Category: General

Three Feel At Home – Speeds abroad on test

This has been a hotly debated topic. It’s understandable because, when you’re in the UK using Three on a brisk 4G connection, you get certain expectations about download speeds. It’s these expectations that you might take with you when you go abroad and, with the Three Feel At …

Cheotech USB Type C Keyring adapters – Review

So, you’ve got yourself one of the newest phones on the market with all the fancy pants features that you want. It is all going swimmingly. You’re downloading apps, getting it all just so. Then, without warning, up pops the all too familiar sign on the screen saying …

New Virgin Media TiVo box teased

Virgin Media, the UK cable TV/phone/broadband provider, has just teased us with a new TiVo powered set top box which will be made available to its cable TV customers later this year. Current details of the Virgin Media TiVo V6 are scarce, but we do have a pretty …

Three increase Feel at Home to 42 locations

Three were caused shockwaves in the industry when they originally announced “Feel at Home”. The roaming offer let’s you use your calls, texts and data in selected foreign countries, just as if you were home. Over time more and more locations have been added so customers can enjoy …

Google Maps update brings WiFi only mode and save to SD card function.

I’ve been an Android user since my first T-Mobile G1 way back in 2008, and as such watched and used Google Maps through its iterations and updates: the introduction of free navigation, the ability to download certain area’s for offline use, etc etc, with each iteration making improvements …

Want to look like you’ve just stepped off the USS Enterprise?

On Sunday I mentioned a particular YouTube channel that I like to follow (in addition to our rather fantastic channel, which you absolutely must follow too). It’s from a guy called Mat, who is known on YouTube as Techmoan. He also has a website, called Techmoan.com, and you …

Fancy playing your MP3’s in an 8-track player from the 1960’s?

Well no. Not many people have thought about doing this, I’m sure, but I’ve got in the rather geeky habit of following the Techmoan YouTube channel and his most recent video features a rather old piece of technology from the 1960’s called the “8-track”. The 8-track cartridge or …

KnowRoaming now offering unlimited data in over 90 countries

Remember that clever KnowRoaming sticker that we tried out? It sticks onto your existing SIM card but, when you go abroad, it’ll let you roam without that bill-shock problem. Now, for $7.99 (which is £6.09) per day, you can get completely unlimited data in places like Canada and …

Urbanista launches on-ear Seattle headphones

Back in June, we covered the new Urbanista mosaic earbuds, now the Swedish firm are back with their latest release. This time, Urbanista have released on-ear headphones called the Seattle range which will be launched in four different colours and will be available for £49.99 The Seattle headphones …

Remix arrives for Pixel C and Nexus 9

Yeah. We asked the question back in December. Was that Pixel C meant to have a Chrome OS? In my mind it’d certainly work better than Android, especially in that form factor. Now though, you can add one of our favourite alternatives (there’s been a FEW articles about …

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Availability

We’ve been contacted by a number of networks after the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 so here’s a brief run-down of their offerings.. EE They’ve confirmed that it’ll be available on their network and they’re obviously touting their superfast 4G network. The new handset will support …

BBC iPlayer viewer? You’ll need a TV licence.

For the last few years, if you watched everything on demand using the BBC iPlayer rather than tuning in live, it meant you didn’t have to pay the age-old subscription – the TV Licence fee. The British government and the BBC have wanted to close this so-called “iPlayer …

Vodafone want to stick brains into your bikini

Sitting out in the sun all day long might seem like a great thing to do, especially when you look out of the office window here in London to see nothing but rain. However, there’s risks associated with this, and Vodafone have been dreaming up ways to keep …

Wanna be part of this? Come on!

Fame and fortune. We can promise neither, but you can get your name onto the t’interwebs and help us review some kit and cover the latest news about mobile phones. We’ve been around quite some time now, and we’ve seen the competition come and go. We’ve got a …

Recovering Sony?

It’s no secret that despite making some nice devices, Sony has been struggling in the mobile phone space. This has led to severe problems within the rest of the company. This saw a new tack being taken by Sony with the launch of the Xperia X series. Ostensibly, …

GEAR4 launches its first WiFi multiroom speaker range

Up to now, if you wanted to have your audio streaming throughout your home and garden, perfectly in sync with each other, there was only really one option: Sonos, and this can be an expensive option. I have visited a home with a synced system, and to be …

EE offers up BT Sport to mobile customers

Building on their previous offer, EE are now making it even easier to get your sport fix. Customers on pay monthly plans can now just text “SPORT” to 150 to get six months of free access to the BT Sport App. Once you’ve got that, you can watch …

OnePlus3 soon available in Gold

There is no denying it OnePlus have definitely hit their mark on the fourth attempt at a phone. This time they promised a flagship killer and according to most reviews (including rather excellent one that can be read here), they nailed it. If there was a fly in ointment at …

Jide brings Marshmallow sweetness to Remix OS

We here at Coolsmartphone towers are big fans of Jide and their Remix OS. For those that have only just come across this, this is a desktop-friendly Android OS with windows and toolbars providing a full desktop experience. It is one of a number of Android x86 projects, …

BlackBerry announce their second Android device

BlackBerry, one of the past greats of smartphones, have just announced the DTEK50. This will be their second device running Android after the (also appallingly named) Priv. The Priv was a first for the company – it was the first to run Android rather than its proprietary BB10. Whilst it …

Three launches the bare Essentials

Going abroad is great. Using your phone as a hotspot is great too. However, if you don’t want to use your phone on holiday and don’t often turn it into a portable WiFi hotspot, there’s no real need for you to have a chunky plan which includes these …

Charity update

Hello all, hope you’re well. For the last few days I’ve been up on the Lake District. Not for a holiday, but for a rather grueling bike ride up 30% hills and a lot of very rugged mountains. It was a combined 20,000 foot climb in wind and …

Superbook – making your Chromebook redundant since July 2016

We have long been dreaming of the ability to make your Android phone more productive here at Coolsmartphone Towers. Today that dream came a bit closer to reality with a Kickstarter project called SuperBook, from the team behind Andronium OS. Here is a video of what it can …

Corning announce Gorilla Glass 5

Following on from, (what I always though strangely named) Gorilla Glass 4, Corning has officially announced Gorilla Glass 5. The company states that this latest generation of its strengthened glass will survive up to four times better than competing glass designs.  Corning says that in tests the new Gorilla Glass 5  was …

EE goes half price on Juice

It’s that time of year when every PR agency up and down the land is trying desperately to link their thing with Pokemon Go. Today it’s EE, who are dropping the price of their Juice Power Tube to half price in EE stores as people “continue their quest …

Argos to stock Anywhere SIM

Are you sick of coming up against a mobile signal black spot (first world problems and all that)? Take my house for instance, upstairs I get a 4G signal giving 40Mbps download speeds, go downstairs Nothing,  Nada. Well this is where Anywhere SIM may be the answer. It’ll …

VR on the iPhone with the Amir VR Glasses

When it comes to mobile VR, Android based devices such as Gear VR have grabbed most of the attention recently. As regular readers and listeners of the Coolsmartphone podcast will know my devices of choice are iOS based, so I was keen to see if there was a VR …

Mini Nintendo!

We keep getting this stock image. I’ve perhaps been looking at it too much. Is that a real hand? Is that a plastic hand? Who knows. It doesn’t look right. It doesn’t look right to me at all. Either way, this is a proper retro gaming gadget – …

Insta360 Nano brings 360 degree video to the iPhone

As listeners to the podcast will be aware, I’ve been looking out for a 360 degree camera option for my iPhone for quite some time…today a new option entered the market as Arashi Vision announced the Insta360 Nano which  is presented as the worlds first HD Apple MFI approved camera …

Gaming on the go, with some augmentation

You’ll definitely have heard of Mobile Bingo Sites and addictive games like Pokemon Go lately. It’s a simple idea though, and one which many of you will be a little confused by. Augmented Reality is at the heart of this particular app, and the game has a simple …

BBC+ app launches

Today the BBC have launched a new app on both IOS and Android, the BBC+ app. Every day the BBC generates massive amounts of content, be it news, TV programmes or the radio shows, and to be honest all this fantastic content is scattered throughout the internet, and …

Smanos W100 WiFi wireless intruder alarm – Review

In today’s world, pretty much every gadget is connected to the internet. Alarms are no different, and I recently got sent this Wi-Fi enabled Home Security System, from Smanos. Whats In The Box: Upon opening the box I was met with the main control unit. It looks like …

How much data does Pokemon Go use?

Unless you have been living under a rock for a few days you will be aware of the Pokemon Go phenomenon which is taking over the world. Everywhere I go I see hordes of gamers waving there phones in the air trying to collect Pokemon, or gangs of …

Pokémon Go – I’ve never seen anything like it.

I write this from the shiny Coolsmartphone HQ which, as you know, is my kitchen. On Friday afternoon I got back from work to find that my son had downloaded Pokemon Go. He’d seem it on TV and got it. He’s a bit young and I didn’t want …

Cook via your smartphone with some tasty Tefal tech

Cooking. It’s not exactly exciting is it. I mean sure, if you’re Gordon Ramsay and you’ve got pots of money then yeah – exciting. However, for me it usually involves getting the timing all wrong and having an over-cooked chicken next to raw potatoes. Tefal, yes Tefal – …

giffgaff serve up summer deals on the latest smartphones

Head over to the Apple website and a 64GB iPhone 6s will set you back £619. The 128GB one will cost you £699. However, right now giffgaff have dropped the price of this and lots of other handsets. So, head over to their site and you can get …

A walk-around from MWC Shanghai

My final bit of coverage from MWC Shanghai is a walk around the show halls. The venue itself is nearly purpose built for hosting large scale events, of which MWC Shanghai has ambitions to become one of the bigger events that the Shanghai International New Expo Centre (SINEC) …