Category: General

Samsung unveils the Galaxy Tab S2

Samsung Electronics have announced the global launch of the Galaxy Tab S2, which Samsung state is the “most immersive” Samsung tablet to-date. There’s a 9.7″ 2048×1536 (QXGA) Super AMOLED screen, 4G connectivity, 8 megapixel rear camera, 2.1 megapixel shooter and it’s powered by Android 5.0. This is all powered …

Windows Phone (as we know it)… dead? – opinion

The team working at CSP towers are great people. They’re passionate, dedicated, and most of all, opinionated. Although we get along, we don’t always agree. This is one of those times. A couple of days ago, Mike posted an article which basically said that Windows Phone isn’t dead, and …

Across the Pennines on a bike. Blogging on a phone

OK, I’m slightly fibbing here as I’m actually writing this on my phone at 11.50PM on Thursday night and you’ll be reading this on Friday morning. I’ve had several “sports drinks” as I type this so forgive me if it’s a bit mashed up. The 40 mile ride …

Apple refreshes iPod Touch

Apple has announced the long awaited refresh to the iPod Touch, which comes to market as the iPod Touch 6th generation. It’s been a while since Apple launched the iPod Touch 5th Gen. Almost three years actually. The device had a new iPhone 5-like screen, the chipset of …

Remix Mini launches on Kickstarter UPADATE

This is the one Kickstarter that in my humble opinion you cannot afford to miss. Do you fancy a PC for $20 with $20 for  shipping(£25.60 on todays exchange rate)? Interest piqued well I though it might be. There are of course some caveats to this. Numerou Uno …

Amazon Prime Day deals from Inateck

Here at CoolSmartPhone Towers we receive many items through for review from a range of different manufacturers and suppliers. One such company, Inateck (who have made many products that I’ve reviewed here on CoolSmartPhone), have contacted us to share some of the deals they currently have in conjunction with …

Sandisk Wireless Flash Drive – Review

    I have been looking for a way to a carry more media on my trips without having to overload the storage of my devices. There have been various ways of doing this around for a while, including the standard-for-Android solution of USB On the Go. Now …

SanDisk puts a tiny portable WiFi storage drive in your pocket

Handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S6 have now done away with microSD cards, so you generally have to stump up for the on-board storage you need when you purchase a phone. However, despite all the cloud solutions floating around, many still want to be able to transfer pictures …

Windows Phone is not yet dead!

A few days Microsoft revealed that it was writing off a colossal amount of money and sacking small football stadium’s worth of staff.  The tech websites were split in how this move was viewed: for some it was a sensible streamlining whilst for others it suggested that Microsoft …

Tylt Vu Wireless Charging Car Mount – Review

Although I don’t spend all day in my car, like a lot of mobile aficionado’s I’ve moved over to using my handset as the source of my In Car Entertainment (do people even use the phrase ICE any more?). Between using it for navigation and listening to music etc, …

Sony Mobile CEO & The Turnaround

In a recent interview with Arabian Business the Sony Mobile CEO Hiroki Totoki dropped a number of headline-worthy quoteable statements. In the interview, Hiroki Totoki discusses the challenges Sony Mobile faces in the global smartphone industry, particularly the competition from budget brands and the internal restructuring. One of …

Inateck IPX8 Waterproof Pouch review

Ahhhh, the British summer is here! What does this mean? Day trips to the beach, ice cream and loads and loads of photos. But, if you want to take your beloved smartphone with you, you’ll need some form of protection. Not from the sun, no, but from the …

Charge your phone from your power-purse or handbag

Battery life, as we continually keep mentioning, is utterly woeful. I can attest to this because, as I was recently in an area with choppy signal, I disabled data all day. The battery lasted for absolutely ages without the constant app updates but the phone quickly became, well, …

ther hz Bin a crash lolz. Pls cum qix sum1 iz hurt.

You may have seen the headlines today and, by the way they’re written, you may be of the belief that kids will soon be able to send messages littered with “text speak” to the 999 emergency number. It’s not quite going to be that way.. hopefully. If I’m …

OnePlus Two to be priced under $450 (£289)

Over the last few days we have seen little snippets of information being leaked of the next “flagship killer” from OnePlus – the OnePlus Two. It’s due for release on the 27th July and we already know that it will have a type C USB port, a V2 Snapdragon …

Get (vivo) Active with Garmin

Smartwatches: they now exist in a crowded market. It’s difficult to make a case for a new device but here we are, looking at a new device. The Garmin Vivoactive slides in at the top of the Garmin wearables range. Taking advantage of the GPS pedigree that Garmin is …

SanDisk Ultra 64GB microSD memory card, cheap price

Morning Sunday people! Rakuten, the site that used to be called Play.com, which was really easy-to-remember and obvious but has now changed into a confusing name that nobody can pronounce properly, have got a deal on. In short it’s a SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card that operates at …

Three launch new 8GB plan

For a long time now Three have been the network many people flock to for All You Can Eat (AYCE) data. The popular One Plan may be no more, but customers still got AYCE on the phone and up to 4GB for tethering. But what if that 4GB was …

Inateck 4-port Rapid Car Charger – Review

Car journeys with my family usually follow the same pattern. It goes something like this… Dad can I watch my iPad? Yes son. Dad! The battery’s flat! OK, use the iPad mini then. Dad! The iPad mini is flat! Ok, use mums phone. Dad! Mums phone is flat! Can …

BQ Aquarius E5 – Unboxing

I’m going to start with a brief bit of background. Those of you who visit the site regularly will be aware that I have had the chance to test the BQ Aquarius E4.5 Ubuntu Edition. I was using the phone for a short time and something with it …

Amazon Prime Now launched in London

Amazon have launched a new service.  For those with Amazon Prime membership (£79.99 per year), you can now order selected Amazon products and have them delivered to specified locations within central London within … one hour. Prime is an increasingly attractive option: not only do you get free …

Is technology going to kill the BBC?

Over 1000 jobs are to go at the BBC – far more than originally thought – because “more than one million fewer people had a television set than was predicted in 2011”. What? Are people throwing their TV’s in the bin? No, no they’re not. Whether you like …

Matteo Doni: Mockodile & Pixel Density Enthusiasm

I’m Matteo Doni and this is my first post on Coolsmartphone.com. By day I am a Test Engineer at Skyscanner, the travel website. I’m a geek at heart, with passion for Linux, Android, FOSS and tech in general. Two main takeaways about me: I enjoy shopping for mockodile …

Three looking to students to #makeitright

Three are offering students up to £1000 of tech in a competition to help improve the mobile industry. It is another step in their #makeitright campaign. The network is allowing students to fill in an online form with their ideas and the best 5 will be selected to …

Vodafone completes 100 remote not-spot fixes

About a year ago we covered the not-spot fixing being undertaken by Vodafone. Rural hamlets and villages, traditionally lacking any kind of signal, were getting outdoor “Sure Signal” boxes installed to boost coverage. The “Open Sure Signal” tech delivers 3G and voice / text coverage by hooking into …

Vodafone offer up the S6 edge – 32GB version

This is the 64GB Samsung Galaxy S6 edge on Vodafone. It was, until recently, the lowest capacity version on the network and would’ve set you back £41 per month with £149 up-front. That’ll get you 500MB data, unlimited texts and 500 minutes. However, if you want to spend …

Storytime for grownups. Why you should try digital audiobooks

Prologue If you’ve ever taken a class on ancient literature, mythology, or even anthropology, you’ve probably run across “the oral tradition”, mankind’s earliest form of storytelling. Perhaps I’m getting to heavy here, but I’m basically saying that listening to stories rather than reading them was the norm at …

Phone Zombie – Caught on camera

Look. It’s just too hot for me to type. The air-con unit is raining on my head, the ice-cream man has been attacked by rampaging businessmen and the pubs are full of workers on “a long lunch”. Expect slightly sub-standard articles from me today, because I’m melting and …

Data roaming charges may actually get ditched this time – EU

Following a massive U-turn on the last attempt, the EU has today announced that data roaming charges will be dropped from June 2017. Other roaming charges, including calls and texts, are set to have additional charges removed too. For years this has been a massive cash cow for …

KitSound Upstage – Review

Let’s face it, your smartphone has got a proper weedy speaker. It’s not going to fill a room and, despite what the “yoof” think, walking around the streets with your phone playing tunes at full volume is nothing when compared to the classic ghetto blaster. When you’re at …

Got an LG G3 on O2? Notice any signal strangeness?

So, I wanted to put this out there as I think I could be going mad.  I have an LG G3. It’s on O2 and, for reasons I can’t quite explain, it keeps dropping signal. I’ve done the usual tricks – swapped the SIM card, reset the phone, …

Get a personal coach in your pocket

Cross-training? Out for a run? What you need is a bit of encouragement. Something that’ll make you break out into a sweat. You need to get worn out, and quick. You need to go harder and faster. You need to build your stamina. So how’s about…. Yes, the …

Android 7″ Tablet. Nice price. Asda price. You buy?

Let’s face it, this isn’t going to be the greatest thing in the world. Quad-core it may be, but in all honesty it’s going to be about as terrible as most of the 7″ Android tablets you see on eBay direct from China. It’s called the “Q8″, even …

Enhance your stick, strap a microphone onto it.

We get SO MANY Indiegogo and Kickstarter campaigns here at Coolsmartphone. If you want to invest in something, I’d personally suggest having a dabble on the Coolsmartphone competition. You could win a phone ! Anyhow, this is a selfie stick with a microphone on one end. I assume …

Is that a PC in your pocket? Or are you just pleased to see me?

Archos are the latest company to enter into the pocketable PC craze. Intel got the ball rolling with their Compute Stick built around their Quad-core Atom processor and then Lenovo threw their hat into the ring to follow Intel’s lead. Well now Archos have built their own and, …

MONTAR 360 degree car mount – Review

I’ll admit to jumping in my car and generally throwing my phone onto the passenger seat. There it’ll be, sliding around and then falling off the side of the seat as I go around a corner. After I arrive at my destination I then get to play the …