Category: Software (Android)
Google have recently been unattaching various core apps from the underlying ROM. This basically allows Google and the user to update these apps seperately and with no network/carrier inrerference. So far Gmail, Calendar, Hangouts and YouTube have been published separately. Now with the keyboard Samsung and HTC owners …
Remember the other day we mentioned that Gmail for Android would be getting a nice update? Ravi mentioned it here. It was meant to be rolling out over the next few weeks and it appeared in APK format over the last few days, well now it’s all official. …
Sky have obviously got over those problems from last week now. All of their apps now show up in the Google Play store correctly and one, the Sky+ app, has received a significant update. When you’re out and about it’ll still let you send a record command back …
Vine is a mini video sharing social network. That has been exclusive on iOS for a while now. Vine is the best way to see and share life in motion. Create short, beautiful, looping videos in a simple and fun way for your friends and family to see. …
If you drive a flash car you might know about the “stop-start” technology that usually kicks in when you stop at traffic lights. Your engine will stop and then, as you touch the accelerator, it’ll start again. To be honest it drove me a bit mental when I …
The Vice President of Android Product Management at Google, Hugo Barra, has been revealing some secrets about the HTC One Google Edition (the One running stock Android rather than the HTC Sense skin). Whilst speaking with Nilay Patel from fellow tech site The Verge, Hugo slipped the as …
Now, last night I read an article which really didn’t add up. Yesterday morning we found that all of the Sky Android apps had been hacked but now Sky telling customers that there’s no need to worry and that the Twitter account was hacked. The “Sky statement” given …
This morning we’re waking up to news of a pretty major security breach on the Android platform. ALL of BSkyBs Android apps were replaced on the Google Play store with hacked version from the Syrian Electronic Army. This affects all of Sky’s apps – Sky Go, Sky+, Sky …
As with other members of the team I’ve been writing a choice of Apps piece and the reasons why. These are the five apps that I install every time, I either put a new ROM in my phone ( which is quite a lot ) or have a …
A number of Google apps have been updated recently. Google Drive, the online storage facility, has now got an updated Android app. The improvements include a new grid view to make file-finding easier, a “quick preview” option and the ability to scan documents, receipts and letters. In addition …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Google finally took the wraps of Babel yesterday with the relaunch of Hangouts, a cross-platform unified messaging service to take on the likes of iMessage, Facebook Chat and WhatsApp. Users no longer have to contend with separate Google Talk, G+ Messenger, G+ Hangouts and Google Voice apps. …
As part of Google updating everything last night they updated the Play Books app. Not only have Google updated the interface to be in-line with the other Google Play apps they have also added some new features. What’s in this version: Support for reading your own PDF or …
Google Search / Google Now has just received an update and, if you have Jelly Bean, you’re now going to get some additional recommendations or “Cards” from the techno-butler. So now, if you say, “Remind me to get some break when I get home”, it’ll do just that. …
Well, Google I/O 2013 has certainly been eventful so far. Our live blog and resulting traffic knocked the site over but hey, no matter, we’ve seen tonnes of good news. Google+ is to get a stack of new features – 41 to be exact – including a redesign …
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 …
With Google I/O just around the corner, you’d think the company would want to keep a lid on its forthcoming offerings but Android Police has to grab a copy of Google Play Services 3.1.36 which seems to be trickling out to devices as we speak. You’ve got to …
TV catchup app ITV Player has been released for Android. Yay! But you can only use it on Samsung devices until 31st August. Booo! It’s been a while coming, but the new ITV Player app has finally hit the Google Play store. It seems pretty good too. All …
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 …
We all use apps on our phones, some more than others, some install huge games that take several GB of space, some install dozens of Social Network apps, some install bafflingly pointless apps like fart apps or soundboards. It really is a personal thing it’s your phone and …
Whilst browsing around eBay I found a number of listings for “spy software” designed to snoop on the phone use of friends, relatives, colleagues or people you don’t like very much. After becoming intrigued I stumbled across StealthGenie, which is charged in monthly installments. The spy software is …
Pocket is one of those apps that you either use and love or you don’t use and can’t comprehend. I use it and I don’t think I could survive without it (bit extreme I know). Pocket basically allows you to save a webpage for viewing at a later …
The Samsung Galaxy Mega has been more or less official for the past week or so, at the end of the London Samsung Galaxy S4 World Tour event on Tuesday night it was announced that there would be Mega handsets available for demonstration, and so I finally got to play …
Here at Coolsmartphone we rather like WordPress, it is the basis of everything we do and without the mobile apps this site would be a totally different place. Last night an update for WordPress for Android appeared. The update amongst other things brought a whole new UI to …
Like the look of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and want to know more? Me too. Like Jason Bradbury? Yeah, he’s OK. Like Gary Barlow? Me either! Well, if you liked at least one of those then you would have enjoyed the Galaxy S4 World Tour event in London …
Picture the scene, there is a man talking to a lady in Mojos nightclub in Norwich. They’re getting on famously and are just about to leave together for more fun in a more intimate setting when he pulls out his smartphone. She does the same and they “bump”….. …
Sorting your daily dose of news into small, bite-sized chunks can be a bit of a pain at times. You either download an app, go through the mobile version of the newspaper website or heck – you could even buy one of those “paper versions” 😉 The people …
The Chrome beta has been out for a few months now. In the past it was hard to see what the beta version actually offered over the normal version, but with last night’s update they’ve gone and added fullscreen browsing. Plus some other stuff of course. – Fullscreen …
You may not see it on your device immediately, but you will, and it’ll thank you for it. The Google Play marketplace has gone through another iteration (one of our colleagues called it Google Play 4 due to the APK being 4.0.25). The formerly-named Market more has a …
Watch out, I’m gonna go for a slash. A forward slash that is, because this is Hang w/ – a new app which lets you stream live video and , get this, you get paid for your broadcast. Yeah, I know, mental. They’ve got a nice promotional video …
We’ve seen the HTC First, an Android-powered device which will be available exclusively on Orange in France and EE here in the UK from the Summer. In the USA it’ll be available from April 12th and across the rest of the world soon after. But hey you lovely, …
A mere 18 months after the release of ICS, Twitter have updated their official app with the main addition being a new Holo themed UI. As well as being much prettier, you can now horizontally swipe between the various tabs. The app also features auto-completion of @usernames and #tags, …
Sound Search? At first I wondered what on earth it was, upon reading the Play Store description I realised it was a music identification widget that would link to music on the Play Store. So you can be listening to music on the radio, identify the track you …
Like Facebook and Android? You may want to put a note in your diary then, because on 4th April there will be an event to announce… well, something. All we know is that it’s apparently going to be Facebook’s “new home on Android”. As with most marketing these …
It only seemed like a few weeks ago and we were discussing Samsung’s new S Translate app during our podcast. I was hoping it had some sort of offline mode as the Google offering didn’t. Well Google were obviously listening the other week and they’ve gone and updated …
Played the iOS version of this? Demolition Master is now available on Android. There’s 240 levels and more than 4 million other players to challenge. It’s only been available for 5 days in the Google Play store and there’s realistic explosions and the video below should show you …
OK, so I’m going to tell you the truth. If you’re using Android and don’t want to pay the few pennies for a new app or game then you have some other options. Firstly, you could save up the 65p you need or you could go trawling “those” …
