Category: Android

Coolsmartphone Recommended Android App – SMS Backup & Restore

SMS Backup & Restore lets you backup and restore your sms messages! This could be helpful for many reasons, you could be swapping phones, you could have a new phone, you could have recently reset your phone or you could have installed a custom rom to your phone. …

LG Optimus 2X Rooted before it’s released in the UK.

Well, this is fanboi news of a sort, but there does seem to be a buzz around this phone from Android fans so I felt it was worth a little news post! All round good egg and Android genius Paul O’Brien has sourced an LG Optimus 2X before it’s …

How many app markets do we need?

The title says it all really. With the Amazon app market coming up soon, do we really need another app market? I know that some of these markets offer an alternative market for tablets that do not have market access, such as Archos using Appslib and there are some markets which let …

Carphone Warehouse hits One million Android sales

Today the Carphone warehouse issued a press release celebrating it’s Millionth Android phone sold. It also gave figures of a 2000% increase in sales for year on year growth,described as ‘phenomenal’. No real surprise to anyone who watches the mobile phone world, the Android take up is showing …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Android App – Triposo

Triposo Travel Guides have guides for various cities around the world. I first found out these guides in a post Andrew Fraser wrote about his trip to Italy. These travel guides all contain information and maps of the relevant cities that is stored on the device. You can …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Android App – Crimes Near Me

Crimes Near Me is a great app that is informative and helpful. It allows you to see Police crime statistics for the area you are currently in. If you were thinking of moving house you could search for the postcode and see crime statistics for the area. The …

Coolsmartphones Recommended Android Apps – Cardio Trainer.

Now then, don’t dismiss this thinking it’s an app for Fitness freaks and Beefcakes! No no, this is actually a quite interesting little app that can just be used for that mundane ‘exercise’ we all do-walking. I decided to go for a walk with my wife this morning …

Speedx 3D FREE is now available on the Android Market

Speedx 3D is an incredible 3D accelerometer driven tunnel racing game. As you race through the tunnel you collect shields, use power ups, dodge spikes and pillars. Best of all if you have some 3D glasses from a children’s book you can activate 3D mode and nearly throw up …

Swype beta updated.

My favourite keyboard app for Android (is it on the iphone? I’ve no idea…) has just been updated. Details at the bottom of this post. For those that don’t know, swype is a keyboard where you ‘swype’ your finger over the keyboard across the letters of the word,without …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Android App – Cordy

Cordy is a fairly new game with incredible graphics. To quote the market description “Help Cordy power-up his mechanical planet! Use special powers, solve exciting puzzles and explore engaging environments. Cordy is FREE, with many thrilling updates coming soon. Download now and get ready to harness the power …

Google launch Instant Previews for mobile

Some of you may have noticed a new magnifying glass icon appearing next to your search results over the last few days. Clicking on these icons launches a new Instant Previews feature which Google has just introduced. They provide a great way for visually searching through sites when …

Is in-car internet radio a reality ?

A few years ago I bought a DAB radio. At the time it was pretty expensive but the guy in the shop told me it would offer more choice and a crisp sound. I took it home and quickly realised it was pretty rubbish. Only a small amount …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Android Apps – Clock Widgets Part 1

I have been looking at various different clock widgets trying to come up with one to recommend. This is an almost impossible task. There are so many different designs and styles out there. There are three main types of clock widgets “fully featured”, “minimal” and “ordinary”. I will …

Coolsmartphone gets a top 5 listing!

A little bit self congratulatory this, but Cision has rated Coolsmartphone as number 4 in it’s list of top UK Consumer Technology blogs! Nice. So Well done to Leigh and Dan! Hopefully we can lift it to Number one! Thanks to Johannawhitaker for the tip, she is involved …

Carphone Warehouse price up the Xoom – £599.99

We took time out last month at Mobile World Congress to get a hands-on with the new Motorola Xoom. It packs a 10.1″ screen, dual cameras, HD / HDMI, dual-core 1GHz CPU, 1GB RAM and 32GB internal RAM. After a few ups and downs the WiFi-only version appeared …

Tesco Mobile sees Android overtake iPhone

Recent comScore and Gartner stats have seen Android growing rapidly and now Tesco Mobile have also chimed in on the continuing tilt towards the OS. In recent weeks they’ve seen sales of Android handsets outstrip iPhone sales. Graham Harris, Chief Executive Officer of Tesco Telecoms and Tesco Mobile …

Coolsmartphone Recommended App – Plug In Launcher

Plug In Launcher is a neat little program that activates when you plug your charger in or when you plug your headset in. So when you plug your phone in to charge at night it can load your ebook reader, your desk clock, run angry birds or open …

Android jumps to the top of the chart!

Comscore recently released it’s updated figures for US Smartphone sales and it was good news for Android fans and bad news for Rim and Microsoft. Smartphone market share for Google/Android went up from 23% to 31%, just nudging ahead of Rim(Blackberry) on 30% a jump of 7%, a …

Geocaching with the Samsung Galaxy Ace

A couple of years ago I ran a story on some geocaching software. It was something I wasn’t familiar and I presumed it was some sort of geeky pastime. Fast-forward two years and, armed with an Android app called c:geo and the new Samsung Galaxy Ace we all …

Coolsmartphone Recommended App – Wave Launcher

“Wave Launcher is a unique, gesture enabled quick action bar for Android. It resembles a well known and loved feature on WebOS phones like the Palm Pre” that is what the developers say about this app on the Android Market. What I say about it is “it is …

The State Of Android Video

I have just been sent this link to a video from a friend I met a few years back when doing some work for Nokia.  Recently we saw a video based around Android activations in a map with loads of lights counting as activations and this video soon …

Samsung Galaxy Ace in the house!

The guys at Three have loaned us the Samsung Galaxy Ace. It was seen hovering around the back of the Samsung stand at Mobile World Congress but, let me tell you, that doesn’t make it bad. With an 800MHz CPU it has iPhone-esque styling and comes with all …

SPB Wireless Monitor For Android

I first used SPB apps many years ago on my T-Mobile Ameo. It came bundled with the original version of this app. In those days SPB were one of the premium app developers for windows mobile. In the last few months they have redesigned SPB Shell which is currently …

PC World offer brings Motorola Xoom price.. back down again..

Right, stick with me on this one. Earlier in the week the Motorola Xoom appeared on PC World for £449.99. All was well until, after disappearing for a few days, it re-appeared £499.99. Now there’s 10% off on all “computing hardware” products over £299. The 10% reduces the …

BlackBerry Messenger coming to Android and iPhone?

Yep, expect to see BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) appearing sometime soon for Android and Apple devices pretty soon. BGR has news from “insiders” who state that, following a payment, non-BlackBerry handsest will be able to access the BBM service. It sounds like a “lightweight” version and the Android version …

Coolsmartphone Recommended App – Wifi Analyzer

Wifi Analyzer is an app that will graph out your wifi and your neighbours wifi. When it opens and scans your surroundings it will display a graph, the default graph is of Signal Strength and Wifi Channels which allows you to see if your network is clashing with …

Google Maps gets updated once more

A new version of Google Maps is available for Android users. It seems to add the ability to post ratings and reviews directly to Twitter. Google have also added a “ping” feature letting you contact nearby Latitude friends instead of having to call or text. To get the …

Sarah Harding promotes the HTC Incredible S

Sarah Harding (the blonde one from “Girls Aloud”) has been wheeled out to promote the new HTC Incredible S. According to my wifes’ description she’s pictured “in a black outfit with matching shoes and is sporting a new darker look”. The pictures will no doubt appear in various …

“More than 50” Android apps now thought to be virused

Google pulled 21 apps from the Android Market yesterday after many were found to contain trojan horse-style exploits. Many of the apps were re-packed versions of existing applications, including free pirated versions of paid-for utilities already in the Market. The root exploit used in some of these apps …

Coolsmartphone Recommended App – CircleLauncher Light

CircleLauncher is an app that gives you several shortcuts attached to one icon. Clicking on the icon brings up a circle on which the shortcuts sit. These shortcuts can be frequently used apps, contacts or bookmarks. There is a full version as well that costs £0.85 which allows …

LauncherPro – Android customisation done right

Ask any geek why Android is great and more often than not the answer will include the word open. One of Android’s biggest purported benefits is it’s openness, which we’re told leads to more innovation and greater customisability. Unfortunately, I’d argue that in practice it’s also a big …

Motorola Xoom UK pricing back online. Now more expensive!

Just a couple of days back we revealed that PC World had slipped out their Motorola Xoom pricing. At £449.99 it didn’t seem to bad for the Wifi-only version, but shortly after the pre-order page we’d spotted vanished. Luckily the pre-order page is now back but.. err.. guess …

Coolsmartphone Recommended App – Dropbox

Dropbox is an easy way to synchronise files between your phone, your desktop computer, your laptop, your ipad, your iphone, your ipod touch or your blackberry, in fact most mobile devices or computers have software to suit. To sign up for an account is free, you get 2gb …

HTC Event – Watch it all again here

Apple event? What Apple event? 😉 A couple of weeks back we streamed the big HTC event in Barcelona live. It got a number of you watching but, if you missed it, there’s now a YouTube recording of the whole thing. HTC revealed several handsets, all of which …

Tracking the space shuttle, on your Android

Last night I spotted a few tweets about the “ISS” being “bright in the sky”. If I’m honest I had no idea what everyone was talking about but, thanks to Google, I quickly found out that “ISS” was actually a reference to the International Space Station. You can …

The Italian Job

What a trip!  Well, as I promised a little while ago here is a review of some apps that I used while trying to navigate around Rome and Florence on a fantastic sightseeing trip.  To make it easier (and shorter) I will list the apps and what I …

Three Now Stock Galaxy Tab

Three have now started to stock the Samsung Galaxy Tab on their network direct and give you a very healthy amount of data to get through in a month with two options available. The two options for the Tab available from Three are: £15.99 a month on a …

LG Optimus Pad gets a $699 price.

American retailer Mobilecity recently put up a page showing the 8.9″ LG Optimus Pad available for Pre-order at $699, and this is for the Wifi AND 4G version, basically undercutting the Motorola Xoom by $100! I know this is a British based site, but that equates to roughly …

Win some stuff!

Everyone likes free stuff, especially right now when everything is so ruddy expensive, so here’s a couple of competitions for you. Firstly Expansys have a competition to win an Xperia PLAY. It’s just a matter of doing some retweeting to be in with a chance of winning this …