Category: Gadgets & Tech

The Shanda Geak 2 smartwatch boasts crazy battery life

Shanda are a well known Chinese company, who have a watch hardware division called Geak. So it makes sense that their 2nd smartwatch will be called the Shanda Geak 2. So far nothing of any huge interest to us UK residents, but there are two things of interest …

Lenovo Tab S8 unboxing

  Well here we have my first Intel powered Android device, in the form of the brand New Lenovo Tab S8. I picked this little beauty up in PC World for £149.99. It pretty much went on sale a few days ago. The device is so new they …

Nexus 9 Amazon preorders pushed back

Those of you who listen to our weekly podcast will undoubtable know that I have a Nexus 9 on order with Amazon for delivery in the 4th November. Well just to keep things interesting I received an email today informing me that this preorder is now being pushed …

LG announce availability of the G Watch R

The original LG G Watch was a great “mark 1” device for Android Wear, it just showed the world how Android Wear works and didn’t get bogged down with the design or anything like fancy buttons. I liked the original, but I ditched mine for a Pebble Steel, …

Hauppauge mySelfie review

Are you a selfie fan? Want more control? Well, this weird little gadget should suit you. Or should it? The mySelfie is a Bluetooth remote for your smartphone or tablet. Not only that but it’ll work as an anti-theft key ring to locate your phone or your keys. …

My new toy – The Pressy

Some months ago I ordered this cheap physical button for my phone. It plugs into the audio port and gives you an additional button which you can program to open certain apps or run certain tasks. The cheap button was just £1 but this, the “proper” Pressy button, …

Nexus 9 available for pre-order now from Play Store

Google finally seems to be getting their shipping act together as the Nexus 9, the first tablet to come with Android Lollipop installed, is now available for pre-order at the play store. The only caveat is that the wait time is currently standing at 2-3 weeks. I know …

Charge more than just your credit card with SEYVR

This is a pretty interesting idea for those of us suffering with LBW (low battery worries). Yes, you can buy a battery pack to charge your smartphone battery on the go, but remembering it and carrying it around is another thing. Even if it’s small it’s another item …

Nexus 9 announced

The new Nexus tablet is here and it looks brilliant. Is it enough to compete on the market as it stands?  Well lets dig in and try to find out. I have owned and used both the previous Nexus 7 tablets amongst others, so I have been keen …

Oppo N3 to have the swivel camera like the N1

Phone manufacturer Oppo has released the above photo of their rumoured next device the Oppo N3, with what appears to be a rotating rear camera module at the top of the device, which we first saw the N1, enabling the high quality selfie, which seems to be the …

Example footage from the new HTC RE camera

Yes, the new pipe camera that HTC launched just the other day doesn’t have an in-built viewfinder. Although you can use your phone as a viewfinder and although it has a 146 degree wide-angle lens, some are questioning just how accurate the “point and hope” shooting will actually …

Sony Xperia Z3 Review

Oooh it is thinner and ….. um … lighter. That is what most people who pick up the new Z3 will say. Beyond that there are few visible cues to the fact that they are holding a newer phone. For the phone aficionados (like us) we will pick …

HTC RE Launched – An innovative handheld camera

Back in September we noticed this, and James guessed it to be an add-on camera. I thought it would be a selfie-camera of some kind but now we’ve got the full details – it’s called the RE. Instantly I’m taken back to Religious Education lessons from school, but …

Hey, phone manufacturers. You need to have a chat with Elliptic Labs

Back in February we took a look at a rather fantastic touchless interface from Elliptic Labs. Not many sites covered the technology, and if you’re following one of those lesser sites then they’ll probably only be covering them for the first time today. Tskk. Anyways, eight months ago …

Backbone iPhone 5s Wireless Charging Case Review

We see a lot of cases here at Coolsmartphone but we’ve been seeing an increasing profile from the people at Dog and Bone. This one is a bit special because it’s a case which makes your phone charge wirelessly and it comes with a clever charging base too. …

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 …

Pocket-Casts web based podcast player now in beta.

I absolutely love the PocketCasts app, I must use everyday and I have installed it on every device I own both iOS and Android, to be honest it’s one of the few app’s I can’t do without. If you don’t know what PocketCasts is, it’s a podcast aggregator …

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 …

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 …

A smartwatch, for kids

Sure, smartwatches might be a new thing, but can you get one for your child? There’s a range of tracker watches that’ll help parents and carers monitor movements yes, but how about a full-blown smartwatch? The new VTech Kidizoom is just £29.99 and it’s about the closest thing …

Phones 4u – Bondholder write-down deal off the table

There was, for a brief moment there, a glimmer of hope for the Phones 4u staff. We told yesterday how a plan was being formulated to give bondholders of the company a share of equity in an attempt to get stores opened and trading again. Sadly this plan …

Admit it. You need this.

Yes, I recently dropped my phone into a pool. I tried to dry it out, but alas the damage was done. I didn’t have one of those clever EVAP pouches to try and get the moisture out and I quickly learned to be a bit more careful. Trouble is, …

Two new Kindles announced by Amazon

Three new Kindles have been announced today. Some may sound familiar but have extra grunt, whilst others are new to the market and have more storage. They are…. Kindle Voyage Costing jsut £169 it’s 7.6mm thick and weighs less than 180 grams. This one has a Paperwhite display …

Inateck BP1002B Bluetooth speaker review.

Following on from my other Inateck speaker  review I have been sent a further bluetooth speaker to review, this one being the entry level BP1002B portable speaker. Features : Bluetooth v2.1 and EDRAux-inBuilt-in-mic for handsfree calling. Charge via micro-USBBuilt in Li-Ion battery1 x 3W speakerDimensions: 61.5 x 61.5 x 71.5 …

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 …

Gotab 7 tablet for just silly money

Come now, this is getting daft. I mean no, it’s not going to beat much in the specs race, but less than £40 for a 7″ tablet? Buy yourself a cheap Bluetooth speaker, install TuneIn, TV Catchup, BBC iPlayer etc and you’ve got yourself an instant internet radio …

Flashy funky Bluetooth speaker available

Speakers. They’re great, sure, but not very interesting to look at. How about a Bluetooth one with a funky graphic equaliser on the front? Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Not only is the Helium T900 waterproof, but it can take calls, it’ll blast your tunes out and has these …

Traveling on the bus does have benefits

Public transport is my thing. I use it to get to work and to see friends. In a way I quite like it, because instead of being one of those people texting while driving (and believe me. I see this a lot from up high in the buses), …

Huawei reveals the 6 inch Ascend Mate7

Today at the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (or as we know it, IFA) Huawei launched Ascend Mate7 alongside the Ascend G7. The Mate7 features.. – A 6″ screen with FHD display for enhanced entertainment viewing. – A Slim 7.9mm body. – A octa-core chipset for superior performance. – Massive 4100 …

Sony Announce the SmartBand Talk & SmartWatch 3

Wearables are a current hot trend and not wanting to be left behind today Sony have announced 2 new smart wearable devices The SmartBand Talk & the SmartWatch 3 The SmartWatch 3 is Sonys entry into the Google Wear field and includes 4Gb of on board memory coupled …

Apple admits that celeb accounts were hacked

The iCloud storage system was indeed hacked recently according to Apple. It’s still perfectly safe if you take the proper precautions though. The attack seems to have been less of a “hack” and more of a password reset using personal information gleamed from information on the web. The …

Taking a ride with the READYACTION chest harness

Morning all. How’s your Tuesday? Put your hands up if you remember our piece about the READYACTION chest harness? We showed how it worked in an all-action video of my kitchen. Oh yes. Rock ‘n ROLL! However, there’s a lot more potential in the READYACTION kit, and this …

Travelcard Charger – Review

Back in March I did a small post about a portable battery pack, I was keeping an eye on over on Kickstarter, called the Travelcard Charger (see here), anyway I finally got my unit through, so after popping it on charge I thought I would give it a …

Are Sony going big @IFA 2014?

Lots of rumours are coming out of the interweb today in preparation of Sony’s IFA event on Wednesday. As an avid Sony fan this gets me a wee bit excited to say the least, so I will get into all the nitty gritty for you now. Xperia Z3 …

Solar Technology Freeloader Solar Charger – Review

There are many constants within life, one being that the sun will rise every single day, providing us with warmth and energy. The other most important constant in life is that your phone will probably need charging at some point in every single day of your life. Solar …

Deal – Get an Oppo N1 looky-likey for not much cash at all actually

Since I bought the Samsung Galaxy S4 clone from the guys at GearBest they’ve been pretty happy with the publicity. So much so, that they’ve given us a special coupon code, just for our loyal, intelligent, handsome readers. Right now they have an upgraded version of the iNEW …

Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact rumoured for IFA

The rumour mill is winding up for IFA in the first week of September and all the major names will be there including Sony. Today we saw there will be something from them that was not expected, (at least this is what I am hoping as an avid …

The man behind the leaks – Evan Blass

Whether you’ve followed us for while or just for a few short months, the massive @evleaks Twitter account has been the source of many handset and tablet leaks. We, as tech sites, quickly learned that this particular leaker was very reliable. Images, specs and launch dates have been …

HTC Desire 820 first 64 Bit Android Device

HTC are a company that have given the mobile device world a number of firsts, LTE, 3D screens, front-facing stereo speakers, Duo camera to name but a few. HTC will once again be a ‘first’ on releasing the first 64-bit Android phone — nearly a year after Apple released …

Note 4 clone revealed.

Can’t wait to get your hands on Samsung’s latest flagship device the Galaxy Note 4, at IFA in Berlin, in a couple of weeks. Well,if you don’t mind using a cheap knock-off of the phablet, Goophone has you covered.The company has already listed its Galaxy Note 4 clone …