Tag: text
Christmas Day tends to be a time when we all make lots of calls, and we’ll no doubt be making even more this year as the coronavirus restrictions keep us apart more than ever. Data and text usage will also be on the rise, so it’s good to …
If you’re in the US, you’ll probably be familiar with emergency broadcast messages. However, here in the UK it’s rather unusual to receive a text with an emergency update. These, though, are not “usual” times. Today all mobile networks will be sending out emergency messages to keep everyone …
Whilst obvious to many. Using a phone when you’re driving a car, bus or truck is never cool. Here in the UK it’s been illegal to use the phone at the wheel for some time, but some drivers have managed to hop through a legal loophole to escape …
Today marks the start of a new method of changing networks. For all too long people here in the UK have had to call the infamous “Retentions Team”. They will try lots of things to keep hold of you as a customer. Sometimes this process has a good …
A weirdly intriguing set of stats from Ofcom have just landed and it confirms a lot of our suspicions regarding how people live and work with mobile technology. First, let’s have a look at the amount of outgoing calls that people are making from that funny phone-shaped object …
As I get older I’ve come to the shuddering realisation that 90% of people in this world lack any sort of common sense. It’s the reason we have signs telling us that hot water might come out of a hot tap, or that slippery floors might cause you …
Most people, if they haven’t already switched to something like WhatsApp, will still be using the standard text messaging app on their Android phone. This is a bit pants for a number of reasons. First, if you want to send picture messages (MMS) then it’ll cost you a …
I remember when mobile phones first started being a “thing”. I was at college and got this, the Nokia 5.1. It was also known as the Nokia 2110. Strangely the 5.1 name has now re-appeared on the Nokia site, albeit under a completely new design.. and no pull-out …
Discord is software primarily used for people to talk while playing games. So you may think well why is this relevant to me? Well Discord is something I use everyday and it is growing to be a social network of sorts to. There is an iOS, macOS, PC …
In a lot of countries, there’s a clever alerting system which sends texts to everyone if bad things happen. Alerts can be issued by the totally sane and completely normal US President, or by various agencies if there’s an imminent threat to life. You can receive extreme threats …
In an effort to stop people fiddling where their phones whilst driving, the people from the Western Cape Government have taken a slightly different approach. A recent advert appears to have lifted a number of CCTV images showing a phone-relate accidents. There’s people falling into ponds, walking into …
Whether you’re a new driver or a more experienced one, it’s really worth paying attention to this. From today, if you’re caught using your mobile phone at the wheel in the UK, you’ll get 6 points on your licence and a £200 fine. New drivers who have passed …
Let’s put aside the “Trump” business and all the #Brexit news shall we? I’m here to tell you that being part of Europe is a good thing.. for your phone bill. Whilst we in the UK are part of it, roaming charges are no longer a problem. From …
Three have today launched native WiFi Calling on selected devices here in the UK, and this is just another step in the direction to #makeitright Before now, Three have relied on a separate downloadable application called Three inTouch to get customers a better signal using WiFi routing. Whilst this …
Despite it being law for a number of years, people are still continuing to use their phone whilst driving. The RAC has released some rather worrying statistics from a recently commissioned survey. There’s been an increase in drivers owning up to using a handheld mobile phone – from …
OK I’ll fess up. Sometimes I do get distracted by my phone when I’m in the car. It’s all too easy to take a quick glance at the traffic lights and some of us think we can compose complicated messages while we’re driving. You can’t. You just can’t. …
If you’ve got Virgin cabled up to your house then it’s in your own interests to look at their mobile deals too. They have better deals for Virgin customers, but you can also take a look at their offerings if you’re not a customer. Better still, today they’ve …
It could be you that causes an accident. It could be someone else who crashes into you. Just a quick check of the email. It can’t hurt. Perhaps I should just reply to that text message or check Facebook. Yes, it’s that video from the news, and this …
You may have done it yourself. You may see others do it. Perhaps you’ll catch an approaching driver looking down at something and you’ll wonder if they’re really just “tuning the radio” or perhaps browsing the web instead. It’s on the rise and, with the deep cuts in …
Remember Google Talk? Well all those years ago when Android first launched it was the simply the instant messaging app. To be honest I don’t think take-up was that big, but over the years Google Talk was replaced with “Hangouts”, and we all got used to calling and …
Remember FreedomPop? After other networks tried and failed to offer completely free mobile plans, FreedomPop said in May that they’d be heading to the UK to offer free and paid-for SIM-only tariffs. However, with a launch date of “summer” we were getting more than a little worried when …
WhatsApp has been around for a while now. In my sphere of friends, colleagues and family members it used to be something a few people used every now and then for perhaps contacting their friends abroad. It was cheaper than texting a foreign number, and the result was …
I’m not totally sure how this video has gone viral suddenly, because it’s around three years old now. Anyhow, this happens all around the world. Nobody is perfect and I’ve seen drivers across Europe, America, China and here in the UK doing it at the wheel. The familiar …
Wi-Fi Calling is almost the holy grail for people such as myself where the signal at home is shall we say less than desirable. The news is therefore good for those with an HTC One M9 on the EE network for Wi-Fi calling is about to be rolled …
If you’ve got yourself an Android and you were having a good old laugh at the iPhone text messaging bug a few weeks ago, it’s time to stop. Now there’s an Android bug which pretty much affects all Android devices. It’s occurs when an MMS arrives with a …
You may have seen the headlines today and, by the way they’re written, you may be of the belief that kids will soon be able to send messages littered with “text speak” to the 999 emergency number. It’s not quite going to be that way.. hopefully. If I’m …
We’ve seen something like this before. China tried it but, from what I remember, it was abandoned because mobile phone users didn’t see the signs or the phone-only walkway. Now something similar is rolling out in Antwerp, with “text lanes” trying to separate “phone zombies” from other pavement …
Earlier this week we reported on the fact that you could reset an iPhone and generally annoy the owner by sending them a simple text message. The workaround, as we mentioned then, is to get Siri to respond to the text, or you can turn off message notifications. …
Fancy totally upsetting your iPhone friends? Well, send them a text. It seems that if that text has a certain Arabic character sequence in it then it’ll totally ruin their day. Good huh? Well maybe. Something like this… لُلُصّبُلُلصّبُررً ॣ ॣh ॣ ॣ 冗 ..will totally crash their …
If you use WhatsApp then I really don’t need to sell this thing to you. It’s a cross-platform messaging app that cuts out the need to use text messages. Instead you send everything over your data connection and you can also keep in touch with people in other …
You’ll have seen services like this before I’m sure. Oh and yes, I’m sure there’s a great deal of you who use Google Hangouts or WhatsApp to keep in touch too, but MightyText seems to have a rather slick solution if texting off your smartphone is becoming a …
Hello, it’s me Gears. Call me Leigh. I’ve had the man flu for a month solid and this is perhaps the first article I’ve written without tissues (steady), so you may notice an ounce of exuberance in this particular missive. Spam. It’s a pain in the flippin sausage. …
I’ve just read the email about this and have instantly transported back to 2003, when someone developed a text editor app for Microsoft Smartphone 2002 and we all thought that it was the most amazing … thing…..ever. Now the new Firefox OS (which you lovely Coolsmartphone readers will …
Blow up the balloons, order a cake, we’re going to have a party! Roaming rates are dropping today. New EU limits kick in to…slightly reduce your costs. Data especially is now a lot cheaper, but we’re still a long way from being able to use phones as we …
We’ve had an email from a company called Intercity Telecom. They’re trying to get us to mention their Orbit system, which lets you access your desk phone, mobile, instant messaging and email all in one place. A lot of companies do this, but they add a survey in …
UK mobile users will be able to send and receive money by sharing only their phone number by Spring 2014, the Payments Council has said. Account owners will be asked by their banks if they want to opt-in to a database that will allow the sending of money …
It’s 20 whole years since the first text message was sent and, despite data-enabled phones and always-on email, we’re still sending a huge amount of texts. Tech start-up “inZair” has just launched an app called ZMS. It’s completely free and available for both Android and iOS. The texting …
We miss the Olympics. We miss the opening and closing ceremonies. Sure, we would’ve liked a longer set from Fat Boy Slim during the closing ceremony, but apart from that it was all good. During these ceremonies you may have seen a number of athletes displaying messages to …
This 17-year old chap is called Austin Weirschke from Queens. The New Yorker has received a cheque for $50,000 after becoming the fastest texter in America. Austin won the LG-sponsored competition after having to memorise and type phrases on a sliding QWERTY phone. He also had to type …
What is it ? This app will sync your text messages to other devices and it’ll even connect your texts to web browsers so that you can send and receive texts from the comfort of your own browser. It’s completely connected to your phone number, so there’s no …
