Category: Gadgets & Tech

Get a personal coach in your pocket

Cross-training? Out for a run? What you need is a bit of encouragement. Something that’ll make you break out into a sweat. You need to get worn out, and quick. You need to go harder and faster. You need to build your stamina. So how’s about…. Yes, the …

Android 7″ Tablet. Nice price. Asda price. You buy?

Let’s face it, this isn’t going to be the greatest thing in the world. Quad-core it may be, but in all honesty it’s going to be about as terrible as most of the 7″ Android tablets you see on eBay direct from China. It’s called the “Q8″, even …

Enhance your stick, strap a microphone onto it.

We get SO MANY Indiegogo and Kickstarter campaigns here at Coolsmartphone. If you want to invest in something, I’d personally suggest having a dabble on the Coolsmartphone competition. You could win a phone ! Anyhow, this is a selfie stick with a microphone on one end. I assume …

Is that a PC in your pocket? Or are you just pleased to see me?

Archos are the latest company to enter into the pocketable PC craze. Intel got the ball rolling with their Compute Stick built around their Quad-core Atom processor and then Lenovo threw their hat into the ring to follow Intel’s lead. Well now Archos have built their own and, …

MONTAR 360 degree car mount – Review

I’ll admit to jumping in my car and generally throwing my phone onto the passenger seat. There it’ll be, sliding around and then falling off the side of the seat as I go around a corner. After I arrive at my destination I then get to play the …

A touchless smartwatch… it’s happening

Deus Ex Technology have had a good week. They launched their project on Kickstarter on the 18th and within 6 days they have achieved their goal of $100k. Awesome. But why should I care? If you own a smartwatch then this will be very interesting. They have made …

Lynktec 360 degree Tablet Kickstand – Review

This thing is pretty straightforward really. It sticks onto the back of any tablet and gives you a kickstand. Not only that, but it’ll rotate around by 360 degrees so you can set it up just how you want. It sticks on using special microsuction technology. Sure, it …

The EE Power Bars return

If you’re on a train, on a bus or simply walking around town then you’ll know that looking down and spotting a “5% charge remaining” on your smartphone means that it’s time to panic. EE were previously handing out mobile chargers, which they called Power Bars. They proved …

Kitvision Splash Waterproof Action Camera – Review

A GoPro camera might be found on the helmet of a cyclist near you but, if we’re honest, these things are quite expensive. This is an alternative – the Kitvision Splash. The price is £69.99 (RRP), but you can get it for less than that on Amazon. This …

Touchjet Pond Projector – Review

A projector running Android, surely that is the perfect device for use in the boardroom or the meeting rooms across the globe. When I heard about the Touchjet Pond I was rather intrigued, a projector that turns the surface you’re projecting onto into a large touchscreen, just seemed …

Nuisance callers on your home phone? Give this thing a try

Apparently I had a car accident a couple of years ago and £3000 has already been put aside for me. “That’s pretty good..”, I replied as the cold-caller waited for my response, “..especially when you’re obviously making all this up and I’ve not had an accident for over …

The daddy of remote-controlled cars

Remember this scene from Tomorrow Never Dies? Bond drove his utterly fugly BMW 750i (worst Bond car, ever) with his Sony Ericsson mobile phone. Oh how we laughed. Wait though, because it’s now actually possible. Jaguar have a Land Rover that you can control with your smartphone. It’s …

Pebble Time – Hands-on

I have one. That is all see you later! Only joking… 🙂 I am now a proud owner of the brand new Pebble Time and I thought I would share some of my thoughts about it. I’ve now had it for a couple of days. Bear with me …

Smart Clock – Sync your life with your bedside buddy

You might think that I’m a gadget monster. You could believe that my house is a computer-controlled ultra-modern home which does everything for me. Not a bit of it. I’m a deeply disorganised and forgetful individual who tends to work far too much and I run out of …

Google acknowledge battery drain in Wear 5.1

Last month Google began its rollout of the latest update to Android Wear – version 5.1. This update enabled features like Wi-Fi support, new gestures, hand drawn emojis and more. However, the update also came with a major unwanted feature – severe battery drain. It is present for …

Give your garden some colour – the new MiPOW Playbulb Garden

Our garden was OK until we realised that the previous owner had decided to fill in an old pond pretty badly. Over the years it’s developed into the Himalayas and I’ll probably need to get someone to roll over it with something. I’m no gardening expert, but I …

Samsung Galaxy J7 & J5 Leaked.

In typical Samsung “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks approach” to mobile devices, two more units have been leaked, these being the Samsung Galaxy J7 and J5. From the images that have appeared we can see that the devices are made from the good old …

Beam TV into your device without the internet

Getting streaming TV on your phone or tablet is great. You get to watch TV anywhere. However, if you’re out of the house and you don’t have a clever DVR or set-top box that’ll squirt the TV picture from your aerial to your device over your WiFi, you’re …

Archos 50 and 55 Helium Plus, UK-bound in July.

Following their announcement earlier in the month, two devices from the French manufacturer Archos will be available in the UK soon enough. These will be the 50 Helium Plus and 55 Helium Plus. Both the devices are classed as “budget” handsets and both have almost identical internals. Archos have posted …

Spy Pen – Review

I used to review phones. Then I guess people saw those reviews and thought “hey, let’s send him some other stuff to review”. Now I’ve got a pen with a secret camera in it. Why you’d want one of these is a question for you. Perhaps you want …

Charge 6 USB devices all at once. Go on, you probably need that.

I’ll admit. If you’ve got to this stage then you might have a bit of a problem. Yes, you could convince yourself that your need to charge 6 things at once because they’re essential. You’ve got your iPad in there, your smartphone, perhaps a sports camera, extended battery …

Apple Pay for Visa, Mastercard and Santander

Apple announced that Apple Pay will be coming to the UK next month, and so all the banks seem to be tripping over themselves to announce they will be supporting the service. We have had press releases from Visa, Mastercard and Santander saying they will be supporting the …

EE announces 4G action camera

Not content with mobile phones, home broadband, mobile broadband and in-car WiFi devices, EE is now branching out into action cameras with the 4GEE action camera. The EE connected strategy focuses on 4 main areas: home; you; car and business. The new action camera is part of the …

Android M overview on Nexus 5

Last week Google I/O happened and Google announced Android M to the world. This week I have been testing Android M on the Nexus 5 and I am actually using it as my daily driver (brave/stupid time will tell).  Here is a brief overview of the big changes …

Android wear 5.1 delayed for Moto 360

Back in May, Google started rolling out the Android Wear 5.1.1 update for Android Wear smartwatches. All the current Android Wear smartwatches have received their update including my first gen Samsung Gear Live. But the hugely popular Motorola Moto 360 is still stuck on an older version of the …

Review of the EnerPlex Kickr II+ Rugged Solar Charger

Last summer I camped for the first time in years.  It was fun but it got me thinking about going back to basics.  No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t comprehend leaving my phone aside for anything more than a few hours.  Of course we are now …

WowWee Reveal MiPosaur and REV robots with apps

This is just plain cool and for that reason and no other (well I kinda want to play with one) I am going to post something about it. Anyway moving on. WowWee have just announced that they are going to be making and selling some “next robotic innovations”. …

Hexo+ – A faster autonomous flying camera

A short while ago you may remember just how impressed we were about the Lily drone. It’s basically a very intelligent camera attached to a drone that knows where you are. You chuck it up in the air and it follows your adventures from on high. However, there …

The 100MB data challenge

First, a bit of detail about how all this came about. Phones. I get a lot of them to review. I borrow them then send them back, but with different sizes of SIM cards and some handsets offering dual-SIM functionality, it can result in me using Pay As …

Insane? Money no object? No taste? Get yourself a 3D selfie!

For a moment early this morning I honestly thought I’d dreamt this. Perhaps it was part of a drunken vision. No. Wait… it’s a real thing. Oh dear me. Where do I start with this? Well, let’s say you’ve just taken a really good selfie and you don’t …

LG G4 Black leather option now exclusive to CarphoneWarehouse.

Independent UK mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse has announced that it has started sales of the latest LG flagship device the G4, and the retailer has the black leather clad device as an exclusive, while also stocking the brown leather option as well as the plastic-clad grey model. …

Huawei Watch priced up. You got £300 spare?

We had a play with some of the Huawei smartwatches at Mobile World Congress and they’re looked really rather good. What was of concern though, was the possible price of their new Huawei Watch. MobileFun appear to have slid it into their website for a cool £300 here …

Learning to print the perfect picture

My main concerns, when snapping photos on my phone, is whether the photo is going to be backed up and just where it’ll be backed up to. Usually I store everything on an ever-filling storage card as I snap pictures randomly through the day. Those pictures, for the …

KitSound Tilt Bluetooth Portable Speaker – Review

My smartphone forms a central part of my life. It helps manage and organise my time, it helps me communicate and is my main entertainment hub. This is why for me smartphones and music are synonymous. Whether you store your music on your device or choose to stream your …

Microsoft Band – Review

A few weeks ago you may remember that I was able to get hold of the Microsoft Band briefly at its launch event. I have now had some time with the device and thought I would share my thoughts with you. I am not the fittest guy in …

Pebble Time update.

For a moment yesterday we were concerned that Pebble Time, a device we were waiting patiently for, was going to be nothing but vapourware. This morning there was a collective sigh of relief as, in our inboxes, we were greeted with an email from Kickstarter with an update …

A tablet stand? For £3? Yes, actually

Want a tablet stand that’s cheap and portable? How does £3 grab you? This one is made from strong cardboard and ideal for slipping into your case or bag. It’ll prop up your device and you can get a dozen of them for £16 – about the same …