Tag: ads

Block ads from sites and apps too. AdLock.

It’s fair to say that we rely on adverts. This site wouldn’t keep running without the revenue we get, but the money has gone down quite drastically since everyone moved to mobile handsets. Despite this, we’re determined to keep the balance between “advert annoyance” and required revenue right. …

I think it’s time for a new Twitter app

Enjoy Twitter? Or are you a Facebook fan? I’m definitely more of a Twitter person myself, and have the official app installed on my Android phone. I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with the app because it tends to conveniently “forget” my settings every …

Three to block adverts on your mobile? “No way” says EU

Just to bring you up to speed on this one, Three wanted to block the adverts that keep most websites alive. It’s a tricky subject and one which has various conflicting arguments. Mobile networks, when they first came to be, handled mobile calls. It was the most important …

Tesco launch Mobile Xtras

Well, this is awkward. We’ve been given some information about a new offering from Tesco Mobile but their PR team aren’t getting in touch. We’re not totally sure if we’re breaking an embargo or what-not, but here goes anyway. So, word on the street is that Tesco Mobile …

Those adverts. A quick comment

A couple of days ago the people responsible for our commenting system enabled a new “revenue” system. Sadly, as I’ve not kept up with all my mail, this was enabled on Coolsmartphone without our approval. It seems to be something they’re doing with multiple sites without them having …

Three set to block online advertising

The parent company behind Three run several European networks, and they’ve made a name for themselves by being “different” to other mobile networks. They built their network here in the UK for data primarily, and they priced their plans aggressively. Now though, they’ve tweaked mobile packages and caused …

Adblock Plus – A double-edged sword

We received an email from the developer of this app just yesterday and weren’t entirely sure what to do. As you’ll no doubt be aware, this site is funded by advertising. The same can be said for the many thousands of “free” apps in the Google Play store. …

Android adverts – How do you deal with them?

I’ve been accused of being an Android fan. To be honest, that might be true, but it wasn’t always this way. When I attended the HTC Hero launch I was a firm Windows Mobile fan and actually walked out of the launch before it had finished. Then HTC …

Is poor battery life a price worth paying for free apps?

Recently we published an article about how most of the power usage of free Android apps actually goes towards displaying the ads. Angry Birds, for example, apparently uses “70% of it’s power draw to upload information and download ads”. Presumably it’s an even higher percentage for other less …

Nokia Lumia ads upset Ofcom

Remember these adverts? They appeared a few months ago to promote the Nokia Lumia 800 and used “break flashes”. This was picked up in our earlier article and consists of advertisers showing a very brief (half a second) message between the other commercials. Ofcom found Channel Five to …