Oppo Reno – Up close

We mentioned the fact that the Reno 5G was, in the UK at least, scheduled as an exclusive to EE. However, Jonathan Morris, from the excellent jmcomms.com, has sent over some more pictures of the Reno range, including the new Reno 5G. It shows that cool motorised pop-up …

Remote control homes. Getting more clever by the day.

Long-time readers may be familiar with our love of home heating control systems. Back in 2014 we looked at the Nest thermostat, however since then we’ve seen competitors entering the marketplace and more people getting in on the programmable thermostat fun. It doesn’t matter too much about how …

Oppo Reno 5G announced. Exclusive to EE.

Just a short while ago we told you about the upcoming Oppo Reno. Now it’s confirmed, and it’s got 5G too. Here in the UK it’ll be EE with the exclusive, and they’ll have it on sale later this year. It’s the first 5G handset from Oppo, but …

I hope your password is better than 123456

If you stop and think about your online presence, just think how many different sites and apps you log into on a daily basis – each needing a unique username and password. Let’s be honest, most of us use a username that’s also our email address, so for …

Illegal streaming. Most people have no concern.

There was a time when people used to look down on online gambling. However, now it’s a perfectly acceptable pastime, especially when you consider the amount of online casinos and bingo sites. Some of these get advertised in the day too, and you’ll find that there’s a lot …

Some of the best Monopoly smartphone games

  It’s the Easter holidays, so I’m doing my best to ensure that my son isn’t stuck to his smartphone all the time. Today it’s resulted in him bringing out a whole load of board games. We’ve had the infamous “Mousetrap”, plus “Buckaroo”, “Scrabble”, ”Trivial Pursuit” and, of …

EE goes 5G for Glastonbury

Heading to the Glastonbury Festival on June 26th? Well, EE are going to be the technology partner for the sixth year and will be installing the latest 5G network at Worthy Farm in a landmark trial – creating the UK’s first 5G-connected Festival. A predicted 70 terabytes of …

Three SIM-only deal. £10 per month for 8GB

Well, this seems like a very decent offer. It’s a 12-month plan on Three and you get the inclusive Three “Feel at Home” roaming too. Available via uSwitch it’s a full 8GB of data and unlimited everything else for a tenner. Not a bad deal at all, and …

How APK sideloading became mainstream

Here at Coolsmartphone we download pretty much everything for our Android phones via the Google Play Store. There’s over a million apps and games available there, and they’re all categorised and reviewed. For years though, all Google Android phones have been able to “side load” apps. This means …

Revonext RX8 Earphones

Back in February, RevoNext from Sweden launched a series of earphones including the RX8 range. We have had the pleasure of testing them out over the past couple of months and the verdict is in but first a little bit of background. What the Press Release Said… With …

giffgaff celebrates award by… increasing prices

This is awkward timing. On the very same day that giffgaff won the Which? Best Network award for the 7th year running, they’ve also announced that their £5 and £7.50 goodybags will be going up in price. The £5 goodybag will be increasing to £6 and the £7.50 …

Total phone content protection and monitoring. SpyMyPhone.

Just recently I’ve been looking for a way to keep tabs on my son. He’s just got his first ever proper smartphone and, although I don’t want to snoop on him too much, I do want to ensure he’s safe. One app that has pinged my radar is …

giffgaff wins recommended Which? Provider yet again

It’s the 7th year running for the network, which is only 10 years old, and they’ve won the “the Best Mobile Network” award. A lot of “virtual” network operators have claimed the top spots, with Utility Warehouse and Plusnet Mobile coming second and third respectively. They’re closely followed …

Samsung Galaxy Fold delayed

Last week we told you about the rather poorly Galaxy Fold handsets. Broken hinges, busted displays and a peel-able screen protector that, if removed, breaks the screen. Now Samsung have pushed back the launch of their new folding device in order to “fully evaluate the feedback and run …

Podcast 245 – I bet you didn’t expect us…

Well, what a completely insane Easter weekend that was. We went to the countryside, I flew a drone, crashed it, then went to the beach and I also found time to mow the lawn, clean the bathroom and even clean out the car. My life is so rock …

EMUI 9.1 coming to stacks of older Honor and Huawei kit

Based on Android Pie, EMUI 9.1 is the latest iteration of the Huawei / Honor skin. The newest version brings the incoming call videos we mentioned just the other day, plus improvements to GPU Turbo mode, voice assistants triggering via the power button and much more. The latest …

iOS 12: Full preview and insight into key features

My son now has an iPhone and just recently I noticed that it hadn’t been fully updated. Usually I’m the one in the family who has a weird need to ensure that all the apps are updated on my phone and that the OS is the very latest …

The TicWatch S2 and now the AI-powered TicPods. Dive in!

You may have heard of Mobvoi and their TicWatch S2. It’s powered by Wear OS and has a 1.39″ AMOLED 400 x 400 display. Inside, it’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 CPU and comes with 4GB of storage with 512MB of RAM. Plus, it looks bloody …

Ekster – Trackable smart wallets

These are sold in shops like Macy’s and Selfridges and are crafted from the highest grade leather available in Europe. Basically, they’re high-end but they’re also clever too. These are ultra-slim smart wallets which can be tracked and actually run via solar power. Yes, solar power. This means …