Tag: usage

App and behaviour changing across smartphones during lockdown

EE has announced their latest report into the changing habits and trends of their customers. It shows how the usage of services and apps has changed recently, as lockdown came in and then eased off. What’s perhaps not too surprising, as the lockdown restrictions eased some weeks ago, …

When your allowance doesn’t quite keep up

My Vodafone SIM-only plan has been absolutely perfect for my needs over the last few years. I don’t make many calls or send SMS texts, so when I originally took the deal, 500 minutes of calls was fine. I was never going to make 8 hours of calls …

How much data does your radio app really consume?

Some 9 years ago I performed a test of radio streaming over the internet. I was fed up with the slim choice of very “samey” FM radio station so, with the aid of some cabling (or a smartphone FM transmitter) I fed the audio output of my smartphone …

Three customers now pulling an average of 10GB per month

Admit it, looking at a mobile phone package which delivers 2GB per month is going to give you cold sweats. You know, part-way through the month, that you’re going to be worry about visiting sites or checking anything on the internet because your data is bound to run …

New study reveals big increase in phone usage

It goes without saying that, right now, you’re using your phone. After all, you’re reading this. I’ll be honest, it doesn’t seem that long ago that people used laptops and – yes – desktop PCs. Web designers only spent a small amount of time actually creating a “mobile …

You’re spending longer on the toilet because of your phone

Are you reading this on the toilet? Right now? Chances are, you’re not alone. It’s something we don’t discuss, but in reality we all take a bit of “time out” and browse on our phones while we’re “making a delivery”. Now, here at Coolsmartphone we do get a …

Children, tablet and phones. Here’s my advice.

A lot has been said in recent days about children and mobile phone use. A number of recommendations have come out, ranging from banning mobile phone use in schools, limiting screen time and banning phones at the table. In all honesty, it can be tricky. Parents secretly like …

The landline and text messaging. Both officially dying.

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 …

Ready for 5G? You’re going to need a bigger package.

Consuming lots of data on 4G? Have you got a large package to cope with the action? Well, according to this giffgaff research, you’re going to need a hefty tariff in a few years time. Customers on the network used an average of 1.72GB of data monthly in …

Nissan release a phone killer

You’re driving. The phone beeps. You know you’ve received a notification. It could be something important. It could be about those jeans you ordered, or it could be a Facebook update from someone about a burger they’ve just eaten. You’ll never know, because you’re driving…. ..but you just …

Internet use now higher on Android than Windows

We are used to hearing news that more people are accessing the web on a mobile device rather than a desktop. However, a new and somewhat significant milestone has been passed, this being that Android’s internet use has overtaken Windows PC’s. According to StatCounter the Android platform represented 37.93% …

How smartphones have changed the way we live

I’m old enough to remember a time when there weren’t a great deal of mobile phones. I also remember a time when a “smartphone” had never been heard of. What made me think of all this was when I met an old college friend. We sat down, drank …

The 100MB data challenge

First, a bit of detail about how all this came about. Phones. I get a lot of them to review. I borrow them then send them back, but with different sizes of SIM cards and some handsets offering dual-SIM functionality, it can result in me using Pay As …

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 …

Datasquasher – Reduce data use, speed up your mobile browsing

Data, whether we like it or not, isn’t as plentiful as it should be. In an ideal world we’d pay £5 a year for unlimited internet, but sadly that’s not how things work. So, the dudes at datasquasher have come up with an iPhone app which will reduce …

It’s so funny, how we don’t talk anymore

It’s official, we’d rather not speak to each other. Head down, umbrella up, we’d rather use text and data than actually talk. The research, by Ofcom, reveals that 58% of people sent texts daily whilst 47% of people make a phone call every day. The average Brit sends …

Android most used OS in UK

The Guardian have posted some great statistics on the number of OS installations across the UK which shows, perhaps unsurprisingly to a lot of us, that Android is now more widespread than iOS in the UK. Android now has a 36.9% share of the smartphones in the UK …

Android App Review – Onavo

I recently upgraded my phone, I went from the HTC Hero to the Motorola Atrix. Quite a step and it seems infinitely faster and hence gets a whole lot more attention from me. When I was out and about with the Hero it would struggle along with a lot …