Category: General

I loved the Nexus 5, so much in fact that I bought 3, but when the Nexus 6 came around it just didn’t grab me. It was just that bit too big and let’s be honest, too expensive in comparison to the other versions. Well if the rumours …

   Those of us who are… Ahem… a little older – will with a fond heart remember the 80’s (let’s be honest the best decade for music), the birth of the Yuppie and the accessory always in the hand: the Filofax. Well, it appears that California company, Pacific …

A couple of years ago I left EE. It was, for me, a pretty big change. For some companies and some services, I’m fairly loyal. A lot of people are. For example, I’ve never switched my bank, despite them being generally dire for several years running. However, for …

Seeing as the whole point of the Samsung Unpacked event is to announce their new Autumn line up, there hasn’t been anything official announced yet. We know there’s going to be a new Galaxy Note, because there’s always a new Galaxy Note at this time. But there have …

We’ve got a special edition of our podcast this week, and it could feature…. YOU! We want to hear your voice. We want to hear about the first time you were really blown away by a bit of tech. Did a smartwatch amaze you? Has a gadget bowled …

Here at Coolsmartphone we love our mobile devices, and when travelling want to keep using them. What’s the point of having a wonderfully powerful smartphone if you can’t use it to post pictures of your meals from distant lands? Apart for social media bragging while travelling, smartphones can …

The day has come. The OnePlus Two has now gone on sale on the OnePlus website. However if you don’t have an invite, and it is unlikely that you will, you still can’t buy one. I have been following the development of the Oneplus Two and the build …

I am going to start this by getting something out of the way. I’m not an audiophile in any way at all. I like my music for when I am working as a background thing, but that’s about it. I do however watch a lot of media whilst …

I’ll be quite honest, I’ve got very little I can say about this because it’s either a bland rename or a monumental shift in direction… I’m not sure which. Google, as a company, is no longer going to be a single company. Instead there’s a new kid on …

It’s that time of year when the speculation regarding the next major Apple iPhone event (and the tech highlight of this writers year) starts to become common place….it’s almost as if everyone is desperate for tech news to dig their teeth into. It would seem that various tech …

Do you fancy cheering yourself up over the next few days? If so, then we have a wee contest for you to check out. Our friends at Skyscanner, Honor and Three have all collaborated to put a prize fund together. The prize fund will include an Honor 6+ …

Well now, this is jolly clever isn’t it? A little gadget that simply plugs into the bottom of your Android phone or iPhone handset and literally lets you see heat. You’ve probably seen something similar on a sci-fi movie like Predator. It lets you see what’s hot, and …

giffgaff, the MVNO owned by O2, has decided to chuck in 4G data as “part” of their goodybags (aka monthly plans). No separate 3G plans and 4G plans. If you’ve been looking at the 3G-only £5, £7.50 or £10 goodybags then everything will be remaining pretty much the same, except …

Ordered anything through OneStopPhoneShop.com, Mobiles.co.uk or e2save.com recently? Yeah. You could have some serious problems. Carphone Warehouse has been hacked pretty badly, and they operate all of those sites. Although overall owners Dixons Carphone state that the “vast majority” of their customers are unaffected, personal details of up …

The latest update to the BBC Worldwide News app version 3.2 sees the inclusion of Android Wear support, meaning short news snippets will be sent to your wrist. Articles are presented in a RSS style layout, with the ability to swipe horizontally and vertically: go up or down …

According to Senior Vice President of Apple Internet Service, Eddy Cue, Apple’s month old music streaming service – Apple Music – has had 11 million members sign up to for the trial service. The trial gives customers access Apple’s catalogue of 30 million songs for 3 months free, …

It feels like it’s taken a long time to get to this place, but finally I have a Meizu MX4. I was very impressed with this when I first had a hands on with it at MWC earlier this year. Since then I have had more of a chance …

Some good news for those of you who backed the Remix Mini. It has now achieved more than $1million and as a result two cool things have happened. The early bird $40 tier for the 2gb ram 16GB storage version has been reopened. In addition to that anyone …

According to a leaked image posted on social networking site Weibo, the next new processor from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 820 (which is expected to be launched later this month) is 35% faster than the current leader the Snapdragon 810. Right here’s the geeky bit. The 820’s newer Hydra …

Hands up who remembers Nokia? Good, a few virtual hands were seen there. For those of you who are itching for some Nokia goodies, your wait is nearly over. The N1 will actually be available to buy here in the UK very soon. I had a good hands-on …

Wi-Fi Calling is almost the holy grail for people such as myself where the signal at home is shall we say less than desirable. The news is therefore good for those with an HTC One M9 on the EE network for Wi-Fi calling is about to be rolled …

Add-on launcher Omni Swipe (previously called Lazy Swipe) has surpassed a milestone only achieved currently by 97 other apps. They’ve hit the 100 million download limit. The theory behind the app is simple. Once installed you get a quarter circle segment displaying the most recent apps you’ve used, …

You want a smartwatch, but you don’t want to pay a fortune. Perhaps you want to see if this whole smartwatch businesses is for you? Well, this could be just what you need. OK, perhaps not need necessarily, but it could be something to spend a few quid …

Ooo, we do love a bargain don’t we? These things used to be proper expensive, but now you can pick up this Garmin HUD+for just £29.99 down at your local Maplin. It’s also available online with free delivery. It sits on your dashboard and projects turn-by-turn directions onto …

Do you use your iPad naked (oooooh missus, the iPad, not you) or do hide all of the Apple design inside a case? I recently got sent through two cases to review from Caseit, these being the clip on hard case and a rotating case or Folio style …

Earlier this week we covered the Motorola Triple Product Launch in London with a live-blog and have discussed what was launched in a post and this week’s Coolsmartphone Podcast. Lets look at the three products Motorola launched in a bit more detail. Moto X Style Motorola’s new flagship. …

What with the delightful weather we are having here in the UK, you may not have noticed that it is, in fact… summer. Do you feel that you need to get a bit of sun on your bones, or you fancy whisking your loved one away on a …

I’ll admit to not really needing a 128GB microSD card. I steam a lot of music and tend to back up, but if you’re looking to save some of those “off-site backups” of movies or MP3s, this is probably your thing. Cost? £39.99, £7 off. Transfer speed? Up …

The Oneplus One launched last year amid a blaze of PR blunders.  Accusations of sexism, strange competitions and phone smashing were rife as Oneplus created a storm of publicity. So far however their “flagship killer” is creating a little bit of a fuss. Once again Oneplus are using …

Everybody used to have Angry Birds installed on their smartphone at one point. Now things have changed a little, at least in my opinion. Anyway, despite a FEW Angry Birds versions in-between (y’know, like Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Star Wars and …

If you’re a traveller and you NEED data, you may have already heard of an operation called Goodspeed. They basically let you either buy a MiFi unit outright or pay for it monthly (£8.79 p/m on a 24 month contract) which you can then take with you on …

It was meant to be the next cheaper and easy to get into era in gaming. I was the Ouya, based on Android and using the ecosystem that Android provided. It was a lovely dream, but that dream is now fading to black – almost. No, Ouya isn’t quite …

Before we covered the news of the Motorola announcement, all I thought I wanted was the equivalent of a 2014 Moto X with a better battery and camera. Then the Moto X Play came along. I thought I’d hit the jackpot. I didn’t need to go up to …

I know what you want (what you really, really want). You want to do some thermal imaging don’t you? I’ll bet you’re constantly wishing that your smartphone could do this. You’d LOVE to be able to see the heat spots in your house. Possibly locate where that annoying …

Conference calls. They fill me with dread if I’m honest. Usually you’ll end up accidentally talking over someone during the call, then they’ll stop talking just as you stop talking, then you’ll both apologise, then you’ll both start talking again. Then you’ll get someone going on about “blue …

There are a million and one phone cases out there, so it’s always nice to review one that is slightly out of the ordinary.  The Rock Dr V Protective Case offers something different, I’m just not convinced what the point is.  What is novel I hear you ask? …

Hot on the heels of Apple, Amazon has just launched its own streaming music service in the UK.  This is certainly a crowded market place these days, and Amazon’s mission is not helped by the fact that it has significantly less music than its rivals.  It claims to have …

Let’s assume that there’s a healthy section of you on giffgaff. Let’s also assume that you might be going to an area where the signal perhaps isn’t so great. Perhaps you’ve looked at Three and thought that getting 1GB of data for £14 isn’t enough on a Pay …

Late last night in China there was a phone announcement. 3AM to be exact. Luckily we had pizza and an internet connection, so here’s what you may have missed from the wee small hours… The OnePlus 2 (notice the number, instead of a word?) is upon us and so …

Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei has managed to sell out of Honor 7 handsets incredibly quickly. They shifted over 200,000 of their new flagship handset – the Honor 7 – in just two minutes during a recent promotional sale. The Honor brand has been gaining ground recently and this …