Category: General
Sure, those big stands are OK. The companies at them have spend colossal sums of money to be here in Barcelona to push their products, but I personally prefer to go to those smaller stands where there’s just a monitor and a guy standing under it trying to …
EE have just announced a 6 year agreement with Wembley stadium to bring latest technology to the English national team arena. Whilst there will be no change of stadium name, EE will provide enhanced 4G coverage, fast WiFi access as well as mobile payments via NFC. Olaf Swantee, CEO …
We’ve just come back from a rather cool demonstration with the guys at RealVNC. Their in-car management system will connect to your smartphone, iPhone or tablet and allows you to control all aspects of the device through a screen-mirroring system. The demo, as you’ll see below, shows how …
Not to be left out, Vodafone has stepped up to the plate to announce they’ll also be stocking the Samsung Galaxy S5, the latest iteration to the Galaxy flagship. They’ll be joining EE and Three who have already confirmed the 16 Megapixel waterproofed wander will be gracing their …
Dixons Retail Group has revealed that it’s entered into preliminary talks with Carphone Warehouse about a potential merger. The group currently owns PC World and Currys that sell a range of tablets amongst their wide range of household electronics goods, but only scratches the surface with a small …
Stoke-on-Trent. Famous for oatcakes, the potteries and something called “the D road”. Now there’s something else.. 4G! Three are continuing their roll-out and there’s now coverage in parts of Hanley and beyond. Adey Watkins has emailed in to tell us.. I tried a speedtest to the Sheffield server …
Yes, I know we don’t normally cover this sort of thing, but I’m putting this squarely into the “interesting” category. You may have seen or heard of on-board cameras in cars, particularly in the US, that continually record footage as you drive. In the event of an accident, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Tonight we’re hearing some breaking news that Facebook will be buying WhatsApp for a rather colossal $19 billion. WhatsApp are calling it a partnership but, for that amount of money (£11.4 billion in cash and shares), there’s more than a few raised eyebrows. It’s 35% of Facebooks’ total …
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 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 …
Vodafone have reached 500,000 users in the UK as we reported earlier and now they plan to offer roaming 4G connectivity in 18 countries for the same cost as the existing 3G roaming too. They plan to cover the key holiday destinations in time for the summer …
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! …
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 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 …
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 – …
Me and phone cases have a colourful history, I swing from wanting a huge super protective case with a built in screen protector, through to a slimline but cushioned case and even some days I go a bit mad and use a phone naked. My Note 3 is …
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 …
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, …
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, 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 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 …
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 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
