Category: Website news

A very quick mention for a couple of charity things. Firstly, Simon Allum (you know him, he’s written a few articles for us) is doing an insane thing – the Three Peaks Challenge. He’ll be part of a small team walking Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in …

See? This is what gets me about cloud storage. You can spend hours, days, months and years uploading your treasured memories to an online drive, only for the provider in question to shut up shop. You’re then left scrambling around trying to find a new provider, or buying …

A couple of days ago the people responsible for our commenting system enabled a new “revenue” system. Sadly, as I’ve not kept up with all my mail, this was enabled on Coolsmartphone without our approval. It seems to be something they’re doing with multiple sites without them having …

Want to get our podcast on iTunes? Well, it’s been there for quite some time now, but the fact is that it wasn’t quite working properly. We’re not quite sure why, but it would only show the last podcast and none of the previous ones. Thankfully we’ve managed …

Trying to find the Ministry of Sound LIVE app on Google Play or the Apple Store? Well, bad news friends, it’s gone. Ministry of Sound LIVE, which fed five curated music streams to your phone, has been playing a very repetitive selection of tunes across their channels lately. …

Short version. I’ve been doing this for a good amount of years now and I’ve developed my own way of covering live events. Also, after cycling over the pennines and from London to Paris with nothing more than a backpack, you learn to “go light”. So, here’s my …

I absolutely hate doing this, but we’re left with pretty much no choice. You may remember the problems we had getting to Mobile World Congress. Our advertising revenue will pay for the flights and it would’ve paid for accommodation, but due to this being pulled at the last …

Sure, it’s not exactly a huge amount of storage, but it’s a whole lot better than not having any extra and it takes just seconds to grab. All you need to do is head here and review your Google Account settings. It’ll run through the apps and devices …

Followed us for a while? You’ll probably be aware of Mobile World Congress. Each year in Barcelona the latest and greatest mobile kit gets shown off to the masses for the first time. It’s a frenzy of hastily-built stands, canapes, demonstrations and thousands of people from the mobile …

The other night I had a sudden realisation. Since 2003 this lovely website has been on the t’interwebs. We’ve been around the world. We’ve seen smartphones grow from clunky devices with tiny screens and terrible battery life to bigger devices with terrible battery life. I’ve actually been writing …

Here in the UK we have a number of large overseas companies earning cash from UK customers but paying little or no tax. It’s usually achieved by the company in question shifting cash around internally or operating from foreign shores. Amazon, for example, is based in Luxembourg and …

Want to listen to your favourite stations on an iPhone? It’s going to cost you a monthly fee very soon. We can only assume that money must be a bit tight for the company at the moment, as their ad-supported stations will cost $10 each month after January …

Pick up your phone and head to into spaaaaace right now. Go on. Go on. NASA are streaming video from the ISS and, well, it’s a bit bloody fantastic. Yes, I know it’s not strictly connected with mobile devices, but being able to see the world live from …

Being able to judge where the mobile market is going to be in 4 years time is just not possible in my book. This is an industry that moves quickly and sees manufacturers rise and fall with speed. Take HTC as an example, or Motorola, or Nokia. If …

Just what the heck is going on here? Part of me figured that I should just delete the mail I received, but no – I’m going to share this with you because it’s just bonkers. BaconUnderwear.com offers, well.. just that really. OK, it’s not underwear made of bacon, …

As we get towards the festive season you’ll see us cranking up the number of reviews and gift ideas, all ready for those presents around the Christmas tree. Also, as you may have noticed this last week, we’ve had more traffic than usual and it’s resulted in the …

Seriously. Is it not Friday yet? This week isn’t dragging at all. So anyway. I got an email which is probably from the PR team at Sbizzy but it was was made to look like a “fan” of the service who just wanted to tell us about it. …

Recently you may have noticed that our commenting system has changed somewhat. The new system allows you to add your comments much more easily than before and adds a newsfeed too. However, we’re having a number of issues with it. We’ve tried over the last few weeks to …

We’ve got a special edition of our podcast this week, and it could feature…. YOU! We want to hear your voice. We want to hear about the first time you were really blown away by a bit of tech. Did a smartwatch amaze you? Has a gadget bowled …

I’ll be quite honest, I’ve got very little I can say about this because it’s either a bland rename or a monumental shift in direction… I’m not sure which. Google, as a company, is no longer going to be a single company. Instead there’s a new kid on …

Ordered anything through OneStopPhoneShop.com, Mobiles.co.uk or e2save.com recently? Yeah. You could have some serious problems. Carphone Warehouse has been hacked pretty badly, and they operate all of those sites. Although overall owners Dixons Carphone state that the “vast majority” of their customers are unaffected, personal details of up …

Conference calls. They fill me with dread if I’m honest. Usually you’ll end up accidentally talking over someone during the call, then they’ll stop talking just as you stop talking, then you’ll both apologise, then you’ll both start talking again. Then you’ll get someone going on about “blue …

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 …

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 …

You know about Envirofone. You send them your old handset, they give you money. What happens after that? Well, I can tell you. The phones either get resold or broken down for minerals and plastic granulation.  Who buys the phones? Well, you guys can. Head to the Envirofone …

Let’s be honest. Nobody likes giving away cash, and after asking for donation yesterday the charity I’m cycling for has only raised £40. If someone comes at me rattling bucket or asking for a couple of quid, I’ll probably dodge them too. You can’t give your money away …

A quick break in regular programming while I royally abuse my position and ask you for donations. If you don’t want to read all the details but would like to help, just pick up a phone and text the phrase NAZG69 followed by a space and then £2 …

Welcome to Monday my friends. This is the day you dreamed of. That horrible weekend is over and now you’re back to school, work or college. It’s fun times baby. If you, like me, like to waffle on about phones, accessories, networks, data plans, tablets, apps, services and …

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 …

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 …

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, …

Just a few hours ago Google were proudly showing this rather interesting shot of an Android robot relieving himself all over the Apple logo… Now it’s all cleaned up and the location is free of the image now, although some devices are still showing it. The “new park” …

Remember the good old Orange Wednesdays? If you were a customer of Orange (now EE), you simply sent out a text and received a code to get two seats in your local cinema for the price of one. Deal. This was a very popular promotion for Orange customers …

Well that came around quick didn’t it? MWC 2015 is here and, in preparation of the team arriving in Barcelona, we have decided to share an insight into the kit we are taking with us. I have tried to go relatively lightweight with my gear as I’m going …

The Coolsmartphone crew are a pretty organised bunch, it must be said. Planning and preparation is key, so getting bags packed and ready a week before Mobile World Congress starts is a good thing. At least, this is what they told me. Although most of the team are …

Welcome to a cold and dark Monday morning. Come on into the a Coolsmartphone cafe and get yourself a tasty beverage because this week we’re going to have a bit of a treat for you. Every single day this week, at 8.30am, we’ll have an in-depth review online …

You may have noticed that over the past two and a half years we’ve been publishing a podcast every week. We’re a bunch of the writers get together online and have a chat. A chat about the current weeks mobile news, what we’ve bought, what we’ve acquired, what …

This week is going to be pretty busy, that’s for sure. International CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, kicked off yesterday. Over the years it’s been the launch-pad for devices like the HD TV, DVD, OLED TV and driverless car tech. As usual we’ll be bringing you all the …

With a lot of you no doubt nursing a very sore head I’ll try and keep this fairly brief. A lot of sites are already mentioning what’s “Next” and what to look out for in the new year, but I wanted to check with the important people who …

This weekend we’re doing something a bit different. It’ll involve one phone, a few battery packs and a lot of train journeys. From Friday all of my posts, pictures and updates across the weekend will be created and sent purely from my phone. We’re going to see if …