Category: Software (Android)
The global rollout of Android 4.3 Jellybean to Samsungs previous flagship handset the Galaxy S3 has begun. According to Samsung dedicated site Sammobile the rollout began with unlocked UK devices and has not started to be seen on devices in South Korea. The list of changes and new features …
Sony look to have added a new PlayStation app to the Google Play store and the iTunes store today. If rumours are to be believed, it’s to prepare us for the launch of the spanky new PlayStation 4. The app adds a portable experience to your gaming world …
The thought of Rooting, unlocking bootloaders, flashing ROMs and all the other jargon like ADB & SDK to some may seem like an absolute minefield. A warranty voiding, potentially device breaking minefield. But to some it’s a means to an ends, a way of life, the thing to …
Bringing the best bits of HTC at an affordable price, it’s the Desire 500 and it’s now available at Carphone Warehouse. They have become the first UK retailer to start this device and you can hook it into all the major mobile networks. If you enjoy HTC BoomSound …
Plugging USB accessories into Android devices has always been a bit hit and miss. Especially with some manufacturers using Slimport connectors instead of MHL connectors. The nice thing about Samsung devices is USB peripherals work, with no hassle, you plug it in and they just work. Nexus devices …
If you’ve bought an unlocked phone and popped in a SIM from an MVNO then you may have experienced that moment when it struggles to find the internet and messaging settings. Some manufacturers have started adding some intelligence into their phones to help with this, and they’ll use …
Buying a second-hand car is always a bit of a minefield. Finding the right one is tricky enough, but even after going to have a look there’s still the chance that the car could have outstanding finance or mileage issues on it. How are you supposed to know …
I live in the UK and, right now, it’s pretty dark. I leave for work, it’s dark. I drive home… dark. Those daylight hours are pretty short at this time of year and, as I learned today to my cost, it’s probably not wise to remind those solar-panel …
Ice Hockey as a game has sort of passed me buy, I guess that’s thanks to growing up in the UK. We went for Cricket instead at school. But that never stopped me enjoying a good game of Ice Hockey on my Mega Drive. Herocraft have released their …
With the announcement of the Oppo N1 also came the unveiling of the new Oppo ROM, called ColorOS. Which is basically a skinned version of Android 4.2. Well now all of you Oppo Find 5 owners out there can flash the Color ROM now. Earlier on Oppo tweeted …
It’s not ready quite yet, but your Sky+ app has just received an update that’ll make it possible to select and download on-demand content before you even get home. An accompanying update will need to be sent to your Sky+HD box soon, but when that happens you’ll also …
Today the team responsible for Google+ are preparing to announce their big update. Vic Gundotra, Senior VP of Social Business for Google, has been keeping us updated on preparations and there’s a Twitter hashtag of #momentsthatmatter. Not only that, but it looks like the Play Store itself is …
Since Google killed off their own RSS service third party apps and services for keeping up on your RSS feeds have been regularly cropping up. The latest being Flyne, it’s by the developer who made the hugely popular Falcon Pro Twitter app. Flyne acts as an aggregator for …
It’s daft really. When you think of the infrastructure that Google have at their disposal, to say that servers are down seems a bit bonkers. In reality there was some sort of issue with a section of the Google system, probably due to the Skynet being enabled. Don’t …
Everyone loves shooting zombies right? Someone surely made this a rule a few years ago, personally I think it’s all Danny Boyle’s fault. But if your a big zombie shoot-em-up fan then you’re going to be busy today. The original was a big hit, with millions and millions …
Chrome Browser for Android is part of my life, it’s part of many people’s lives no doubt. Google Keep adding new features and pushing the browser ever onwards. Today’s update adds a quick way to switch between open tabs. To move between tabs you just swipe across the …
Online dating doesn’t have the stigma it maybe once had, and many dating websites are trying new things to differentiate themselves. Carrot Dating has Android and iPhone apps and their idea is definitely “different”. It’s begins with the usual steps. You sign up and tell the app your …
Remember when we all watched those big TV’s? They were big, heavy and you had to get two people just to carry the thing. Remember teletext? Oh how we laughed…. In those old days we used something called “BBM” which people, who owned BlackBerry handsets, used to communicate …
Hello weekend people. I’ve been told this morning that a couple of videos I uploaded this week were a little corrupted. I’ve now re-uploaded them, and I firmly blame a combination of bad weather, a droppy WiFi connection and wholesale gas prices. First, our look at some of …
Everyone loves a bit of individuality. We see it every day all around us, our clothes our accessories and now, even our smartphones are an extension of our personalities. Whether we admit it or not we all like a touch of something that differentiates us from the crowd …
Last night, after turning my back for all of three minutes, my son pinched my phone and demanded that I download Angry Birds Go! Sure, I’d heard of Angry Birds (who hasn’t), but what’s this “Go!” business? Well, remember what happened when Mario Bros went from a platformer …
Hey. It’s Friday. We all love Friday don’t we? This morning I’ve been looking at Miniature Preview Camera. It’s basically a tilt-shift thingy that makes the world look all tiny. Take a snap, choose the area to focus on, double-touch to select and alter the focus. You can …
SwiftKey are the leaders in the third party Android keyboard game, their app has been around for years and they keep adding cool new features like like Cloud syncing and a pink theme. Today they’ve released a new beta version that is free for anyone to download, it’s …
Come close to the screen dear reader, because I know your secret. I know that your Android device is chock full of apps and games that you downloaded “just to try” and you’ve never uninstalled them. I know that you’ve got pop-ups all over the place and you’re …
Homescreen launchers! You only have to search the Play Store to be presented with an abundance of them! So many seem to be the same so when one comes along to breathe life into a overly congested category you can be sure it will be a hit! Meet …
When you’re presented with a QR code there’s various ways of reading it. Lots of code readers are kicking around the various stores but Hipscan is a bit different. You don’t just read QR codes, you can create them too and, by using one central destination that you …
The popular photo sharing app Instagram is about to get an update in the Android world anyway. The update will allow you to straighten up any pictures you have before you post them. Much like iOS users have been doing for a while now. The odd thing is …
The Google Quickoffice app for Android has just had an update. The update now seamlessly switches into the Google Drive app if you open a file from your Drive. Which initially seems to me will limit my formatting options, as Drive doesn’t have as many options. I guess …
Skype have just updated their tablet app for Android. It’ll now allow a much better experience including a higher resolution video, something very handy if you use video chat for work or for family use. As well as increasing the resolution and a new UI, Skype have also …
As part of my role here at Coolsmartphone I get a lot of devices to review and more often than not I’ll run some benchmark tests just to see how it compares to the competition. Recently we heard that manufacturers have been able to trick some benchmarking apps …
For a small sub sector of Android users who not only have a device with an Intel chip in and who also have an Xbox Music account today is their day. Xbox Music has just been updated to support their devices. So mainly people using either the Motorola …
The beta for this has been kicking around on Android for a while, but iPhone users can now give it a bash too. It’s a friendly-looking app that’ll attempt to deliver news and posts based on the content of your Twitter and / or Facebook account. Material is …
An interesting update popped up this morning for Google Search. The app itself doesn’t look much different and, if you’ve used it yourself, you’ll know that it pretty much does its’ own thing anyway. However, in the new features it states that the app will soon let your …
Ahh screw it. I’m going to let you know about because, let’s face it, there’s only about 12 people that don’t know about this particular app. Now, come close to the screen my dear friends. Closer. Closer… Hey have you been eating onions? So, if you want to …
App updates usually fall into two kinds, an update that adds features or fixes a bug and the other kind is where they’ve redesigned the app and made it look all pretty. Last night’s Speedtest update has done exactly that. Oh and to give them their due, they’ve …
Techcrunch are currently reporting that messages sent to the new Google Hangouts are being routed incorrectly. Twitter users, Google forum members and Google Talk users have all been complaining that messages sent to one recipient have actually been arriving in other people’s inboxes. The site states that… One of …
What was once known as “Google Talk” has slowly transformed into Google Hangouts and now it’s changing again. The update, which is rolling out now, will finally re-add a way for you to actually see who’s online and available to talk (which has been a personal annoyance of …
Following the launch of Cyanogen Inc., the Focal Camera app became a casualty when it was removed from the CM builds. It has, however, reappeared with a proper release in Google Play. Labeled as a beta product, it’s an improved (but not finished) release of the open-source camera …
Most modern Android devices will setup those tricky MMS, APN and internet settings when you first pop in a SIM. However, with the increasing amount of virtual networks it sometimes can’t do it for you, or it gets the wrong network. Tweakker is an app we featured many, …
