Category: General
Phones are getting bigger and bigger, the Note II, the LG Optimus G Pro, the Huawei Ascend Mate, the rumoured upcoming Note 3 and of course those 7-8″ tablets from Asus and Samsung that can make phone calls. The term “phone” has become a somewhat almost misused word, …
At Coolsmartphone we realise that our readership are all far too intelligent to be sucked in by April fools jokes (why else would you come to a site with the word smart in the name?), so we’re going to lay this one on the line. 1st April, the …
Apple have become world leaders in marketing and selling their products, with the Apple stores being their crowning glory. But what if Apple stores were for real apple products? Cider, for example. The makers of Somersby Cider decided that it would be a fun idea to find out …
I’m confused, I don’t know what to do. At times I feel I should give up and just not bother. Mobile phones have me confused, I spend most of my days reading up on and writing about the latest phones. A good chunk of my life is also spent …
So there’s a new phone around. You may have heard about it. The Samsung Galaxy S4. Yeah, that one. It’s popping up on pre-order everywhere today and now Vodafone have stepped forward with a double-offer. Firstly, you can pre-order the 4G-ready Samsung Galaxy S4 right now in either …
So, you’ve read our HTC One Review and you want to slot this hot new handset firmly into your soft pocket. Now it’s time. Three have now got the HTC One in silver and you can grab it online or in store. It’s available free for a limited …
Flipboard has today hit version 2.0, and the big new feature of this release is the ability to create your own magazine(s). Borrowing a trick from Instapaper/Pocket/Tumblr, users can now Flip stories using a bookmarklet, instantly adding them to their very own magazines. These can be both public …
It’s that time of year again. We’ve just lost the weight we added on over Christmas and somehow I’ve finished off that box of broken biscuits. Now it’s Easter, and (with my utter weakness for anything Cadbury) there’s going to be quite a few eggs eaten over the …
It only seemed like a few weeks ago and we were discussing Samsung’s new S Translate app during our podcast. I was hoping it had some sort of offline mode as the Google offering didn’t. Well Google were obviously listening the other week and they’ve gone and updated …
Sometimes thing seem to good to be true and no doubt I’ve missed something here but if you’ve been wanting to try out the supposedly “superfast” 4G now might be your chance. Basically EE are offering a free 4G MiFi for a month to try out. DON’T JUST …
This took me a good few seconds to “get” but it’s a pretty nifty idea which is cheap too. For those that have trouble viewing the screen and require reading glasses, things can become a bit of a faff when you want to use your smartphone. First you’ve …
UK network Three who are well known for their data offerings have announced their yearly results today Full year earnings were up 237% from 2011 to £101m and the company added over 900,000 customers taking them over the 9 million mark for the first time Total revenue also …
I think I’ve had my Pebble for at least a week now and I can say I really do like it. It’s not massive on the wrist, which was my initial concern, my wife tried hers and said it was just acceptable for her to wear too. I …
Motorola have had a few tough years and if they continue making devices like their current generation devices thing might just improve for them. Rumours about their next device dubbed the “Motorola X” keep surfacing and the latest info has been anonymously emailed to Phonearena. The latest rumoured …
Perhaps for the first time, Google released a new service which I didn’t immediately rush to try out. In the wake of the Reader spring clean, I now have to think about whether or not I can rely on a new Google service being around for the long …
Cables. Bleugh. We don’t like them. Bluetooth has stopped us needing cables in our ears when we’re making or receiving calls, and now we’re seeing more and more of these – Bluetooth speakers. This particular one is for iHome Wireless Speaker. First I’ll hit you with the details. …
After arriving in London for a 4 day break I knew I was going to be enjoying 4G speeds thanks to my existing EE account and having both a HTC One and Sony Xperia Z with me. However using internet on these drains the battery and these mobile …
Money. It’s increasingly hard to come by. The recent Budget yet again showed that the country is really stretched. But, in the middle of it all, we’re still finding ways of affording phones that cost around £500. It is, if we’re honest, a lot of cash. If you …
EE have today announced they are rolling out there fast 4G network to rural Cumbria, woohoo. Parts of the northern fells have barely any voice signal never mind a fast data connection so this is going to be good news for those data starved northerners. Rory Stewart, MP …
The much fabled Google Keep has today finally appeared in the Google Play Store. It is a note-taking application that facilitates the quick capture of thoughts and ideas via a variety of means – voice recordings, pictures or simply text. With these features, it promises to let you …
Many years ago eBay used to be fun, you could buy and sell goods confident that things wouldn’t go wrong. These days it is a minefield riddled with crooks exploiting loopholes in the returns process, if you do manage to secure a legitimate sale your then stung for …
It’s emerging that huge amounts of Three and O2 customers are getting calls from a strange phone number: 0088213300744 Details are sketchy at the moment, but it seems that the number originates from Bangladesh, and some people are claiming it’s a call back scam that will charge you …
Along with last week’s announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S4 came a plethora of awesome accessories to enhance the S4: the S Band Fitness Bracelets help with keeping track of exercise and work with the S Health app; the Wireless Charging Plates save the fuss of wires when …
I’ve become a bit of a over ear headphone convert recently, having used the Logic3 Ferrari Cavallino T350 headphones a few weeks ago. In the past my experience of over ear headphones had been cheap plasticy cheap headphones, that had awful sound quality as you’d expect. When I got the …
Google have (finally!) updated Gmail for Android to take advantage of the the notification actions that were introduced in Jellybean last summer. Users can now reply, archive or delete directly from the notification curtain if they’re running Android 4.1 or higher. It’s a really useful feature which Google …
Most generic car kits just aren’t man enough for the Samsung Galaxy Note II, so Kidigi have addressed this with a nice, meaty dedicated kit. Kidigi are a specialist third party mobile technology accessories company from Hong Kong that caters for most popular handsets (they even do Blackberry …
Dudley. Deep in the Black Country it’s home of the delightful Merry Hill and people who “spake loik may”. Soon though people in Dudley will be bathed in 4G at 800MHz. Great news, you’d think, but it’s actually part of a test. Digital Spectrum Limited will be spending …
About time that Blackberry is getting some love from Foursquare – it’s been a staple of blackberry users from its announcement on the original platform, now BB10 devices are getting the same love that Foursquare has splashed on iOS owners. Along with the usual smattering of bug fixes …
I’m old school. I’ve got a standard sized SIM card. A card of this size has been around for quite some time and over the years my Orange SIM has prostituted itself with so many handsets I’ve lost count. It’s only when I actually call Orange and they …
It isn’t a leak when it’s announced by your director of product management at BlackBerry Middle East, who announced the existence and likely shipping date of the 10 inch BlackBerry PlayBook. Mike Al Mefleh made the comments during the BlackBerry users forum in Dubai, stating “We have a …
Last night in New York City something rather large happened. You may have noticed. The Galaxy S4 was announced and to mark that occasion we’re going to have a special edition of the podcast. We’ve pushed it back one day and tonight we’ll record it and get it …
Google and LG have been criticised a lot recently. First of all for not having millions of the Nexus 4 phones waiting for people to buy. Secondly once they sorted out the Nexus 4 stock people started to complain about the official case. The official bumper has been …
iZettle is a really handy and affordable way of taking card payments using your mobile phone. No longer do you have to be a big business or shop to be able to receive card payments, perfect if you are always buying lunch at work or for friends who …
Just yesterday we looked at the UK networks and checked to see who was going to carry the Samsung Galaxy S4. The only network who hadn’t confirmed were O2, but they’ve just uypdated their Twitter feed with confirmation that they too will be carrying the handset. You can …
AdBlock Plus, the app that blocks those pesky mobile ads has been removed from the Play Store by Google. In a move that could be seen to be protecting their own revenues, Google are running the risk of upsetting the many users that only want the content of …
By now the news is everywhere. Andy Rubin is leaving Android, the project he brought with him to Google in 2004, to work in their famous Project X department (responsible for Google Glass). There are many theories as to why Andy Rubin has left the effort – some …
Cabling is always a bit of a nightmare. I can’t be the only one who’s got a knotted mess of cabling behind sofas, under beds and in the foot-well of my car. The microUSB charging standard should be just that – a standard. For most of the time …
Ok, it’s finally here! The last post I made about the Pebble was back in January where I roughly estimated that we’d have our Pebbles with us by the end of March, so my estimate seemed pretty realistic. Those that backed the Kickstarter project are more than familiar …
Time for a quick round-up on which networks will be picking up the Samsung Galaxy S4. Now, if I’m a betting man, I’d put £10 on all of the networks picking it up, but here’s how things stand currently.. T-Mobile T-Mobile have stated that they will carry the …
In a move that I can only describe as baffling, Google have announced that their free online news reader app, Google Reader, will be shut down on July 1st. The system alllows you to read and process RSS news feeds (like our very own one here) in a …
