Category: General

Apple makes 57% of all smartphone profits

When it comes to profits, there’s long been only one real winner in the smartphone industry: Apple. At least that’s what used to be the case, until Samsung joned the party. In Q4 of 2012 Apple and Samsung made 103% in the smartphone industry, with 72% of that …

Sunday Bargains – 32GB microSD card

The best bit about Sundays has to be the lie-in. My son let me sleep until 6.15 this morning, so I’m up and looking for bargains whilst preparing breakfast. Today this SanDisk 32GB microSD card caught my eye. It’s available from GizzmoHeaven for just £14.99, and it’s a …

Nokia Lumia 928 billboard poster seen 10 days before launch date

Nokia Lumia 928 marketing meeting, May 2013 – “No videos, no secret photos, no leaks and, no matter what, no billboard posters until 14th May. Right, everybody got that? Good”. Oh dear, somebody was too busy playing Cut The Rope during that meeting, because a full ten days …

bēm Wireless start shipping their Bluetooth Mobile Speaker

Quoting an old clichéd phrase: good things come in small packages bēm Wireless have made a small 2.5″ cube Bluetooth speaker that looks more like something Nokia would sell. The speaker comes in six different colours. the mobile speaker comes in six colours to allow expression of personal …

Instagram introduces “Photos of you”

Instagram, the photo sharing app has announced a new feature. Billed as “Photos of You” the feature now allows users to tag photos, either with names or brands.  These photos will then show up in the Photos of you section of your profile. Notifications are sent when you …

Twitter for Android updated, menu option added

The official Twitter app for Android was recently updated bringing full implementation of the holo guidelines with one notable exception, the menu option was tucked away under the Me tab. Well, last night Twitter released a further update which corrects this oversight and gives easy access to the Accounts …

Advertising companies to steal our Instagram photos! Probably not…

You’ll remember a little while ago Instagram tried to amend their Terms Of Service and the whole internet went crazy. Indeed so did I! The mistake I made though was that I hadn’t properly read the wording for myself and had laid all my faith in another sites interpretation. Aforementioned …

BT to assist in building the O2 4G network

It’s looking like O2 and BT are getting quite pally in the 4G world. O2 got a slice of the 4G pie in the recent auctions, as did BT, but it looks like BT will be providing a large amount of infrastructure for the O2 4G network after …

Jawbone BIG Jambox – Review

One of the phrases I seem to be using more and more is “…and you paid how much for it??”. Despite nobody appearing to have any money, it seems we are big fans of those ‘Premium’ products. I mean, why else would people be buying the BMW 1 …

Veho 360 degree M3 Bluetooth Soundblaster speaker – Review

The Veho 360 degree M3 Bluetooth speaker is a highly compact piece of personal pocket PA. It’s all very well being small and wireless, but I wanted to know if it’s any better than the speaker on my phone. Likes Compact Loud for its size Robust feel Dislikes …

Otterbox Commuter Glacier case for the HTC 8X – Review

Another month has passed and I’ve gone and bought another Otterbox. This time it was for my HTC 8X which I have felt is increasingly becoming likely to be dropped.  Only because I’ve had  it for a few months now without much protection. Otterbox cases are pretty cool …

Opinion: A naked phone, to be or not to be?

Morning dear reader, I come to you this morning with a question, Do you use a case or do you keep your phone naked? It is a tricky one and one I myself deliberate about regularly. With the manufacturers spending millions (in some case’s) on design, pattern’s and …

Cellular Line GRIP Anti-Slip Pad

Right, let’s make this punchy shall we? You’re driving around. You do either one of two things. You either dump the phone on the passenger seat or strap it into some sort of car holder. The first option will probably see your phone getting wedged between the door …

MVNO Feature – Tesco Mobile

We’ve been looking at those “virtual network operators” lately and have already checked out Virgin Mobile and TalkTalk. Both of those networks were keen to get you on board if you were already using one of their other services (like TV or broadband) and, in the case of …

Smartphones in spaaaaace – The NASA Nexus Orbiters

You’ve heard of the Galaxy Nexus, right? Well, how about the two Nexus One ‘budget’ satellites that are watching us from an altitude of 150 miles as I type? The idea is to get off the shelf components and make a fully functioning satellite for less than $10,000. …

Tesco Mobile tops Which Customer Satisfaction Survey….again.

Cast your mind back to April 5th 2012.  Nothing of note happened unless you are part of the Tesco Mobile team for they won the annual Which? magazine mobile satisfaction survey. Now, coming back to one year later and guess what…..they’ve only gone and done it again. The …

BBC iPlayer Radio launches on Android

Back in October I wrote a small piece regarding the launch of iPlayer radio.  At the time the app was only available on iOS with an Android version said to be following soon. Well, some 6 months later the Android version has finally launched and it looks quite impressive. Clearly …

DMZmusic Bluetooth dongle – Review

I was alerted to the DMZmusic Bluetooth dongle by a comment on Leigh’s recent review of the StreamPort Universal. In it, Graham Eastham suggested that it wasn’t worth spending £59.99 on the StreamPort and instead suggested the DMZmusic Bluetooth dongle for just over a fiver! Having an eye …

Is speed important to you? The results.

Getting a fast car is great. You can beat people off the lights and smile as they stuggle to keep up. Trouble is, in the long run, you’re going to run out of fuel quicker and that guy you accelerated away from will end up driving past as …

EE Results are out – 318,000 customers on 4G

The details for the first quarter of this year show that demand for the 4G network seems to be in line with company expectations. The 4G section has been in operation for five months now and, with 318,000 customers using the shiny new masts, they’re looking to hit …

Got your phone wet? Here’s your solution. Ice cream!

Water, water, everywhere, but it’s all in my phone. AGH! You know what it’s like, the screen looks like an electronic goldfish bowl and it makes a sad swishing sound when moved around. A drop in the bath, a fall into a drink or even an unfortunate accident …

Sunday Bargains – Pretty hot T-Mobile SIM-only deal

The guys from T-Mobile have a pretty decent deal on right now. It’s 5000 texts and 300 minutes per month plus another 500 minutes to T-Mobile customers every month. There’s also 750MB of data per month but, right now, they’re giving another 250MB of data per month for …

Cut The Rope Time Travel now available

I’m a big fan of Cut The Rope, and noticed yesterday that a new version is out, called ‘Time Travel’. This edition sees the awesome Om Nom travel though time (see what they did there?) meeting ancestors  and gulping down yet more candy. Perhaops they’ll be a ‘Cut The …

Samsung Galaxy S4 Vs the Nexus 4

If you listened to our lovely podcast this week you’ll have heard us discussing the various merits of the Samsung Galaxy S4, in particular, VS other (cheaper) handsets like the Google Nexus 4. I really like my Nexus 4. I like stock Android, it’s whizzy fast and does everything …

EE launches the Huawei E5776 – UK’s first next-generation 4G Device

Today EE have announced the launch of the UK’s first first next-generation 4G device, the Huawei E5776 mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. It’s a pretty regular Wi-Fi hotspot that allows up to ten wi-fi enabled devices to access the internet on the EE network. The difference, of course, is that …

Amazon Coins, another virtual currency. But why?

Amazon’s new digital currency is now just a month away from being introduced. It’s a currency and payment method that you’ll be able to use in the Amazon Appstore and will soon become second nature for those with a Kindle Fire HD. Amazon Coins will let you buy …

Motorola Defy+ Launched on Three

Three have today launched the Motorola Defy+ on their UK network bringing the well built sturdy phone to the masses at a price of just £10 a month on contracts or £69.99 on PAYG Dust, scratch and water resistant, the Motorola Defy+ is a handy phone for those …

Do you fancy TEN TIMES your current battery life?

Battery life. The bane of modern smartphones. We’ve discussed this on the podcast as one of the aspects begging for technology innovation, and it looks like our prayers just might be answered. A team from the United States claim to have invented a new type of battery technology, which provides TEN TIMES …

iPhone 4/4S Slim powered cases slashed in price

Got an iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S? Fed up of the battery going flat? Well, those “PowerJackits” are now reduced quite significantly. They were already slashed in price by 40% but now there’s another 50% off, meaning that some of the ones that were £50 are now just …

My phone obsession, and what drives it

It’s fair to say that ever since I saw a carphone in a Jaguar XJ6 I’ve been obsessed with mobile telephones. Over the last few years I’ve swapped phones around regularly, usually flip flopping between Android and iOS devices. I usually end up going back to the iPhone sooner or later. …

WordPress for Android gets a whole new look

Here at Coolsmartphone we rather like WordPress, it is the basis of everything we do and without the mobile apps this site would be a totally different place. Last night an update for WordPress for Android appeared. The update amongst other things brought a whole new UI to …

Pictures of the elusive Aluminium Nokia Lumia have appeared online

For a while now rumours have been floating around the internet about the next generation of Nokia Lumia phones. The main discussion has been surrounding the high-end. To give the flagship a more premium feel Nokia have been said to be making it from Aluminium. It is also …

Muvit Slim and Stand, Xperia Z case review

I am a very proud owner of a Sony Xperia Z and up until now I have been using a very cheap case that I picked up in a market which has been offering me minimal protection. When Mobilefun offered the chance to review the Muvit Slim and …

Windows Phone App Review – Shrink Storage

Orphaned files and folders aren’t a new phenomenon. For hundreds of many years people have been uninstalling apps only to find that the uninstaller hasn’t quite done it’s job properly. I’ve seen this bug in umpteen versions of Windows on my desktop PC, I’ve seen on every version …

Blackberry Z10 Transform Shell review

There have not bee a huge a mount of decent quality cases out there for the new Blackberry Z10. Howevere Blackberry have come to the rescue as they normally do when they release a new model. Infact the have released several different case all of which can be …