Ministry of Sound LIVE, now DEAD after just over three months

Trying to find the Ministry of Sound LIVE app on Google Play or the Apple Store? Well, bad news friends, it’s gone. Ministry of Sound LIVE, which fed five curated music streams to your phone, has been playing a very repetitive selection of tunes across their channels lately. …

A backpack that gives you a gentle rub

Sooooo….. apparently this is a thing. I’ll be honest, if you’re wearing this in a public place people will, quite rightly, point at you. You will look bonkers and, even if you somehow manage to put a coat over it, you’re still going to look like a right …

Google Chromecast Audio down to just £15

Currys / PC World have halved the price of the Chromecast Audio this weekend. The gadget, which plugs into your stereo or amplifier, will let you cast tunes and YouTube videos from your phone simply and easily Normally it’s £30 but they’ve dropped it to £15 until Monday. …

OK, that was the Mobile World Congress, but wait. This is better.

I know what you lot are like with YouTube videos. You’re either at work and can’t watch them, or you’re using your phone and don’t have any headphones on or you’re a bit low on data… but please, just watch this. This is both brilliant and scary at …

MWC – A tour of the SanDisk stand

I went out to SanDisk earlier today and thought it would be a good plan to check out thread latest wares. Unlike last year where they announced the 200GB memory card -the largest on the market – they did not have such a huge amount to shout about …

Say goodbye to the Xperia Z series

We paid another visit to the Sony stand yesterday but nobody could tell us quite what was happening with the Z series. Sure, the new Xperia X series phones are beautifully designed, but what of the Z series? Well, according to a Sony rep, it’s now dead, so …

The HTC Desire 530, 630 and 825 at Mobile World Congress

HTC decided to quietly push out this handset here in Barcelona. No big launch, no explosions, just a funky mid-range handset. Well, three actually, but we’ll get to the other two in a minute. They all have an extremely similar design and this, the HTC Desire 530, packs …

EE increases prices as part of their yearly RPI rise

With O2 and Three looking to merge and EE being purchased by BT, the choice of networks in the UK could soon drop to just three. The “virtual operators” who, like a lot of landline broadband providers, sit on top of other networks, are the only option if …

MWC – HTC One M10 coming out of the shadows

The HTC stand of 2016, if I’m brutally honest, has a lot of similarities with the HTC stand of 2015. The HTC Vive is on show and there’s a lot of handsets that were released some months ago. There’s a lot of HTC One A9 devices here, and …

MWC – Lenovo Tab3 series. Hands on.

Lenovo had a slightly smaller presence at MWC this year. but nonetheless we still went out to see them and to see what other new products they were announcing. Phone-wise we have already seen most of their stuff for this year. That is taken care of under the …

Missing your BlackBerry? Samsung have the answer if you get an S7.

Here at the crazy mobile shin-dig that is Mobile World Congress – if you get a special sticker – you can head backstage. There, amongst the tired exhibitors, you’ll find Samsung showing off their Galaxy S7 devices. We saw these at the exclusive Unpacked event on Sunday (which …

Sony X series – Predictive Hybrid Autofocus video demo

This morning I went over to the Sony stand. We’ve been there before and snapped their X Series handsets, but I wanted to see a bit more. So, I quizzed the guy on the stand about that Xperia Performance which, by the way, is listed on the UK …

MWC – Haier smartwatch with an Android twist

MWC isn’t just about mobile phones and tablets of course.  Showing off its new smartwatch in Barcelona is Haier.  This is a company that makes fridges… and phones.  Their Voyage V6 looks well built and comes in with a 5.5″ 1920×1080 LCD full HD screen. It’s dual SIM …

MWC – Canonical and the BQ Aquarius M10

A few weeks ago we heard the very exciting news that Canonical, in conjunction with BQ, were going to be releasing a tablet device. I wrote a brief article about the device then with all the bits and pieces about it, and was very keen to get my hands …

MWC – LeEco Le Alpe d’Heuz bike

LeEco also had some other toys to show us at MWC in the form of what they call a “rideable”. This is a connected bike that is designed primarily as a Hybrid Bike for city use. We did manage to have a brief look at this, and it …

MWC – LeEco showcase

This morning I headed out to meet a relatively unknown company, in the UK at least.They are called LeEco – formally LETV. The reason I was so keen to go out and meet them was that they were the first manufacturer to release a smartphone with the new …

FlexEnable – A colour screen on your wrist, it’s here at MWC

Sure, we’ve seen curved screens in the past here at Mobile World Congress, but this is something else. A thin film of plastic has been created here on a prototype line in Cambridge. It’s the product of a very young company – formed only a year ago – …

Windows 10 Mobile to be released on Android handsets

Amidst the news of Microsoft’s ailing mobile efforts comes a new approach.  Last year Microsoft, in conjunction with OEM Xiaomi, released a version of its mobile OS for installation on the Mi 4 Android phone.  News from China suggests that this approach is now going to be repeated, …

MWC – The Special Report Podcast

Welcome to the Coolsmartphone Podcast Episode 166 – The Special MWC Road Trip Report. This is the first of this weeks special Mobile World Congress Podcasts and our roaming reporters Gary and Leigh have sent in their initial reports. In this episode along with their MWC thoughts,  Leigh …