Category: General
OPPO like teasing us on bank holiday weekends. The bank holiday at the end of May was when they launched the Find 5 in Europe. This bank holiday they’re asking for suggestions as to what to call their mysterious back side navigation (you can see why!). Not only …
Anyone remember the great roaming deal from Three called ‘Three Like Home’? It allowed you to take your UK plan abroad with you and roam on any of the existing Three networks setup around the world such as Australia, Hong Kong etc… Here is a list of countries …
Google is today pushing out its first post-release update for the 2013 Nexus 7. Google’s Paul Wilcox confirmed on the company’s product forums that new firmware is indeed rolling out to fix touchscreen sensitivity issues reported by some Nexus 7 owners: As a couple of you have mentioned, …
I’ve become a bit of a battery pack convert recently, choosing to charge up wherever I am and not worrying about where the nearest power socket is. I recently purchased one of those huge 13000 mAh battery packs which is fine when you can carry a large weighty …
OPPO are making a big fuss about their new camera-centric phone, the N1. Only yesterday we reported that they had leaked a photo of a small part of the phone, along with a teasing advert showing a timeline of their previous products and a blank space where the …
Google have released an update to Keep which brings several noteworthy features to its up till now fairly bare bones functionality. Of most note (no pun intended), is the ability to add reminders to notes, which can be both time and location based. This is integrated with Google …
Here at Coolsmartphone Towers emails zip back and forth like ants in a jam jar. A good 80% of those are from fellow writer Ronnie Whelan boasting about how good the display on his latest Oppo is. Well, Mr Whelan is about to be silenced as LG have …
I do love a good phone case and now and again I’ve gone a bit mad and bought an Otterbox case or two. Normally when buying cases I just search for the lowest prices I can find and never really consider that what I’m buying could be a …
Most of the major networks have now announced their 4G pricing models. They vary a little but, with one notable exception, there is a premium for the new technology as well as limits. Data is the new king. No longer do we want more and more texts bundled …
SwiftKey Cloud has been in beta testing for a few weeks now and it allows you to sync your SwiftKey keyboard word predictions between devices, so when you get a new phone it doesn’t have to relearn all of your made up words. To sync with the Cloud …
“I’m a huge fan of your site”. Always a good start that. Well done PetziConnect. They launched an IndieGoGo campaign and had a goal of $30k. They’ve blown past that now and are at nearly $59k. What is it? Well, it’s a magical doo-hickey that’ll let you interact …
When the Beats audio first starting appearing in HTC kit we saw, and still do, a lot of promotional material from HTC about the new sound technology. HTC at one point owned a 51% share of Beats, but that dropped down when Beats bought back 25%. A reported …
HTC One X owners have finally got something to be happy about. After many, many long tiresome months they are finally getting an update to their phones! Pigs have yet to be seen flying, but it is actually true, the One X is getting Android 4.2.2 and Sense …
What do you buy if you want a compact high-end phone? Yup, the iPhone. It’s your only choice… Maybe not for much longer though. The trouble with Android flagship phones is that they’re all pretty big, and when the smaller versions come out they’re cut down in specs …
Earlier in the week we posted an intriguing article about a pair of clip-on 18MP optical zoom Sony camera attachments for mobile phones. We spoke about them at length on the podcast and couldn’t decide whether they were practical, silly, a hoax, or all three! Today we’ve got …
OPPO are leaking like a teabag at the moment, and this time it’s evleaks who’ve published a photo of an unknown device with the Tweet, “Hello, OPPO” accompanying it. What could it be? Here’s the photo: It’s quite different to the current flagship, the Find 5, which is …
Two notoriously accurate leak sites are reporting Nexus 5 specs that are said to be from the Taiwanese LG factory it’s being made in. There’s only a few to go on, but they claim it’s going to be a 5.2″ full HD device, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon …
Remember a few months ago when two ex HTC staff members decided to start up their own phone company? Well, here they are and their new company logo. Leigh wrote about the initial announcement of their company here, which gives more detail on their history. Yesterday they announced …
We’ve seen a lot of noise from O2 and Vodafone about their new 4G plans and value-added content recently. Meanwhile, EE have taken to Twitter to ensure that everyone knows just how much of a head start they have. All these networks have one thing in common though, …
On Friday we published our red HTC One photo special. Here in the UK it’s exclusive to Phones4U, but now, if you’re in the USA, you can get it on Sprint tomorrow. The Sliver and Black shades will still be available, plus if you purchase an HTC One …
Sometimes, just sometimes, PayPal decide to do something a little strange. Sometimes it seems that they’re gone to the Google School of Customer Service, where either no emails are responded to or rules are suddenly enforced that no-one was really aware of. Sadly this story involves those GlassUp …
We had a question from a reader why no-one seemed to be covering a transparent phone which promised to also allow the owner to build their own phone by selecting the processor, screen size, memory, camera almost as if you were building your own PC. Somewhat intrigued by the …
Specs for a new Nokia, allegedly to be called the Lumia 825 have surfaced on the internet. The device is powered by a quad core Snapdragon 400 1.2GHz processor, which implies it will be released after the GDR3 update; the current software only supports up to dual core. The other …
Well, better late than never, O2 have taken the wraps off their 4G pricing. There’s a heavy emphasis on content once again and, ijust like Vodafone, they’ll be dishing up music and sport content to 4G customers. The new 4G tariffs, which are detailed here, include SIM-only deals …
Looking to get an LG G2 without getting shot in the process? Independent retailer Clove Technology is first with a pre-order listing, showing the G2 priced at a surprisingly reasonable £468 including VAT (£390 exc. VAT), not cheap but a flagship device, it’s around £100 less than the …
Having a Nexus is the pinnacle for the purist Android lover, right? Always up to date, always on the cutting edge, never left awaiting features your friends have; what a joy. That’s an opinion I’d have agreed with two years ago. Owning a Nexus S and a Galaxy …
Cast your mind back to last week, I reviewed the Acer Liquid E2 and I found it to be a pretty good budget phone, with a few problems. Well Three have now got some stock and you can get them on a contract or on PAYG. Brendan from …
Come Padawan. Let me talk to you about something. Phones, as you’ll probably know, are ruddy expensive. I know you really, really don’t want to, but whacking a cover on your device is the best way to protect it. But hey, it’s boring isn’t it? A little bit. …
Sony make a lot of the cameras on their phones, but now they have gone a step further with lenses that clip onto various phones. There are two lenses rumoured which are both G lens branded; this has become synonymous with quality in the digital camera world. The …
Are we about to see the sale of Blackberry? The company formally known as Research In Motion has had a bit of a tough few years, with people leaving the platform in droves and the launch of the company’s saviour – BB10 – yet to set the world …
This morning on their company news page ZTE announced the ZTE Open will be sold on E-Bay in the USA and Europe. Dr. Li Gong, Mozilla Senior VP of Mobile Devices stated; “Mozilla is dedicated to moving the Web forward as a platform for innovation and building products that …
A few days ago I posted an article about wireless charging. It was all about some receiver cards that attach to the battery in either your Galaxy S4 or Note II. I bought one for my Note II and I’ve spent the last few days playing about with …
In the olden days picking a new mobile phone was easy. I used to grab the Argos catalogue and flick through until I found a reasonably priced phone and then I’d buy it. Done. Simple. Fast forward a few years decades and the list of specifications, manufacturers, software …
I’ve not been the biggest fan of flip cases over the years. They tend to fall into two brackets, either cheap nasty leather things or stupidly expensive and supposedly premium quality. This isn’t the best frame of mind to be in for this review. Tech21 make a range …
A few weeks back I got my hands on a Sony SBH-20 stereo Bluetooth headset, and after using it for a little while I decided to jot down my views onto paper (or rather type them onto a laptop). Key features: Small unit with controls and built-in microphone …
Speakers. We’ve seen a few of them now. Slowly the idea of a radio sitting in your kitchen is becoming old fashioned and portable Bluetooth speakers hooked up to tablets and smartphones are replacing them. The is the Soundship Micro and immediately it’s a rather interesting design. Almost …
Thinking of joining Vodafone 4G? If you’re a sports fan then Voda have the answer. Picks the Sport Pack as your free option on a 4G plan and you’ll get FULL access to all Sky Sports services. The deal is on until 23:59 on the 18th August, so …
Although O2 announced their 4G service first, Vodafone look to be first with the price plan information. We’ve got all the details below and you can sign up to a 4G plan as of today. These are now live on the Vodafone website, over the phone and in …
The Sony Honami is said to be the successor of the Xperia Z, which we’ve been waiting a while for. Things are getting tantalisingly close now though. There has already been an official teaser released (above) with the date and location as 4th September in Berlin, but now …
Back in July we reported that the people at Ubuntu, the open-source operating system alternative to Windows or Apple, had launched a crowd-funding campaign (via Indiegogo.com) to create a new mobile phone called the Ubuntu Edge. This phone would showcase the newly developed Ubuntu phone OS and dual-boot …
