drive on my iPhone instead? SanDisk have the answer people. This …

Tesco Mobile offering free roaming in lots of European countries

If you’re planning to use your mobile phone across Europe then, until now, Three has been your best bet. Their “Feel At Home” offering let’s you use your phone as you would in the UK, but across European destinations such as France, the Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Spain, …

Harman Kardon Bluetooth speaker – All-new Go + Play coming soon

Bluetooth speakers are available everywhere, but Bluetooth speakers that actually sound good? There’s not so many of those. Harman Kardon has tweaked their Go + Play speaker, with quad-drivers and “room-filling sound”. You connect to it like all other Bluetooth speakers, but then the Harman Kardon audio quality …

Bitcasa shuts their cloud storage offering

See? This is what gets me about cloud storage. You can spend hours, days, months and years uploading your treasured memories to an online drive, only for the provider in question to shut up shop. You’re then left scrambling around trying to find a new provider, or buying …

WiFi Calling on unlocked Galaxy S7 handsets

We love your mails. We love them. Lee Taylor has just got in touch because he’s got himself a Samsung Galaxy S7 edge from Amazon. Lucky him. He’s got £580 washing about and he’s bought himself a very swish smartphone indeed. Anyhoo.. once you’ve got one of these …

Spy Watch – Review

Check me out ladies. I got me a spy watch. I’m just like James Bond, but with an added belly and some questionable reasons for actually owning one. This, it has to be said, does exactly what it says on the tin. There’s two batteries inside – one …

EE to expand coverage further

EE have been in the news lately for their poor customer service. Today, they are back making (good) news, that of expansion and more UK customer service staff. The company is looking to clear away mobile black spots by extending its coverage across the UK’s soil or, in literal …

Choetech 3 port charger with Type C – Review

  The thing with new types of power standards and connectors is that you soon realise you need more than one charger, because all your old ones don’t fit your new phone or tablet. This is exactly the case with the switchover to USB type C socket for me, …

Netatmo Weather Station Review

The Netatmo Weather Station was reviewed back in early 2013. As technology improves I thought it would be a good time to look at the latest version of the Netatmo Weather Station to see how the product has developed. Especially as being British the start of every conversation …

YouTube starts live streaming 360 videos

As we all know, YouTube has been letting you watch and share 360 videos for a little over the year now. The search giant Google, which owns YouTube, is now going to start letting you live stream 360 videos, starting with California’s Coachella festival. In addition, it announced that videos …

OnePlus having a spring sale

Here at Coolsmartphone Towers we love a good bargain or two, and we have just had this land across our desk. If you an owner of a OnePlus device be it a OnePlus One, Two or X, head over to the OnePlus store. There’s discounts to be had …

Opera offering a free VPN for your secret web life

Opera browser has become the first to offer a free and unlimited VPN. Currently this is just available via the developer desktop version (direct download) to start with but will probably roll out to the full version soon. Opera is a minnow in the PC browser market but is more …

New data reveals contrast between Google Play and iOS app stores

Statistics can often be skewed to serve a particular purpose, but new data just released about the relative numbers of downloads and amount of money generated by the Google Play and Apple iOS app stores make for interesting reading.  The most obvious points from the above graphs, which …

Pebble Smartwatches down in price today

Fancy yourself a rather cool Pebble smartwatch? The entire range appears to have had a price cut today over on Amazon, where the Pebble Steel is down to £104.99 with a £4.09 delivery charge and the Pebble Time is down to £169.99. There’s other choices too, including the …

You’re only getting 4G 53% of the time.

According to a report published by OpenSignal and consumer watchdog Which?, smartphone users here in the UK only appear to get access to 4G data speeds for about half of the time on average. From the four UK networks tested, EE was found to have the best 4G …

Virgin Media – Data usage gets throttled

Would you class more than 3.5GB of monthly data as “excessive”? Well, Virgin Media doesn’t seem to think that. At least not when selling their SIM-only packages. As an example, you can buy a 4GB plan for £15 per month or an 8GB plan for £23 per month. …

Galactica – A VR rollercoaster reviewed

Way back in 2002 Alton Towers opened a ride called “Air”. It was their first ever “flying” roller coaster. You strapped yourself in and then the ride would tilt you forward, sending you face-down under footpaths, over trees and upside down. Some 14 years later, it’s still there. …

New Amazon Kindle – £270!!! – Enter the Kindle Oasis

Amazon has released yet another Kindle. This one’s the Bentley of them all, priced at £269.99 (What?! I see you ask with wide open eyes). Not only that, but the 3G version is £329.99 if you want to stay connected with all your expensive reading. This one is …

Wrike: Project Management Software for Mobile

Whether it’s a small task at home or a big assignment at work, Wrike’s project management solution has mobile apps to help you plan, organize, and collaborate so work gets done efficiently no matter where you are. Wrike’s online project management software has more than one million users …

Weekending – Just so we get this right..

Sorry. It’s Sunday though, so we’re allowed. Just to clear this one up. It’s Honor – For the brave.. ..and Doritos – For the Bold.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4R2RaOWb94 So that’s… Honor – For the Brave… Doritos – For the Bold.. OK. I’ve got that out of my system now. I’m …