Category: General
Recently we published an article about how most of the power usage of free Android apps actually goes towards displaying the ads. Angry Birds, for example, apparently uses “70% of it’s power draw to upload information and download ads”. Presumably it’s an even higher percentage for other less …
There appears to be a bug affecting GMail on Android handsets this morning. It seems to be affecting several different manufacturers, so the problem is most likely at Google’s end. It’s quite an odd bug, as it appears to only affect certain accounts, even on the same …
The rumoured April 5 launch of the HTC One is looking confirmed now following a leak of inventory information from O2. It also reveals a potential late April debut for the Sony Xperia P and Xperia U models. Earlier this month our roving team managed to get up …
Want to win a Freetalk HD camera and headset? This is a great prize for video calls and its courtesy of our friends at Skype. The kit costs around £60 and we’ve got three of these excellent webcam and headset packs to give away. Skype, of course, is …
Got the Galaxy SII on Orange? Is it branded? Don’t fancy putting a ROM on it yourself? Well, if you tick all those boxes then you’ll have to wait a little bit longer for your Ice Cream Sandwich update. A Twitter update from Orange gives no firm date …
Thanks to the kind team at O2, I have managed to get myself onto the very limited trial of 4G LTE in London currently being run by O2 UK who are owned by Telefonica. Currently a 40km section of the capital has been enabled with this new LTE …
HTC clearly have a thing for audio at the moment, best shown buy their $300 million purchase of Dr Dre’s Beats Audio, and the subsequent highly rated integration into their new products. So that’s the sound taken care of, but what about content? Well looks like HTC have …
We like Giffgaff. They’ve done things a little differently and built up quite a following. Today, though, has not been a good day. A major service outage hit the network – one that took almost 8 hours to fix. Calls, texts and data failed completely around mid-morning today …
T-Mobile have joined many other networks in announcing availability for the slightly different iPad 3 new iPad. It should be arriving in stores today, with T-Mobile promoting the fact that their joint Everything Everywhere network and “advanced 3.5G rollout” can offer much improved coverage and speeds. You can …
We get a few press releases and research results posted through our door here at Coolsmartphone towers. This one flashed up on our radar and well, we figured it was worth telling you about. The Geek Squad asked 1,837 people about their mobile phone usage and found that …
It’s been a good few months since we looked at the Orange Signal Boost technology. Now it’s available in more and more handsets on Orange and solves that “in building coverage problem” you may have experienced. During my completely unscientific research, I’ve found that networks using the 900MHz …
O2 have confirmed via Twitter that they will be offering up the HTC One X from April 5th – just 4 weeks from today. There’s no news on pricing or plans just yet though. We do, however, have some HTC One X deals on O2 if you’re interested. …
Everything Everywhere have been given the green light by Ofcom to, in principle, use some of their 1800MHz spectrum to roll out LTE. T-Mobile and Orange already use 1800MHz for their existing 2G networks, but have enough “room” to roll out 4G LTE ahead of other networks, who …
Here in London there’s been a big push to try and get WiFi available in the Tube. London Mayor, Boris Johnson, and Transport For London have been linked with an earlier deal with Huawei. Unfortunately this didn’t see the light of day.. or should that be the dark …
Remember the Sony LiveView? It was like a watch, but a bluetooth accessory that connects to any Android phone, showing texts, emails and various other features through plug ins available from the Android Market (sorry, Google Play shop!). Original costing a fairly steep £70, Play.com have a …
If you’re looking for a Android tablet for not-much-money then the Expansys sale is worth a look. There’s more than 50% off the S7 Slim we reviewed – now £109.99, whilst the Storage Options Scroll tablet is going for £89.99 – that has a 7″ capacitive screen. The …
This diddy little gadget is called the Tivizen Digital TV receiver. It’s surprisingly small, about the size of a credit card and the thickness of a normal smartphone. Put simply, this just grabs TV signals and then pumps them out over a WiFi hotspot that it creates. You …
Vodafone have today launched the Samsung Galaxy Note on their UK network. Available online using the Vodafone Store you can get your own Note on various deals depending if you are a business or personal customer there is a plan for you starting from as little as £26 a …
There’s a great article from Bloomsberg Business week that I wanted to share, involving a study with Symantec on what people do with your lost smartphone once they get their hands on it. As part of the study, Symantec ‘lost’ a total of 50 phones in the US …
If you’re looking at this on an Orange data connection then hello! This afternoon a large portion of the UK lost any sort of data connection. It wasn’t just traffic, there was no 3G or GPRS logo at all. Switching to the T-Mobile network didn’t do anything either. …
Hey you. No, not you. You in the jeans. Come close, and keep this one to yourself. If you’re quick you can get your hands on this Transcend 32GB Micro SDHC card for just £13.99 tomorrow (Friday). The offer kicks off at midnight, so if you want to …
Had notification this morning that my Lumia 800 phone has a o/s update which now takes it to 7.10.8107.79 this fixes the frustrationg dissapearing keyboard among other things as well. Full list of fixes below On-screen keyboard. Fixes an issue to prevent the keyboard from disappearing during typing. …
We are Live at the ThreeMWC event here in London bringing you news and any announcements as they happen plus plenty of photos and other content ThreeMWC Event
New plans will shortly be added to the Three offerings to stop out-of-bundle data charges. The network has already delivered “The One Plan” for those wanting the unlimited data experience, but now the “Ultimate Internet” offer something pretty similar – and plans start from just £18. The Essential …
Samsung have just officially announced a new Galaxy device, but it isn’t the one everyone is waiting to hear about. The new device is named the Samsung Galaxy Pocket and is small in size measuring 103.7 x 57.5 x12mm with a small 2.8inch display. The device will come …
So, you know how it is. You’ve got one of those home phone and broadband packages but, when you call a mobile phone, it’s not included in the deal. Somehow, every month, you go way beyond the “headline figure” that got you hooked into the deal in the …
Remember this stonking 41mp monster Nokia announced last week at Mobile World Congress? Well it appears Nokia’s Jo Harlow has all but confirmed the company are using that technology in upcoming Windows Phones. The actual quote is “I can’t say precisely when, but it will not take very long.” …
The final day of Mobile World Congress here in Barcelona and, although the crowds are starting to thin out, it was perhaps the best time to go to the very back of these great halls and seek out companies that have great products and ideas but don’t always …
What is it about a brand? I had a pretty long conversation this evening about just that. Sure, specs and build quality matter. Innovation, ease-of-use and simplicity matters. However, there’s a definite brand following that people might not admit to. Take Apple for example. Truth be told, there’s …
Missing some Mobile World Congress information? Want to know all about the CBOSS girls but can’t find the story? Are you looking for our first unboxing of the Xperia S? Maybe the HTC One Series pictures? Don’t worry, we’ve got all our coverage right here and down the …
OK, we wouldn’t normally post anything like this but we’re here in Barcelona reporting live from Mobile World Congress. Right now the gates are locked and riot police, as they have been for a number of days now, are standing outside. Today their numbers appear to have swelled …
Every year, without fail, the infamous CBOSS girls send attendees towards their stand. This year they’re doing more leaflet drops but never fail to pull men in like a tractor beam of hotness. Here’s a quick couple of videos. Sorry about this.. we’re only human 😉
Three have posted on their blog this morning that “4G” is coming to the UK on their network (Three have now reworded this to state that this is HSPA+42 and NOT LTE to clear up any confusion). At home I get speeds of around 10Mbps off-peak times using …
Whilst attending Mobile World Congress here in Barcelona we know too well about the expense of roaming data and to be able to use your phones outside of your home country. Thankfully this could all change!. Why?, Read the information below and let out a little smile once …
Vodafone and Visa have announced a deal to bring NFC to the masses this year using your smartphone. Orange have been actively promoting NFC since joining Everything Everywhere group especially and now Vodafone are getting in on the game Full (and long) press release below…. Near Field Communication, or NFC …
Orange have today sent out a press release with information on a new pricing scheme for roaming in the EU including access to a new smartphone application which will let you track your use when roaming, especially good when it comes to roaming data use!. Check below for …
Wireless charging ? We had to give this a try. The Duracell Powermat promises just that. In reality you need a special case to get it to “talk” the Powermat, but for those having that already this shouldn’t be a problem. In the demo we were shown an …
O2 have updated their coming soon page for the UK network and now show the Xperia S in March (we hope to be getting one tomorrow), the HTC One X, S and V all show as coming this April too. No word on any set availability or pricing …
So today I went to see Motorola. Two very nice gents (Bobby and Joel) took me through the latest Motorola gear and it started with this – a watch. Now, I should just point out that this isn’t just “a watch”, it’s actually more of a personal trainer …
Stop motion is cool. <End of statement>. We all appear to be transfixed whenever a stop motion production is realised, it lures us in with it’s time lapse photography and catchy background music…. why is that? Well I thought I’d investigate, and in particular look at a fairly …
