Category: General

Should we bring the forum back?

Today we had an interesting discussion amongst the brilliant writers here at Coolsmartphone. It’s a discussion that is still going on now, and emails are flying around pretty quickly. This got me thinking. I kinda miss the forum in a way. Discussions like the one we’re having via …

Official UEFA 2012 App Launched

Football or for our stateside visitors Soccer is once again about to explode to the fore with the advent of Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. To accompany this extravagaza Orange in conjunction with UEFA have released the official Euro 2012 app across 8 (yes, eight) mobile platforms …

OneCable – Reduce your cluttered cable collection

Hey, you lovely, lovely people. How would like a cable that does (almost) everything? This OneCable Sync and Charge cable should hopefully clear away some of those random cables that are probably cluttering up your home. It costs £9.99 and uses the seatbelt-style retractable mechanism to keep everything …

European networks kick Nokia when they’re down

Reuters are reporting that European carriers faith in Nokia is quite low at the moment. They’ve gone as far as to say “If the Lumia with the same hardware came with Android in it and not Windows, it would be much easier to sell” This comes off the …

US: MGM Joins the Play Revolution

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer have today joined forces with Google Play and You Tube to add over 600 titles for rental in the United States and Canada. This means there are now five of the six major studios and over ten independent movie studios, currently offering movies for rent on YouTube and …

Google Drive Launching for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS

Following this report earlier in April, a draft release from one of Google’s partners reveals details of the upcoming challenger to Dropbox, Google Drive. Rolling out with 5gb of storage for all, and operating from https://drive.google.com this could be all set to be a major competitor to Dropbox.   It …

ASUS opens registrations for Transformer Prime GPS dongle

When the Transformer Prime launched there were a lot of complaints about poor GPS signal and as a result, ASUS have decided to release a GPS dongle that can be added to the device to improve the signal. ASUS announced yesterday on twitter that registrations were now open …

Andriod App: Minimal Twidget (alpha)

From the maker of the highly rated Minimal Reader Pro comes this alpha version of Minimal Twidget. For some time I have been looking for a clean, slick and scrollable twitter widget that is easily configurable and fits in with the overall look of my homescreens.  Minimal Twidget alpha seems …

Samsung 16GB microSD going cheap, today only

Shh.. don’t tell anyone, especially not that guy in the office who doesn’t wash and sits with his headphones on all day. Those eXpansys people are flogging a Class 10 Samsung 16GB microSD card for £12.99, but it’s for today only and stock is limited. Go go! Link …

How the blind use smartphones

Have you ever looked in the Accessibility options on your phone? There’s a load of options that you’ve probably never really tried. However, for those with eyesight problems these options are invaluable and this YouTube video from Tommy Edison shows how he uses his iPhone 4S to communicate …

Targus Click-In Case for iPad Review

The Targus Click-In is a case which, from the front, resembles Apples leather smart cover but where it differs is that it also offers protection for the back of the device for the same price. I’ve been using it for over a month, here are my thoughts. The …

Three launch the Galaxy Y

The entry-level Galaxy Y may not be for everyone, but for the money this will get many onto the smartphone ladder and looks pretty swish too. Powered by an 832MHz CPU it’s got a 2 megapixel camera, 3.0” QVGA screen and it sounds like Three are chucking in …

WoodPad Review

If you’re anything like me, sometimes you want somewhere to put your iPad when it doesn’t need to be in your hand. I’m always concerned if I lay it down somewhere that the back will get scratched or it’ll get knocked over. Both of those problems are solved …

The Google Doomsday Scenario – Are You Safe?

If like me you have an Android phone, the chances are that your life is inextricably linked to Google.  You probably have a Gmail account.  Your contact book is stored on Google’s servers, if you are one of the 100million users that signed up to Google+ or use …

Are you a polite mobile user?

What happens when you’re in the middle of a phone conversation and head to the checkouts? I’ve done it a few times, and you have to decide. Do I drop the call with my wife / husband / boss and pay attention to the checkout lady or do …

Google Currents Goes International

In December 2011 Google released Google Currents for Android and iOS in the United States.  This app let users explore online magazines and other user generated content. Since the release users have requested that the app be made available internationally and that the speed of updating increases. From …

Favourite Android Apps: WiFi File Transfer Pro

Like most smartphone users I  have apps that I simply cannot do without and WiFi File Transfer certainly fits into that bracket. Put simply, WiFi file transfer allows you to upload and download files from your phone to your PC over your wireless network without the need for …

Instacast for iOS review

Recently I realised I had a problem. I listen to a lot of podcasts and the built in iOS way of handling these is problematic. They are downloaded from the iTunes app and listened to in the podcast section of the Music app which is confusing from the …

Gadget Show Live 2012

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the trade only day of Gadget Show Live 2012 at the NEC in Birmngham. This was a great experience and I am grateful to Otone Audio who were good enough to provide my ticket for me to attend. I will hopefully …

Sopcast Now Available On Android

Sopcast, the popular streaming application is now available on the Android platform. Currently in beta, the app runs on any Android device currently using version 2.2 or above. Sopcast say that as well as supporting P2P live channels it can play most types of local audio and video …

Save Coolsmartphone – The winners

OK, short version. About a week ago we found out that this very site was going to be taken off-line. It all revolved around a rather substantial excess bandwidth charge. Thankfully, you guys cam to our rescue and generously donarted your own hard-earned cash to keep the ship …

Facebook to buy Instagram

The Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has today announced his plans to buy the popular Photo taking/sharing website Instagram. The deal, which is still to be approved by the regulatory bodies, is said to be worth $1 billion, made up of cash and shares. I am new to …

In app advertising impacting battery life

Recently I carried out a full reset of my lovely Samsung Galaxy Nexus as it couldn’t survive more than 4 hours away from a charging source, truly shocking! I went through all my settings and my apps and removed any that I thought could be causing the problem …

UPDATE – The biggest Coolsmartphone giveaway

Three days ago we had a rather huge problem. Some very unexpected charges were added onto our monthly hosting costs for one of our servers. It seemed that we’d breached some “fair use” policy regarding “unlimited” bandwidth. Either way, we had until Friday to pay an unbelievable amount …

Tesco Tops Which? Satisfaction survey

It has been announced that Tesco Mobile has come top in Which? magazines annual Mobile Phone Satisfaction Survey for 2012. Beating competition from the big four providers, the supermarket was the only network to achieve a 5 star rating for cost. Tesco claim that this is due to …

Ofcom to make 0800 numbers free, even from mobile networks

Here in the UK you can dial an 0800 number and it’ll be free. However, it’s only free if you’re using a landline. If you’re using a mobile phone you suddenly become all special and the networks delight in adding a fee for you to call it. The …

Numbers are everything… Can Microsoft reverse the trend?

Figures recently released  by comScore reveal a telling story regarding market share for the major smartphone manufacturers in the United States. Perhaps the biggest suprise is the fall of Microsoft’s share of the market from 5.2% in November ’11 to only 3.9% in Februrary ’12. Microsoft can only …

Instagram (finally) hits Android

18 months after its release on iOS, Instagram has finally come to Android. For those of you unfamiliar with the app, Instagram popularised the use of applying various filters to photos, making quick edits and then sharing them online.  Although the concept has been copied to death, Instagram …

A status update, and a massive competition.

Morning all. I’ve been writing on this site for 10 years now and, I’ve got to confess, the last few hours has been amazing and shocking in equal measures. Our main problem is that our “unlimited” bandwidth didn’t turn out to be quite so “unlimited” after all. We’ll …

Some rather urgent news

We have a bit of a problem. It’s an issue we get every year in February whilst covering the Mobile World Congress, but this year it’s one we can’t get around. Our coverage of the event means a massive hike in traffic. In years past we’ve seen bandwidth …

HTC One X and S heading to Orange

After hearing last week that Three had announced the HTC One X and S would hit their stores on Thursday, earlier today we heard that one half of Everything Everywhere were planning to launch the phones on the same day. It only seems right then that the other half …

The Oona – Lick it, stick it !

So, we reviewed The Oona recently and filmed a hands-on video. However, we pretty much ruined the original video so I set about re-filming it today. The result is below but I wanted to see just how versatile this stand actually is. The Oona is a pretty unique …

HTC One X and One S on T-Mobile from Thursday

A fairly brief but self-explanatory email has just popped in from T-Mobile. They’ll be retailing the excellent HTC One X and the slim One S from this Thursday, so if you’re reaching the end of your contract or you’re looking to switch, check their site to get your …

Google Drive – Cloud Storage

Google have seemingly been a little slow on the uptake of cloud storage, especially as they currently hold 7339 terabytes of emails in the Gmail service, offering over 7gb per email account. At the moment, details are sketchy, with no firm launch date or pricing information. The screen …

Testing O2 LTE

I have arrived in London for the first day of O2 LTE 4G testing using a LTE modem kindly supplied by the network.  If you did not know, O2 have a test 4G network covering 40km distance in London and selected websites have been given a dongle to …

O2 customers get to Go On & On

A new tariff from O2 will dish out unlimited minutes and unlimited text with prices starting at £26 a month if you keep your current phone. There’s a decent data allowance too – 1GB. The plan prices go up if you’re bundling with a new phone and start …

Review – The Oona

Another stand for you now but this one is a bit different. It’s not just one stand, it’s many, many stands all in one. A multi-purpose stand that you can construct and adapt to your needs. Their Oona website has just one video to show it in action …

RIM Posts big quarterly loss

Well, we kinda knew that RIM were going through a rough patch, but figures released today show a loss of £78 million in the last three months. This compares to a £588.1 million profit for the same period last year. The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet failed to impress and, …

Can you film a movie on a smartphone?

The BBC have filmed a miniture movie but, instead of using expensive HD broadcast cameras, they used a smartphone instead. They’ll be showing how it was done later but the results, we must admit, are rather good. Now sure, there’s going to be some slick BBC editing and …