Category: General

Amazon announces Kindle Fire

Amazon have today finally unveiled their long awaited Android tablet, and newest addition to their Kindle family, the Kindle Fire. The device itself is a 7″ dual core tablet with an IPS display running Amazon’s heavily reworked version of Android 2.3. However the standout feature is the price: …

Apple voted number 2 in UK brand survey

According to this BBC post, Apple have been voted the coolest Tech brand in the UK. Aston Martin were number over all, with Apple taking second place. Let’s hope Apple can continue that trend after next week’s announcements, they have a lot to deliver! Source – BBC News

Get yourself 25% off and win with Skinflips

We’ve decided to tweak our Skinflips competition a little to include even make things a bit simpler. The prizes now include… 1st – £50 Voucher to spend on any Skinflips product 2nd – £30 Voucher 3rd – £20 Voucher We’re also giving everyone that enters a 25% discount …

Virgin customers can now use Orange too

Orange and T-Mobile customers have now been able to roam onto the merged “Everything Everywhere” network for about a year now. It’s setup currently so that you roam across if your normal signal drops but it’s still 2G-only. There’s hope that this will change to 3G roaming sometime …

All-you-can-eat data for everyone

Three have just announced that from 7th October, their fabulous “All-you-can-eat” data policy will be available on ALL plans! At a time when most networks are tightening up and reducing data allowances, Three’s One Plan stood out with its truly unlimited data. From 7th October Three will be …

Skinflips Competition!

A few weeks back we took a look at Skinflips. They’re quality protective skins (covers) for your phone, laptop, tablet or gaming device. Made in Germany, you can create your own image or choose from one of their brilliant designs. Fancy getting your own skin for nothing ? …

Apple Event – 4th October

New reports have come to light about the 4th October. Although these are still “maybe” there is some solid information included. The new report from the guys over at AllThingsD is that “October iPhone Event to be held on Apple Campus.” Yes, Apple are to hold the event at …

WordPress iOS App

The WordPress iOS app recently received an update. Now running on Version 2.9 it now includes some excellent extras. A rich editor has now been added and replaced the old one, use Quotes, Hyperlinks or Code tags frequently? No problem, it’s now easier. Above the keyboard you get …

Use Google +?

Recently The big G made its new social platform Google + into an open beta for all to join. Along with opening their gates to the world, they updated the G+ mobile apps for Android and iOS. Android being Google’s, got the update first and us Apple lovers …

iPhone 5 – Is It Nearly Here?

Apple loves to keep everybody guessing at what is to come and when. The good news is Al Gore let us know that there is definitely something coming next month. Al Gore, who is one of Apple’s board members let slip “Not to mention the new iPhones coming out next …

Three get the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman and Xperia Arc S

Three have announced that they will carry the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman this Autumn. Not only that, but they’ll also have the Xperia Arc S too. Sylvia Chind, Head Of Handsets at Three, stated.. Sony Ericsson have a great track record in delivering phones with great features …

Apple Event 4 October

Well that’s the rumour of the day anyway – this will be most likely the opportunity for Tim Cook to make his debut launching the latest Apple news since he took the reins from Steve Jobs. The iPhone 5 / 4S is sure to be announced and I’m …

One in ten primary school kids have an iPhone

It’s fair to say that we get lots of emails about surveys. This one, though, stood out quite a bit. A survey of 2000 parents of children aged 10 and under has revealed that 10% of kids own an iPhone. Shockingly, the survey also found that 10% of …

O2 Grab an exclusive on the HTC Rhyme

O2 have an exclusive on the new HTC Rhyme, announced earlier today. A tweet from their Twitter account states … Breaking news – we’ll be the only UK network to have the just announced HTC Rhyme! When can you get your hands on one? From 17 Oct! Link …

HTC Watch getting the big push

HTC are ramping up the marketing campaign for HTC Watch. It’s just like Lovefilm and offers over 1000 movies and TV shows to your device. It initially appeared during the launch of the HTC Flyer back in February and streams Hollywood blockbusters in superb quality to your phone …

O2 to carry the Sensation XE

The recently announced HTC Sensation XE will be arriving on O2 after the short Phones4U exclusive. A tweet on the official Twitter page reveals that the network will be picking up the dual-core 1.5GHz Android handset, which has the Beats Audio technology for “studio quality audio”. Link – …

Viewsonic V350 Dual Sim Smartphone now in stock at Expansys

A few weeks ago Viewsonic announced the dual sim V350 Android phone. It has a very basic spec and it runs Android 2.2, but it can use two sim cards at once. Oh and it’s cheap (£244.99 inc vat). Below is the spec for the phone. Dimensions (mm): …

T-Mobile are up to their tricks again

Damn them and their successful viral and TV ad campaigns. 😉 This new ad is rather good. I kinda wish I’d parked on a street somewhere last week.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5-i5DqbmdI

Hardware Review – Android Bluetooth Soundbox with Hands-Free

I should start this review by saying I’m not a big fan of Bluetooth speakers. They usually sound awful and it’s usually more practical to carry round something larger rather than sacrifice sound quality. I was pleasently surprised with this one though. The sonic performance of this green little fella is not …

Come on, you want one of these in your garden

This rather splendid video has been knocking around the t’interwebs for some months, but strangely it’s only appeared in our inbox today. The T-Mobile advert, which was put together by Saatchi & Saatchi, transforms the marvellous Angry Birds game into real-life. Sure, we know that the majority of …

HTC Sensation handsets on Three receiving Android 2.3.4

Three UK have approved the Android 2.3.4 update for the HTC Sensation handset today. The news comes from this Twitter post which advises owners to browse to Applications-> Settings-> About phone-> System Software Update-> Check now to get the latest information. Update – Three are currently waiting for …

Get Coolsmartphone on the move

Want to get all the latest iPhone, Windows Phone and Android news while you’re out and about?  Check out our mobile site from your phone now. We’ve just given things a facelift and you can now browse the site on more devices with proper scaled-down images, a full …

The iPhone is not cool…

Well according to the (acting) president of HTC America that is.  On the iPhone 5 hype: “Apple is innovating. Samsung is innovating. We are innovating. Everybody is innovating. And everybody is doing different things for the end consumers. I brought my daughter back to college — she’s down …

Review: Happy Owl Studios ‘The Wallet’ case for iPad

I’ve been looking for a case for my iPad to replace the standard Apple one for best part of a year now. I wanted something that would let me carry more than just my iPad so I didn’t have to juggle phones and wallets whilst showing off my …

HTC cleans up in the UK

HTC phones now account for 50.9% of UK Android phones – more than double their nearest rival Samsung (on a lowly 21.6%). That’s quite staggering for a company who used to only make rebranded products for other people – indeed their first Android phone was for T-Mobile. However, …

Xperia ray now in Orange coming soon section

The Sony Ericsson Xperia ray was spotted a short while back in the support section of the Orange website. We had the official confirmation from Orange shortly after but now you can sign up for either the black or white model through the coming soon pages. The Xperia …

Smartphone shipments outstrip feature phones

It’s official, more smartphones are sold that feature phones here in Western Europe. Stats from research firm IDC shows that Samsung is ahead with 13.9 million phones sold in the second quarter of 2011 (feature phones and smartphones), with Nokia behind on 9 million followed by Apple and …

Google launch Music Beta mobile web app

Although Google launched a native Android app alongside Music Beta, iOS users have so far been left out in the cold. However Google have now released a new mobile web app, allowing easy access to your cloud library through a browser.

App Review – Retro Recall

The idea behind this app, as the name suggests is to provide images of various retro films/toys/songs etc and includes a link to the relevant Wikipedia website for that particular subject. The app has the ability to set favourites and you can also share items by email, Facebook, …

Three Price Up Samsung Galaxy W

Three have their new brochure out and this shows off the Samsung Galaxy W with a price of £22 a month giving you 100 Minutes, 5000 Texts and 500MB Internet.  The Samsung Galaxy W will also be available on other plans including the popular One Plan giving you …

T-Mobile and Orange also offering the white Galaxy SII

Eeek.. OK, the white Samsung Galaxy SII is now almost everywhere. T-Mobile have now joined O2, Vodafone and Three in offering the handset. It’s free on T-Mobile on plans costing £35.75 or more per month. Edit – Looks like Orange is selling it too, so now every UK …

Sony Ericsson Xperia ray on the way to O2

O2 are also set to range both the Sony Ericsson Xperia mini Pro and the Sony Ericsson Xperia ray. The Xperia ray is just 9.4mm thick and has a 3.3″ 854×480 screen, 8.1 megapixel camera (with that clever Exmore R technology for better low-light shots) and is powered …

The beginning of the end of T-Mobile?

Everything Everywhere, the company formed by the “merger” of Orange and T-Mobile has a new executive Olaf Swantee, and on his second day in the job he has reduced the senior management team from 25 to 10 people. What stands out though, is that all the former T-Mobile …

White Galaxy SII now available on Vodafone

It’s been just days since we spotted the all-white Galaxy SII was on its way to Vodafone. Today it’s appeared on the Vodafone site and you can get the pearly white version for nothing on £36 per month plans. The white version is also available on Three on …

Virgin Media adds more grunt to Three, Orange and T-Mobile

If you’re browsing the web on Three, T-Mobile or Orange, listen up. A new deal has been struck with VIrgin Media Business to give the networks use of their network, plus they will add 14 regional datacentres to add extra bandwidth to the three networks. The deal is …

IFA – The booth babes

So, those of you who have read coolsmartphone.com for a while may remember a site called msmobiles.com. It’s been sold on now and redirects to another site. The guy behind msmobiles.com was Edward, and he’s sent us a report from the IFA Electronics Show. We weren’t going to …

We’re a little slow today…

Today we noticed some serious speed issues and drop-outs on the site. It is, as with a number of connectivity issues nowadays, due to a fibre-optic cable being cut. Usually fibre failures are due to thieves assuming that it’s copper cable and want it for the ever increasing …

Three Launch HSPA+ MiFi

Three have just launched their new MiFi device here in the UK with the biggest upgrade being access to the new high speed HSPA+ network which supports speeds of up to 21mb/s and gives you 40% faster speeds than the older device. It also comes with a nice …

App Review – Lingvo Dictionaries

There’s no doubt that the iPhone has made my life easier when it comes to travelling – from booking accommodation, to finding places to go and viewing a map of how to get there. Aiming to become the latest addition to my arsenal of travel-assisting apps is Lingvo …

App Review – ParcelGenie

OK, this one is for you busy people. The idea behind ParcelGenie is sending a gift to any recipient in your phone via the ParcelGenie app (there are other ways too, including Facebook). You don’t need to know the recipient’s postal address, just their phone number or email …