Category: General
One of my other hobbies, apart from writing for this fantastic site, is flying drones. These are also known as unmanned aerial vehicles or UAV’s. My current setup is able to hold a GoPro camera on a 3 axis gimbal which gives excellent super smooth clear footage. The drone …
Modern cars tend to have a lot of sound proofing, especially if you’re driving one of those diesel cars. It’s to reduce engine noise, but despite how nice your tyres might be, there’s still road noise to deal with. Ford have been thinking of new ways to sort …
First it was Bendgate, now it’s Crackgate. More supposed tales of woe to hound the new Nexus 6P flagship. Some users are reporting that the Corning Gorilla Glass 4 panel that sits in front of/protects the camera is spontaneously cracking. It appears that this piece of glass isn’t …
I’m terrible with the whole car mount / phone holder situation. I get to my car, open the door, then throw my wallet and phone onto the passenger seat. If the phone is lucky, it’ll be plugged in and will perhaps reach the destination without sliding off the …
For those of you that listen to the Coolsmartphone Podcast, you have probably picked up on the less than subtle suggestion that I’m somewhat of an Apple fan boy. Guilty as Charged. I’ve been an iPhone user for a long time, and no device in the past has …
Throwing things away is, generally, bad. Having a rechargable battery is also better than getting yourself a “normal” one which you’ll end up throwing in the bin. So, it’s with some initial apprehension that I bring you this mobeego charger. It costs $2.50, which is about £1.66, and …
You’ll no doubt be aware of the situation out in Egypt at the moment. As we write, the amount of repatriation flights were a lot less than hoped, and many British holidaymakers are still out there. O2 are trying to do their bit to help … (We are) …
EE slipped an interesting little nugget into their recent press release. We almost missed it, but if you check this page on their website you can sign up for a new product called EE Pet Pal. The company tell us that it’s … A new connected device that …
We are quite fond of Huawei here at Coolsmartphone. We also have a soft spot for Honor. Now what is these companies have in common? Well, there are several things. One is the daddy brand and the other the offspring, they use the same design language etc. The …
If I look deep, deep down into my blackened heart – a heart broken by embargoed information, PR spin and endless emails about Kickstarter campaigns – I’d say that this is just a PR stunt dreamt up by Orchard Pig Cider. I don’t even like cider. I like …
Apps like WhatsApp and iMessage are great because they have a level of encryption which cannot be “sniffed” or decrypted. Indeed, if you drink lots of tea and have a read of the Apple security guide, it clearly states the following… Now – according to The Telegraph, this …
This one was sent to us by Peter. Thanks fella. Don’t forget, you can send in your tips to us right here. To be honest we’re not totally sure if this is a marketing stunt or a real, actual service. It’s a miniature ambulance that comes to your …
It’s coming up to Christmas – apparently there are only seven weeks left until the day. Because of this, here at Coolsmartphone Towers, we are getting lots of emails about Christmas gifts. This one stuck out for me as it looked pretty cool (I posted a story about …
Some times a little bit of style goes along way in the consumer tech industry, and the new Executive Power Bank from Kit certainly has plenty of style but does it have the substance to go with it? Styled to look like an iDevice, the Power Bank …
Mobile gaming is the future. As smartphones and tablets become more powerful day by day, more and more people get hooked by mobile games. For the first time this year, worldwide revenue from mobile gaming will surpass that of console gaming. It is, no doubt, surprising that Nintendo, …
As we get towards the festive season you’ll see us cranking up the number of reviews and gift ideas, all ready for those presents around the Christmas tree. Also, as you may have noticed this last week, we’ve had more traffic than usual and it’s resulted in the …
What? Another article about EE? Twice in one day. I think they’re going to have to send me more chocolate. Today they’ve launched some new international call packs and add-ons. Both pay-monthly and SIM-only customers can get these and they’ll let you make calls abroad from the UK …
Hmm.. that title was a little promotional wasn’t it? Almost as if I’m trying to sell it. Honestly, it’s got absolutely nothing to do with the free EE contracts that our entire housing estate enjoys. * If your contract just isn’t enough, have a look at a new …
Did anyone else notice that Motorola had released a new phone in the USA over the last few days? Well they did and it was called the Droid Turbo 2. Now Motorola have decided that we UK buyers are also worthy of such a powerful device too, albeit …
OnePlus have been busy as of late and have just launched the OnePlus 2. They have just closed off the reservation list and are busy sending invites out to the millions of people who had registered. Not only that, but there’s flash sales to appease the masses of …
I had the familiar ping of my inbox this morning as I awoke. In amongst all the usual detritus I had an email from our friends at Expansys. It seems that they have managed to secure some stock of the Nexus 5X. The are carrying the 32GB version …
BT & EE are joining hands to put all our media and comunication consumption in one place. Although the Three & O2 deal was not allowed as they were giants in the same field and would land up reducing customer choice, this merger is not thought to be …
If you’ve ever wanted to completely destroy your data allowance and find out how fast your mobile network is, you could download the Ookla Speedtest or browse to Speedtest.net. It will, if you do it enough, give you a rough idea of just how quick your connection is. …
Not something we usually consider as mobile phone owners, is that question of “Where did my application come from? What platforms does it use?” Both questions tie into: “What permissions does my applications require?” Sadly we rarely think of any of these questions, therefore we put our trust …
Hopefully it’ll actually definitely happen this time, because we’ve been promised an end to roaming charges before. Now, we hope, the European Parliament will stick to the decision. First, from April 30th next year, an interim cap on roaming charges in Europe will kick in. This will mean …
I love my wife. She’s a little bit bonkers in all the right ways. If you live near us then you’ll probably already know of my wife through her singing. Now, whilst I don’t think she’ll end up on X-Factor anytime soon, she does love a good singalong …
So here’s how it works. You buy something and you quite like it. then it stops working. You try to get it fixed, and get prepared for a battle royal with a company that doesn’t give a hootenannie about you once the sale’s been made. This isn’t that …
Mobile image sensors embedded in smartphones are revolutionising journalism and photography. Ever taken a selfie or a picture of your pizza? Or maybe a high quality image of the Eiffel Tower or the Taj Mahal for bragging purposes? Yep, we’ve all been there. There’s no doubt image sensor …
Like everyone who reads these pages, I’m into gadgets in a big way. Anything that can be digitised or connected to the internet is alright by me, but sometimes there are some gadgets that even push us hardy folk at CSP Towers to the limit. Enter Ember, …
The day has arrived for Blackberry fans (all 10 of you). You can now pre-order the newest Blackberry… the Blackberry Priv. We have been tracking this one with a lot of interest here at CSP Towers. If you’re wanting to get one ordered, then head over to our friends …
I’m currently spending quite a lot of my evening helping my son with his homework. Part of that is maths, and things have either changed a lot since I was at school or I’m just incredibly rusty. I’m perhaps the lazy one, not my son. I pick up …
We all know about Three and how well received their “Feel At Home” offering is. It allows customers to use their phone in America and a range of other countries just as if they were back in the UK for no additional cost. There’s 18 destinations in total. …
In the USA, Tesla have recently upgraded some of their vehicles to include a self-driving mechanism. From what I’ve seen of the videos online, it can struggle somewhat with roads with worn-out lane markers or lots of curves but.. it’s still very interesting to watch. Here’s a bit …
Filofax is a well-known brand name associated with traditional paper-based diaries and personal organisers. Filofax products were always high-quality but there may be a natural assumption that their target audience shrank due to electronic portable replacements. But in order to remain relevant, Filofax have diversified into tech cases. …
Most kids, unfortunately, end up sat in front of a tablet for a portion of their day. Hopefully it isn’t for that long but, with Christmas on the horizon and more kids wanting to play games and apps, EE have release a child-friendly device called “The Robin” to …
We here at Coolsmartphone towers love UK mobile operator Three. They were the first operator to roll out a 3G network here in the UK, plus they rolled out unlimited data and 4G for no extra cost etc. I think nearly all our writers have a least one Three …
I’ve given some of those Google Chromecast games a try in the past, but last night I stumbled across this – AirConsole. It’s something slightly different and will effectively give you a games console and a controller with a really quick and easy setup. You don’t need any …
Good Points: Well made and lightweight. Ability to transfer data and charge devices. Solves the issue of of small number of USB inputs in your laptop. Plug and play no drivers needed. Bad Points: Not a powered hub. Short cable to plug into computer. Design: Made out of high …
We just received this rather bizzare email from the Motorola PR team. Here is the first line from the email… Motorola has created a video with comedian Alfie Brown and a member of the public for the #PhonyJob challenge to see how tough a day in the life …
Who’d have thought it, a desirable Blackberry? Well, that is exactly what has happened with the newly announced Blackberry Priv. This one has been in the pipeline for some time now, and it’s got a few of us at CoolSmartPhone Towers rather flustered. We have written about it …
