Chromebook ‘Eve’ likely to be uncovered at Pixel Event, Oct 5.

OK, those of us at Coolsmartphone towers have an unreasonable level of fascination with Chromebooks. Yes, they’re a browser wrapped around a Linux based OS. But paradoxically, they’re also so much more than they should be, to the level where both Garry and Leigh use them as daily …

Romoss Sense 6 LED 20,000mAh Portable Charger – Review

Despite clever power-saving features in smartphones, there’s still one fairly standard rule when it comes to a battery. If you want it to last for ages, you’ll need a higher capacity. A higher capacity usually means a fatter, bigger, heavier battery.. and people don’t like that. So people …

Why Sports Betting is suddenly appearing on Google Play

If you’ve spent any time browsing Google Play recently, you may have spotted that something has changed. The Play Store here in the UK, until very recently, not allowed gambling with “real money”  in apps and games. Now though, following an update to the developer policy page, you …

Fitbit launches first ever smartwatch and sports headphones

Say “Fitbit” to anyone and they’ll instantly think of an activity tracker. Usually the name conjures up an image of a wrist-worn strap that’ll keep an eye on how mobile you are. However, Fibit have just announced their very own health and fitness smartwatch, called the the Fitbit …

Samsung Note 8 – The deals!

The jury is still out on whether we should actually be calling it the Note8 or the Note 8, but either way you can get all the details here. If you want one, we’ve got you a list of all the offers and deals, courtesy of the various …

Sky Mobile – New £35 deal for bundled Sky TV and a mobile

Sky are pushing hard into the mobile arena, but they’ve now announced a better deal if you want some Sky TV action too. Their newly-announced £35 per-month deal delivers an iPhone SE on a “Swap24” plan. This, along with their appropriately-named “Swap12” offering, lets you upgrade to the …

Come on in, get involved. Coolsmartphone, all over your social media

If you keep hitting Coolsmartphone pretty regularly then our social media presence is here for you. You can keep up with all the latest news and gossip easily by following, subscribing or hitting the Like buttons. If you’re on a PC then you’ll see our buttons on the …

Three 100GB SIM-only deals. Big data, not-so-big cost.

It’s Friday! Clucking Friday! Now, although this isn’t “all you can eat”, it’s still a lot of data. Yes, yes, I know there’ll still be the “die hards” out there who really, really want the completely and utterly unlimited mobile data pipes, but if you’re looking for that …

Coolsmartphone Podcast 212 Later Than Ever

We apologise for the delay in the release of this episode of the Coolsmartphone Podcast. The Podcast Editing Elves responsible for this are punishing themselves as we type. https://youtu.be/rWHOFCzupbo As well as the live recording, from July 13th 2017, you can now download the episode in your podcast …

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 – All the details and the live launch

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Yeah. That didn’t go well did it? It became famous for all the wrong reasons – appearing on warning signs at airports and generally becoming the butt of jokes involving explosions or fireballs. Today marks the launch of the Note 8, and the …

First Snapdragon 845 chips bagged by Samsung

At the beginning of this year, Samsung managed to broker a deal with Qualcomm to reserve the first batch of the Snapdragon 835 chips for their latest flagship device – the Galaxy S8. This gave the Korean mobile giant the jump on other OEMs for releasing devices with …

A London meeting, without breaking the bank

This job can be pretty interesting at times. Today I’m on a train back from London after a meeting. If all goes well, the results of this particular meeting should bear fruit on Coolsmartphone in the next couple of weeks. The people I met down there were surprised …

Somfy Security Camera – Review

I have been recently sent through the Somfy indoor security camera for review. Good Points: Design. Ease of Setup. Picture Quality. Ability to digital pan and zoom Built-in in alarm. (Very loud alarm) Motion alerts. Ability to talk back to the camera. Key fob arm/disarm. Door and window …

Dodocool Mini Bluetooth Speaker – Review

Bluetooth speakers. We get a lot of them here and it can be tricky to stand out from the crowd. This Dodocool mini speaker decides to do it by being small. Really small. It’s 45 grams and is 42.1 mm by 36.7 mm. Straight from the word go, …

O, O, O. It’s Magic. You know. Never believe it’s not so.

I’ve just got back from the Coolsmartphone canteen, where I’ve high-fived almost everyone because I’ve crow-barred the this song into the title of this article. For the uninitiated, head to the bottom for “Magic” by Pilot, and re-live the 1970’s, baby. But wait, before all that, we’ve had …

Livestream – Watch the Google Android O event

Google has woven their Android O launch into the US solar eclipse – the first to be seen across the country since 1918. Android is educating fans via this site and taking the opportunity to reveal all the Android O goodness too. You can watch the livestream below …

Home, Sweet Home. NAS and WiFi picture backup

At home I have a NAS box. I originally purchased one of these because I’ve somehow used all the storage that my cloud provider had available and the cost to upgrade was nothing short of insane. I’d tried other providers, however the cost, the reliability, and the fact …

What may live may never die – YotaPhone 3

I have no idea what it is about the YotaPhone concept that I like so much. Leigh reviewed the YotaPhone 2 when it was released, so you can check here to see what he thought about it. The TL:DR version is that although he quite liked it, my …

How hackers are getting into our smartphones

Remember when a briefcase or a stack of paperwork left on a train or in a taxi would be in the daily news? Private data, secure notes and plans for changes in government or a major company could oh-so-easily fall into the hands of others.  Shortly after, it …