Category: General

Google+ Comes To The iPad

Yes folks, now you can Hangout with your friends and catch up on your streams on the iPad. Google have released an update for the iOS Google+ app which is now optimised for the popular Apple tablet and it includes Retina Support. With Full iPad support, you can …

Mobile security – You never know you need it, until you need it

Earlier in the week I received a mobile phone to review. This isn’t unusual, but what I found on it was. There was a definite “pre-owned” feel to it. No, it wasn’t scratched. It wasn’t damaged in any way. Instead it had stacks of data on it. Someone …

Motorola MOTOSMART Budget Android Device

Motorola announced today a new budget Android device coming in the next few weeks, they say that the device will be available by the end of July on T-Mobile, here in the UK at a very respectful £99.99. Are you looking for your first Android device and have …

Why pay for mobile broadband?

Not a day goes by without any of us using the internet, somewhere along the line this has to be paid for. Whether you are paying your isp for the internet at home or whether you pay your mobile provider for internet, or even heaven forbid you pay …

JollaMobile are set to give Meego the life it deserves!

Now many of you out there may have heard of Nokia and their much heralded N9. The N9 was the first, and only, smartphone to run Meego; a pleasant little OS which was widely described as a ‘breath of fresh air’ when it was shown off last year. …

Patent Wars: Now Galaxy Nexus Sales Ban Overturned

In what could be seen as a surprise move the ban on the sales of Google’s flagship Galaxy Nexus handset has been overturned by the appeals court. No reason has been given for the overturning however Apple have until Thursday to appeal.  The full trial is due to …

Gear4 IceBox Edge iPad Case Review

I’ve been on the lookout for a case for my iPad 2 that looked good, didn’t add too much bulk or weight and would stop the back from getting scratched when I put it down on my wooden table. I’ve been using the Gear4 IceBox Edge for the …

Exploding Galaxy S3 was microwaved!

A couple of weeks ago we reported on a possible case of an exploding Samsung Galaxy SIII.  It had been claimed by a user in Ireland that his S3 exploded whilst on his in-car charger. Appearing on Samsung’s global blog are details of how they contracted an independent investigator (Fire …

SoundWave SW50 Bluetooth Speaker Review

Whilst many smartphones now come with in-ear headphones and on-board technology to make your tunes sound better, there’s still a certain amount of disappointment when you use the external speaker on your phone for playing music. Sound quality is also a bit pants when using the external speaker …

Review – Doro PhoneEasy 610 (one out of three ain’t bad)

Okay, it’s not cool, it’s not smart, but the Doro PhoneEasy 610 is a phone at least! A phone which deserves a mention because of what it achieves by not being cool or smart. Why am I reviewing a feature phone? Despite his age, my elderly father has …

Amazon About to Enter Phone Market?

Reports coming from Bloomberg indicate that Amazon could be about to enter the mobile handset market and are said to be in the process of acquiring patents to protect themselves from possible litigation. The Chinese mobile manufacturer Foxconn is reported to be working with Amazon on the device.  There is …

Some speed improvements

Overnight we’ve implemented some speed enhancements and back-end processing to the site which should greatly improve page rendering speed. If you do notice any weirdness, please let me know via the contact form, especially if you notice pages jumping from the mobile version of the site to the …

Another problem for RIM as the carriers complain!

The same week RIM announced their planned saviour, BB10, was delayed, they posted another loss and now the company has also heard rumblings from carriers that they’re not overly content either. Bloomberg has claimed that carriers like AT&T and Verizon have requested that RIM reduces the cost of …

Google Maps Indoors Now For The UK

One feature that has been available on Google Maps in the US for a while is “Maps Indoors”.  This feature gives the user an indoor floor plan of certain locations.  The good news is that this is now available for selected locations here in the UK, no update …

On-line, underground.

If you’re a regular reader, and not one of those naughty people who just pop by without even offering a cup of tea, you’ll know about the WiFi rollout across the Tube in London. As we reported previously, they’ve worked to push out the service these last few …

We all love shooting zombies, right?

Madfinger the developer behind great games Samurai Vengeance and Shadowgun have released their latest which is a zombie shooting type game. There is a brief back story to it, but I quickly jumped past that and started shooting zombies. As with all of Madfinger games they are Tegra …

3CX Mobile Device Manager Review

In recent years we’ve seen a shift in the way that mobile devices are used in the workplace. Previously you may have had a Blackberry or Microsoft Pocket PC dropped on your desk. Things were locked down, secure and managed. Now, with the advent of “Bring Your Own …

Bored? Hazardous Balloon Will Help!

Do you find that you get bored during your commute, in the evenings or those wet weekends waiting for the new week to start. Hazard Creation have come up with a neat little game that can kill a few hours here and there. The app is simple. My …

Boot2Gecko becomes Firefox OS and gets official launch partners!

Boot2Gecko has been one of Mozilla’s top priorities lately as they rush to get their HTML5 based OS off the ground and into the turbulent mobile world as soon as possible. So far Mozilla has done a good job getting companies on board, they’ve already got; Deutsche Telekom, …

Patent wars, as seen by Dilbert

Lawsuits, appeals, injunctions, import bans. Today Apple have won a ban on the Galaxy Nexus in the USA and it now looks like Google will be supporting Samsung to get it overturned. Meanwhile, the new Google Nexus Tablet is apparently infringing patents held by Nokia. The patent scraps …

Dive into our all-new podcast!

Hey, you lovely reader. Have you had a listen to our Podcast ? If not, it’s definitely worth listening too. Each week our team get together to discuss the weekly happenings. Right now we’re on episode 3 but you can get all of the podcasts here and there’s …

32GB Class 10 microSD going cheap

Sure, we’ve never heard of “TechPro” either, but £12.99 for a Class 10 microSD card? That’s gotta be worth a gamble, right? Link – Amazon

Deal alert – Samsung Galaxy Nexus £319.99 from Expansys

So you fancy a bit of jelly bean action, eh? Funny how that sentance would have got you sectioned last week.. Anyhow the lovely people at Expansys have the “flagship” Google phone, the Galaxy Nexus at a rather impressive £319-99 with free shipping. Jelly bean will be officially …

Face Unlock security gets tightened in Jelly Bean

Google has given the security of its Face Unlock feature a bit of careful consideration in the upcoming Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release of Android. The feature was introduced with the dawn of ICS as a way to unlock your phone through face recognition, but shortly after it’s …

Three Xperia S users receive Ice Cream Sandwich

Now, don’t mis-read that headline. There’s more than three people with the ICS / Android 4.0 update, we’re talking about the mobile network “Three”. They’ve announced that their Xperia S customers can.. err.. “proactively download the Android Ice Cream Sandwich update”. What this basically means is that you …

RIM post large losses, cut jobs and delay Blackberry 10

5000 jobs are set to be axed by Blackberry maker RIM as the company announced a $518m (£334m) net loss in the three months to June 2nd. This, when compared to the $695m profit made in the same period last year, shows how the tide has turned. Sales …

Open webOS Community Edition released

For those of you who have a HP Touchpad, the Open webOS project came one step closer to fruition this week. The Open webOS team have released a package for the Touchpad that allows users to “learn how the TouchPad works, modify your TouchPad experience and then apply …

Jellybean for the Galaxy Nexus hits XDA

Well that didn’t take long. Although Android 4.1 will officially be coming in July as an OTA update for existing devices, those wizards over at XDA already have the stock version released yesterday at Google IO available to download and flash to your device. If you know how …

Play Angry Birds against Heikki Kovalainen for free!

There have been some strange motorsport sponsorship deals over the years. Who’d have thought the clothing company Benetton would have a team, for example, and if I told you ten years ago that a soft drinks manufacturer would have a championship winning team, you’d have looked at me …

Update – Nokia 808 PureView coming to Orange, but not O2

The Nokia 808 Pureview is, it has to be said, a strange phone. Without “that camera” it’d probably be overlooked. It runs on a 1.3GHz CPU, it’s got a 360 x 640 pixel 4″ screen and has the usual WiFi, GPS, FM radio, microSD etc However, it’s got …

Are you on the right plan?

Let’s be honest. Look at your phone. Did you get a good deal? Many people choose their phone based on a monthly budget, and want the phone for nothing up-front. For many it’s typical to pay around £36 a month for two years, but you can find yourself …

Everything Everywhere 4G LTE trial in Cumbria Benefiting Local Businesses

As regulars visitors will know we here at Coolsmartphone are supporters of 4G Britain, Everything Everywhere’s campaign to increase awareness of the consumer and business benefits that faster, more reliable fourth generation mobile services will bring to the UK. A very good example of these benefits can be see …

Calling all app developers – We want YOU!

If you are involved in the development of apps or games then we want to hear from you. Regardless of platform, be it Android, Blackberry, iOS, Symbian or Windows Phone. We’d like you the developers to come to our forums and post details about your products. We can …

Carphone Warehouse Launch “Bill Angel”

Carphone Warehouse have today announced the launch of a new app that they have called “Bill Angel”. Designed to  track your call, text and data usage, the app will warn you when you reach your limits thus making it easier to stick to your tariff allowances. Currently available for …

Samsung Galaxy S3 MHL HDTV Adapter Review

So, you have a quad core beast of a handset, and it seems a shame to contain all that power to one (admittedly rather large and beautiful) mobile phone display. Step in the official Samsung HDTV adapter for the Galaxy S3.. The included video demonstrates the capabilities of the …

NFC – What you need to know *Updated* with forum link

NFC stands for Near Field Communication you may have seen it in shops now as contactless payment basically its a set of standards for smartphones that enables the transfer of data such as text or numbers between two NFC enabled devices. NFC tags, like stickers, key fobs or …

Wimbledon App Now Available on iTunes and Google Play

The football may be over for England but the great British summer of sport rolls on with the Wimbledon Tennis Championships starting today and we bring you news of the official Wimbledon app!! Follow all the action LIVE during the fortnight with the official Wimbledon app. The All …

Are screen sizes out of control?

Following the recent releases of large screened super phones from the likes of HTC and Samsung there has been a lot of discussion over whether the mainstream phone market is ready devices of this size. So are we ready for larger screens? Well with the pre-orders for the …

Virgin go unlimited – for just £21 a month

Today Virgin Media are going head-to-head with the Three “One Plan” and T-Mobile “Full Monty” tariff. However, the Virgin “Premiere” plan dishes up unlimited data at a lower price point – just £21 per month for unlimited data and unlimited texts. The network, which piggy-backs Everything Everywhere, is …

Samsung Woos iPhone Users with Free Software

Samsung have stepped up their undeclared war with Apple by offering free software to help users defecting from iOS transfer their media, contacts and archived text messages. The software also enables users to continue to use Apple’s iTunes software to manage their Android handset…a sure selling point. Easy …