Goodbye CyanogenMod. Hello forkers.

Well, we didn’t want this to come (especially so late on Christmas Eve when we’re all full of mince pies) but it has. Following our earlier news that Cyanogen OS is to be retired, it now looks like CyanogenMod in its current form is toast too. However, there’s …

Merry Christmas Coolsmartphoners

Have a quick look on the “Whois” for this site and you’ll see the following … Creation Date: 2003-02-14 08:44:29 Yes, in February it’ll have been 14 years since I bought the coolsmartphone.com domain name. Now, while I’m having a quick trip down memory lane, does anyone remember …

Huawei Mate 9 – Review

At the beginning of November, Huawei released something a little bit exciting – the Huawei Mate 9. I was lucky enough to be given one of these devices for review and as such have been using it for the past few weeks. It is now time for me to …

Cyanogen OS finishes at year’s end.

A short time ago we reported that Cyanogen as a company would be shedding considerable staff. They were also closing buildings with some of the team moving to a single location. The new CEO, Lior Tal, announced the company would cutting ties with co-founder Steve Kondik too. Now Cyanogen …

Seen The Grand Tour yet? Now you can, for free

Amazon have dished out a bit of a Christmas treat. The new Top Gear Grand Tour can now be watched for free! Well, the first episode at least. The critically acclaimed Clarkson, Hammond and May show is available to view here, but you have to be quite quick. …

Gamevice – Making gaming on iPads fun!

Back in March at the Gadget Show Live event, I got to meet the Gamevice team where they introduced me to their Gamevice Live adapter for the iPad. At the time, they didn’t have an adapter for the iPad Air until the past couple of months. The adapter …

Benuo Genuine Leather Wallet – Review

Yes, I’ve been sent a wallet to review. A wallet.It’s a wallet. For your money and your bank cards. The end. Yes, I should perhaps tell you a bit more about it because, as we all know, if you want to know what wallet to buy, come to …

Spy Lantern Surveillance Camera – Review

Having a security camera on your house can be a good and bad thing. Sure, you can keep an eye on things, but it’s also a sign that you want to keep something protected, and thieves might target your house because it’s got cameras hanging off it. So …

Vodafone bargains. Watch out! The sales have started already.

Yes, the crazy festive season hasn’t even finished and already the next crazy festive season is already gearing up, with Boxing Day sales kicking off online and on emails already. Vodafone have mailed to tell us about their biggest-ever winter sale, which starts today and finishes at the …

Google employee suing company over spying programme

It’s often said that in current years, everything leaks. It is now rare not to find out everything about a product long before it launches. Even the uber secretive Apple now suffers leaks from product lines and even people that leave the product in a bar! One Google …

Three Home-Fi routers – More detail

Yesterday we mentioned the new high-speed internet which has arrived in Hebron, courtesy of Three UK. The network gave away free “Home-Fi” routers to residents so that they could at last get the fast broadband they’ve long needed. We didn’t know at the time what make the routers …

I think it’s time for a new Twitter app

Enjoy Twitter? Or are you a Facebook fan? I’m definitely more of a Twitter person myself, and have the official app installed on my Android phone. I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with the app because it tends to conveniently “forget” my settings every …

More exploding batteries come to light

My wife currently works as a customer service assistant in a local town. While she was working last week, she could hear a commotion outside in the street. A member of the public came running into to her office, screaming for help and requesting a fire extinguisher stating …

Apple Set to Appeal EU Tax Ruling This Week

Silicone Vally is not having an easy time at the moment. The worries of the incoming Trump administration have started to show, it turns out no one can work out how to do cars, and it appears their long replied on Irish tax loop hole is closing fast. …

Excuse me, but my dog is calling

So. I’m not totally sure where to begin with this one. I’ll sum it up in one sentence if I can. It’s a camera that you stick fairly low down on your wall that will let you video call your dog. Yeah. Not only that, but if you …

Coolsmartphone Podcast 190 – Live

It’s Podcast Night! This week it falls the day after Two For Tuesday, but we’re doing things squared: Matteo will be joined by Greg, Khellan and Garry to discuss the week’s news in tech, mobile and gadgetry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ZaCBX3uBo At 8pm UK time you can watch live on the …

Three dishes out free broadband wireless routers to Hebron residents

No, I’d never heard of Hebron before writing this either. It’s in Northumberland and there’s less than a couple of hundred houses in the entire parish. However, despite BT digging stuff up and putting a nice green street cabinet for “Superfast Broadband”, residents are still stuck in the …

The next iPhone will have a USB-C port, but not where you think

I have really enjoyed using the new MacBook Pro. In fact that’s an understatement, after all of my buyers remorse once I clicked the buy button – I have loved every minute. It is more than capable of doing everything I need, the screen is the best on …