Search Results for: Technology

Super Bluetooth in 2016

Bluetooth is about to change from what we all know and love (or not, in some cases). The organisation that looks after the Bluetooth standard is updating it next year to increase coverage distance by 4 times the current distances, so we should see Bluetooth speakers work up …

Move over HTC, Ford want to be quietly brilliant.

Modern cars tend to have a lot of sound proofing, especially if you’re driving one of those diesel cars. It’s to reduce engine noise, but despite how nice your tyres might be, there’s still road noise to deal with. Ford have been thinking of new ways to sort …

AVANTEK BC-L6 Bluetooth Stereo audio receiver

Your phone will no doubt have all your tunes on it, but when you get in your car there’s just a few methods of getting those tunes pumping out of the powerful speakers in your car. First, you could perhaps use one of those FM transmitters. They’re usually …

Xperia Z5 & Xperia Z5 Compact Comparison – Review

The time has come to put Sony’s finest under a microscope and to see what you are getting when you plonk down £610* on the counter. We know that the camera is meant to be the best thing since they made the camera obscura back in the early …

Meizu M2 Note – Review

Meizu is a brand not particularly well known here in the UK. Leigh recently reviewed the Meizu M1 Note, and I have been using a Meizu M2 Note for a few months now. This is my review of the Meizu M2 Note, a device purchased from Shenzhen Chigon …

Huawei have new chip on its way… UPDATED

We are quite fond of Huawei here at Coolsmartphone. We also have a soft spot for Honor. Now what is these companies have in common? Well, there are several things. One is the daddy brand and the other the offspring, they use the same design language etc. The …

Huawei Watch launched, buy it now

Meet the Huawei Watch. It’s a watch that…actually looks like a watch. This measures 42mm across and has a circular 1.4″ touch-sensitive AMOLED (400×400 pixel, 286ppi) screen behind scratch-proof sapphire crystal and encased in a stainless steel frame. That screen also has a 10,000:1 high contrast ratio, making …

Burger. Gimme burger. Me want burger. TGI Fridays app now updated

So, the restaurant emailed me and asked me to promote their app. They didn’t give me the link to the UK version, so accidentally found the American version of the apps first (iPhone one here and Android one here). Trouble is, what bothered me was the fact that …

Sony set to buy Toshiba’s camera sensor business

Mobile image sensors embedded in smartphones are revolutionising journalism and photography. Ever taken a selfie or a picture of your pizza? Or maybe a high quality image of the Eiffel Tower or the Taj Mahal for bragging purposes? Yep, we’ve all been there. There’s no doubt image sensor …

HTC One A9 – The details

You’ve seen the launch, you’ve heard the rumours and now it’s here – the very latest member of the HTC One family. Meet the HTC One A9.. Boasting an “evolution” of the original HTC One design, there’s a new “metalmorphics” approach to the design and finish of the …

EE launch a superhero for your kids – The Robin

Most kids, unfortunately, end up sat in front of a tablet for a portion of their day. Hopefully it isn’t for that long but, with Christmas on the horizon and more kids wanting to play games and apps, EE have release a child-friendly device called “The Robin” to …

Three hit the boost button – 4G speeds increased by 50%

We here at Coolsmartphone towers love UK mobile operator Three. They were the first operator to roll out a 3G network here in the UK, plus they rolled out unlimited data and 4G for no extra cost etc. I think nearly all our writers have a least one Three …

Misfit Shine – A quick overview

Just last year Gears reviewed the Misfit Shine, a personal tracker that also, if you want, can double as a necklace. Now we have the Misfit Flash and, ahead of the full review, here’s a quick look at how this one works. It’s a small device around the …

Vodafone Call+ in action

Following a quick demo from the team at Vodafone on their new Call+ features, I thought it would be useful to do a short write up before a full review in the coming weeks (should the loaner phone arrive soon). If you aren’t familiar with Call+, it’s a …

Vodafone get into the home phone and broadband game

Want broadband at home? Mine is from EE and the fibre broadband connectivity has been OK. Sadly I can’t say the same about the home phone service, which was completely broken for well over a month. Anyhoo, now Vodafone are getting in on the action with broadband and …

HTC A9 on view in leaked images

With a product launch just around the corner (next Tuesday), the HTC leaks have kicked in again and we’ve a look at the HTC A9. The leaks, courtesy of @onleaks, show a device which has the bottom-mounted speaker grills we’ve seen on the Huawei P8 and iPhone 6 …

BLOCKS Modular Smartwatch – Kick-starting Soon!

Remember the smartwatch we covered some time ago where you build your own customisable watch? Each “link” in the strap contains a module for example GPS, Heartbeat monitor and so on. You upgrade your watch, whenever new modules become available. Well things have gone into over-drive yesterday when …

iClever 3 and 4 port USB car chargers – Review

We have a couple more devices for turning what was once a cigarette lighter into a rather nicer USB charging point. The cigarette lighter, which you may see now called a power point in your car, can be used to charge your portable device. However, with lots of …

Vodafone. Helping you browse, call and text while you get drunk

You have to question the logic behind this one. I mean, were the Vodafone executives on a country break when they decided that remote pubs should get better coverage? If you’re on Vodafone and you don’t get much signal indoors, get yourself a Sure Signal box. After hooking …

Vodafone launch the £50 4G Smart speed 6

Yup, 4G just got cheap. OK, so you’re not going to get bleeding-edge technology throughout the whole smartphone at this price, but £50 will get you Android 5.1 (Lollipop) and a 5 megapixel rear shooter. Other specifications include a strong-facing 2 megapixel camera, quad-core CPU running at 1GHz, …

What can the new iPhone 6S do for you?

Like the models before it, the new iPhone has outdone itself once again. Sure, there might not be a drastic change in the design. However, I for one can guarantee that you won’t be sorry with the phone, the operating system and all the new features. Apple has …

OnePlus 2 – Review

The time has come to have a good hard look at the second outing from this underdog from the Far East. While I’m aware that these are very limited in supply and trying to get hold of one of these phones is very tricky, we at CSP Towers were …

Vodafone WiFi calling available… shortly

If you’re inside and don’t have much coverage, a WiFi hotspot could be your saviour. Provided you’re a Vodafone user and you’re using the correct phone, the network will soon be letting you make calls via WiFi. The system, which launches in the autumn, will be accessible on …

Speak in your own voice with clever Ford in-car tech

A minor bug-bear for us Brits can be the fact that we have to force technology to speak to us in proper English. If you use Word, you’ll need to fiddle around to switch it to “English UK” and we have to put up with devices called “Honor” …

aLLreLi Dual Port USB Travel Charger – Review

Boosting your battery back up is a daily task. Here we have a charger from aLLreLi. It’s ideal for travellers as there’s a stack of slot-in interchangeable plugs in the box. Here in the UK I’m obviously using the UK adapter, but you get the EU plug, Australian …

Nexus 5X full spec leak?

The eagerly anticipated refinement to the Nexus 5, the (very likely-called) 5X was prematurely listed before being swiftly pulled from the Amazon India website. Naturally, someone managed to grab all the details and there is a Reddit article floating around with the full run down of this devices …

Fancy a holographic smartphone for less than £80?

No 4G on this one, but you do get a 5.5″ screen, 32GB of on-board storage, 2GB RAM and an octa-core MediaTek 2 GHz CPU running the show. It runs Android 4.2 but, for $118.49 (which is around £76.22), we’re prepared to forgive the slightly older OS. Available …

Control your lights with Playbulb Bluetooth controlled lighting

The ability to remotely control the various gadgets in your home is becoming commonplace. From controlling your DVR from the other side of the world, to perhaps setting your heating to automatically come on when you leave work – there doesn’t seem to be much you can’t control from your smartphone. The …

Teen Developers – Alex Choi

Could you start by telling me a little about yourself? I’m Alex Choi, a 14 year old teen developer from the United Kingdom. I first gave coding a try when I was 11 and from there I found that I had a passion for it. I’ve enjoyed building …

Suaoki 7.2A 36W 3 port USB car charger – Review

Some of the items we get to review area quite complicated. They need research and a fairly wordy write-up. This, on the other hand, not so much. The Suaoki car charger is everything you’d expect it to be out of the box. It’s portable, easy to use and …

Lumsing 4 port USB wall charger & 10400mah powerbank reviews

4 port USB wall charger. My night time ritual goes something like this.. Put the cat out Lock the doors Make sure all the windows are closed Walk around the house looking like Mr T from the A-Team with a multitude of charger leads and plugs round my …

Quick Charge 3 from Qualcomm

Processor manufacturer Qualcomm has announced the latest version of its Quick charge system, now imaginatively named “Quick Charge 3.0”. It’ll debut on the Snapdragon 820 chipset next year and will then roll out to the Snapdragon 620, 618, 617 and 430 platforms. Quick Charge 3.0 will allow compatible phones …

Three UK launch VoLTE network

Three have become the first network in the UK to switch on an exciting new service known as VoLTE, allowing voice calls over the 4G network for better quality and signal strength. Using the 800Mhz spectrum purchased in the 4G auction which has now been rolled out, Three …

Trendz fashion mobile accessories – Reviewed

Technology doesn’t have to be be dull, in fact it can become a fashionable accessory to your life, a little extension of your personality or just great to look at. A great example of a company trying to inject a little style into a our technology packed world …

Vodafone to roll out WiFi calling in the coming weeks

Just days after we told you about the upcoming Vodafone VoLTE and it’s … errr… not quite here still. However, the WiFi calling that EE has been making a big deal about has almost arrived on Vodafone. The network tell us that the list of compatible handsets is …

Teen Developers – Darshil Patel

Sorry for being quiet over the last several weeks, everyone! I’ve been busy adding more developers to the list, and trying to branch away from the typical iOS developers. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you’re interested in an interview! I love hearing from people! Could you …

Another slice of Android randomness for less than £85

Less than £85? Well, there’s no 4G and this isn’t the very latest version of Android but heck, it’s got a 13 megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel selfie. It’s also powered by a Mediatek 2Ghz octa-core CPU with 2GB RAM. Not bad for this price-point, even …

Adblock Browser makes a return to Android as yet more mobiles block advertisements

With Apple now allowing ad-blocking technology into Safari browsers on iPhone and iPad, Adblock have announced their return to Android, with their ad-free browsing system now allowed back onto Google Play. The system kills revenue, even for websites displaying well-behaved advertisements such as ours, and means that content …

IFA – Acer Predator gaming tablet

Acer didn’t just have phones to release at the their event during IFA, they also unveiled the Predator Gaming Tablet… This is a very unique proposition. It is a tablet that has been designed primarily for gaming. It runs Android 5.1 on an Intel Atom X7 and is …