Author: Aran Isom

Hero Bluetooth earbuds from Winnergear – unboxing and initial thoughts

Fancy yourself as a secret agent or a bodyguard then you will want these Bluetooth earbuds to match your covert activities. Introducing the Hero Bluetooth earbuds from Winnergear.   Just arrived at Coolsmartphone Towers today, the Hero ‘Smallest True Wireless Sports Earbuds’ are gorgeous little beasties and I just had …

Youyota tablet – new device on the block!

Fancy a tablet that isn’t Android (but runs Android apps) but is also not iOS or Windows? Then the new Youyota tablet running on Sailfish OS may well be just what you’re looking for… Sailfish OS is the independent operating system created by ex-Nokia staff based on the ill-fated Meego operating …

BatON app review- view battery level of attached bluetooth headset

Have you ever picked up your Bluetooth headphones, then pocketed a pair of wired headphones in case they run out of juice when you’re out? Do you carry a spare pair of backup earphones as you’ve no real idea of the battery level of your Bluetooth earphones? BatON …

EasyAcc Power Bank Review

At a whopping 20,000 mAh capacity, the latest EasyAcc Power Bank is a bit of a behemoth. I’ve been using one for the last couple of weeks and must admit it does exactly what it says on the tin; it provides a whole load of power in an …

When note-taking is this good I’ve decided to pay for it!

…or why I’m finally all-in on a paid Evernote subscription (at least for this year). It has taken just over five years to convince me, and within this time I have quit a long-term job and joined, left, then re-joined the CoolSmartPhone team. Also, for the last 5 …

JustWatch – The streaming search engine app review

When you absolutely, positively HAVE to watch that particular movie (or TV show) tonight; accept no substitutes! The Justwatch app promises to scour the internet to provide all the options. It’s my default search tool for all such videos queries… it’s that good! I’m not sure of the …

Evernote reduces free users to only two devices

A post on the Evernote site posted on Monday 28th June states that Evernote Basic, the free tier from Evernote, will be limited to only two devices. This accompanies a price change for the paid levels, with Evernote Plus now costing £29.99 per year and Evernote Premium £44.99 …

Ubuntu OTA brings Wireless Display to Meizu Pro 5

Announced yesterday on the Ubuntu site – the Over The Air update 11 for Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition brings the much delayed full Ubuntu PC experience from a mobile phone handset. In addition to this feature, this update also brings overall performance improvements to the M10 tablet …

Evernote Labs opens to general public

Evernote Labs, the beta community that tests improvements to the Android Evernote application, has opened its doors to anyone who wants to become a beta tester. I have been part of the Evernote beta programme for a while now, and I would recommend anyone who is a regular …

ZUS Kevlar Cable – The strongest cable of them all

Ever imagined a battle-royal to find the king of the cable, a USB with a killer USP? Well if such a position / device existed then Nonda, a manufacturer of smart hardware products based in Palo Alto California, believe they have it. It arrived in the post this morning and seems …

Cyanogen OS 12.1 OTA update now available

Cyanogen OS, the corporate arm of the Cyanogenmod third party operating system based on Android, has released version 12.1 (based on Android Lollipop 5.1.1) and it is available to download now. If you have a device running it then choose Settings, About Phone, System Updates and if it’s …

McFlip – World’s first reversible Micro USB – On test

Type C USB cables are a way off from being common and a very long way from being ubiquitous. But the idea, blazing USB 3 speeds with a plug that is reversible – sounds awesome. The McFlip takes you half-way there and, more importantly, it’s available now and uses the …

Free SIM from The Peoples Operator, plus £10.50 bonus credit

Bit of a UK only deal now. The Peoples Operator is an MVNO that we originally covered a while ago as part of our Charity Networks article. They have now launched a rather cool sounding promotion which is designed to get you using their network. It’s pretty hard …

ShopBlackberry.com sale now on

BlackBerrys online store is having a sale across almost the entire range of BB10 phones and if you were thinking of experimenting in the Blackberry world then this is definitely the time! I really, really like the BlackBerry 10 Operating System. It is smooth, speedy, the BlackBerry Hub …

Windows 10 Technical Preview build now available for more phones

As we reported a little while ago the Windows 10 Technical Preview build is now available for many more phones. 35 different devices in fact. To have a try of the new phone or PC operating system you will need to join the Windows Insider program and of course be …

Blackberry financial results show growth

Remember Blackberry? The business phone maker that got absolutely huge when smartphones got cheap enough for everyone under 18 to own and then went out of fashion with the youths? They’re still around and on Friday their Q4 financial results were announced to the effect that they are …

More phones able to run Windows 10 preview soon

Windows 10 is coming for Windows Phones (hence forward to be referred to as Lumia’s in this article) and work appears to be going pretty well. Windows have just announced a raft of new Lumia’s that will be able to run the preview version of the new OS …

First all stainless-steel smartwatch from Burg to launch at CES

  Dutch lifestyle designer and trendsetter, Hermen van den Burg announced yesterday that as part of the BURG Smatwatch Collection 2015 they are launching the worlds first all stainless steel smartwatch, the BURG® 27, at CES in January. Available in Stainless Steel, Rose Gold Stainless Steel IP, and Black Stainless Steel IP, …

Jolla crowd-sourced tablet smashes funding target

  Well that was fast! In less than 24 hours Jolla have smashed their target for the first crowd-sourced tablet that we originally reported on yesterday here. The initial target of the kickerstarter-like funding campaign was $380,000 and Jolla has (as of 12 oclock noon uk time today) …

Pre-order a OnePlus One on 27th October 2014

That’s right, you will be able to order (well pre-order) one of the most frustratingly difficult to order phone of 2014 on 27th October. As posted on the OnePlus Forum the invite system will be bolstered by the option to put down cash no matter who you are …

Nexus 7 no longer available on UK Play Store

Well that didn’t take long! A quick search for some details on the Nexus 7 (to be honest I was looking to compare the battery size with the Lenovo Yoga 8 tablet due to the cheap price that Argos are selling it for as reported earlier this week) …

Blackberry Passport announced, available to buy in the UK

Blackberry, the phone company that just refuses to go away no matter what its critics say, today announced their latest and greatest premium handset; the Blackberry Passport. It’s big, it’s square, it’s unashamedly biased towards work, not play and the smartphone world is collectively asking itself ‘Does anybody …

Android apps running on ChromeOS from today

Well it’s started. Google has today begun rolling out Android applications that can be run directly from your Chrome OS browser. Initially there are four apps available –  Evernote, Vine, Duolingo and the children’s app Sight Words but there will undoubtedly be a deluge of apps that follow in quick succession. Chrome OS …

cloudHQ – synchronize your online life

“Everything’s online these days” is a common refrain and becoming more relevant to our lives. Most major tech companies provide some kind of free ‘cloud storage’ (Microsoft, Google, Dropbox, Box) and even note-taking services like Evernote and OneNote need to store those notes somewhere. This is also a …

Qcktag – Android app review

Qcktag is the solution to a problem you probably didn’t realise you had. Once used it becomes a bit addictive and can be damn handy as well. What is it about and what does it do? Read on… Contact lists on mobile phones. They grow and grow as …

OnePlus One – First Impressions

OnePlus – the newbie Android manufacturer with the ‘Never Settle’ motto, the incomprehensible marketing  strategy and the very hard to get hold of smartphone The One. The black ‘Sandstone’ 64gb version  was delivered just five minutes before I left the house for an away visit which involved an …

7 Digital app launches on BlackBerry World

BlackBerry is currently going through the biggest change of its existence and this new app is one of the next steps. 7 Digital, the successful digital music retailer and producer of extensive radio programming content for the BBC, are the backbone service provider of digital content for many …

Pressy the Android Button – app and hardware review

Pressy, the Almighty Android Button, is a great example of a successful Kickstarter campaign. It was one of those simple ideas that really caught peoples imagination and the aimed for project goal of $40,000 was obliterated!  On the close date of 14th October 2013 the total raised was …

Amazon App store to be pre-loaded on BlackBerry 10 phones

Among the excitement of the Amazon Fire Phone yesterday  BlackBerry CEO John Chen announced that the Amazon App Store will be pre-installed on BlackBerry OS 10.3 when it is released later this year. The native BlackBerry application store BlackBerry World has approximately 130,000 apps so adding another 200,000 …

Lycamobile – MVNO now offering very cheap 4G in the UK

If you’ve ever taken more than two journeys on the London Underground then you will have seen the above mascot. If you’ve visited a shop specialising in imported products, specialist foodstuffs and other overseas paraphernalia you will most likely have been exposed to their striking blue branding. Lycamobile …

One week to go for the OnePlus One

Well that’s confirmed it, the UK will have the OnePlus One phone available to order on release date! The picture above was sent from the OnePlus Twitter account today and was accompanied by these words: Hello UK! The OnePlus One will be available in your country for under …

Co-founder of Wikipedia invigorating charitable MVNO

Continuing very much with what appears to be his personal modus operandum, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has recently taken a strategic stake in The Peoples Operator mobile virtual network operator business and been appointed to the board of the company as Co-Chair. This should mean he will ignite the fledgling companies …

Jolla Phone – Review

Using a #Jolla phone is like having one foot in the past, one in the future. A slightly strange stance but ultimately quite fun… I tweeted this recently in a moment of whimsy but thinking about it afterwards I realized it really is an accurate summation of my …

Jolla’s Sailfish OS set for further expansion

Jolla today announced that their mobile operating system Sailfish OS has reached release 1.0 and is now ready for further world expansion. They say After the limited availability sales start of Jolla smartphones with Sailfish OS beta, Jolla has released three significant software updates. The fourth update will …

Blackberry 10 OS updated, includes direct loading Android apps

Blackberry have today begun to roll out their updates to Blackberry 10 OS to bring it to 10.2.1. This brings with it a number of advantages and new options including: Video Call has the new call screen FM Radio (Only Q10, Q5, Z30.. Z10 does not support this) …

Moto X available to buy in UK shops today

This morning we received an email announcing that the Moto X is available to buy in Phones 4U stores from Wednesday 29th January (today). The Moto X heralded a big-bang-like resurgence to smartphone relevance for Motorola last year, so much so it earned a special mention in the …

Jolla phone now available to order in Europe

The new Finnish company / phone Jolla announced yesterday that their first ever handset is ready to order if you’re based in EU, Switzerland and Norway. The phone was initially only available to pre-order earlier this year and the first production run orders ended in July. A second …