Author: Leigh Geary

Fortnite and Fortnite fans explode.

In a masterclass of hype, free PR and a way to regain interest in the game, the Fortnite world has been blown to bits. It’s sent ardent fans into a frenzy of disbelief, as Epic Games ended season 10 by deleting almost all their Fortnite tweets, stopping people …

Let’s start talking again

Smartphones and technology, as we’ve mentioned before, are stopping us talking to each other. My nephew looked at me in horror at the weekend after I told him that he’d have to actually talk to another human being in order to approve the Apple Pay connection to his …

Preserving battery life on your smartphone

As you’ll have no doubt seen here at Coolsmartphone, there’s a definite increase in powerful gaming phones of late. They’re brilliant. There’s enhanced graphics capabilities, a number of faster processors and bigger, faster-charging batteries. However, if you’re trying to play a game on your phone which is both graphic and …

OnePlus 7T Pro and the 7T Pro McLaren – Up close and personal

Available for £699 in a few days time (Amazon, John Lewis and the OnePlus website), this is the OnePlus 7T Pro. It sits quite neatly next to it’s more expensive £799 brother – the OnePlus 7T Pro Mclaren Edition. The latter won’t be available until November 5th. The …

The OnePlus 7T – Up close and personal

So, we have a bit of a problem here. We were in London for the rather large OnePlus 7T Series yesterday. It was, without doubt, the biggest OnePlus launch we’ve ever been to. Again, and I’ll be honest, the problems Huawei are currently experiencing mean that the competition …

OnePlus 7T Pro Series launch – LIVE

As we mentioned a bit earlier, we’re in London for the launch of the new OnePlus 7T Series launch. A lot of this has already leaked, with details of all that here, but there’ll hopefully be a few surprises in store for us too. The live feed is …

Wake more naturally with the Light Curve

Waking up at 6AM is now a very dark and dismal experience. With Autumn in full swing and Winter on the way, those first few minutes after your alarm has gone off can be particularly painful – especially when you put the infamous “big light” on. For £39.99 …

Realme 5 Pro upcoming. All the details here. But wait, who are Realme?

This is a company on the march. However, it’s one that you might find weirdly familiar because of the firm behind it. BBK Electronics are a Chinese electronics company producing TVs, cameras and smartphones. The latter are marketed under a number of brand names. Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus and …

Fibre direct! For everyone! If you’re in Hull.

Got broadband? Well yes, of course you have. However, unless you’re at work it’s probably delivered over copper cabling at some point. Even if you’ve got Virgin cable broadband, which we covered in detail here, it’s still delivered partly over a coax cable – which is copper. Here …

Stick a very small camera in your ear. Apparently.

You should see my inbox. It’s absolutely nuts at the minute. Outside, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Inside, I’m getting emails asking me to publish stuff like this. Well, OK. I’ve cracked. I’ll pimp your utterly random and totally weird thing, because with the …

UMIDIGI F2 on the way. Lots of spec for little money.

Fancy Android 10? A 32 megapixel selfie camera? A 48 megapixel quad camera and a ma-hoo-sive 5120mAh battery? How about a side-mounted fingerprint reader? How about a Helio P70 octa-core (4×2.1GHz & 4×2.0GHz) CPU, 6GB memory and 128GB storage? Sound good? Right, now how about all that for …

Lies everywhere. The truth is dead.

I write about this topic fairly regularly because the internet gives you strange mixture of perspective and pessimism about well, everything really. Real journalism, journalism that costs money and takes time, is dying. Real printed newspapers are seeing their circulation falling off a cliff, and with the internet …

Personal improvement. Ring. Now.

It’s been a while since I did this, but here’s a story which wasn’t sent to us via a PR company. This is about a fitness tracker, but it’s not a watch and it doesn’t involve a strap. This is a ring. Just a ring. First up, yes, …

When tech DOES help your mental health

You’ll have no doubt seen the stories detailing how smartphones affect your mental health. Constant social media use and an open gateway for those who wish to contact you can be damaging, but apps like Flow, which is currently only available for iOS, are trying to help. The …

A super-easy way to share your location

Google Maps is great. If you want to share your location then it’s just a matter of clicking the relevant button. Likewise, if you’ve got WhatsApp, you can share your location or your live location. It’s great if you’re sending to someone via the internet or to someone …

Realme X2 Pro on the horizon, looking good

Despite what people may say, here in the UK we’ll still be part of Europe no matter what happens. That, bear with me, matters because companies like Realme are heading to Europe and they’ve got some serious kit in tow. This, the Realme X2 Pro, is on the …

Roku boxes now get TIDAL

Got yourself a Roku box? Well, you’re probably already familiar with Prime Video, Netflix, Google Play Movies and TV. You can also get BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, My5 and a host of other streaming applications (NOW TV, YouTube and so on). Now you can also get TIDAL, which …

Microsoft are back in the phone game

A phone? From Microsoft? And it’s running Android? Are you having a laugh? Well yes, possibly, the release date on this is over a year away – Christmas 2020 – so whether the Microsoft Surface Duo and slightly larger Surface Neo will ever actually appear is up for debate, …

OnePlus – WarpChargeSOS on the streets of London

Want your battery charging? Let’s face it, there’s far too many people who rely on a charger or portable power pack being close to hand. The people at OnePlus are seeking to change all that, with their WarpChargeSOS fire truck taking to the streets of London to top …

Skydio 2 – The new intelligent, tracking drone

You come here on a daily basis to hear me droning on about gadgets, so here’s exactly that – a drone! (Sorry, in my head that joke was far funnier). The new Skydio 2 is quite a pricey beast at $999 and will no doubt be available in …

Honor Band 5 – Now even better

Remember our Honor Band 5 review? Like it? Bought it? Well, good news! There’s now remote music and blood oxygen monitoring too. All you need to do in order to get the update is head to the Health app on your phone. Oh, and don’t forget that the …

EarFun Go Bluetooth Speaker – Review

Priced at £35.99 on Amazon you might be thinking, “Oooh, that’s a bit much for a speaker”. Indeed, you can pay less for your next Bluetooth speaker, but – when you’re shopping on the internet – a lot of speakers do look the same. The sound and build …

Glowing iPhone charge cables

Morning! So, a few days ago my son needed some new iPhone charging cables. As usual, even though we’ve reviewed many cables and I know which ones are the best, we ended up on eBay and he wanted these flashing “colour flow” ones. Yes, yes, I know many …

Try out the new OnePlus 7T next Saturday

On October 10th we’ll be seeing the launch of the OnePlus 7T. It’s a handset we’ve already heard about and the company themselves actually leaked pictures of it last month too. Now, we’ll be at the event but, if you want to take a look at the phone …

Deliveroo and their mad ad.

Don’t get me wrong, part of me likes the whole “instant nature” of being able to grab a cab, an Uber, a meal or a cinema ticket on your phone. When I was on holliday this was helpful when trying places to eat as we could book a …

Yeelight Colour Lightstrip Plus – Review

It’s Monday and I have a confession to make. Back in February we got sent this Yeelight Lightstrip. It’s actually made by Xiaomi, and we all know how good they are. If you want one, you can buy from Amazon right now. Here in the UK it’ll currently …

Unlimited everything with Three. Just £18 per month.

What words can I put alongside this news item, really? Everything you need is right there on the screen 🙂 Basically it’s unlimited everything, SIM only, with Three UK. £18 per month. The SIM is ready for 5G and you can setup a WiFi hotspot without worrying about …

Save 21% on (almost all) Google kit today!

Another deal! I need to calm down a bit ! Today there’s 21% off Google equipment. It doesn’t include Google Stadia pre-orders, but – just by putting the code… B-GOOGLE21 ..into the checkout, you can get 21% off the Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, the Pixel 3a, the Pixel …

More deals! Help! I need to stop buying phones!

After checking some of the deals in the previous story, I seem to have stumbled into the Gearbest smartphone sale and, in addition to the Xiaomi deals, I’ve spotted a couple of extra offers you might like. First is the Chinese version of the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 …

Xiaomi Mi A3 DEAL!

We love to get your emails. Get in touch right now, right here. We’re not a big multi-national publishing company or blog network, we’re just avid, friendly people who love to give you all the latest news and gossip about smartphones. Last night I had a mail from …

The robots are coming…

I’ll wheel out all the usual statements here. Boston Dynamics create robots which are frighteningly life-like. We’ve covered their robots many times in the past and, at times, it’s difficult to believe that there’s no CGI magic going on here. But no, this is all proper technology and …

Who fancies a minimalist phone eh?

Hello people. You like smartphones, right? Well, how about one that is a bit more minimalist and less intrusive? This is the Mudita Pure. They call it a “modern take on a classic phone” which means no distractions. We’ve covered “retro” phones in the past – even a …

Xiaomi go utterly bananas. Meet the Mi MIX Alpha!

It’s a concept phone, surely? You won’t be able to buy it.. will you? Oh wait. No, Xiaomi tell me that they’re going to start small-scale production of this one at the end of September! The Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha is pretty much all screen. A 180% screen-to-body …

New Virgin Media deals deliver a PS4 or £150 bill credit

We recently covered the fact that Vodafone will be dishing out PS4’s, complete with FIFA 20, if you buy the Xperia 5 with them. Now Virgin Media are doing something very similar, although this time it’s more for Fortnite fans.Deals include a PS4 Fortnite bundle and PS Plus …

Get yourself a PlayStation 4 and FIFA 20, just by buying an Xperia 5

Morning people. It’s Monday, but don’t worry – we’ll go easy. Remember the start of pre-orders for the Xperia 5 ? Well, Vodafone have stepped forward to let us know that their pre-order offer will include a spanking new PS4 Bundle, complete with that all-new FIFA 20. This …

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 …

When a VPN isn’t enough

A VPN is something that we’ve written about numerous times here. They’re great and they will anonymise your browsing whilst also changing your location and getting around and location restrictions which may have been applied by streaming providers. However, if you’re using a VPN to access things like …

The Huawei Mate 30 – Missing more than just Google Apps

Huawei is a massively successful company. We’ve been to see them in China. We visited the university that teaches staff, the accommodation where workers stay and play. We saw their facilities and their innovative products. Yesterday though, something massive was missing from their Mate 30 and Mate 30 …