Category: General

Google I/O 2015 – Android M Preview and Wear update

Here is a brief overview of what went down in the Moscone Centre last night at Google I/O 2015. The conference started with a massive Pong game stretching across the panoramic screen around the venue. Some guy won a giant fluffy Android toy! Last year 8 out of …

Insane? Money no object? No taste? Get yourself a 3D selfie!

For a moment early this morning I honestly thought I’d dreamt this. Perhaps it was part of a drunken vision. No. Wait… it’s a real thing. Oh dear me. Where do I start with this? Well, let’s say you’ve just taken a really good selfie and you don’t …

Crash an iPhone with a text message

Fancy totally upsetting your iPhone friends? Well, send them a text. It seems that if that text has a certain Arabic character sequence in it then it’ll totally ruin their day. Good huh? Well maybe. Something like this… لُلُصّبُلُلصّبُررً ॣ ॣh ॣ ॣ 冗 ..will totally crash their …

LG G4 Black leather option now exclusive to CarphoneWarehouse.

Independent UK mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse has announced that it has started sales of the latest LG flagship device the G4, and the retailer has the black leather clad device as an exclusive, while also stocking the brown leather option as well as the plastic-clad grey model. …

IDC publishes another load of analyst prediction guff

Here is the smartphone market share according to IDC. Have a look at that purple line. That’s Windows Phone. As you can see, for 3 years, it’s not really moved a great deal. I’m not going to say anything more about that. I wish Windows Phone was more …

Xperia Z3+ announced

Today Sony announced an edition to its Xperia Z3 range, imaginatively titled the  Xperia Z3+ The newly announced device is both slimmer (6.9mm) and lighter (144g) than the Xperia Z3, and is available in four colour options to meet your individual taste and style. Choose from classic black, white or …

Huawei Watch priced up. You got £300 spare?

We had a play with some of the Huawei smartwatches at Mobile World Congress and they’re looked really rather good. What was of concern though, was the possible price of their new Huawei Watch. MobileFun appear to have slid it into their website for a cool £300 here …

Learning to print the perfect picture

My main concerns, when snapping photos on my phone, is whether the photo is going to be backed up and just where it’ll be backed up to. Usually I store everything on an ever-filling storage card as I snap pictures randomly through the day. Those pictures, for the …

O2 having signal problems

It appears O2 is having a rough time this evening. The network says it is having intermittent problems affecting some of its customers in various parts of the country including London and Birmingham. You can see from their with their own status checker that there’s a number of …

KitSound Tilt Bluetooth Portable Speaker – Review

My smartphone forms a central part of my life. It helps manage and organise my time, it helps me communicate and is my main entertainment hub. This is why for me smartphones and music are synonymous. Whether you store your music on your device or choose to stream your …

Microsoft Band – Review

A few weeks ago you may remember that I was able to get hold of the Microsoft Band briefly at its launch event. I have now had some time with the device and thought I would share my thoughts with you. I am not the fittest guy in …

Broadcast Yourself with Stre.am

Periscope has been been finding quite a following recently. It’s all over Twitter and it’s made by… Twitter. The app allows iPhone users to broadcast a live video stream around the world from their phone. However, despite being released by Twitter themselves, the app is only available for …

Pebble Time update.

For a moment yesterday we were concerned that Pebble Time, a device we were waiting patiently for, was going to be nothing but vapourware. This morning there was a collective sigh of relief as, in our inboxes, we were greeted with an email from Kickstarter with an update …

A tablet stand? For £3? Yes, actually

Want a tablet stand that’s cheap and portable? How does £3 grab you? This one is made from strong cardboard and ideal for slipping into your case or bag. It’ll prop up your device and you can get a dozen of them for £16 – about the same …

Get loads of data… for a bit..

If you like your data, check out this deal from EE. Right now they’re offering a limited edition SIM, plus you can win tickets to Glastonbury. Order by 31st May and top up a £10 1GB data pack with 50 texts and 50 minutes of calls. Once that …

The drone that follows you. Lily.

Our daily dose of Kickstarter pleas usually go into a box marked “meh”. Some are pretty dull, and they almost make us want to add our Kickstarter Campaign for the “Coolsmartphone Readers Beer Bus”. This one, though, jumped out of our crowded mailbox and has caught the imagination …

18 month SIM only deals now available on Tesco Mobile

SIM only deals, to me at least, usually mean one month rolling plans. However, if you want to lock yourself into a longer deal and possibly get even better value for money, you can go for a 12 month plan. Tesco Mobile has today become the UK’s first …

Archos Weather Station – Review

The weather is quite varied these days, you may have noticed! Keeping on top of what the weather is doing is achievable through a variety of methods, be it looking out of the window, actually going outside, using a forecast app or using the Archos Weather Station (other …

Galaxy Gear Live disappears –

From the Google Play Store that is. If you either love Android Wear (me) or hate it (James) it appears that one of the first Android Wear devices, the Samsung Galaxy Gear Live has now disappeared from the Google Play Store, no fire sale, nada, nothing, just gone …

Broken phone? No insurance? No time? Try this..

Last year we took a look at a company called iMend who repair tablets and phones. We gave them a rather poorly iPad to look at which had a broken button surround and cracked screen. However, they don’t just do iPads. They do iPhones, Samsung and other devices …

Avengers cases and charging pad announced

Any fans of the Avengers might have noticed a lot of promotion alongside of the Samsung Galaxy S6, with downloadable themes and now there are Avengers cases and wireless charging pad. These official Samsung cases feature some of Earth’s mightiest heroes (Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America and …

EE reach 10 million 4G customer mark

UK network EE has announced they have reached the 10 million 4G customer mark. This makes them the biggest 4G network in Europe. The company, which was created by merging both Orange and T-Mobile UK, was a landmark merger for the telecoms industry. It meant that 4G could …

Yotaphone 2 price cut and update

If you remember back a few months we were very fond of the Yotaphone 2 when we tested it, however there were a few things that really stuck in our throat’s. The news today is that these issues may have been negated. Yota have announced that they will …

£0 per month is coming back. FreedomPop headed to the UK

A new MVNO is to come to the UK in July, but its a bit different. Called FreedomPop, it will offer free and paid-for SIM-only plans in a few weeks time. I’ve just used their website from the USA to check out what’s currently offer in America. For …

Lazy Arm – Review

We heard about this gadget a short while ago. It is, in effect, a really long smartphone holder. Imagine the holder in your car, but with an almost 65cm reach. First of all, don’t try sticking this in your car. It’s far too long at it’d stick out …

Thinking of getting a signal booster? Wait right there..

You young kids might call it “bantz” now, but I was having a “discussion” on Twitter with a few people about the in-building penetration provided by networks operating on 900MHz. The likes of O2 and Vodafone both seem to get through the walls of my home but, using …

No more little wee wee on Google Maps

Remember this interesting Google Maps “addition” ? What initially appeared to be a dig at Apple actually turned out to be a prank by someone using the Map Maker system. It allows users to add extra detail to Google Maps, such as rivers or parks etc. Trouble is, …

Enerplex Jumpr Slate 5k Battery pack – Review

Those of you who follow the site ay remember me reviewing the Enerplex Packr Solar Rucksack. It was the bag I took to MWC 2015 with my and it proved to be very useful as it was able to carry a ridiculous amount of gear and was still …

MINI Produce glasses that give you X-ray vision

Hey, wanna know something? If you’ve ever been in the passenger seat of a car when it’s raining heavily on the motorway, try holding your phone up and take a picture. You’ll probably find that the preview screen affords you a better view of the road than your …

Olixar Universal Tablet Car Headrest Mount Pro – Review

I have a small child and he can be a handful at times. Back when he was younger we were able to pop him into the car and I could guarantee the motion of driving would send him to sleep.  Ahh those were magical days…. However now he …

Oppo tease out the R7 and R7 plus

Chinese phone manufacturer Oppo is due to announce their next flagship device, the R7, on May 20th. However, prior to the official launch date the company have released some teaser images of the phone. The images appear to show a full metal body and ultra thin bezels. Oppo …

OnePlus One, touch screen problems… sound familiar?

The OnePlus One is a good phone. Heck, it’s a great phone for the price. In fact, it’s kind of like the Nexus line when you think about it. Don’t get me wrong, there are some things that were missing that could have made it an even better …

Tesco to sell off its mobile division

UK retail giant Tesco has recently announced a operating loss of £6 billion This is strange really, considering how many pies the company has its fingers in. Anyway, in an attempt to stem to flow the company has already sold its Blinkbox streaming properties, including movies, music and books. The hope …

Today I ran out of data on giffgaff. Guess what happened..

I’ll be up front and honest here. giffgaff have not sent me any cake, beer or phones to say any of this. I’ve started using them because the in-building coverage on my previous network wasn’t great and giffgaff are offering plenty of data plus a fuss-free service for …

Virtual Reality headset, in video

Back in the old days, when I used to construct this site on a daily basis using Microsoft Frontpage (yes, feel my pain), I used to make the odd mistake. Now I’m all professional and dat. It’s rare for you to find me spilling anything inkorrectly. However, sometimes …

Immerse – Virtual Reality Headset Review

I reviewed the Google Cardboard some time ago. It was £2 and is (obviously) made from cardboard. It’s a virtual reality headset which uses your phone as the screen. This one, which isn’t made of cardboard but has a similar design, is £29.95. You buy this, slap your …

Lumia 640 now available on EE with WiFi Calling

We spotted the Lumia 640 in March at Mobile World Congress and snapped some shots of this lovely orange one. EE have just given us word that they will be offering the cyan colour variant here in the UK. It’s a mid-range 5″ (1280×720) IPS device with 8GB …

Vodafone 4G-powered Tab prime 6 available now. Cheap too.

Vodafone are continuing with their budget-friendly devices and, hot on the heels of the Smart prime 6 and Smart first 6, they’ve annount a tablet – the new Vodafone Tab prime 6. There’s 16GB storage on board and a microSD slot for another 32GB. It’s powered by Android …