Category: Android

Vodafone Smart II Review

  So, if we’re looking at budget Android handsets we have to look at this – the Vodafone Smart II. It’s going on sale for just £70 and is powered by Android 2.3. Inside it’s actually an Alcatel device – the charger and battery gives it all away …

Apple defeated in the UK

The high court has ruled that HTC have not infringed four Apple patents after a dispute between the two companies. The judge rules that the Apple “slide to unlock” feature, which has been used as ammo against other firms, was an “obvious” development and had actually been seen …

Samsung & Google Join Forces To Combat Patent Ban.

Google have declared that they are joining forces with Samsung in the patent wars.  Within hours of their appeal against the sales ban of the Galaxy Nexus handset in the US being turned down, Google have said that they, together with Samsung, are ready to release an OTA patch …

We all love shooting zombies, right?

Madfinger the developer behind great games Samurai Vengeance and Shadowgun have released their latest which is a zombie shooting type game. There is a brief back story to it, but I quickly jumped past that and started shooting zombies. As with all of Madfinger games they are Tegra …

Samsungs appeal against Galaxy Nexus ban denied

The battle between Apple and Samsung is heating up. A few days ago Apple managed to get sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus blocked in the US. It was all down to a patent regarding the persistent search box on the screen of the Nexus. This ban was …

3CX Mobile Device Manager Review

In recent years we’ve seen a shift in the way that mobile devices are used in the workplace. Previously you may have had a Blackberry or Microsoft Pocket PC dropped on your desk. Things were locked down, secure and managed. Now, with the advent of “Bring Your Own …

There’s something very familiar about the Smart II

Whilst reviewing the Alcatel-built Vodafone Smart II we noticed something very familiar with the recovery mode. If you’ve ever used CWM, aka ClockwordMod, you’ll probably be more than familiar with this screen. It was developed by Koushik Dutta (@Koush). CWM is pretty much open and is licensed under …

Motorola XOOM 2 10.1″ 16GB Wi-Fi going cheap

Fancy a Xoom 2 for £269.99? Well, you’ve got to act quick because eXpansys only have it at this price until 11PM (UK time) tonight. The Motorola Xoom 2 is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz CPU running Android Honeycomb and has a light aluminium body. There’s also 1GB …

Gameloft release Gang Domination a challenging social card game

Gameloft are well known for their great games that really push the boundaries of what a mobile device can do. There latest game is a little bit different to the norm. It is a turn based social card game, whereby you either play against your friends or your …

Sony Xperia U Review

Since Sony took over the headset business of Sony Ericsson recently, it is easy to say they had an uphill struggle getting consumers to part with their money in an industry full of competition from the likes of HTC and Samsung.  Announced back at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the …

Patent Wars: Now Samsung Galaxy Nexus is Banned in US

We reported a few days ago that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been banned from sale in the US pending the outcome of a patent trial bought by Apple. Well, it would seem that Judge Lucy Koh is a bit of an Apple fan as she has now …

Opinion: Google, You have failed again!

At 5.30pm on Wednesday night I settled myself down to watch the keynote speech at Google I/o – Google’s developers conference (their very own version of WWDC.) There had been plenty of rumours about an upcoming OS release, a new tablet and Google TV. I watched as Android …

Deal alert – Samsung Galaxy Nexus £319.99 from Expansys

So you fancy a bit of jelly bean action, eh? Funny how that sentance would have got you sectioned last week.. Anyhow the lovely people at Expansys have the “flagship” Google phone, the Galaxy Nexus at a rather impressive £319-99 with free shipping. Jelly bean will be officially …

Nexus 7 root achieved (already)

Yes, you read that right. The new Google Nexus 7 has been rooted, only two days after it was given to Google I/O attendees and around two weeks before the tablet is released to the general public. A user called ‘birdman’ on RootzWiki has posted a guide on …

Face Unlock security gets tightened in Jelly Bean

Google has given the security of its Face Unlock feature a bit of careful consideration in the upcoming Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release of Android. The feature was introduced with the dawn of ICS as a way to unlock your phone through face recognition, but shortly after it’s …

The new Hannspree HANNSpad is now available

Cast your minds back over the last few weeks. Think of all the Android tablet news you’ve heard. Your probably thinking of the accidental tweeted picture and the following press release we posted about the “new HANNSpad”. At the time Hannspree said that the new HANNSpad would be …

Three Xperia S users receive Ice Cream Sandwich

Now, don’t mis-read that headline. There’s more than three people with the ICS / Android 4.0 update, we’re talking about the mobile network “Three”. They’ve announced that their Xperia S customers can.. err.. “proactively download the Android Ice Cream Sandwich update”. What this basically means is that you …

Adobe kills Flash on mobile devices

Although Adobe announced at the end of last year they were not supporting Flash on mobile devices going forward, today they are going a step further and have announced it will be removed from the Google Play Store in August. Jelly Bean is the first version of Android …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Android app – Volume in Notification

This little app is for Android tablet running Honeycomb or higher. It adds a few buttons to the status bar area on your tablet. The buttons will change the media volume without having to use the hardware button. It is really quite useful if you want to quickly …

Endomondo hits 10 million users and celebrates with a sale

If you, like me, are a pure example of a pure athlete, you’ll have probably tried Endomondo. It’s an app which uses GPS to track your exercise and reports how many calories you’ve burned. OK, I’ll be honest, I sit on my backside for most of the day …

Be the Amazing Spider-Man

Spider Man, Spider Man, does whatever a Spider can. Now the movie spin-off-app “The Amazing Spider-Man” is now available for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android for just £4.99. You get 25 missions to fight your way through. Spider-Man has to keep the city free of rampaging gangs …

Google Maps (and many other apps) updated. Offline Maps are go!

Check into the Google Play store this morning and you’ll find a whole heap of updates from Google. Apps inluding Chrome, Google Play Books, Google+, Google Earth have been updated and Google Maps now has an “Offline Mode”. What is this? Well, remember years ago when we used …

Jellybean for the Galaxy Nexus hits XDA

Well that didn’t take long. Although Android 4.1 will officially be coming in July as an OTA update for existing devices, those wizards over at XDA already have the stock version released yesterday at Google IO available to download and flash to your device. If you know how …

Jelly Bean wallpapers available to download

Want your device to look a bit like the all-new Android Jelly Bean? There’s now a zip file full of them here. Grab it and choose the one you like best 🙂 Link – Dropbox Credit – Craig Clark

Google I/O: Google Confirm Nexus 7 Tablet

Google have today confirmed the new Nexus tablet manufactured in conjunction with Asus. Called Nexus 7 and running Android 4.1 Jellybean, the display is 1280×800 HD, a Tegra 3 Quad Core CPU and a 12 Core GPU, Front facing camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, with 9 hours video playback …

Google I/O Live

Google I/O is happening and Google have confirmed the launch of Android 4.1  Jellybean. Jellybean .includes project “Butter” aimed at making your device buttery smooth, offline voice typing and improved dictionaries. Camera improvements include quick view of photos just taken and swipe to delete. Notifications have been overhauled …

Google I/O – Live

Just a week ago Microsoft made their move with the new Surface tablet and the new Windows Phone 8 OS. Today it’s the turn of Google, and you can follow the events live from San Francisco below. The Google I/O’s event is the chance for developers to see …

Google Tablet “confirmed”. To launch at I/O

The Google Nexus Tablet hasn’t exactly been a well-kept secret so far, and now there’s confirmation from Asus themselves. Bloomberg also quotes “two people familiar with the matter” that a 7″ sub-$200 Google-branded tablet running the new Android OS – Jelly Bean is about to launch. An Asustek …

Patent Wars: US Bans Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

We have reported many times on the ongoing wars between Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and a plethora of other mobile companies so it comes as no surprise to be writing once again about a Samsung product that has had an injunction upheld against it following an application by Apple. …

App review: SyncMate

I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of iTunes. I don’t know why, functionality wise it’s actually pretty good. I moved from an iPhone 4 to the wonderful Samsung Galaxy Nexus back at launch in November 2011. Soon after, I started to miss iTunes… No longer did …

Cyanogenmod 9 gets a RC1 release

Cyanogenmod has been a favourite custom ROM for many people. With the release of the source code for Ice Cream Sandwich last year many people have been getting upset about when a stable official build of Cyanogenmod 9 would be released. Yes there were many nightly versions available …

Jelly Bean goes up on the Google lawn

Tomorrow is the start of the big Google developers conference – Google I/O. We’ll be bringing live coverage as the event unfolds, but right now Google have just finished putting up the Jelly Bean sculpture on their lawn. Although the beans started off on the floor they’ve now …

News and Opinion: Google Nexus Tablet and Jellybean Rumours

The new Nexus 7 tablet and Jellybean are the two hot topics racing around the Android world at the moment and, ahead of its imminent launch, a leaked document about both is causing the rumour mill to rev up to the red line. According to said document the …

Calling all app developers – We want YOU!

If you are involved in the development of apps or games then we want to hear from you. Regardless of platform, be it Android, Blackberry, iOS, Symbian or Windows Phone. We’d like you the developers to come to our forums and post details about your products. We can …

Carphone Warehouse Launch “Bill Angel”

Carphone Warehouse have today announced the launch of a new app that they have called “Bill Angel”. Designed to  track your call, text and data usage, the app will warn you when you reach your limits thus making it easier to stick to your tariff allowances. Currently available for …

Samsung Galaxy S3 MHL HDTV Adapter Review

So, you have a quad core beast of a handset, and it seems a shame to contain all that power to one (admittedly rather large and beautiful) mobile phone display. Step in the official Samsung HDTV adapter for the Galaxy S3.. The included video demonstrates the capabilities of the …

Wimbledon App Now Available on iTunes and Google Play

The football may be over for England but the great British summer of sport rolls on with the Wimbledon Tennis Championships starting today and we bring you news of the official Wimbledon app!! Follow all the action LIVE during the fortnight with the official Wimbledon app. The All …

Motorola Xoom going cheap for the next few days

The Motorola Xoom is going rather cheap at the moment. Misco are selling them at £220.80 for the next day or two. The promo is for 72 hours and it started on Monday morning. The Motorola Xoom they are selling is the WiFi only 32gb model. You can …

Sony Xperia P Review

The Xperia P sits squarely in the middle of the new Sony Mobile NXT range. The Xperia S has a 4.3″ screen (720×1280), this Xperia P has a 4″ and the Xperia U gets a 3.5″. Inside this is powered by a 1GHz dual-core CPU and there’s an …