Category: Android

Samsung Galaxy S5 launch event schedule revealed

Need I say more really? Eldar Murtazin has a long history of correctly predicting these things, and indeed his information on the Samsung Galaxy S4 launch last year was spot on. According to information revealed in his latest tweet, we can expect the all-new Samsung Galaxy S5 to …

Motorola Moto G – Review

Budget Android phone. Those three words for many years have basically meant that somewhere in the phone there will be a compromise. A compromise that was so badly thought out you’d think it was made by a child or a large rock. Over the years many many many …

Tell the spammers to PPIs off

Hello, it’s me Gears. Call me Leigh. I’ve had the man flu for a month solid and this is perhaps the first article I’ve written without tissues (steady), so you may notice an ounce of exuberance in this particular missive. Spam. It’s a pain in the flippin sausage. …

Streaming music service Deezer in talks with Samsung.

There are currently a multitude of streaming music services Spotify, Rdo, Mog, Sony’s music unlimited, Pandora, and Deezer to name but a few. But due to licencing some services are only available in certain parts of the world. Here in the UK there is Blinkbox music (owned by …

Chrome bandwidth reduction system breaks geolocation

Yesterday I pointed out that the new Google Chrome browser had received an extra feature to help reduce your data usage. The system pushes websites through a data compression proxy to squash down images and compress HTML, JavaScript and CSS. However, there’s a bit of a problem which …

£25 off Kindle Fire purchases till 20th January

Amazon UK was voted number 1 for customer satisfaction over the Christmas period, and to celebrate, any of the Kindle Fire range can be had for £25 off list price. The offer only runs until January 20, and the discount will be applied at checkout with the use …

Try Sony’s streaming music for £3

There’s a wide selection of streaming music services here in the UK. Some are monthly subscription services and others are free but ad-supported. Now Sony have entered the fight for your listening ears by offering all the music you want for just £1 a month as part of …

Chrome updated, now adds data compression

You may have seen something very similar in Opera for years, but now Google are packing in their Pagespeed and SPDY technology into their browser too. After updating to the latest version we had to reboot to get the promised bandwidth reduction system, which can be turned on …

Arsenal FC make a new signing…

You’d have thought that if no one knew how to pronounce your name it would make things a little difficult. It kinda makes it tricky to spread news if no one can remember what your company is called. Hoo-wa-way? Hoo-way? Either way, Huawei aren’t letting that hold them …

ZTE and Virgin Media announce the Blade Q Mini

Today, ZTE and Virgin Media have announced the apparently “hotly anticipated” ZTE Blade Q series in the UK. The 4’’ ZTE Blade Q Mini will be available to purchase initially with Argos from today from £59.99. It will be available with Sainsbury’s at a later date. At such a …

Galaxy Tab 3 Lite announced

It’s January, so you might be on a diet. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 has been on one too, with a slimmer and more portable “Lite” 7″ version soon to be available in black or white. Powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz CPU it’s got a 3600mAh bettery and …

Do something for me. Just search for this one word.

Yesterday there were headlines about the fact that an app had been removed from both the Apple and Google app stores. The app in question was called “Plastic Surgery for Barbie” and was shown as being suitable for children. The issue many had was the fact that the …

HotOrNot refreshed. New apps now available

Last year I took a look at an app which let you upload a “selfie”. The app then lets other users rate your “hotness” but, as I mentioned at the time, it was a far cry from the original “Hot or Not” website. Well, Lookie here, the HotOrNot …

Xbox Music for Android update adds offline music support

When Xbox Music arrived on Windows Phone the other year I was a big fan, it offered what other subscription music streaming services offered and it had the benefit of working on my Surface and my Xbox. The only problem was using on my Android devices, the lack …

Moto X up for pre-order at Phones 4u right now

Just yesterday we covered the launch of the Moto X. The white version is exclusive to Phones 4u and you can pre-order one with them right now. If you go ahead and decide to do that you’ll get a free wireless speaker worth £120. Available later this month, …

Moto G Google Play Edition revealed

A Google Play Edition of the Motorola G has just been added to Google’s Play Devices web store. The popular device, that has recently been selling for as little as £99 here in the UK, appears to have made the leap to Google Play Edition status without any …

Moto X revealed. More intelligence, more curves, less money.

As we expected, Motorola have just announced the Moto X. The 4G handset has a 10 megapixel camera and a curved back. It’s cheap too. Like that “special club” I went to the other night, this particular handset is all about “No touching”. It uses the Google voice-recognition …

Sony launch the Xperia E1

It’s looking like Mobile World Congress may not be the only place to see lots of phone launches. The third handset to launch today is this, the Xperia E1 from Sony. They are billing it as “simply the best smartphone in its’ class” and it comes with a …

Sony launch the Xperia T2 Ultra and the Xperia T2 Ultra Dual

Out of no-where Sony have decided to launch lots of new handsets today. The first two are these, the Xperia T2 Ultra and the Xperia T2 Ultra Dual. To be honest the only difference between them is that the latter has a dual-SIM, so it’s really just one …

Cyanogenmod release a beta of their new Gallery app

A bad gallery app can leave you struggling to find a photo or struggle to share it to your chosen Cloud Storage. The stock AOSP gallery app is a bit basic and manufacturers like HTC or Samsung create their own versions. Cyanogenmod has shipped with the AOSP gallery, …

Bejeezus! LG G Flex to cost nearly £700!

Oh sure, it’s curved and it’ll grab the attention of your friends and colleagues, but would you shell out a massive £690 for the SIM-free LG G Flex? The new handset, which has a curved 6.1″ display with Android 4.2.2, will also be available on contract, with Carphone …

Moto G gets Android KitKat 4.4.2 OTA update

The Motorola Moto G has impressed pretty much everyone since its launch late last year, and the positives just keep on coming with the news that all Moto G phones will be getting the Android KitKat 4.4.2 update, with the roll-out starting today. There have already been some …

New Xperia update causing WiFi problems

The Xperia Z in the Coolsmartphone office recently got updated to Android 4.3 but, shortly after, we noticed that the Sony Smartwatch 2 no longer worked. It seems we’re not the only ones, with the Xperia Care website now bubbling over with similar comments. It seems that, post …

Oppo N1 CyanogenMod Edition – initial impressions

You want an initial impression of the Oppo N1 CM Edition? It’s massive! Seriously, that’s the first impression everyone has of it. Let’s get over that for now, because size isn’t everything. No really, it isn’t. An impressive package In fact, the initial impression I got of the …

Tesco Hudl – Doing rather well actually

Whilst the recent sales at Tesco have been a little disappointing, their Hudl tablet seems to have been selling well. Tesco’s like-for-like sales were down by 2.4% during the Christmas period, and its shares fell by 4%. However, the good news for the supermarket is that some 400,000 …

Centralize your business contact list easily

A company phone used to be a BlackBerry. In a lot of places it still is, but now there’s more and more people bringing their own devices into the workplace and using them instead. It’s called “BYOD” and those people “in the know” tell me that it’s massive …

Picture special – HTC Desire 601 now available on O2 in red

Last September HTC announced the Desire 601. It’s a mid-range device with a 4.5″ QHD display and the video montage feature we also saw on the Desire 500. The handset also includes a dual-core 1.4GHz CPU, which – despite the fact it’s called the Desire 601 – actually …

Top 5 apps for December revealed

Good old Distimo eh? We all love them. No, me neither. However, they’ve done some research and, using bits of data from the Apple App Store and Google Play, they’ve got the top apps of December 2013. The top free apps from the Apple App Store included the …

Moto G coming to Vodafone “soon”

You know how much we like the Moto G. It’s cheap, it’s got decent specs and it won our “Best Smartphone Under £200” award too. The handset, which we’ve detailed here, will be arriving on Vodafone UK at a non-specific point in the future. Vodafone doesn’t have pricing …

Motorola to launch European Moto X on Tuesday?

Motorola have sent out press invitations today to an event being held in London next Tuesday (14th January). As is common with these invites, they haven’t told us what the event is in aid of. There were rumours floating about in September about a new Motorola tablet to …

Asus announce the Intel Atom equipped Zenfone range

Asus have announced a new range of Intel Atom based phones, there are three devices available in a range of colours and sizes. They come in four, five or six variations and Asus have applied a skin to them all called ZenUI. Zenfone 6 The ZenFone 6 is …

Sony Smartwear announced

Whilst Sony did announce the new Z1 compact, they have also continued the trend of CES 2014 by announcing more wearable tech to go with their Smartwatch 2. The new Smartband and Core are similar in idea to the LG Lifeband but aren’t just about fitness and like the …

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact unveiled

Sony are expanding their Z1 range with a new smaller version of the Z1. It’ll be available in white, black, pink and lime from February, so not long to wait. It’s waterproof so, if you’re standing next to the sea taking pictures of the storms, you at least …

Samsung announce the Galaxy NotePRO and Galaxy TabPRO tablets

Samsung overnight announced the Samsung Galaxy NotePRO and the Galaxy TabPRO. They come with personalized magazine dashboard interfaces and, according to the on-stage presentation, let’s you do “more with your tablet”. They will let you “view, create and consume more” and come equipped with a 12.2″ WQXGA displays. …

LG announces wearable technology

LG today announced a pair of wearable technology; the Lifeband Touch and the Heart Rate Earphones.   The Lifeband Touch is a wearable band that clips onto your wrist in a similar way to the Jawbone Up or Nike Fuelband. It is designed to monitor the users activity …

Android App Review – Skiplock

If you’re using today’s super powerful smartphones like me, you are now carrying everything in your pocket, your bank details, your social networks and normally some irreplaceable photo’s of loved ones. So your phone should have some kind of password/PIN/pattern/facelock protection to stop unwanted eyes to getting to the …

Nvidia unveils the K1 chip at CES

Nvidia have started CES a little early by announcing the K1 family of chips for mobile devices. However, they won’t just be in mobiles, they will also be appearing in 4K TVs, consoles and cars (more on those later). The K1 is Nvidia’s attempt to reclaim lost market …