Category: General

Review – The Standeazy

Stands. They’re always a touchy subject here at Coolsmartphone. There’s usually a couple of things you have to put up with when you’re looking for one. For a start there’s a selection of stands and base units which you may have to carefully select to suit your specific …

Accessory Review: ZooGue Capacitive Stylus

Here at CoolSmartPhone we love peripherals and accessories for our devices. As Leigh’s recent videos on device stands have shown, we love those that are simple but effective even more! Enter the ZooGue Stylus. This device is primarily sold for iPad devices however can be used on any …

Vodafone prep the HTC One X and S

Old news this really, but people have seen it elsewhere and have nudged us about it. We heard that Voda were to take the HTC One X and One S back in February and they’ve now appeared on the Vodafone website. The One X looks to be coming …

UK Trumps Europe For News On The Go

That’s right…the United Kingdom leads the way…..albeit this time in the use of mobile devices to visit News-based sites. This is the outcome of a new report from comScore, the digital marketing intelligence company. According to comScore, over 45% of UK Smartphone users have accessed a News site …

Sky Anyime+, now through all ISP’s

Back in January Sky announced that their on-demand TV service “Sky Anytime+” would be opened up and available via any ISP. The exact date was a little foggy, but we’re now seeing it live. The service has been available through Sky broadband for a while now, but as …

Is poor battery life a price worth paying for free apps?

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 …

GMail bug affecting Android handsets

  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 …

O2 leaks HTC One launch date

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 …

Win a HD camera and headset !

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 …

ICS SII update for Orange customers not ready just yet

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 …

CoolSmartPhone Goes 4G LTE

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 buys MOG? Spotify beware!

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 …

Giffgaff get a little wet, major network outage ensues

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 …

New iPad on sale at T-Mobile, same price as old iPad 2

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 …

Don’t know how to text? Don’t worry, you’re not the only one

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 …

Signal Boost now available on more handsets

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 to offer up the HTC One X on April 5th

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 looking to get a head start on 4G

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 …

Virgin Media drop WiFi into the London Underground

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 …

Sony LiveView bargain – today only

  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 …

Expansys tablet sale now on

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 …

Tivizen Digital TV Receiver review

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 …

Galaxy Note Now On Vodafone UK

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 …

Data Security: Lock your smartphone

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 …

Hello again Orange data users

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. …

Grab deal on a Transcend 32GB – 24 hours only

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 …

Orange push out WP update

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. …

Live From ThreeMWC Event London

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

Three remove out-of-bundle data charges with new contracts

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 …

Orange bundle mobile calls into their landline deals

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 …

Nokia’s Pureview tech coming to Lumia Windows Phones

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.” …

MWC – MIPS helping to bring us better, cheaper devices

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 …

MWC – Is it all about the brand?

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 …

MWC – Have you missed something?

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 …

MWC – The protests

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 …

MWC – OK, we had to do it..

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 😉

HSPA+ 42 Comes To Three

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 …

Roaming Charges Set To Fall?

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 & Visa To Offer NFC

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 …