Category: General

Let’s face it, batteries are rubbish

At Mobile World Congress I’d love to see someone announce a phone battery that actually lasts more than a day. I mean, Duracell have the Powermat and we all have chargers in the car… at home.. at the office. Now we’re even seeing more of these mobile device …

Mobile World Congress – Let’s do this

For those of you who’ve heard me banging on about this “MWC” thing for days, let’s just give you a bit of background. Mobile World Congress, or MWC for short, is a rather huge event held yearly in Barcelona. New handsets are launched, services are announced, accessories are …

The end is nigh for Google Currents

Remember Google Reader? Well that was replaced in 2011 with the Google Currents app. Now there is currently a update being pushed out to the Currents app. What hat does this update bring to the table I hear you ask? This magical update basically wipes the Google Currents …

LG G2 mini Announced

As MWC looms ever closer, we’re getting ready for rhe official LG launch of the G2 mini and were a little surprised to see that LG have decided to out the handset today instead. LG G2 mini is set to be a smaller, mid-range version of the flagship …

Galaxy Core LTE to arrive here in weeks

Well, we’ve seen the Galaxy Core Advance but now there’s this, the Galaxy Core LTE. It’ll be available to buy here in the UK from Q2 (April) and has a dual-core 1.2GHz CPU along with that 4G speed. Powered by Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) it has a large …

EE to create over 1,000 new jobs

EE have announced today that they are to create over 1,000 new customer service jobs throughout Britain within the next 24 months. It means that, starting with 250 jobs in Northern Ireland later this quarter, EE will be bringing more “customer service jobs” (presumably call centre roles) back …

Cat photos overtake ‘selfies’

Not too many years ago we were amazed at the thought of having a 1 megapixel camera on our mobile phone. Little did we know where all this was heading. If you think the current ‘selfie’  craze was big, it seems people sharing cat photos is even bigger! …

There’s gold in them thar.. err.. Smartphones

Now, I’m not going to talk about those trade-in websites that’ll offer you a few quid for your mobile. I’m actually going to talk about those slightly different websites that constantly ask whether you’ve got any gold.  Me, I know the answer already. I’ve got no gold. I …

Vodafone 4G reaches 500,000 users

Vodafone launched their 4G services 6 months ago and have announced that they have now reached half a million customers. Vodafone 4G launched just covering London but now covers over 208 towns, districts and cities, which means they’re now covering 36% of the UK population. Their coverage includes …

Google asks manufacturers to use most recent version of Android

I like Android. It has lots of customisation options, the widgets are great, there are lots of free apps and there are plenty of alternative launchers and even ROMs to use if you get bored of your default settings. However this links to most people’s major bugbear – …

Coolsmartphone – Go mobile

We held a top level meeting recently to plan the future of Coolsmartphone. After a game of darts and several beers, we decided that we needed more pictures of kebabs on the site. To be fair, it wasn’t the most productive meeting we’ve ever had, but we did …

Lumia’s 930, 630/635 announced at MWC

Two weeks to go until Mobile World Congress and the rumour mill is turning at full swing, now we here at Coolsmartphone towers have heard of 3 new devices from Nokia, The first two being the Lumia 630/635 which have a slight bump in spec to the 620, …

Sure, break my heart, but don’t break my phone

If you have a crafty look at the phones people carry around town then you’re bound to see a few with broken screens. It seems that there’s a fair few of them and, quite often, once it’s broken people don’t tend to fix them. There can be a …

Oppo Find 7 to launch on 19th March

Oppo, has today announced that it will be launching its Find 7 flagship smartphone on March 19 in Beijing. This is a little disappointing as it was originally rumoured that the device was going to be released during Mobile World Congress this month. The Find 7 follows in …

New features added to Google Now

Are you a user of Google Now ? I’ve got to admit I wasn’t but that’s definitely changing. With every update to the app, the functionality just keeps getting better. In the previous update we got the UK voice option to say “OK Google” to launch the search …

Virgin Atlantic to check you in via Google Glass

Flying with Virgin Atlantic, especially in Upper Class, is the height of bling. For me, I’ll be trying hard to imagine I’m in an Upper Class seat as I jam my backside into an EasyJet bench next week. However, if you’ve got slightly more than £30 for a …

Are Samsung releasing two variants of the S5 ?

If you have been living in a cave with your eyes shut and your fingers in your ears, you won’t be aware of the upcoming Mobile World Congress, which kicks off at the end of the month. Mobile phone giant Samsung have the “Unpacked 5” event on Feb …

I’ve gone mad, and I need your help

I could just dress this up and tug on your heart-strings like those daytime TV adverts asking for “just £2 per month” but I won’t. I’ll instead tell you a story. A few months ago I’d visited a friends house. It was just after Bonfire Night and I …

Tech 21 Screen Protector unboxing and application

Here we have something that will mess with your head a bit. Tech 21 have now started making screen protectors. They integrate the same tech used in bullet-proof glass. This will help protect your phone from a direct blow and there’s also a self-healing layer to protect against …

Nokia to release Android phone at MWC

According to the Wall Street Journal, Nokia will be releasing an Android phone at MWC. Yes, Nokia: manufacturer of Windows Phones, owned by Microsoft and competitor of Google. Why on Earth, then, would it release an Android phone? Well, there’s a lot more sense to it than it …

The Flappy Bird saga. Why remove it?

Where do I start really? This is a game that got people talking. Sure, it didn’t always gain positive comments, but it lit the social media candle and soon turned into a bonfire. It’s become the most popular app so far this year, but has now been taken …

Sony Z1 Compact arriving at Three

Three have just posted one of their hands-on videos featuring the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact. This smaller Z1 is not a ‘mini’ by any means as it packs the same processor,  memory and amazing 20.7 megapixel camera the older Z1 did. The only differences are a 720p screen …

Nokia and HTC agree patent collaboration

After spending the last few years slinging mud at each other in various court rooms around the world resulting in injunctions against the sale of the HTC One mini, which was then revoked, Nokia and HTC seem to have made up. The One mini seemed to be what …

Ovivo boosts talk time on selected Freedom plans

Ovivo have ramped up their “Freedom” packages with an extra 50 minutes of talk time. Existing and new customers can benefit from the additional minutes, which are now being added to “Freedom 0” and “Freedom 5” plans. For those who don’t know, Ovivo is an MVNO using the …

Podcast. Update!

Morning all. Now, if you’re one of our fantastic podcast listeners, I have an apology to make. Unfortunately the latest podcast isn’t here just yet. The reason involves a pot of white spirits and some paint. My laptop, that poor Vaio I mentioned only yesterday, ended up with …

Microsoft giving free Nokia Lumia phones to Android and iOS owners

Microsoft isn’t a company that uses subtle marketing techniques, their ham-fisted Scroogled campaign has lost them a lot of respect, so this time their giving people phones in order to get them to switch from Android or iOS to the Windows Phone platform. The deal is that if …

O2 Match day App Review

During this time of year we all like to snuggle down into our slankets and watch 30 overgrown men (I use the term in the loosest possibe sense) beat each other up on a grassy pitch at the weekend. No I am not talking about a trip to Glasgow …

Real world Three 4G testing

If you’re here in the UK and use Three, you will no doubt be excited by the thought of free 4G access. Three, unlike many others, won’t charge extra for 4G access. Tweets are going out today from some happy customers stating they’re now seeing 4G on their …

STM Scout 2 bag – Review

I’ve got too many laptops and tablets lying around at home at the moment and I’ve been on the lookout for a bag that’ll allow me to safely store 3 or 4 devices plus cables accessories. I’ve often looked at STM bags in the past, so when I …

Mobile traffic continues to rise

Last Friday, for most of us, it was pay day. It marked the end of the long (and very wet) month of January where we all recover from our Christmas spending. A lot of gifts were mobile devices, and sales of tablets in particular are predicted to outsell …

Three and EE cost sharing deal – Full details

Yesterday we had news that EE and Three were beginning to share the love. There wasn’t a great deal of information to go on at the time, but we’ve now some further details on the agreement. Sadly there’s a large amount of tech websites carrying incorrect information on …

Samsung’s new Windows Phone packing a quad-core Snapdragon CPU.

A short while ago I posted an article about a rumoured new Samsung Windows Phone. It was named SM-W750V and, at the time, details were pretty sparse. The name has now changed and it’s known under the code name “Huron”, plus even more specs have now leaked out. …

LG G Pro 2 to feature OIS and 4K video.

LG is to unveil it’s flagship device – the LG G Pro 2 – at Mobile World Congress. Details of the devices camera and video capabilities have been also revealed. On the photo front the camera will have OIS Plus, which is believed to create clearer shots and …

Chromecast open to all

Since the launch of Google Chromecast there’s been the promise that it would be open to all developers instead of the few it’s been since launch. Today is the day they do just that. The documentation is now open over on the Google Developers . Developers do need …

Three and EE to share masts

We’re a bit slim on actual details here, but there’s news today that EE and Three have signed a deal to share networks. In total the networks will be investing £1 billion into infrastructure as 4G tech rolls out and data needs head ever upwards. A story on …

Facebook Paper app launch for iOS in US

Facebook have launched a new app for their social network today – Facebook Paper. This is a new app, but not an entirely new service – more a reimagining of the Facebook news feed. There have already been some great 3rd apps that have taken the basic content …

The Oppo N1 horror story concludes

Last week we reported on episode 1 of The Killer’s House, a web drama starring the Oppo N1 as one of the main plot features. Well, episode 2 is now available to stream. In this concluding part we find that the suspected killer is aided by his manipulative …