Category: iOS

US cellular Apple Watch 3 won’t work in the UK

In just a couple of weeks I’m heading off Stateside for my annual hols. So, as I normally visit the Apple shop, I thought I’d pick up a bargain. I had devised, in the famous words of Baldrick, “a cunning plan”. I was to buy a new Series …

Vodafone release iPhone X contract prices

Update – We’re starting to see prices from other networks too. Head here to see the iPhone X deals. In the early hours of this morning here at Coolsmartphone towers, we had a piece of paper pushed under the portcullis door. It had some very interesting information from …

iPhone 8 Pre-order day – The best deals we’ve found so far!

You’ve heard all about it, now you want to get yourself one. Well, today is the day to put in that pre-order, and we’re seeing deals popping up on mobile comparison sites already. Here’s a look at some of the offers we’ve spotted so far, but do let …

iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus pricing announced by Sky Mobile

As we mentioned in our earlier piece, we expected Sky Mobile to be one of the virtual networks offering the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. However, what we didn’t quite expect was for them to be the first people to release contract pricing. Sky Mobile has confirmed to …

Apple Event – Live

Ok, we’ll give this a try. You already know quite a bit about the iPhone X / iPhone 8 from our earlier exclusive post and, as is usual with anything Apple related, the excitement surrounding the launch is palpable. We’ve seen what it should look like, the details …

iPad Pro 10.5” – Review

So the time has come for me to share my opinion of the iPad Pro 10.5”. I have been using the device for nearly two weeks now and, I have to say, I am happy bar a few minor niggles here and there. Before I dive onto the …

The new iPhone. It’ll be expensive. Get used to it.

Every time I write about the iPhone I seem to upset someone. Look, the new iPhone will be been announced today, so I’m writing about that. However, this same story could also apply to the Samsung Galaxy Note8. That’s £869, which is a lot of money. The Samsung …

Massive iPhone X leakage ahead of launch event

At the weekend I found this, my old HTC One V. Released just five years ago, it has a 3.7″ screen which looks tiny when sat next to the latest smartphones. A 1GHz CPU and 512MB of memory also meant that the experience was hilariously slow. How far …

EXCLUSIVE: iPhone X shape and form factor

We don’t do rumours on Coolsmartphone.com that much. At least I don’t. Often the rumour doesn’t turn out to be true, and then our readers are a bit disappointed. I don’t like being disappointed and I’m sure Coolsmartphone readers don’t either. Today I’m making an exception, because I …

Head back to the 80’s – Golden Axe

Anyone remember Golden Axe? Well, me neither, but this new / old SEGA game is now available for both Android and iOS. It’s free to download and play but you’ll obviously get a few ads to pay for the thing. You can though, if you wish, remove all …

Top five ways to store money on your phone

I drive my wife crazy on a weekly basis it seems. It tends to happen when she asks if I’ve got any loose change. I don’t. I very rarely do. At work, the vending machines and the staff restaurant – they’re all “tap to pay”. When I go …

Sky Mobile – New £35 deal for bundled Sky TV and a mobile

Sky are pushing hard into the mobile arena, but they’ve now announced a better deal if you want some Sky TV action too. Their newly-announced £35 per-month deal delivers an iPhone SE on a “Swap24” plan. This, along with their appropriately-named “Swap12” offering, lets you upgrade to the …

Why I have gone back to an iPad

Those of you who have been reading on the site for a looong time will remember that I started with a review of how things were on the iPad with iOS 5 Beta. That was on an iPad 2, I believe and it was the last large iPad …

Mobile phones. Ten years ago, it all changed

A decade ago I was here, on Coolsmartphone, writing about Windows Mobile phones. They were the king of the castle back then. Every business had Windows Mobile handsets. Everyone used Pocket PCs for their business email and the Microsoft Smartphone was making good headway into the consumer space. …

iPhone 8 mock-ups reveal a beautiful phone… maybe

Many of my friends are still holding on to their rather dented and slightly battered iPhone handsets. They’ve dodged the iPhone 7, some have even skipped the iPhone 6s, in anticipation of the “big one” – the iPhone 8. Rumours are always to be taken with a large …

Register and check callers via the Telephone Preference Service

A lot of smartphones now come equipped with a blocking system to let you stop unwanted calls from repeatedly bothering you. On the HTC U11 I’m testing now, you can see that in action below.. However, in the UK we have something called the “Telephone Preference Service”, or …

Flic – Smartbutton Review

Last year we had a play with the flic buttons for the first time, now we take another look to see how they have changed. The conversation went something like this Ian, would you like to review a button? A button? Yes but it’s a smart-button. Oooo a …

Going fishing? Try these amazing angling apps

My father-in-law is a keen fisherman. Or angler. Or fish catcher. I’m not honestly sure of the term, but I had a strange and yet straightforward question recently. “Are there any decent fishing apps for my phone?” Well, I’l confess to not knowing the answer to that one, …

Alcohol! Phones! It’s a double win!

Meet me and you’ll soon learn that I have a penchant for beer. Perhaps even the odd cocktail. This love of alcohol has sometimes caused problems though, and when you’re attending a swanky PR launch for a new phone with free alcohol … well, things can get blurry …

Design your own smartphone game on paper, then play!

I walked into the kitchen this morning to find my son drawing what appeared to be a platform game on a piece of paper. When I asked what he was doing, he told me that he was designing his own smartphone game. “That’s nice”, I thought, but then …

Oaxis launches InkCase, an E ink display case for iPhone 7

Remember back in 2014 when the Yotaphone was launched with its innovate design by having an e-ink display on the back of the device? Unfortunately, the device never caught on along with the next iteration – the Yotaphone 2. Well today, Oaxis has announced the latest in its family of E-Ink …

eSports on the iPhone

Back when I was a lad we had computer games, and if you wanted to play against a second player you needed a Kempston Interface with 2 ports or you ended up sharing a rubber keyed keyboard, but it was fun. A little later on and LAN networks …

Smartphones made of glass, lol

Wikipedia lists glass as ‘a non-crystalline amorphous solid that is often transparent and has widespread practical, technological, and decorative usage in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optoelectronics’. Here’s a further list of some things that are made of glass: Light bulbs Drinking vessels Spectacles Greenhouses Ashtrays Smartphones …

What is a VPN anyway?

Trust me, it’s not a scary thing. Just recently I had a relative ask why I had two WiFi networks at home. I explained that one was a VPN router, and offered me privacy and security. That, if I’m being honest, made their eyes glaze over a little. …

FaceApp – Another few minutes of fun

We were big fans of the MSQRD app when it first came out. It’s quite a fun little gadget which, with the aid of your phone camera, puts masks and hats on your face via augmented reality cleverness. Now there’s another one to add to the collection, it’s …

A quick look at the favourite top apps according to App Annie

I get quite a few emails from App Annie. They’re an analyst firm which produces business intelligence tools and market reports, and on their site you can have a look at the most popular games and apps for different mobile operating systems. Advertising is definitely a big driver, …

How to make your family car sound like a V8

You may remember my indestructible Audi A4. She’s an old girl now and has been on the road for a decade. I bought a Bluetooth OBD gadget to plug into it just so that I could find out what all those error lights on the dashboard are. Yes, …

Apple to offer GarageBand, iMovie, and iWork, free to everyone

In the past if you wanted to get your hands on 3 of Apple’s biggest software packages; namely, iMovie, GarageBand, and iWorks (which includes Pages. Numbers and Keynote),  there were two ways. The owners of older Apple devices i.e. pre-2013 had to purchase the apps from the App …

It’s a red one

Author’s Note: I apologise for the lateness of this article, since the product under discussion was released several weeks ago. To blame is my unfortunate visual impairment. I happen to be colour blind. If you’re wondering what this is all about, head to the product page for the …

AVG on your mobile – it does a lot more than you’d think

Let’s be honest. If you’re buying an Android phone then, if you’re careful and don’t install much, you’re probably not going to be bothered by viruses or other nasties. However, looking at my son’s phone, he’s definitely not careful, and when I’m rushing to find an app to …

Solitaire – Get a more polished version

You may remember my trip down memory lane when Microsoft launched their classic Solitaire app for both iPhone and Android devices. It was true to the original Windows desktop version, and Microsoft took great pride in promoting the “classic” feel of it, with the same graphics and te …

How mobile gaming has impacted the casino industry

I’m a big gamer. Absolutely love it. There was a time when, if you wanted a “proper” game, you’d have to wait until you got home. An expensive console was needed. Some expensive games. It was a costly business. Still is. Now, though, if you have a look …

In praise of older devices

I am a mobile technology geek. Along with my Huawei P9 and my Lumia 640 phones, I carry round a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 tablet and an iPad 3. I don’t have specific use cases for each of these devices, but just like to have a range of …

Google Maps to add two new interesting features.

Right back in 2008 I got my hands on my first Android device, the fantastic T-Mobile G1. One application stood out above all the rest – Google Maps. Back then it was just a very simple mapping tool giving users a fairly simple view of the world. Google …

You fanboy you

Google defines a fanboy as ‘a male fan, especially one who is obsessive about comics, music, film, or science fiction’. To most of us, however, a fanboy is a passionate, perhaps an irrational, but most definitely a misguided fan of a rival mobile phone operating system (could be …

Apple Launch New iPhones and a cheaper iPad

Without the usual fanfare of an Apple launch, a number of new iDevices have been announced to the market. Yes Red iPhones, larger capacity iPhone SEs and a new iPad have announced by everyone’s  fruit based tech company, and we have to say that the red looks rather awesome. …