Category: General

iPad Air and iPad Mini coming soon to Vodafone

After yesterdays launch of the new iPad Air and iPad Mini news is filtering through regarding who is stocking what. The latest carrier to announce their intentions is Vodafone who have confirmed that they are to carry both the iPad Air and the new iPad mini with retina …

Chromecast App available in the UK, is Chromecast imminent?

Google released the Chromecast in the US back in July where it has been rather well received and as such it is a point of consternation that it cannot be obtained worldwide direct from Google. That however could be about to change, at least here in the UK, …

HSBC release mobile banking app

HSBC have released a brand new mobile banking app which brings the majority of their online banking features to the mobile arena. The brand new app which is available on both iOS and Android has features whereby you can: View balances and up to 90 recent transactions Make …

Get yourself a proper classic telephone, with something extra

Many, many years ago people used these things to make calls. People used to have them on special telephone tables in their hall. Think back to your childhood and you might perhaps remember one sat next to a tub of pens and some paper. To make calls you …

EE. Still bringing in the bacon…….

EE have revealed their results for quarter 3, 2013 and once again they make good reading for shareholders. The company which started the 4G revolution in the UK has added another half a million customers to its 4G network which beats their own target by some 4 months. …

Samsung Galaxy Express 2 heading to Vodafone

Packed with a dual-core 1.7GHz dual-core CPU and 4.5″ qHD TFT screen, the 4G-powered Samsung Galaxy Express 2 is heading to Vodafone. The network will be offering the ceramic white version here in the UK exclusively, with other retailers getting it later. There’s also a blue version which …

HTC working on a smartwatch and possibly even a tablet?

It seems like an age since HTC ventured into tablet territory, the last effort was the long forgotten HTC Flyer. Sadly it was the company’s one and only tablet, and HTC stated that they would only return if they could develop a tablet that would “shake up the …

Coolsmartphone Gift Guide – Touchscreen Gloves

Over the next few weeks you’ll be seeing more from our “Gift Guide” series. We’ll be covering the best accessories, gadgets and smartphones to stuff into the stocking this festive season. First, gloves. Gloves are great. They’re obviously practical at this time of year. Winter is on the …

Images of the Nokia 1320 Batman phablet appear online

All the surprises are being taken away from Nokia fans ahead of tomorrows big device announcement event, it seems, because leaky old Twitterer @evleaks has gone and dropped a couple of images of the new 1320 phablet (previously known as ‘Batman’). Whilst we really don’t know exactly where …

Virgin to continue using EE network

EE sent out a press release earlier confirming the long standing agreement between themselves and Virgin Mobile is set to continue and the MNVO will get access to both 2G, 3G and we believe soon 4G networks. The original deal was signed 14 years ago between then T-Mobile …

Make Christmas that little bit cheaper

Regular as clockwork, the utility companies have ramped up their prices. With Christmas round the corner and your wallet becoming emptier by the day, it’s time to look at some money saving tips. We’ve already covered many ways of cutting your gadget expenditure. You can buy a cheaper …

My time with the Nokia Lumia 1020

The Nokia Lumia 1020 is an amazing camera, that in the right hands can take some truly stunning photos and it can easily replace your point and shoot. But at what cost? Does Windows Phone support the Lumia 1020 enough? From the day I first saw the leak …

The HTC Fetch is for losers

Are you a loser? I don’t mean a pasty geek who spends hours obsessing over mobile phones then writing about them on the internet, I mean someone who misplaces their phone. Well, either of the above may be interested in the HTC Fetch. It’s basically a keyfob that …

Next Stop…Who Knows!

The world of smartphones never ceases to evolve, even if the pace of the innovations may have slowed a little. The big question is where next for smartphones? We have pretty much established who the key players are in the marketplace and although we do have choices of …

Our Saturday Omnibus

Hello weekend people. I’ve been told this morning that a couple of videos I uploaded this week were a little corrupted. I’ve now re-uploaded them, and I firmly blame a combination of bad weather, a droppy WiFi connection and wholesale gas prices. First, our look at some of …

Got an iPhone 5c on 4G? You’re probably the only one

When we first saw the iPhone 5s and 5c we had a small worry. Deep down we knew that the Apple brand was so strong that people really wouldn’t want the “second best” and today Reuters have reported that people seem to be preferring the 5s over the …

Halloween themed 3D Printed iPhone cases

Do you remember last year we reviewed a custom 3D Printed Coolsmartphone iPhone 5 case? Well, the company who printed it for us, Sculpteo, have some Halloween themed cases you can personalise and get printed for your iPhone. I’m not the biggest fan of Halloween, but these cases …

Tesco Mobile launches 4G

Tesco Mobile have just announced their 4G offering. With the slightly cheeky tag line of “cheapest premium on the market”, 4G on Tesco’s Mobile will cost you an extra £2.50 a month on top of your current contract. This 4G premium can be added at any time, or …

Tracking your bike ride? Watch out, you might get burgled.

Today I received an email. That, in itself, isn’t remarkable. I get a few. However, this one was from the Police. Luckily it arrived to inform me that a number of bikes had been stolen from the local area. This, in fact, was the second such email and …

GiffGaff make up for their recent outage

Recently GiffGaff experienced an outage which knocked out calls and texts on their network. Customers, for a number of hours, couldn’t make or receive calls or texts and there were a number of irate posts on Twitter and the GiffGaff forums. After fixing the issue and telling their …

Wow Wee Xaiomi!

To the average person Xaiomi would mean nothing but a bunch of letters that shouldn’t be put together. Surely it’s just a word designed to hurt your tongue> But Xaiomi, a Chinese Manufacturer of some truly wonderful handsets, just announced they have sold out of their latest and …

Flex? Round? Neither?

The Galaxy Round & the LG Flex. Is it me or does it seem that over excited employees at Samsung & LG who cracked the curved screen conundrum have released seemingly “pointless” handsets? In my head it’s a battle of two warring nerd’s hell-bent on outdoing each other! …

The Coolsmartphone Gift Guide Preview – The BoostBloc

It’s a fight we have daily. Power, we just need more power. So, as a little taster for our upcoming Coolsmartphone Gift Guide, here’s the Eton BoostBloc6600. It’s basically a block that you charge up and then you carry it round. Slap a couple of cables in and …

Otterbox cases and the iPhone 5/5S – Review

I’ve grown fond of Otterbox over the years, having found them years ago whilst looking for a rugged case for my Dell Streak 5. Fast forward a few years and Otterbox are one of THE names for mobile phone and tablet cases, with many different designs and colours …

TVCatchUp app to change

TVCatchUp is a popular website and app that allows users to watch 57 channels live on computer, tablet or mobile, or rather it did. The broadcasters ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 took TVCatchUp to court  for copyright infringement dating back to 2007. The judgement has just come …

A big, warm, fuzzy, thank-you from me.

It’s at times like this that I feel humble. Y’see, it’s you lot that keep us here. It’s you guys that keep us posting this stuff. Reviews, covering product launches and keeping up to date with all the latest information, it’s not easy and it’s quite time-consuming too. …

Carphone warehouse to get vivid blue HTC One

Independent retailer Carphone Warehouse has today launched the “vivid blue” version of the HTC One in the UK. The Blue HTC One Mini is also up for pre-order. Carphone, which has exclusivity over the blue HTC One in the UK, and prices are set at £489.95 SIM-free, also …

Twitter (finally) releases Android/Samsung tablet app

     A mere 34 months after the launch of Motorola Xoom, Twitter have finally released a tablet friendly version of their Android app. Tragically, in its current guise, it’s exclusively a Samsung tablet app. It’s a state of affairs that highlights everything wrong with Android on tablets, …

BT & EE Sign MVNO Agreement

BT and EE have today announced that  EE are to provide MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) services for BT. BT, who exited the mobile space some 10 years ago with the sale of their BT Cellnet network to O2, have already won a license for a 4G network …

Could EE’s 4G bandwidth fees quadruple?

Ofcom has published a consultation on greatly increasing annual fees for the 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum bands in the UK to bring them more in line with the additional bands auctioned for 4G coverage. This could see rises in the amounts that networks pay to run their mobile …

Google Maps Updated once more…

The updates just keep on coming from Google.  Along with the Quickoffice update, Google Maps is now undergoing a staged rollout, this time to version 7.3 The update contains a few UI changes and several under the hood fixes. Firstly, the notification window now has more detail than …

A powerful audio UFO in your kitchen from OTONE

A short while ago we reviewed the OTONE Soundship Micro. It’s a Bluetooth speaker which also acts as a stand. Connect it up and boom, your tunes come out while you charge. However, there’s a bigger unit. A mothership if you will. OTONE call it an “intergalactic Soundship” …

Be our superhero. Go on. You know you want to.

The summer, at least here in the UK, is well and truly over. I’ve had to stop sitting around in my garden wearing just shorts, especially now that the police have told me that my front garden isn’t the best spot. It’s too cold, and it’s getting dark …

Mobile Choice awards – the winners

Mobile Choice have an awards event every year to celebrate the best of the industry in different categories from best handset to best network. Winners of these awards are usually quick to include the prize in their advertising or PR information so these results are a pretty big …

BlackBerry Z30 lands at Vodafone

If you are a fan of BlackBerry devices and want to get your hands on their latest flagship, listen up. Vodafone have just put the Z30 on sale here in the UK. The Z30 is the largest phone BlackBerry have made and comes with a 5″ display, 8 …

Donation drive ends tomorrow!

So, thanks to you lovely people we’re pretty much there now. Only £40 stands between us and our spanky new server. We’ll be announcing the winners of our prize collection tomorrow, but I just wanted to say another rather massive thank-you to those who’ve chosen to donate and …

Chromecast now available for international orders

  One device that is hotly anticipated here in the UK that has been available in the US for months is Google’s Chromecast. The media streaming device that connects directly to your television’s HDMI port and is controlled by your Android, iDevice or Chrome browser has been generally …

New Samsung Galaxy Gear ad seems to ape first iPhone advert

You may not remember the first ever iPhone commercial. After all, it was 6 years ago. It featured scenes of people using various telephones in movies and TV shows. At the end the first ever iPhone is displayed with a catchy strapline. Matthew Panzarino (@panzer), remembers this well …

Muvit Stick N Stand Case for Xperia Z Ultra

The Xperia Z Ultra is a great bit of kit but with the giant screen I am worried that I will break all that lovely glass in my bag or pocket (yes you can put this beast in a pocket). So the first thing I did after getting …