Category: General
In a highly skilled piece of coordination, Sony have released the Android 4.2.2 update for the Sony Xperia Tablet Z on the same day as we’ve given away two cases for said tablet! Owners started reporting the update rolling out earlier today, but as yet it only seems …
The HTC One Max has been a rumour for quite a while, but now we have some leaked photos to look at. Unsurprisingly the 5.9 inch iteration looks almost identical to the 4.7 inch One we know and love. The trouble is that we have no point of …
Boom! Lets blow those eardrums to …err… heck! These JVC HAFX1X Xtreme Xplosives In Ear Canal Headphones (I know, catchy right?) are normally £24.99 but right now they’re down to just £7.90 via Amazon. Now yes, that Super Saver Delivery has now changed so you’ll need to spend …
Android 4.3 hasn’t been the most well received update ever; some calling it pointless and others claiming no benefits whatsoever. Well, things are just getting worse as more and more users are reporting that it’s causing major problems on their Nexus 4 handsets. Over on the Google support …
Clamshell phones used to be the coolest handsets on the block. That “snap” as it closes after the end of a call is still the most emotive way to hang up on someone. However, touchscreens are the the best way to interact with a phone these days. What …
Happy Saturday people. Meet the silver Asus Fonepad. It’s now available on Three for £12.53 per month for 1GB of data (and a £29.99 up-front charge on a 24 month contract) or a rolling monthly £7.50 deal which gives you the same data with a £179 up-front cost. …
Remember how we ran a survey about 4G? Remember how you told us that extra speed really wasn’t a big deal? Well, now Ofcom have done a similar survey and they’ve reached the same conclusion. Just under a quarter have absolutely no intention of going 4G. It seems …
We aren’t saying X will soon mark this particular spot, but then again, we ain’t sayin’ it ain’t neither. If this source is to be believed, the Moto-X is soon going to be making its way over to the UK. If that’s true, then we’ll soon see …
On a few of the apparently inferior mobile OSs if you lost your phone you could log into some sort of web service and easily locate where you phone had been mislaid. As long as you turned that feature on then things would be all good. Android users …
We all know by now that megapixels are not the be all and end all of smartphones and rather than go from what is on paper it’s best to get real world experience using it. But we all love to see those specs don’t we, this one is …
After months of waiting, Motorola yesterday unveiled… the same phone they did a week ago, but with a new name and casing. It’s not as slim as the Ultra, as small as the Mini, or as long lasting as the Maxx, but you can buy it in any …
An Android handset for £39.99? Well, straight up we know it’s not going to have a quad-core CPU, hi-res screen and an 8 megapixel camera. But, if you want a cheap and cheerful Android then Alcatel have a solution. It’ll be available today with Virgin Mobile on Pay …
We all knew it was coming but, with EE stealing a March on their competitors, the other networks were keeping exact launch dates close to their chests. O2 appear to have broken ranks and is prepping for a launch on August 29th. Initially it’ll only be available in …
Vodafone Freedom Freebees allow users to buy bundles of minutes, texts and internet usage at a discounted rate with the condition that they expire after 30 days. Vodafone have just changed them and they now give better value especially on the data allowance side of things. Previously £10 …
The momentum of the ‘alternative operating systems’ is slowly but steadily increasing. Today David Powell, Telstra’s general manager of Device Experience posted an entry on their company blog entitled Mobile operating systems of the future. Im this blog he says In recent months, we have been working with …
Several weeks ago, we received a Tweet from Phil Mottershead (@philicibine) regarding the April T-Mobile price hike. He stated that customers were winning their cases and had the right to cancel their contracts with no penalty. We were intrigued, as we had no clue what he was talking …
Bluetooth headsets are something I’ve avoided for years, choosing to use wired headphones bundled in the box with the phone instead. I’ve taken this route mainly because of ease of use, you just plug them in and you’re done. In the past I’ve found Bluetooth headsets have been …
Are you after a professional quality smart camera? Well the world’s first mirrorless Android powered camera with interchangeable lenses, the Samsung Galaxy NX, now has a price in the UK. I suggest you sit down… £1299.99 If you go to Jessops or Wex Photographic Warehouse werbsites and hand …
Searching for the cheapest flights for your next holiday can be an arduous task. For me the main point is that I’m always worried I’m going to miss an airline that isn’t included on the search website that I’ve chosen. WhichAirline aim to make this process easier for …
I’ve dabbled with external battery packs before, you know the sort. An unbranded 3000 mAh battery that refuses to work after a few weeks. It was after my wife and her friends went to a festival down south a few weeks ago and all of their phones died …
Here in the UK the internet is changing. The classic flavour of “the web”, where people can say and do what they want and download anything without fear of traffic management or data limits, is long gone. We now heavy a heavily controlled, heavily monitored and heavily firewalled …
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a type of MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) that we had not covered before; Charity MVNO’s. I have since been contacted by Donate Mobile, pointing out that I had missed them from my article. I’ve updated my original post but …
A (rather difficult to read) shipping note has been spotted showing that a Samsung SM-V700 watch has made its way from Korea to Bangalore, “For R & D purpose”. Unfortunately there are no specs, but surely it will be an extension of their “life companion” ethic, so expect …
The Samsung Note range started off as a bit of a novelty but as established itself as range that sells a good quantity of phones and has launched an entire market, that of the phablet with HTC, Sony and Nokia bringing out larger handsets and Samsung adding more …
The day has arrived….. That magic day when you get your hands on with the object you have been lusting after since it was announced in all the glitz and glamour that go with product announcements. This device which is very firmly in the Phablet range with a …
Sky (yes Sky!) have just entered the hardware streamer market with the launch of the Now TV box this morning. As the name implies, it’s a standalone box that can stream Now TV as well as other services such as iPlayer, 5 On Demand, Sky News, BBC News …
Channel 4 have just updated the iOS and Android app (at the same time) to version 3.0. The new version allows downloading so users can grab programmes from the last 30 days to watch any time within the next 7 days rather than only being able to watch …
It’s Coolsmartphone competition time again! Yay! This week we’re giving away the two Sony Xperia Tablet Z cases that we’ve recently reviewed. Seeing as I’m in in charge of this competition it has to be really simple, so all you have to do is read the reviews of …
Been on the fence about the Galaxy S4? Perhaps it just isn’t blue enough for you. Maybe it just doesn’t go with that new blue Lamborghini you’ve just bought. Happens to all of us. From today though you can head over to Phones 4U and order the S4 in an, …
No I don’t mean Bruce Springstien, I’m talking about Sundar Pichai. Now, he’s has been around the block. He didn’t become the senior vice president of Google without encountering journalists. He really should know that journalists can’t keep secrets, especially when the secret is the manufacturer of the …
Shifu is an intelligent task management and todo list. Instead of just reminding you at a set time to do stuff it checks to see when you aren’t doing anything and then reminds you. The developer describes this as follows: Shifu is your smart friend who lives in …
The Tabletwear Advanced Case for the Xperia Tablet Z is a budget stand style case to clad and protect the slender lines of Sony’s finest bit of Android gear. This is my second featured review of cases for the Sony Xperia Tablet Z, the first was of the …
Sunglasses … with a frickin’ hidden camera. Honestly, it’s like something out of Austin Powers. I don’t know where to start. Back in 2002 I was happy to review a phone that had a colour screen. Now I’ve got a pair of sunglasses which look and feel like …
Well, this is simple enough really. It looks like a little green robot and parks itself neatly around a UK electrical socket. Once you plug it in it’ll hold your phone and keep the endless cables nice and tidy in the clever little fingers in each “hand”. Made …
For years now many have said that a phone camera will never replace a normal standalone digital camera. However, has that now changed with the introduction of smartphones such as the Nokia 808 PureView, Samsung S4 Zoom and the 41 megapixel Lumia 1020? These new advanced low-light optics, …
Join the Coolsmartphone writers at 5PM British Summer Time for today’s Breakfast with Sundar Pichai event by Google. We’ll be bringing you all the news, opinions and reactions from this event. We expect to see some more information on Android and Chrome, particularly Android 4.3, a new Nexus 7 …
Rubber keyboards. We’ve seen them kicking around for a bit now, but the myType Bluetooth keyboard is easily folded down into your pocket and has keys which are spaced for touch typing, unlike most portable keyboards. When you need it, the myType keyboard connects to your device via …
Today has seen EE (formerly Everything Everywhere who were formerly T-Mobile and Orange) release their interim 6 monthly results which takes them to the end of June 2013. Main story here, they ain’t half bad. With turnover of £3.2bn and pre tax earnings of £734 million, EE seem …
The latest beta version of Swiftkey is now available, and it brings cloud support to spread predictions between all your devices. Swiftkey is a third-party keyboard that predicts what you type, as most Android users will know by now. The way it does this is by analysing what’s …
Popular video and text messaging app Tango has been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army. You remember the SEA, they’re the ones who hacked the Sky apps so you couldn’t control your Sky Plus box from your garden. We reported earlier that Viber – an app for making …
