Category: General

Fragmentation – The scourge of the mobile OS

I've just read this DailyFinance article and I have to agree on the majority of the findings. Android developers are enjoying quite an open and easy application ecosystem. Apps appear in the Android Market without much difficulty and customers love th...

HTC Touch B – Woah there cowboy..

Remember that HTC Touch B that popped up on mobifrance the other day? Well, we didn't know a fat lot about it and for some reason other sites guessed that it'd run Android. Well, it doesn't. Worse still, it doesn't run Windows Mobile either. It actua...

Win even more stuff ! Give it a shake!

Although we're in the middle of giving away some stuff already, our friends at Orange have emailed in about some more chances to win. Think back to when you were a kid - sitting around the Christmas tree trying to figure out what presents you'd got. I...

HTC Rome pictured

Mobifrance.com has just posted pictures of this, the HTC Touch B. Known also as the HTC Rome it's very similar in appearance to the HTC Touch2 we reviewed some time back. The Google translation doesn't offer up much detail about this device though. If...

Coolsmartphone Giveaway

We're currently upgrading the coolsmartphone.com server and adding yet more horsepower. It's costing extra cash, which is why I had to ask for donations a few weeks back. We didn't get a huge response, so I've decided to raid the coolsmartphone.com cu...

Vodafone to make browsing free all day tomorrow

Hey, are you a Vodafone customer? Well, feel free to burn as much data as you want tomorrow, because Voda UK are letting you use the internet for absolutely nothing tomorrow (November 27th). Vodafone, it seems, are doing this to celebrate the Christma...

Sony Ericsson dropping 2000 employees

Engadget have just posted some rather sad news about Sony Ericsson. According to the story, 2000 employees are being let go, with 450 already dropped last year. The Research Triangle Park facility in North Carolina is set to close, with offices in Mia...

Another little site addition

I've learned through my many years of running this site that I do things best when I've had a drink, so - after a hugely long wait - I've had a beer and finally rigged the site so that you can go to "Next Page" or "Previous Page" …

HTC Launch new brand and advertising campaign

HTC have today launched a new ad campaign, further promotion of the "uuumazin" HTC HD2 and a new look website. A new brand slogan, "HTC - quietly brilliant", has also been revealed and you can watch two of the new TV ads below. Both ads feature the An...

Site changes – thanks for your comments

A few days ago I asked which direction we should be heading in. You guys are the backbone of Coolsmartphone, so it made sense to ask what the best way forward was. I've had bags of emails, Tweets, comments and forum posts on this and I want to …

I need your advice on something..

OK people, I need your help with something. Since we started covering Android alongside our WinMo coverage things have got a bit cramped. I'm currently working on a switcher so you can flick between "Android" news or "WinMo" news but, to make things e...

Our o2 XDA Venn Review

Right, I've got to apologise to o2. They sent us the o2 XDA Venn about a month ago and we've only just got the review out the door. We've not seen many "non touch" devices of late (other than the HTC Snap) so it's great to see a …

CTIA Wireless 09 – New handsets on show

The CTIA Wireless IT&E 09 event is currently taking place in San Diego. Microsoft have a range of new handsets including the Omnia II and this, the Samsung Interpid on Sptint. The Intrepid has the stock WinMo 6.5 build, a 3.2 megapixel camera and a QW...

Smartphones continue to thrive in the recession

If you're sitting down to do some lunch-time browsing I'd heartily recommend this BBC news story. It covers the recession and how it's affecting mobile phone sales. Whilst many "mid-range" handsets are being hit by the world credit problems, smartphon...

Orange bags DEXT Exclusive and opens new fun store

Orange have just announced an exclusive - the Android-powered Motorola DEXT will be on sale today only on their network. The first of the handsets will only be available from the new Milton Keynes store, situated in thecentre:mk. It's a new venture fo...

T-Mobile G2 Touch / Hero – Still no update!!

Right, just to bring you up to speed. The HTC Hero. It's an Android handset with the HTC Sense experience. Last month it had an update to take it from "brilliant" to "super-brilliant". HTC unlocked handsets got their update on September 15th and then ...

Car mobile ban in US too?

I'm not perfect. I'll admit that the phone has distracted me whilst driving in the past. Sometimes a text arrives and you may try to at least see who it's from. Here in the UK it's illegal to physically use the phone, so more people have Bluetooth kit...

Palm trimming staff

A little news snippet for you this morning from Palm. We're hearing that they're laying off staff in the US. We're doing a little more checking into this currently. Apparently it's due to "restructuring" but a number of staff have been dropped. Link -...

Meanwhile, over at Orange (Edit – and Vodafone!)

Yesterday we were pretty much the first people to reveal that the iPhone was officially coming to Orange. It explains why o2, who have had the exclusive rights on the iPhone here in the UK for two years, are sniffing around the HTC Leo / HD 2 and …

Site down, sorry about that.. (Update)

A quick apology. If you tried to get to coolsmartphone.com between 23:00 BST and 03:30 BST or anytime around 14:45 today then it probably would've failed. The news from our data centre is that an emergency router firmware upgrade went a little wrong l...

Get free WiFi at Starbucks

Listen up coffee lovers. If you're a regular at one of the UK's Starbucks then this will definitely be of interest. You'll no doubt have seen the BT Openzone WiFi access points but perhaps ignored them due to the price. However, there is a way to get ...

CoPilot 8 Competition

Fancy a chance of winning something ? We love giving stuff away and today there's a chance to win CoPilot Live 8. It's worth £73.99 and it'll work on either Android or Windows Mobile. You know the deal - this is an award-winning sat-nav system giving...

Vodafone serve up Android and WinMo treats

Oh what's this over on the Vodafone coming soon pages? Not one, not two, but three hot new phones we've been covering. First is the HTC Tattoo is coming to Voda exclusively in black next month. It's the Android device for the masses and has a 3.2 mega...

HTC Predator and Imagio to land on Verizon

American readers will soon be getting the HTC Whitestone in the shape of the "HTC Imagio" on October 6th for Verizon customers. The device, which features Windows Mobile 6.5 running on a 528Mhz CPU and a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera, will be one of t...

Yes, we’re changing…

As you may know, we started this site some 7 years ago. To begin with we were covering the classic "Smartphones" - those Microsoft-powered non-touch devices like the Orange SPV E200 and so on. We branched out to "Pocket PC's" and, just recently, we've...

Twitter problems? You’re not the only one

Having problems with you Twitter client on Windows Mobile or Android? Well, don't fret - you're not the only one. It appears that quite a few people are getting messages such as "Unknown response from server" or "Communications error" in Twitter clien...

The LG Watch Phone – Reviewed

The LG Watch Phone started selling a short while back and queues of people waited to get the first ones from Orange. Every now and then we have a look at cool gadgets, so this techradar.com review lets us know if it's worth buying. The verdict? Well, ...

T-Mobile increase roaming charges

Are you a T-Mobile customer? Are you going to the USA or Canada soon? Well, watch out. T-Mobile have just increased their roaming charges and, in some cases, it's quite a big increase. Switzerland, for example, has increased from 55p per minute to £1...

T-Mobile and Orange to merge

Rumours of a possible merger between Orange and T-Mobile have been stirring up since this Guardian story appeared on Sunday. Bids of £3.5bn to buy T-Mobile were received from Vodafone and o2 but rejected. Both bids were low because o2 and Voda would ...

o2 XDA Venn – Review approaching!

Back in September 2007 we spotted a cool-looking device called the Pantech C810. It was destined for a US launch on AT&T and the device had 3G / HSDPA connectivity, a 2 megapixel cam, GPS, 528Mhz CPU and Windows Mobile 6 as the OS (non-touch). It look...

Huawei-built Pulse comes to T-Mo

T-Mobile have announced the launch of their third Android handset in the form of this, the T-Mobile Pulse. It's a device we saw rendered just a week ago and has a 3.2 megapixel auto-focus cam, WiFi, GPS and a big 3.5" HVGA touchscreen whilst still mai...

Your right to cancel – Is Three ignoring it?

Starting a new contract is often a confusing affair. Finding the right phone, the right coverage and the right price is sometimes can take time. With more and more business done online we decided to take a look at what happens if you're not happy with...

Watch phone from LG on sale – queues form

We've been tracking the launch of the LG Watch Phone for the last few weeks. Today marked the first sales of the device and queues formed outside the Bond Street Orange store this morning as the watch phone arrived. John from Harogate travelled to get...

HTC Hero OS – on the Touch Dual!

No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you, that really is the HTC Hero Android OS running on a HTC Touch Dual. The ageing Dual first appeared a couple of years ago with Windows Mobile on board and, if I'm honest, I still like it. If you've still …

Microsoft launch software app for feature phones

News today that'll no doubt stir-up feelings with WinMo owners comes in the form of OneApp. It's designed to deliver access to apps such as Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, Twitter and others to feature phones. Oh and yes, those feature phones includ...

New software forums opened

We've just added two new sections to our forum dedicated to software. Head to WinMo Apps or Android Apps, whatever your flavour, and tell us what software we should be checking out. I've kicked things off in the Android section with some essential sof...

Acer Tempo M900 Unlocked – Get it cheap!

This is the Acer Tempo M900. It runs WinMo 6.1 and it's got Acer's GUI interface (although we'd probably swap that for PointUI Home). It's a little bloated but there's a sliding QWERTY, auto-focus 5 megapixel shooter, 3-way jog-wheel, GPS, microSD car...

T-Mobile Pulse – Huawei Android phone rendered

Leak time. This is the new Huawei Android handset with a hastily edited T-Mobile logo splatted on top. Known as the "T-Mobile Pulse" it's just popped up on this web shop on pre-order. It (apparently) has FM radio, a 3.2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 3G...

LG Watch Phone to debut next Thursday

We've been keeping an eye on the LG Watch Phone for a while now. It's available from selected Orange stores next Thursday but lucky Stephen Fry has already managed to get one (I do envy his life at times). If you've got £500 washing around in your ba...

o2 XDA Venn Reviewed

4WinMobile have published a review of the o2 XDA Venn - the Pantech DUO C810 we spotted a couple of years back in the USA.This is a classic Smartphone with Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard (non-touch) powering the device. Under the hood there's a 528MHz Qu...