Author: Leigh Geary
Looking for a soundbar? This is one, but there’s a secret surprise too. It’s the Otone Varsa and it packs two 10W speakers producing (duh – obviously) 20W. It’ll sit under your TV or PC and has audio fed in from a 3.5mm audio plug. Sitting as a …
Coolsmartphone veterans will no doubt remember our review of The Brick. It’s a lightweight version of the large mobile phones we walked around with in the 80s. It’s SIM-free and was £50 when we included it in our festive gift guide. How’s less than £30 sound instead? If …
Cut the Rope has been one of those games that pretty much everyone has played. It’s brilliantly simple and somehow grabs your attention. The game has been downloaded some 400 million times and, on Thursday, you’ll be able to download the follow-up – Cut the Rope 2. It’s …
We’ve seen cheap tablet devices before. We usually cover then when deals appear, but until now we’ve always classed £79.99 to be a cheap price. DATAWIND, however, have today announced their new tablets and prices start from just £29.99 including VAT. Yes, a tablet for less than 30 …
Spending time with your new-born baby. What more could anyone ask for eh? Those precious moments when your child smiles for the first time, or looks at you with those innocent eyes. Ahhhh… ..well, if you’d like to strap your baby into a seat and distance yourself totally …
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 has been available on your mobile for a while now, but this new version has been remastered, earning it the title.. Errrr…. Remastered. After 21 years Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has been redone with better graphics, audio and new content including a new boss …
So, you’ve heard about EE and their 4G network. You can get double-speed 4G in Birmingham and some of my lovely scenic local towns – Sutton Coldfield, Walsall, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton. That’s all very clever, but whenever we run a story about the speedy 4G network there’s …
So, err.. how’s that 4G thing coming along eh? (Family guy reference) Hmm? Got a big, uh, big stack of papers there? Got a, got a, got a nice little story you working on there? Your big -big 4G thing you’ve been working on? Hmm? Got a, got …
Let’s talk Smart TV’s shall we? They’re pretty rubbish aren’t they? I bought one of these, thinking I’d be sitting there with my 3D glasses on watching some movies on Netflix or videos on YouTube. However, by the time the clunky interface has booted and you’ve sat through …
New in Android 4.0.3 and above it the ability to have USB On-the-Go (OTG). This basically alllows devices to plug into your phone through the microUSB port whilst your phone or tablet acts as a host. With a lot of phones now not having microSD card slot, despite …
Got a Samsung Galaxy SIII? Do you call it an SIII or an S3? No, we don’t know either, but it’s a pretty nice handset either way. If you’ve got the LTE (4G) version then you should check for updates today – the phone should be ready to …
I’ll be honest, I’m pretty rubbish when it comes to money. I firmly believe that there’s some magical fairies sitting in my bank account because, even though I try not to spend anything, money seems to leak out all over the place. If you’re a contractor or regularly …
Meet the Galaxy Note 3. We’ve already penned our Samsung Galaxy Note 3 review and we were pretty impressed. It’s powered by a quad-core 2.3GHz CPU and has 3GB of RAM with a 13 megapixel camera. Big yes, but it’s popular too. 10 million of these have gone …
Santa, as you know, will be unloading his sack in your front room very soon. On Christmas Eve you can not only track his movements on Google Maps, but you can also now follow the jolly fella via this Android app too. The app includes lots of little …
If you’re a GMail user then, if you’re honest, you’re probably never offline. However, if you do ever disconnect yourself, you’ll know that setting a vacation message is a bit of a pain. Currently in GMail you’ll need to log onto the normal web interface to set it …
Windows Phone, as an OS, has a cost attached to it. It’s an actual financial cost that needs to be paid by manufacturers who use the mobile OS. Trouble is, Microsoft have just bought the phone-making side of Nokia, and guess who provided the bulk of their Windows …
As we all know, Christmas is a time for giving. It’s also about eating too much, drinking too much and generally embarrassing yourself and having arguments with the family too. Before you know it, we’ll all be back at work in January and trying, somehow, to get through …
Earlier in the week we covered the leaked Asus Padfone Mini and now, according Engadget China it’s now official. It’s the marriage of a 4.3″ (960×540) Android handset with a 7″ (1280×800) dock and comes with a Snapdragon MSM8226 quad-core CPU running at 1.4GHz. Running on Android 4.3 …
I like making use of old Android handsets. Salient Eye follows on from our CCTV on the cheap story from some months ago. Stick this app on your old Android, put it on a shelf and it’ll monitor your home for movement. It’s easy to setup and works …
Those Google Street View cars are great. We’ve all quickly got used to the fact that we can log onto Google Maps and instantly view pretty much any road, lane or house in the country. There’s even a bike and back-pack version for covering the more remote areas, …
I love Aldi me. You can walk in, get some bread, milk, cheap biscuits, a lawn-mower, fishing tackle, a TV and some fence panels. Brilliant. Not only that, but four cans of lager is £2. Come on, you can’t beat that. Now, even though it was only ever …
So, you may have noticed some additional adverts popping up recently. It seems that our preferences and the ideas of advertisers are at odds currently, and they’ve perhaps taken over your browser somewhat. First up, apologies for this. I’ve had a number of emails from you guys, including …
Sitting on my backside is something I do a lot in this job. Although I am doing a great deal more writing on my phone whilst walking around, it’s still a lot of laptop-action that drives a large portion of my writing. So, I need a comfortable place …
Android 4.4.1 ? Oh, that’s so old hat. If you’ve got a Nexus device, check for updates now because the new Android 4.4.2 update is rolling out right now. So far, all we know is that the new update includes a fix for clearing the voicemail indicator, some …
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 …
Want to get an Amazon Kindle this Christmas? Well, you could get the Kindle Fire HD for free. Sure, it’s not quite the new HDX, but the 7″ Kindle Fire HD comes with 16GB storage, WiFi and Dolby Digital sound. Plus, of course, you can download a stack …
The Google Play Music app has received a bit of a refresh this morning. Download it and you’ll get KitKat SD card support, which gives offline music capability. Not only that, but there’s the ability to shuffle songs in the “All Access” feature and Google have made it …
Another precisely produced piece of pristine podcast pie this week, and it’s Ronnie, myself and Dan discussing the last few days of mobile news. This week… – Three Feel at Home Roaming, now expanded and really rather good. – Three launch 4G, but there’s a backlash. – EE …
I’ve got a secret to confess. I don’t buy music. Sure, I listen to it, but I rarely buy it. Call me weird, but that’s me. Most of the time I listen to one internet radio station, but the MixPal.fm app has a bit of a twist – …
Are you wanting to get a mention on Coolsmartphone? Today is definitely a good day to email us, because things are a little quiet on the news front. This new KitKat advert shows the tie-in with Android and is a sign of things to come. How weird. This …
Just a short while ago we had various handsets and roughly four thousand different types of charger. Some of you might still have an old Nokia, and you may be familiar with the, “charger hunt” as you search drawers and desks for “one of those with a small …
I like to show my family just how rich and successful I am, so just last week I was making use of a discount voucher in Pizza Hut. After gorging myself on large amounts of “endless salad” and “unlimited soft drinks” I was sadly too fat to walk …
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 …
No, I’ve not heard of them either but, if you pop along to Poundland or buy one of these online, you can get 1GB of days over 30 days worth for just a quid. If you go into the high-class Poundland stores you can pick a Vectone Mobile …
Just yesterday we covered TravelSIM, which is a solution for reducing your call charges when making and receiving calls abroad. This little app, called ChatTime is similar, and lets you call more cheaply – although received calls will be at the same roaming rates as normal. Imagine you …
Just recently I received some stickers from a mobile anti-virus company because I’d mentioned them in an article. So, on that premise I’m going to mention Cancun a lot in this post in the vein hope that some lovely holiday company lose their mind and send some free …
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”. …
EE, Three, Vodafone and Virgin Media have today agreed to a new cap, proposed by the Government, on mobile bills. We’ve already seen some new measures getting announced, such as the option of ending a contract early if bills are increased mid-contract, but now it’ll be extended. A …
Sure, it’s 2.30 in the afternoon and it’s going dark already, but you can at least cheer yourself up with a Cyber Monday deal on the Sony Xperia SP. We have a full Xperia SP review online already, detailing the 1.7GHz dual-core CPU, 8 megapixel shooter, 4.6″ display …
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3, we’ve reviewed it here and there’s still plenty of deals kicking around where you can bag yourself a free tablet or a Galaxy Gear smartwatch when you buy one. Now Samsung have added a couple of new colours – Rose Gold White and …
