Category: Android

Sony Xperia Z coming soon to Vodafone, O2

O2 and Vodafone have joined Three in announcing that they will be stocking the recently announced Sony Xperia Z. Neither of the networks  have yet announced any prices or a date for availability. So not really much info to go on as yet. What we do really know is …

Sony announce Xperia Z and ZL at CES

More CES announcements, this time from Sony.  There have been many leaked photos of both devices already but now they are 100% official as Sony has just announced the Xperia Z and ZL to the world. The Xperia Z is the new Sony “hero” phone and, according to …

Three confirm Xperia Z in hands on video

Three have confirmed they will be stocking the just-announced Sony Xperia Z here in the UK. They have released a hands-on video preview of the device for everyone to see. Whilst there is no information yet on a price or release date, the fact this high end device …

Huawei Ascend D2 announced at CES

Earlier on we brought the news that Huawei had announced the Ascend Mate, a 6.1 inch phablet device. Now meet the Ascend D2 – the “hero” product in the Ascend series. Powered by Android 4.1 this has a 5″ FHD IPS+ 443 PPI Super Retina LCD screen. It’s …

Huawei Ascend Mate now official

Over at CES in Las Vegas, as we expected Huawei have just announced their ‘phablet’ offering in the form of a monster 6.1 inch screen device running on the Android OS. Running Android 4.1 ‘Jelly Bean’ the Ascend Mate features a HUGE 6.1 inch display with 720p resolution, …

HTC Profits tank

At times it’s hard to believe that I’m actually typing this but yes, HTC is suffering badly. They made a profit of T$11bn last year but have managed just T$1bn this year – that’s £21million and a 90% drop. With Mobile World Congress just around the corner, many …

Pong Case for the Samsung Galaxy S III – Review

We’ve already seen the Pong iPhone 4 / 4S case and recently had a nose around the iPad case too. A case, you might think, doesn’t take a great deal of explanation or reviewing. However, the people at Pong are quite clever. All of their cases, including this …

Jellybean for Samsung Galaxy SII due this week

One of the best selling handsets for a long time was the Samsung Galaxy SII. Widely regarded along with the iPhone 4S as the best device of 2011 the Galaxy SII still commands a huge following even now. The good news for all those owners out there is …

Huawei Ascend G330 – initial impressions

The popular budget Huawei Ascend G300 has now been replaced with the G330, and I have one for a fortnight to see how it fairs. Huawei are dragging their reputation from cheap ‘n’ cheerful to serious contender in impressive style, not least because the G300 was such good …

Sony Xperia Z confirmed at CES event

CES is about to kick off over in Las Vegas tomorrow with a whole host of announcements due by manufacturers and one has been getting a lot of attention recently, and that is of course Sony and their rumored new flagship the Sony Xperia Z. We have seen leaked press …

Nexus 10 back in stock at Google

So now christmas is over and things starting to get back to normal it looks like Google have more stock of the Nexus 10 16GB version available as the store has changed from the normal SOLD OUT message to ‘SHIPS SOON’ with a message stating it will ship …

Microsoft smartphone share continues to slide – comScore

Based on a survey of 30,000 mobile subscribers in the USA, comScore figures are out for the three month period ending November 2012. The study reveals Samsung at the top of the tree with 26.9% of US mobile subscribers and Apple second with 18.5%. LG are in third …

More hacked apps appear on Google Play

We’ve seen too many headlines mentioning cracked, hacked or infected apps appearing in Google Play. Sadly we’re adding this one to the list as Google appear to be reacting too slowly to the continuing problem. In this case we’ve had an email from the guys at Root Uninstaller. …

Latest Android platform figures released.

It’s that time of the month folks, Google have released the platform usage figures up to the 3rd of January The good news here is that Jelly Bean has had a reasonably large jump from 6.7% to 10.2%. Clearly a lot of people got Nexus 7’s for Christmas …

Nexus 4 device sales at 400,000? Production ramping up?

  I’ve been curious about the Nexus 4 for quite some time. So much so that I bought one but my main curiosity has been the process for getting it into consumers hands. Its been fraught with problems and their seems to be some significant shortages and waiting …

HTC are quickest to update handsets with the latest version of Android

  Android updates are a prickly subject – our own Ravi gets most impassioned about it – with what can best be described as a “varied” experience for most people in getting the latest version on their existing handset. On top of manufacturers taking their time, or sometimes …

Lookout now available for Kindle Fire HD

The Kindle Fire HD, Amazon’s flagship device today has a new weapon in the war on malware and viruses. Lookout have revealed in their blog that the security software suite has been optimised specifically for the Fire HD and now provides all the protection that is available on …

A week with…

  I’ve always been a two handset user whenever possible for more years than I’d like to think about. It helped me balance any deficiencies in any one handset, and whilst I’ve had a preference for one type of handset over the other for certain things, there was never a …

Nexus 7 dock to become available in U.S. and Europe this month

After an eternity of waiting and speculation, it seems the elusive ASUS Nexus 7 dock may be about to hit the United States and Europe this month. In the Netherlands, AndroidWorld.nl has word from ASUS Benelux that the dock will arrive in mid-January. Prices are speculated to be …

Android Game Review – Pudding Monsters

Cut The Rope was great, I loved slicing bits of rope to feed Om Nom. So when I heard Zeptolab were planning on making a new game I was fairly excited. The release came and as usual the game was released for iOS first and then during the …

Touch-based Ubuntu arriving tomorrow?

Ubuntu, for those who aren’t aware, is a Linux OS based on Debian. It’s free, open source and has a desktop UI. It’s got quite a following and has breathed life into a range of netbooks and PC’s. However, with smartphones now having specs equal to advanced PC’s …

Sony Xperia Z press photo appears online

WIth CES just days away and this event being a favorite for Sony to announce their new products at, it comes as no surprise we are starting to see more and more leaked images.  This time it looks like an official press photo (although a low resolution version) has found …

OUYA Console gets unboxed

  Following an extremely successful Kickstarter project, OUYA Consoles are now shipping. They’re arriving after the developer portal went live and the OUYA dev kit is now ready for download too. For those who aren’t aware, the new OUYA console is an Android-powered device that’ll let you play …

Battery Widget Countdown – See how long your battery has left

The boys at Z3t4 Apps gave me an email over Christmas. They wanted us to point out their new Battery Widget Countdown app. As the name suggests you can drag it onto your homescreen and it’ll display a little battery along with the percentage remaining. Normal stuff, but …

EE HTC One X gets Jelly Bean

Tom Darcy has just pinged me an email after having Android Jelly Bean arrive on his HTC One X. It started arriving about a month ago elsewhere but Tom is on EE so if you got your handset through Orange or T-Mobile, look for an update right now. …

6.1 inch Huawei device leaked

Until now Samsung had the market pretty much sorted when it came to large phone/small tablet size devices in both the Note 1. More recently the Note 2 arrived with a massive 5.5 inch display. If that’s not big enough for you and you want something with killer …

Run Android apps on your PC or Mac

There are thousands of great Android apps out there to download for your smartphone or tablet, but did you ever wish you could run them on Windows or OSX? Well now you’re in luck. A free beta app called BlueStacks allows you to run the whole Android Market …

Gemini JoyTAB GEM7008 review

What can you get for £80 these days? The surprising answer is an Android Ice Cream Sandwich tablet with Play store compatibility from a British brand. Sub £100 tablets are nothing new, but on the whole they’re poorly built, slow and sold under a name nobody’s has ever …

ZTE announce 5 inch Android super phone

ZTE have been making a lot of progress over the past year, we were especially impressed with the ZTE Grand X which we had in a little while ago to review for both it’s low price and near generic version of the OS. However ZTE are really going …

Galaxy S4 due for MWC 2013?

There have been quite a few bits of information floating about online recently about the new flagship phone from Samsung being the S4 and some even expected an announcement at CES in just a few weeks which have since been confirmed as false. However it has now been said that …

Archos Gamepad – Initial Impressions

The Archos Gamepad was mentioned earlier on in the year and to tell you the truth I never thought it would ever appear. Archos were true to their word and actually got the product to market, without their trademark delays. So mine arrived a few days ago I …

Google and Motorola working on ‘X Phone’?

Google purchased Motorola quite a while ago but until now there has been no real talk of what they plan to do with the once all mighty manufacturer and main reasons for the purchase were down to patents.  However now it seems that Motorola could be working on …

Leaked ZTE 5 inch Grand S set for CES

ZTE have made some very interesting cutting edge phones at very affordable prices recently, and now it looks like in just a few weeks time at the yearly CES event in the States they will announce the ZTE Grand S which is a new 5 inch display Android …

An introduction and Cerberus Anti Theft app review

Let me introduce myself as one of the new writers here at Coolsmartphone, I’ve been a member of this site from its very beginnings, when I first had the original Orange SPV smartphone way back in 2002, ten years, yes ten long years ago and oh how things …

Instagram complete massive U-turn

Following the back-lash from users, photo-tweaking-and-sharing site Instagram has now returned to their original terms and conditions. A blog post has been added which states…. The concerns we heard about from you the most focused on advertising, and what our changes might mean for you and your photos. …

Android 4.1.2 Arrives for the Samsung Galaxy SIII

Pick up your Galaxy SIII and check for updates on Samsung Kies. Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean is now arriving and it’s even here on my Orange / EE-branded device. The update includes the multi-window functionality from the Note 2, improved battery life, better camera app (with Best Face) …

Three are now offering the LG Nexus 4 on the One Plan

We all know what a mess the Google Play Store made of selling the LG Nexus 4. Some people think it’s part of a bigger conspiracy to rip off networks and consumers. Others think it’s all LGs fault and others like me no longer care. Either way, there …

Samsung release new Galaxy Camera ad

Seeing as Samsung have a new product to push, you should expect to see a few more adverts for the Samsung Galaxy Camera floating around. Up in the rainy North of England where I live, this has mainly been in the form of big posters and billboards. Now, …