Author: Leigh Geary

Hands on with the Moto Z2 Play

The new Z2 Play is available with Vodafone. We’ve covered it before but now there’s one right here for you to have a good look at. The bright and vivid 5.5″ screen is a 1920 x 1080 pixel unit and the entire phone is just 5.99mm thick. This …

Distracted by your phone, but still need to use it? Try this.

If you constantly get distracted by your smartphone, there’s a simple fix. Just turn the thing off. Leave it in a cupboard. However, if you need to actually do work on your phone then… well, it’s easy to get distracted by Facebook messages and tweets appearing on the …

Tomtop delivers 40% discount on LeEco Le 2 X520 Deal

Well, as you’ll know if you’ve seen our contract and SIM-only deals recently, we love to find a good deal. Here, from TOMTOP, is an offer on the Letv LeEco Le 2 X520. It’s a smartphone with an octa-core 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 (1.8GHz x 4 + 1.4GHz …

Citroën C3 – Review

As someone who has Bluetooth speakers, portable chargers and cables thrown across the desk to review, this came as a bit of a surprise. “Would you like to review our car”, came the email. Ermm.. well.. OK then. The video You’ll need to get comfortable for this one. …

The Tamagotchi returns!

Every once in a while there seems to be a game, gadget or accessory that captures the imagination with kids and becomes a “fad”. Fidget spinners, remember them? Well, many, many years prior to those there was something called a Tamagotchi. It was basically a small digital pet …

EE sticks a mast in the sky to cover biking event

Yesterday things weren’t going so well for EE. They had problems routing calls to other networks all day and it seemed to be causing quite a bit of grief for their customers. They can, however, boast about their coverage. They’re aiming for 95% 4G coverage by 2020, and …

Motorola Moto Z2 Play now available on Vodafone

Just last week we told you that the new Motorola Z2 play was about to arrive on the Vodafone UK network. So, just like clockwork, here it is. If you want to be a bit different or try something that isn’t a Samsung or an iPhone, the modular …

On EE? Having problems today? You’re not the only one

We first heard of EE voice call problems this morning, but problems still seem to exist late into the afternoon, with customers unable to make our receive calls to other networks. EE have told us that.. Some of our customers are reporting problems when trying to make calls …

Online abuse. People think they’re in another world.

I’m always writing about the need to protect kids from their own mobile phones. In the house, when they’re in front of you, you can keep an eye on them. However, when they’re away from you – even in the other room – you could assume that “someone” …

Windows 10 Mobile – It’s definitely dead now.

Some 18 months ago, I wrote about the death of Windows on a phone. I’d been there. I saw how Microsoft chief executive, Steve Ballmer, laughed off the iPhone. I saw how many loyal fans were kicked away by Microsoft as continual reboots of the platform killed upgrade …

Fancy a hotel room with gaming PCs inside?

The Autumnal air is here and yes, the Christmas decorations are already in the shops. Wait a minute, weren’t we on holiday just a few minute ago? Weren’t we sitting on a foreign beach, enjoying the sunshine? Well yes, we were. If, however, you still fancy a break …

Hello Nest Hello

If you’ve bought into the Nest gadgets, this next big gadget from Google is definitely going to be on your shopping list. This is a doorbell, and like all doorbells it’ll sit right alongside your knockers to alert you to visitors. Called the “Hello”, it is a bit …

ROMOSS 10000mAh Aluminum power bank – Review

Portable chargers. Yes, there’s lots of them on the market. This one is from ROMOSS and they’ve designed it so that it’s got plenty of capacity whilst still fitting in your trouser pocket. That’s a good thing. There’s 2 output ports and a 10,000mAh capacity. You can charge …

The era of the PC is rapidly ending

Reading this on a PC? Well, there’s not many of you left. The PC now seems to be more widely seen in the workplace, whilst at home and everywhere else, the smartphone is becoming king. Verto Analytics, a research company that tracks the devices used by 5,000 UK …

Groove is to depart (ne-na-na-na now)

Back when everything was black and white, we had something called MSN Music. That launched in 2004 and had 1.5 million tracks available. It was designed to compete with the iTunes Music Store, but the catalogue quickly dwindled. No matter though, because Microsoft had an idea! Let’s kill …

When you’re the IT guy in the family..

At the weekend I had “that call”. I’m sure many of you will have had a similar call from a friend or relative. It happens when you somehow become the “computer guy” and you seemingly have the ability to fix anything relating to tech. In this case, it …

QICENT Cable Management Container – Review

Even with supposed “wireless charging”, you’re still going to have a whole heap of cabling kicking around. If could be behind your desk, it could be behind your TV, it could be under your bed. A cable for charging, a power adaptor for this, another for that. And …

The iPhone 8 Plus.. in bits!

Taking your brand new, £800 iPhone 8 Plus isn’t something you’re going to do. Is it? Well, not unless you’re a bit bonkers. Luckily we’ve been in touch with some bonkers people, and SOSav have dismantled the iPhone 8 Plus! You remember SOSav, right? They’re the guys offering …

Tesco launches Tesco Pay+

I’m getting in the habit of not carrying cash much now. There’s several benefits to this. For starters, everywhere I go there’s the “tap to pay” machines and I tend to use my phone. Also, there’s the added benefit of using the, “Oh lads, can you get the …

Need a 3.5mm audio port in that iPhone 8 Sir?

We all knew that this problem was coming the minute that the 3.5mm audio port got dropped on the iPhone 7. Of course, despite our cool Bluetooth headphones, we have to admit that battery life will always fail just when you need it. So, how about using traditional …

NTONPOWER Charging station and organiser – Review

Having lots of gadgets is seemingly the norm nowadays. Likewise, we’re seeing more and more solutions for charging them. Most of you will probably have one charger per device, which is great until you start getting a second phone, a tablet or you’ve got other members of your …

Voda to carry the Moto Z2 Play

Yes, that’s pretty much the entire content of this story, right there in the title. Still, I’ve read the Daily Mail website and, if we now throw in 40 very similar photos with 4 paragraphs of text, it will apparently constitute a story. The Moto Z2 Play, which …

Coolsmartphone Update!

In recent months we’ve seen a significant uptick in traffic. This has left us with a problem. We needed more funding to pay for better, faster and more powerful infrastructure. Last week I tried a quick-fix solution to this, which was to add some full-page website banners. You …

Modobag – Motorized, Rideable … err… luggage

I don’t know about you, but having a small carry-on suitcase with wheels on, one that glides effortlessly around an airport, can be a very, very, very, very .. minor irritation. So, welcome to crowdfunded item number 25251613. The Modobag. A motorized suitcase that’ll make you look like …

Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact now available on Vodafone

Fancy a new handset with the Sony design skills and a 5.2″ 1080×1920 pixel screen? Want it to be dust and waterproof? Want it to measure 148 x 73.4 x 7.4 mm and weigh in at 155 g? Sorry. I can’t help you with that. ONLY KIDDING! Coming …

Amazon drops new toys into the Alexa playroom

The Amazon Alexa offering got an added bonus yesterday. The Amazon Echo, Echo Plus, Echo Show, Fire TV and Fire HD 10 will all be arriving here in the UK on, of course, Amazon UK. There’s a new version of the Amazon Echo, which will be £89.99, and …

Bill Gates goes Android

It’s not something I talk about much, but I’ve actually met Bill Gates. He’s a bit shorter in real life and had a lot of bodyguards following him around at the time. We spoke about the Microsoft Smartphone because, way back when, Microsoft was actually pretty successful at …

Honor 9 wins big in T3 awards

Right now I’m carrying around the Honor 9. It definitely ticks a lot of boxes for me. The battery life is decent, it takes great photos, it has a great screen, there’s 64GB of on-board storage and it’s pretty nippy too. The blue or grey one is available …

Sony Xperia XA1 now available on Vodafone

It seems a long time since we first saw the Sony Xperia XA1. It has a bigger brother, the XA1 Ultra, too. The XA1 has now popped up on Vodafone has a 5″ screen 720×1280 pixel screen. It’s powered by Android 7.0 and has a 64-bit MediaTek Helio …

Oh happy days! Self-serve beer!

I’m overflowing with emails at the minute. However, when one pops up with a trigger word, I suddenly sit up and take notice. This time, the word is “beer”, and when I took a look at the email it actually tells me about a “self-serve beer” system. This …

EE launches Enhanced HD Voice

There’s a lot of technical gobbledegook behind this particular story, so if (like me) your eyes glaze over, the take-home message is basically that you’re going to be getting a really clear and high quality line when using EE. For the more technically minded, it goes a bit …

Monqi – A safe smartphone for your kids

A few years ago I worked for an internet provider. My advice, if any parents ever asked, would be to keep the PC in a “family room”. Now, well now you just can’t do that. Kids demand phones, and those phones aren’t “dumb phones” either. No. The latest …

Today is iPhone 8 day! Here’s the best deals

The iPhone 8 release date is today, September 22nd. Those of you who pre-ordered can get to your local Apple or network store and collect that shiny new toy right now. As for everyone else? Well, you can go and buy one out-right. Not a problem, but it’s expensive. The …

Quick Friday offer for SIM only data junkies

I’ll keep this brief, because I’m hopefully talking to those who want a massive slice of data on a network with great coverage. This one is with Virgin Mobile, who use EE. Their SIM-only offer will give you a massive 20GB of data plus 5000 minutes and unlimited …

giffgaff iPhone 8 pricing announced

OK, as you know giffgaff are a bit different. They run on the O2 network and you can either pay outright and pay for a phone or pay monthly via their peer-to-peer lending system. You should therefore remember that the pricing below is without an airtime contract. With …

More iPhone X contract deals

Looking for the iPhone X prices? Need to know just how much you need to put aside for that early Christmas present to yourself? Well, a contract deal will ease the pain a little, and we’ve already had a look at the Vodafone iPhone X pricing. However, there’s …

It’s official, Google enters into big-money HTC deal

Overnight Google gave us the official news which confirmed the substantial HTC rumours. It’s loose change for Google, who have almost $100 billion in the bank. They will now acquire the HTC for $1.1 billion. Their announcement is as follows.. With this agreement, a team of HTC talent …

Yay! Let’s film stuff in the car!

Good morning! It’s Friday at last !! Well no. Sadly it’s not. It’s still only Thursday. No matter though, because it’s Autumn now and the nights are drawing in, so you can turn the heating on and sit inside, twiddling on your smartphone more. Boom! Now, we all …

HTC shares suspended as Google takeover rumours persist

With the Pixelbook leaking, we’ve already seen a bit of what Google will be announcing on October 4th. However, there’s much more.. Leaks suggest a new Pixel, cunningly named the Pixel 2. These pictures have been found on the internet and there’s rumours that the HTC-built phone will …