Pac-Man 256 – A review of a modern take on a true classic

The Original Pac-Man is a true classic, and takes it’s place in Video Game History as one of the all time greats, with simple game play and functional graphics the emphasis was on fun. But how do you take the basic pill & ghost munching concept and bring …

Oppo R7 Plus now available outside China

Back in May Oppo announced their new R7 Plus. It’s a handset with a 6″ 1080 x 1920 (~367 ppi) screen and measures in at 158 x 82 x 7.8 mm giving you a 80% screen-to-body ratio. Now the OPPO R7 Plus has been launched in Southeast Asian …

Sony announce the new SmartBand 2

It’s that time again. We’re building up to IFA in Berlin. Sony, like many other tech companies, are wanting to get on the “hype train”. They have been doing that very well with rumours of the Z5 range, however today I bring you news of an actual thing …

New hack enables custom faces on Apple WatchOS 2

There have been a great many reviews and opinion pieces about the Apple Watch, but one of the more frequent complaints concerns the limited number of watch faces that can be chosen. WatchOS 1 has a choice of 8 faces, and although there is a certain amount of customisation available for …

Pebble Time – Review.

It has been a while since I mentioned the Pebble Time. To be honest this is intentional. I had an issue with the first one they gave me, which was resolved by a replacement (more on that later). Now that I have had some time to use it in the …

Run a website? Time to start making it work on a mobile first.

I was recently watching a BBC documentary called “Britain at the Bookies” and was struck with one particular interview. It was at the races, and the bookies were all lined up to take any bets from the punters who were watching the race. Some had been in the …

Lenovo ZUK Z1 Announced – Hands-on

Meet the ZUK Z1 – a handset to be sold online by Lenovo. Going on sale on August 18th, this is a new brand of handset designed to try and fend off the rise and rise of Xiaomi in China. It’ll sell for CNY 1,799, which is around …

New BBC iPlayer features announced.

iPlayer is one of the most popular apps out there. The BBC has had great success with it, with a staggering number of downloads per month. To its credit, the BBC routinely updates the app (albeit not the Windows Phone variant). The most recent version brings a series …

Specs of rumoured Microsoft Surface Phone… Surface.

When Windows Phone 10 will be released later this year we have been promised a slurry of new phones, designed to cater to every different type of audience. One of Microsoft’s recent announcements was that it would focus on a number of areas, one of which was the …

Virgin Media to offer customers free WiFi next month.

Customers of BT broadband have a great advantage over anyone else when they’re out and about given that the media giant has most of the country covered with WiFi. Now Virgin Media are getting into the game too. From next month it will offer its customers free wifi …

OnePlus 2 – First impressions

Gary Weldon (he’s UbuntuBoy on Twitter by the way) was kind enough to give us his first impressions of the new OnePlus 2 handset. He’s had it in his hands for a good few days now and has been kind enough to send us his thoughts. He also …

Moto X Play is now available via Motomaker

Didn’t take the plunge on the Moto G (3rd Gen)? Then your patience may well have paid off as the Moto X Play just became available on the MotoMaker service on Motorola’s website. What is really surprising is the price that this device will cost. The 16GB version …

Fossil to launch an Android Wear watch.

Founded in 1985, Fossil recently announced that they were teaming up with chipmaker Intel, which could mean only one thing. The company was looking into a smartwatch. Well at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2015. it was announced that Fossil will release its first fashion smartwatch, an as-yet-unnamed …

A glance at the new Huawei kit coming in a couple of weeks

Ahead of IFA – the consumer electronics trade show in Berlin – Huawei have sent us a few clues as to what to expect at their launch event. We will, as per usual, be reporting live, and Huawei will be doing their reveal on September 2nd, just before …

Project Ara delayed.

Back in 2013 Google revealed it’s plans for a modular smartphone Project Ara. We spoke a lot about the project on our fantastic podcast and universally loved the idea. Imagine you’re happy with most of the aspects of your current smartphone apart from the camera. Well no problem, …

Protect your Crown Jewels with these super-pants!

We’ve all heard about wearable tech. It usually means a fitness tracker or a smartwatch perhaps, but today I’d like to introduce you to a pair of underpants. Yes, pants. Sir Richard Branson describes them as “underpants for superheroes” and these “Wirelesss Armour” ones have been invented by …

The name’s Mallow. Marshmallow. Android M finally named.

Whoop, there it is! No longer do we have to call the next version of Android, the M build, or version, or Android M. Android Marshmallow has officially been announced to the world. It even has a fancy boot animation that’s you’ll be able to see for yourself …

2015 Nexus photo leaks.

I loved the Nexus 5, so much in fact that I bought 3, but when the Nexus 6 came around it just didn’t grab me. It was just that bit too big and let’s be honest, too expensive in comparison to the other versions. Well if the rumours …

Huawei P8 wins European Smartphone Award

We were pretty impressed with the Huawei P8 in May and, yet again, it seems like we weren’t the only ones. The European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) has awarded the P8 as the “European Consumer Smartphone 2015 – 2016”. This is the third year running that the phone …

Podcast 151 – Life Changing Tech

Welcome to the Coolsmartphone Podcast episode 151. In this special summer holiday (umbrellas at the ready) episode of the Podcast John is interested in finding out which items of technology first made a lasting impression on members of the Coolsmartphone team & also some tech savvy friends of …