Category: General

Fancy 90% off your Google Play prices? Listen up

Paying for your apps in Google Play usually involves your credit or debit card of some sort. However, Vodafone have come up with a plan to make it a bit simpler and, for six months, you get a whacking 90% off some Google Play apps and games t’boot. …

System and Security Info – Apple love to hate

“System and Security Info” has risen to being of the one of the top paid-for applications in the iTunes charts since its release last week (14th May 2016) however in that time frame Apple got upset about the application and decided to ban it. The reason Apple got …

Kitvision 4-in-1 Lens Set – A Review

Camera phones are great, they allow us to capture, digitise and preserve memories at will, and the quality of inbuilt cameras has reached the level where for most of us we don’t require a dedicated camera. However there is one limitation on most camera phones, the lens type …

Motorola unveil the new Moto G series

The Moto G range has always been a stalwart in the budget Android device segment and with their latest release nothing changes on that front. As is expected from my new phone release the specs have taken a bit of a jump, as have the screen sizes. This …

ZUS Kevlar Cable – The strongest cable of them all

Ever imagined a battle-royal to find the king of the cable, a USB with a killer USP? Well if such a position / device existed then Nonda, a manufacturer of smart hardware products based in Palo Alto California, believe they have it. It arrived in the post this morning and seems …

Orange launch a Holiday Europe plan for the UEFA championships

As a UK resident, it was certainly a flash from the past to receive an email from Orange. They are, of course, still going strong elsewhere in Europe and, if you’re heading across Europe for the EURO 2016 tournament. The Orange Holiday plan is available here (this is …

Fly12 HD bike camera doubles as a front light

Being able to cycle around in these balmy sunny evenings is really refreshing, but when it does eventually get dark you’re going to need a bike light. These are plentiful, and you can even put an action camera on the handlebars to record your journey and log any …

Acer Predator 8 tablet – Hands on & Gaming demo

The Acer Predator 8 is a device we have seen a few times now, but up until now I have not really had a good chance to have a play with it. That all changes today as I am in Belfast with #acerliveblog2016 and they have let me …

Lumsing portable battery charger – Now cheaper with our code

Walking around with that low battery notice on your phone is always going to put you on edge. So, to charge on the move, your going to need something like this. This is the Lumsing Harmonica 10,400mAh dual-port power bank and yes, it really is designed to look …

Huawei add the P9 Lite to their portfolio

As you can see in the review we are pretty big fans of the Huawei P9. It now seems that Huawei is going to be making a bigger push into the UK market than we first thought. Coming very soon to a network near you is the P9 …

Wraps Wearable earphones – Ideal if you’re always losing yours

I always have to apologise to the companies that send us headphones to look at. I’m always losing the things. They’re mostly tiny and either end up stuck in pockets (and then going through the washing machine) or stuffed in a drawer somewhere. So, Wraps Wearable earphones are …

A quick break in regular programming

A very quick mention for a couple of charity things. Firstly, Simon Allum (you know him, he’s written a few articles for us) is doing an insane thing – the Three Peaks Challenge. He’ll be part of a small team walking Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in …

Win with Honor

Honor have a competition on right now. Perhaps it’s to find the letter “U” from their name. Who knows. What I can tell you is that they’re giving away some limited edition flip cases (they look a bit like this but more .. errr.. limited edition-ee) and some …

Xiaomi’s Mi Max launched

I am a fan of big screened phones this is something that I don’t try to hide at all. One of my favourite devices of all time was the Xperia Z Ultra from Sony, I have owned 3 of them in the past. I just really liked the size …

Apple Music half price for students

There are lots of streaming music services out and it often isn’t just the quantity and quality of the back catalogue that dictates which we subscribe too.  I recently discovered that university graduates can pay a £12 annual subscription to get an NUS Extra card, which then entitles you …

GoPro goes into spaaaaaace

We’ve seen the teeny-tiny GoPro cameras shooting some pretty excellent footage over the years. The cameras have also helped TV makers to film in cars, on bikes, motorbikes, boats and – when strapped to people – they can grab point-of-view footage in full HD. Now they’ve stuck one …

EU blocks proposed Three and O2 merger

Hutchison (owners of Three) badly wanted to grab O2. Following disapproval by UK competition watchdogs, they tried everything to change minds. They added guarantees that prices for O2 and Three customers would be frozen for five years. They’d also promised £5 billion of investment and to open their …

Possible Oneplus 3 images leaked

Yes I was one of those people that jumped on the invitation merry-go-round to buy the OnePlus One. Oh, and guess what. I did there same a year later for the OnePlus Two. I love OnePlus devices so, when here at Coolsmartphone towers we had a sniff of …

Swytch now offers a weekly mobile deal

You may have already heard about Swytch. Just grab the app and you can instantly have additional mobile numbers piped through to your phone. You can have a line for your business or one for friends. There’s no commitment and, provided you have a fast data connection or …

Status Audio CB-1 Closed Back Studio Monitor Headphones – Review

Wowser. That’s a long title for a review isn’t it? Well, we’ve been sent lots of headphones here at Coolsmartphone. These are those big chunky ones that actually sit over your ears and fully cover them up. They produce a very nice all-encompassing sound and the closed back …

RIVA S Bluetooth speaker review

Bluetooth speakers? Where do you start? The market is currently awash with speakers which fill every part of the price point spectrum. I was recently contacted by Say it Loud to ask if I wished to review one of their latest Bluetooth speakers, the Riva S. At first …

BravoWin 10KT MiniPC – Review

About a week ago I unboxed a new 2-in-1 PC that had a retail value of £150, and I posed the question of ‘can a machine this cheap be any good’? I also mentioned that I was going to be able to compare this to a more standard-priced …

Who is that calling? Metal, that’s who!

Ringtones have changed quite a lot since the days of polyphonic and monophonic but yet there are certain ringtones we automatically associate with certain brands. Well ToxixEternity, aka Jack Fliegler from YouTube, and a death metal band called Singularity has taken the Apple iPhone ringtone we have grown to …

Three change their mind – The LG G5 arrives

When we were in Barcelona ogling over the LG G5, we were contacted by most of the usual networks to say that they were ranging it. However… we noticed someone who wasn’t coming to the LG party. Three. We got in touch, and they told us that they …

Now Vodafone add inclusive roaming too

It’s something we’ve already seen Three and Tesco Mobile doing, but now Vodafone have added some roaming goodness as well. Inclusive roaming across 40 locations is now available, and it’s 4G roaming t’boot. The list of countries look to be European and are as follows… Albania, Austria, Belgium, …

Vodafone now selling the Huawei P9 on the cheap too

Consider, for a moment, the fact that the Huawei P9 (unlocked) is £449 to buy on the Huawei store. Now, if you head across to the Vodafone site, you can get the phone on Pay as you go for just £300! Don’t forget that that giffgaff are also selling …

Huawei P9 now available at giffgaff

How does £17.06 per month sound for a top-end phone on a 2 year deal? Well, even with the addition of a £10 monthly goodybag on giffgaff it’s still pretty good. The Huawei P9, which we’ve already looked at in detail, is available to buy out-right on the …

BT investing £6bn in faster broadband

Following on from a reported 15% rise in annual profits to £3.03bn, BT has announced plans to invest £6bn in faster broadband and mobile services over the next three years. The company plans to offer their “ultrafast” broadband to 12 million premises by 2020. With speeds of 300 …

1byone Portable Bluetooth Speaker – Review

When you’re young and full of beans you really enjoy writing about tech. Mobile phones, gadgets, gizmos – it lights your fire. Then, after several years of looking a Bluetooth speakers, you start to wane a little. You get sent dozens and dozens of the things. Some are …

Is HTC finally about to release a smartwatch?

This has got to be one of the longest-running rumours of the tech world. The first suggestions that HTC were working on some sort of smart wearable surfaced back in 2014, when a picture of this appeared online: Even by 2014 standards it wasn’t the most glamorous of …

Minecraft on Gear VR

  Minecraft. Everyone in the world seems to be on it. It’s getting more interesting now, especially for the ones looking at a more immersive ways of playing the game. How does it sound to be in the middle of the world you’ve just built, or exploring a …

Player FM update brings cool new functionality

Podcasts have exploded in popularity since they first came onto the scene in the early 2000’s. The move to smartphones and busy lifestyles with commuting, has only increased this popularity to the extent that phones seem to have become the main medium for consuming them. In such an environment, a good …

SyncMate

SyncMate is a powerful sync tool that allows syncing data on Mac with Android devices (phones and tablets running Android 4 and newer). Free edition of SyncMate will sync contacts and calendars while Expert edition allows syncing images, videos, folders, music and lot’s more; with Expert edition you …

Chromecast Audio, back again for £15

Hey you Coolsmartphoners! If you guys and gals have been out in the wilderness over the Bank Holiday weekend partying, here’s a great deal that might not have caught your bleary eyes. The ever-fantastic Chromecast Audio is out there for a mere 15 quid again, if you missed …

LG Stylus 2 first DAB radio equipped smartphone coming to O2

UK carrier O2 has announced they are going to exclusively carry the new LG Stylus 2, which is the first smartphone with DAB radio support*, meaning you’ll be able to enjoy your favorite radio stations without using your data allowance. The device is available right now on O2 …

Will.i.am adds totally free music to his new dial watch

Want music but don’t want to pay for it? If you get a dial watch from Three then that’s exactly what you can get. Now, before we start, be prepared for some names and references that musical mad-man will.i.am has made up. The “dial” watch, from “i.am+” runs …

ChatSim Review

I saw these guys at Mobile World Congress and their offering is certainly an interesting one, and remarkably simple too.. Start with the ChatSim chat plan. It’s €10 a year and this will let you send unlimited and free text messages and emoji anywhere in the world. Wait …

FreeFly VR Review

This was arguably the most fun I have had doing a review in a long time. The Freefly VR (not Firefly as I say twice in the video!) was so fun and compatible with numerous smartphones, great purchase for any gadget geek and can be bought from here. …