Author: Leigh Geary

Samsung Galaxy S4 – Get £30 off

Keep this between yourselves, but we’ve got a special code if you’re thinking of getting the Samsung Galaxy S4. The S4, which we reviewed here, is now as low as £549.99 unlocked. If you’re interested, head to the links below and use SG430 at the checkout to get …

Picture special – Huawei Ascend Mate

Woaha. Remember the Huawei Ascend Mate that we saw in Barcelona? Well, I’ve got one. It pushes the term “phablet” as close to “tablet” as you can get. The screen is a 6.1″ 1280×720 IPS unit and the handset itself is pretty huge. Specs include an 8 megapixel …

MVNO Feature – Ovivo. Plans from £0 per month

Welcome back to our irregular look at the various MVNOs (virtual networks) here in the UK. You know what they say, you get nothing in this world for free. Well… perhaps from that nasty rash I had from that girl the once. Ooh.. But what about a free …

Tapatalk, get it free right now

If you’ve visited a forum such as ours then you’ll probably have seen the Tapatalk app pop up. It’s usually a paid-for app but, if you download it via the Amazon store right now then it’s free. The Tapatalk Forum App will make most forums a much easy …

Windows Phone, why don’t you want it?

A particularly dangerous and infrequent activity has been occuring in my brain recently…. …I’ve been thinking. Yes, both brain cells have worked overtime these last few weeks as I’ve read the scare stories surrounding Microsoft products. You’ve probably seen the news. PC sales are down and Windows 8 …

One on a mountain top. Video call from Everest

A video call isn’t, despite what Apple might tell you, that special. I remember my mate showing me a 3G video call on the Three network a decade ago so being able to see the person you’re calling isn’t a big deal. Well, unless you’re on top of …

Samsung Push Service gets some interesting reviews on Google Play

I usually skim over the comments / reviews but when checking apps in the Google Play. Usually they’re full of comments like “d0esn’t work”, “uninstalled as this is cr*p” or just one-word responses like “Great” or “Nice”. So it’s interesting to see the comments that have popped up …

Review – Sumo Omni

I’m sitting outside right now. I’m sitting in the sunshine on a beanbag. It’s not something I do very often but I think I’ll start to make a habit of it. There’s a back-story to this though, and sadly it involves my rusty garden furniture getting thrown away. …

Samsung Galaxy S4 sales set to pass 10 million

The S4 seems to be selling a lot faster than the S3. Samsung Electronics co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun has told reporters that the S4 will fly past 10 million sales at the end of next week, making it the fastest selling smartphone in Samsung’s history. A huge advertising campaign …

Get yourself some rather interesting covers

So, if you want a cover for your phone you could always have a cool, fashionable leather case or perhaps a nice pouch. Or… Or you could have one of these from Amazon. They are, it has to be said, a little weird. Want a phone cover featuring …

Friday Deals – World of Goo is proper cheap

How about 80% off. 80% off! That’s like…err… almost free. Well, almost. “Game of the Year”, World of Goo is now just 65p. You have to drag and drop globs of goo in order to build things. Yes, this is a bit hard to explain, but there’s a …

New Xperia Z firmware rolling out

The Xperia Z is a great handset. Sure, there’s always a bit of confusion when you argue with your American friends about the name (it’s the “Xperia Zed” or “Xperia Zee” depending on where you are) but both this and the Xperia Tablet Z are really impressive. Right …

Friday Deals – SwiftKey half price

Let’s save a bit of money shall we? Deals are great, so today we’re having a hunt for deals. First, if you’re finding that entering texts or writing emails is a bit fiddly on your Android phone, try SwiftKey. It’ll speed up your typing and learns words as …

You! 64GB Memory card! Cheap! Get!

Come on, if you have a look in the back of the cupboard I’m sure you’ve got a few quid kicking around. If you can get £32.16 together then you can get a whopping 64GB of storage for your phone. This SanDisk Ultra MicroSD card is class 10 …

Sad news, 4G at 800Mhz fails to kill “Made in Chelsea”

Television, the drug of the Nation. Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation. But hey, things are still looking good for the 800MHz tests that are being performed by at800. They’ve moved onto London and have also performed tests across Brighton. Everything so far is looking good, with no complaints …

Lumia 920 Camera fight

Microsoft are busy on Facebook comparing low-light camera shots. Several images have been posted to show just how good the camera is on the Windows Phone-powered Nokia Lumia 920. The images certainly show the difference in quality between the iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Lumia, with shots …

Acer Cloud Mobile, super cheap and definitely worth a look

Times are hard. Just last week I had to downsize my second home to a condo in the Caribbean. Ohhhh the shame of it. If you’re looking to switch to a SIM only deal and get yourself a decent cheapo smartphone, have a look at the Acer Cloud …

HTC One vs Galaxy S4 – Part 2

OK, I’ll admit it. Sometimes I make mistakes. I fess up, it was me who caused the break-up between Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Oh wait.. no, sorry. The Samsung Galaxy S4 vs HTC One video I did the other day… that’s it. That’s where the mistake was. …

Lumia 925 leaks ahead of launch

We’ll be covering every aspect of the big Nokia launch today but it looks like the handset itself has already leaked out onto the intrawebs. The @evleaks Twitter feed shows the 925, which apparently has an aluminium body. It also seems to tie in with the “Catwalk” smartphone …

5G approaches, data limits explode.

Want to bust a 1GB monthly bandwidth allowance in just 8 seconds? 5G could be your answer, and Samsung have now achieved a speed of up to 1.056 Gbps for up to 2 kilometres, roughly 1.2 miles. Using a frequency of 28 Ghz they’ve used “adaptive array transeiver …

HTC First looks to be last – AT&T to kill handset

Let’s strap Facebook into a phone. That’s a winning idea. People will buy that. Everyone loves Facebook, don’t they? Sadly no, according to BGR the HTC First is actually about to be kicked out. LThe “Facebook Phone” is said to be an official flop in the USA. Prices …

When websites attack – Pop-up pains

I’ve got a couple of annoyances when I browse websites on my phone. The first is the fact that some idiotic person working in Government decided that we should all get warned about cookies. Unfortunately there’s no set way to do this, so various websites have different ways …

The Coolsmartphone Podcast, it’s proper good

I love listening to our very own podcast. Stick in on your phone, stream it through your computer, grab it via your Internet radio. Whatever, it’s your weekly dose of chatter and fun. We cover the stories, gossip and reviews of the past week and it’s so easy …

No UK love from the Xperia ZR

Following our post this morning it seems that sadly the Xperia ZR won’t be arriving here in the UK. A post on the Clove blog states that…. There are no plans for the ZR to arrive in the UK, so if you think this is the device for …

HTC One vs Samsung Galaxy S4 – FIGHT!

The Galaxy S4 or the HTC One? Well, you’ll already have seen the Samsung Galaxy S4 review and our HTC One Review.  So, with Mark busy comparing the camera quality and reviewing the S4, I’ve decided to take some shots comparing the phones close-up. You’ll see below that …

When tethering is a bad idea

I’m going to see how long it takes for someone to add a comment stating, “You should’ve know, you plonker”, but give me a minute to explain this one. I’ve been using a Three SIM Zero card for quite some time. They don’t do this particular plan any …

Win yourself a Sony Xperia SP

A brand new unlocked Sony Xperia SP, delivered by a sexy blonde from UPS? How does that sound? Sexist? Un-necessary? Yes. It is.. Ohh… awkward. Hmm.. Perhaps I should engage politically correct mode… If you’d like to be in with a chance of winning a Sony Xperia SP, …

Samsung Galaxy S2 receiving Jelly Bean right now?

We’ve had a couple of emails from Samsung Galaxy S2 owners saying that they’ve just received the Android Jelly Bean update over the air. So far it’s SIM-free handsets, with Dave telling us.. Upgrade was to 4.1.2 baseband XXMS2 and build XWLSS. Anyone else get this? Good question …

EE – Selling your details and location

I’m reaching the end of my mobile contract with Orange. I’ve been with the company since 1995 and they’ve always treated me pretty well. However, this last year I’ve seen my contract price increase and an increased push to get me onto 4G with EE which, strange as …

Growth slowing in Windows Phone app catalogue

If you’ve got a Windows Phone then you’ll noticed that a lot of the “big apps” are now available to download. Microsoft are going to great lengths to show that major Android or iPhone apps are available, or versions of them, on Windows Phone. But, although it shouldn’t …

Huawei Ascend P2 – Release details

Three, already famed for their rather speedy and unlimited data access, are to take the Ascend P2 from Huawei. Now, if you’re a regular visitor (and we hope you are), then you’ll remember that we got a hands-on demo from a rather lovely rep at Mobile World Congress …

Half the storage on the Galaxy S4? Read the full story

If you read the newspapers or watch BBC’s Watchdog programme then you’ll soon see news of the Samsung Galaxy S4 storage “issue”. Headlines scream that the S4 comes with around half the storage you expect due to pre-installed apps. First I wanted to check this and compare it …

Big rise in customers taking SIM Only deals

Everything seems to cost a lot more than it used to and you’re working twice as hard for half the money. It’s rubbish. Phones are expensive, contracts are long and, if you’re on “certain” networks, the price goes up half-way through. To put it bluntly, we’re all a …

BlackBerry Q10 appears in EE magazines.

I know what you’re thinking. “Hey, I wish I could get the all-new BlackBerry Q10 on EE” Well you can, however it’s a tad pricey. Splash out £41 per month on the 4G network and you’re still going to have to pay £139.99 up-front. Either that or pay …

The term “Phablets” becomes mainstream

You know that moment when a buzzword is adopted by more than just a few people and it “sticks”? Well, that moment appears to have happened for phablets. They’re too big to be phones and a little too small to be called tablets, so “phablets” is juuuuussst right. …

Google Earth, now with Street View

The best way to see the third planet from the Sun or the best way to zoom in on your ex-girlfriends back garden? You decide. Whatever your reasons, the Google Earth app got updated late last night and now includes Street View too. The newly-updated street-level images reveal …

When covers go weird..

It’s fair to say that, at times, I get sent some rather strange stuff via email. Today I had another weird email from a manufacturer looking to find a distributor or outlet willing to carry their wares. Normally these emails go straight into my virtual bin, which I’ve …