Tag: mobile

Vectone Mobile offers free roaming

Last week we mentioned Vectone Mobile who were offering 1GB of data for just £1. If I’m honest we’d not really heard about this particular MVNO but they run on the EE network and they’ve got some additional news to tell us. They have an app. Not just …

Ovivo update their plans, now get more for £0 per month

You lot are great, so I’m having a good ‘ole dig around for some bargain deals at the moment. Christmas seems to be the “crazy time” where we spend huge chunks of money, so I’m on a mission to get some cheap deals. Ovivo are an MVNO using …

Shoppers seek spontaneous splurges

As we head towards Christmas we’re getting sent a number of surveys which relate to the festive season. Today it’s a shopping survey which reveals that we’re more impulsive when using our mobile. Gone are the days of shopping in actual shops and, instead, people are trying “showrooming”. …

Tesco Mobile offering the Moto G for £99

It’s sadly showing as unavailable when we click on the listing but, if you can find it, the Moto G is now just £99 at Tesco. If you’ve got 99 Clubcard points you can buy it that way but, for 99 quid, this is a steal. It comes …

The Brick – Hands on

Remember when all mobile handsets were huge? Do you remember the big hairstyles from the 1980’s? Leggings? Yo-Yo’s? Wham? Aha? A short while ago we spotted this, which is suitably named “The Brick”. It’s designed to look like those early mobile handsets, but with a couple of key …

Opinion: Why is free not really free?

There have been many words spoken and written regarding the apparent lack of care taken by Apple, Microsoft and Google to protect our oh so innocent children from the perils of in app purchases and warning parents to beware of said children spending thousands of their hard earned …

4G Britain – the battle begins…

This morning saw another landmark in the UK’s mobile network history. After the limited launch of 4G in Britain last year from EE there is now some competition in the form of Vodafone and O2, both of whom began the roll out of their super fast mobile data …

We’re jamming, I hope you like jamming too

The internet can be a scary place at times. So scary, in fact, that we could do with some hastily cobbled together requirement for random cookie warnings on every site and a ham-fisted ISP-level website blocking system. Nah, that’d never work. When all else fails, we can at …

High speed photography with the HTC One

Some photographers are gifted special people, given the most basic of equipment and they can achieve impressive results. Give one such guy a HTC One and just look at what can be done. The photographer Alexandru Ivan said the following about his work. I made these photos with …

The future of mobile data – a lot more, a lot quicker

We’ve been having a poke around the Vodafone blog recently. We’ve done this mainly because they stuck £4000 in our hands and told us too*, but there’s some pretty interesting posts about the future of smartphones and the networks they run on. In this post the Vodafone UIK …

Ovivo ramps up data allowances again

Remember Ovivo Mobile? They’re a virtual mobile network running on top of the Vodafone masts and have an interesting proposition. You pay £15 for one of their SIM cards and then, on some of their plans, you pay nothing else per month. Nothing. We did a feature on …

Most mobile sites just aren’t up to scratch

At the minute I’m spending a lot of time on my phone. This means that every time I visit a website I’m getting a completely broken experience. Some websites show me the default desktop version, some show me a mobile variant. That’s fine, I can cope with that, …

Mobile Threats, They’re everywhere!!

Threats to your mobile security and privacy are becoming more and more prevalent as smartphones continue to grow in popularity and become a major part of people’s everyday lives. Where however do these threats come from?  Are they the same across the globe or do they differ between …

Huawei Ascend Mate video overview

Yesterday we took a look at the Ovivo Mobile offering. Grab a SIM card for £15 and they’ll dish up 150 minutes, 200 texts and 500MB data on their Freedom Plan and you pay a big fat nothing per month. When you’re browsing you get an advert pop …

For some, it’s never inappropriate to use a phone

We’ve had an email from Co-operative Funeralcare. I couldn’t quite figure out how their services related to the smartphone world, but it turns out that they did have something quite interesting for us. They’ve conducted research which actually shows that up to one in six people have either …

MVNO Feature – Tesco Mobile

We’ve been looking at those “virtual network operators” lately and have already checked out Virgin Mobile and TalkTalk. Both of those networks were keen to get you on board if you were already using one of their other services (like TV or broadband) and, in the case of …

Acer Cloud Mobile now £179.99. Corr blimey!

We’ve reviewed it and we’ve mentioned last month that it was down to less than £200. Now it’s even cheaper with the price dipping down to just £179.99, and that includes the delivery and everything. The handset will, of course, arrive unlocked and has a 4.3” IPS 1280×720 …

Acer Cloud Mobile is now available for under £200

Can you remember the Acer S500 Cloud Mobile? Well I can, I reviewed one last year and it was a great little phone with a great spec, a great screen, amazing sound quality, a decent camera and now it has a great price. Expansys are one of the …

Tesco Commit to no mid-contract price rises

Tesco Mobile, the countries largest MVNO, have today committed to no mid-contract price rises. In what they are calling the “Tesco Mobile Tariff Promise” Tesco say that they will not raise its customers core tariff prices mid contract and also state that they are the first operator in …

Hook up your internal network to 4G speeds

So, you don’t have a reliable fixed-line internet connection and you decide instead to get yourself a 3G dongle. That’ll do you for one laptop or PC. If you want more computers connected you can perhaps use a MiFi, but for an ethernet connection you might want to …

MWC – Behind the scenes. Keeping connected

Connectivity out here in Barcelona is always part of our planning when we do these trips. A local SIM came to our rescue this time, but there’s also the option of unlimited roaming data packages from the odd UK network provider. What has surprised me, as someone who …

Sony Mobile store crashes after Xperia Z goes on sale

Now, bear with me here. I’m not getting any money from Sony for saying this, but the Xperia Z and Xperia Tablet Z are uttely gorgeous. The Tablet Z especially is a thing of wonder. So, I’m not all too surprised that the Sony Mobile store has just …

Qualcomm providing public transport?

Bagh! No way man. We’re not going to fall for this blatant advertsing campaign. If Qualcomm are looking for a free plug for their Facebook page and their Mobile World Congress activity then they can look elsewhere. They decided to demonstrate how mobility is in their Qualcomm DNA …

Mobile World Congress – Get ready, we’re going large

In just over one week the first member of the CoolSmartPhone team will be arriving in sunny Barcelona to prepare for the chaos that is Mobile World Congress.  This year will be the biggest one so far for us here for a few reasons. First of all there …

Three confirm 4G details – You won’t pay a penny more

4G is the hot topic in the UK this year. Bids are being placed for the required spectrum and everyone is looking out for the best deal possible. EE have had a head-start and they’ve launched 4G services already. However, with totally different price-plans which are pricier than …

Phones 4u to join the MVNO party

Hosted on the EE network, the new offering from Phones 4u will actually carry the name “LIFE Mobile” and will be sold in stores from March. Initially it’ll be a 3G service but a 4G offering will be made available “by the end of the year”. It’ll be …

Are you protected? Mobile Phone crime is on the rise….

Statistics released by the Metropolitan Police show that once again mobile phone crime is on the rise. The fact that 158 iPhones are stolen in London every day (total of 56,680 mobiles stolen between April & September) has led the force to launch an awareness campaign around personal …

LG Nexus 4, get it on Virgin Mobile

Can’t get yourself a Nexus 4? Are you one of the unfortunates who tried to place an order on the Google site, only to be knocked back at the last minute? Well worry no more. Get your nose out of the keyboard, dry those tears, because Virgin Mobile …

Ubuntu for Phones announced

Remember the countdown timer on the Ubuntu site yesterday? Well, today we found out what it meant – Ubuntu is coming to a smartphone near you. Initially released for the Galaxy Nexus, the new operating system promises features such as ‘one search to rule them all’ and looks …

Anecdote: The most ill-informed man in the world

Working in retail store for a network is quite possibly the best way to meet ill-informed people, most of the time this mis-information is minor and forgivable such as calling a BlackBerry a Blueberry or asking if we stock the HTC as if there is only one. Now …

Apple stocks fall in wake of Nokia deal in China.

It is a conflicting tale of two major companies, one was once the biggest manufacturer of mobile phones in the world whilst one was on the verge of bankruptcy. Fast forward in time and the roles, whilst not completely reversed are almost exactly the polar opposite. Apple, who …

WordPress app update

If like me, you blog from your phone, updates to the apps you use are always welcome. WordPress have updated their iOS app. It’s gained a sound scheme and some bug fixes. My device is mainly on silent so the sounds aren’t really for me. The bug fixes …

Are us Brits obsessed with mobile devices?

Well a recent survey commissioned by Storage Options seems to suggest that yes we are obsessed. The results certainly do make for some interesting reading. Such as: · 57% use mobile devices in bed and 40% use them on the toilet · 45% say they can ‘never switch off’ …

Coolsmartphone, on the move

Tonight is Bonfire night here in the UK, so instead of setting off fireworks or .. trying to blow up the House of Lords, we figured you’d like something different. With the recession and mobile data plans never quite as large as everyone would like, we decided to …

PlayBook owner? Get Shadowgun and CreaVures free until October 31st

This offer has been around for a while, but being a new PlayBook owner it has only recently been brought to my attention. Basically, if you have a PlayBook or are currently in the process of getting a PlayBook (through Marmalade no doubt – for the developers amongst us anyway!) …

Is that a cheap E586 in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

I love having a hot spot in my trousers. Many people have connected to it over the years. Enough double entendres? OK. 🙂 Expansys have reduced the Huawei E586 MiFi for today only – it’s now £79.99 and was £99.99. Ker-CHING ! If you’re unfamiliar with the whole …