Category: Android

Oi! Oi! Saveloy! Become a DJ on the bus

I’ve just found a rather fantastic app. It’s one that popped up on the “Recommended” listings on Google Play and I just had to write about it here. This year, if you went to Ibiza, you may have noticed a few things about the DJs. Gone are the …

The new Moto G gets an update to add Google Now

The new Motorola Moto G arrived in the shadow of the fancy new Moto X, not much time was spent telling us about the successor to what was possibly one of the most exciting Android devices of recent times. Well I’ve got one of the new ones in …

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 pricing and availability

What are you doing on October 17th? Fancy getting yourself a Galaxy Note 4? We’ve just found out that it’ll cost £629 SIM free from Samsung direct. The Edge will be out in the UK soon after, but if that pricing is a bit too rich for you, …

Living with the Galaxy S5

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is a phone my wife recently upgraded to. She was initially going to go for the Samsung Galaxy Alpha but hey, there’s no explaining the mind of a woman. Anyhow, although she went with Vodafone in the end she could’ve gone with O2, because …

A different sort of background

If Android is your OS of choice and you’re constantly looking at new ways to personalise your phone, give Transparent Wallpaper a try. It’ll effectively turn your screen into a pane of glass, with your icons, apps and folders hovering over whatever you’re looking at. It’s free and …

Noting but love

Every now and again, things catch you by surprise and there’s note a damned thing you can do about it. Take the new ad for the Note 4 for instance. Hot on the heels of #gapgate, Samsung have posted up an ad which tickled me pink. It’s note …

The Motorola Nexus 6 seems to be a thing

Rumours fly around about the next iteration of the big name devices. Be it an iPhone, a Nokia Lumia, a Sony Xperia and yes of course the Nexus devices. This year is no different, but they seem to have gone a little too far this time. Android Police …

Key points about the Samsung Galaxy Note 4

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is going to be an absolute beast of a phone. I for one am toying with the idea of getting one and seeing infographics like this from Samsung aren’t helping me. Source – Samsung

My coverage of Bart’s Bash 2014

Well the event is done and now it’s time to review how the event went and how once again mobile tech helped me during the event. As those of you who read my previous article will know I was planning on covering the event for the site by …

Gigaset Tablet 8″ Review

I have been sent a new tablet through for review, this being The Gigaset Tablet 8 QV830 ( black version ). Never heard  of Gigaset ? well neither had I prior to hearing from them regarding this review. Gigaset is a German company that is one of the …

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact – Initial Impressions

Sony have carved themselves out a niche in the world of modern day smartphones. A niche for great looking, powerful, waterproof and damn good fun to own smartphones. The latest generation having only just been unveiled at IFA in Berlin a few weeks ago, when I saw the …

Podcast 111 – Listen in live

Welcome to the live, raw, unedited and often broken version of our podcast. Joining me this week is Garry. This weeks topics revolve around some shiny Sony phones, readers questions, the iPhone bending outrage and our usual chit chat about our mobile goings on. To listen live it’s …

FIFA 15 Ultimate Team Launches on smartphones everywhere

With little fanfare, the latest instalment of FIFA has crept onto the app stores a little earlier than expected, bringing with it the usual high expectations. FIFA has much to live up to, but does it live up to the hype? Featuring the Ultimate Team format, FIFA 15 …

Some strange HTC camera thing leaks out

Now and again I’m left confused by leaks and rumours. I get that companies have to push their innovation onwards in the hope that they discover the next lucrative niche. The latest being HTC, they’ve got an event happening on October the 8th and no one is really …

£100 worth of free apps and games today

Are you a user of Amazon’s own app store? I am, and if you didn’t know Amazon give away a free paid app everyday. I make sure that I check at least once per day as sometimes you can get a real gem every once in a while. …

StartApp – iOS 8 supporting Mobile Ad Networks

Developers! So, you’ve done the hard bit. You’ve made your app, you’ve crafted it, you’ve spent many sleepless nights ensuring that it’s perfect and squishing any bugs that might be there. That, though, could be the easy bit. Getting noticed out there on the  internet, unless you’ve got …

Note Edge not launching in the UK

The Note Edge certainly caused a stir when it was announced, leading to much debate on the podcast with most people wondering what the point was and how it would work. Now it seems that we might not have to worry about that with Clove saying that the …

Samsung Mega 2 revealed

The popularity of large screen phones is growing, take the recent sales figures of the iPhone 6 plus for example (as a side note the 6 plus is bigger than my Note 3 and I’ve got a bigger screen. Just saying). Anyway this large screen malarkey in the …

The Hudl phone is dead, long live the Hudl 2

Speculation was rife recently that Tesco would shortly announce its own smartphone.  Based upon its success with the Hudl tablet, this was supposedly going to be an affordable phone.  A week is a long time in the tech world though, and with the recent announcement of cheap but well specced …

OnePlus to try the pre-order route next

A lot has been said about OnePlus over the last few months. Some of it good and some of it bad. Most conversation revolved around people trying to get an invite. Amazingly I managed to get one and I subsequently sold it on. None the less I was …

bam, Shazam, buy through Google Play, man

For the life of me, I can’t remember when I first used Shazam. I know it was so far back that I used to have to either call or dial a number to let it do its magic. Even when music recognition became built in to smartphones and …

Keyboard for likely Nexus 9 shows up online

Unless you were lost in a techless-like black hole for the last couple of weeks, you’ll already know how Apple’s annual release revealed the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. What we don’t have is confirmed knowledge of what happens when its Google’s turn… Although we have seen …

Are Samsung Planning a 5 inch ‘A Series’ Executive Smartphone

Whilst for many the Samsung Galaxy Range of devices may look and feel somewhat ‘plasticky’, the recently announced Samsung Alpha has turned a few heads with its executive and luxury styling. Over recent weeks rumours have started to surface on the net of further devices sharing the same …

New Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 comes to town

A slight improvement in specs, but not a great deal else from what we can see here. The new Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is still the same price as last year but with an uplift in specs (2.5GHz quad core Snapdragon 805), Dolby Atmos surround sound and a …

Kindle Fire HD gets a makeover

New Kindle Fire HD devices have also been announced today. There’s some funky colours and 6″ or 7″ versions with quad-core 1.5GHz CPU’s, dual cameras and Dolby Digital audio. Price-wise, they’re attractive – the 6″ is £79 and the 7″ is £119. You can pre-order on the Amazon …

Those fancy looking OnePlus One covers won’t ever be released

When I bought my OnePlus One one of the things I was itching to get hold of was the replaceable backs, they were going to be available in several different materials, such as kevlar, denim and bamboo. Upon receiving mine I set about trying to order the back …

Meet your Moto Maker

Hot on the heels of the Moto Store opening virtually in the UK, Moto Maker has now become available here in the UK too. As predicted when the store opened up, Moto Maker, Motorola’s online phone customisation tool, has become available to us here in the UK. As …

Samsung Galaxy Alpha available today on Voda

The shiny metallic Galaxy Alpha is now available in a choice of three colours on Vodafone. You can get it on 3G or, if you choose a 4G Red XL or Red XXL plan then you’ll get the double entertainment deal we mentioned last week. Prices start from …

Android One starts with India

Android One is an idea, an idea that is starting to grow into something that could be huge. The idea of a low cost Android device, with hardware hand picked by Google and the latest software, could be seen as a way for Google and Android manufacturers to …

Rumours – what are they worth?

Let’s get the what right out of the way: There’s been a tip from a trusted source that CPW will have the new Nexus device on sale on 1 November. Interesting, right? That gives all us all sorts of possible timelines to work with. But what does that …

Motorola’s online stores make it to our rainy shores

Firstly, if you have still decided to indulge in this article after reading my terrible rhyming title, thank you. Motorola has, for a short while, been selling their latest generation phones through their own website in the US. This current generation has been met with open arms and …

The Oppo N3 starts to make an appearance

The Oppo N1 was one of the most intriguing devices of recent times, with its rotating camera, enormous display and touch sensitive back panel, many people round the world got one, thanks somewhat to the Cyanogenmod support. So it makes sense that Oppo are going to release a …

Android apps running on ChromeOS from today

Well it’s started. Google has today begun rolling out Android applications that can be run directly from your Chrome OS browser. Initially there are four apps available –  Evernote, Vine, Duolingo and the children’s app Sight Words but there will undoubtedly be a deluge of apps that follow in quick succession. Chrome OS …

My Xperia Z2 and its organising skills.

For the past few weeks I have been working on organising a charity sailing event. Why is this relevant to Coolsmartphone? Well there are a few reasons for that. Number one, I have been doing most of the organisational work for this event on my smartphone. Secondly, my smartphone will be …

First HTC, now Samsung take a swipe at Apple

Now, give me grief if you wish, but this is how things happen. 1 – Apple release a product. 2 – A lot of people think it’s pap and deride it publicly. 3 – A lot of people think it’s great and they go out and buy it. …

HTC to at last make a tablet again

Remember the HTC Flyer? Although it wasn’t a runaway success we were all a bit saddened to see HTC shy away from producing any further tablets. Since then Samsung have cornered most of the Android tablet market with many other brands and even supermarket names filling the gaps …

October Fool’s Day? Meet Viro, the phone that never needs charging

No, this is not some sort of late April Fool’s Day prank.  Just as James wrote about the need for innovation recently, the one area that old dumb phones still triumph over modern smart phones is in battery life.  Long gone are those days where a battery would last …

Hannspree move into the smartphone market

Hannspree have today announced their intention to enter the budget Android smartphone market. They already have a range of Android tablets and monitors under their belts so the move into smaller devices makes sense. Also considering that their sister company Hannstar make a range of displays as well, …

Fanbois! Assemble!

The launch of a hotly anticipated Apple product usually ignites passion in both fan camps. Apple followers will applaud the bigger screens and Apple Pay system, plus the launch of the Apple Watch, which has fitness tracking and NFC too. Meanwhile, the Apple haters will be stating that …