Production of the Nexus 5 finished

Google has confirmed that the Nexus 5 production has stopped, and… once they are gone, they’re gone, so we’d suggest people get them while they can. It was only yesterday that Google removed the listing of the the Red and White variants of the Nexus 5 from Google Play. The …

Festive Fun apps to keep you entertained

OK, it’s that time of year already. Your bank account looks like a wasteland, there’s pine needles everywhere and that roll of sticky tape has mysteriously disappeared just when you need it. What apps do you need to ensure things go smoothly? Well, the Google Santa Tracker is …

Coolsmartphone Podcast 120 – Watch live

Look, it’s raining and it’s cold outside. You really don’t want to be out there. Get yourself comfy for the live “as it happens” recording of our 120th podcast. We’ll be going live at 8.30PM tonight and it’ll then be available tomorrow morning after we’ve removed all the …

Vodafone extends 4G roaming destinations

This morning I walked through driving rain, freezing winds and complete darkness at 6.30AM. It was a delightful walk and just made me smile inside and out. However, if you want to swap this beautiful wind, snow, rain and hail for some horrible sunshine and irritating sandy beaches …

Buy the OnePlus One, invite-free

Buying yourself a present this Christmas is going to be a bit of a theme here at Coolsmartphone I think 🙂 The OnePlus One handset, which we handled here, has a 2.5GHz quad-core CPU, Android 4.4 (Cyanogen), Adreno 330 GPI and either 16GB or 64GB of storage. Best …

EE crowned as top mobile operator in London

Think for one minute about the current networks we have to choose from in the UK? Name me two. I’d guess most of you went with EE and Three, not only are they the most popular but they also offer a great product. Be it almost totally unlimited …

Buy a gift for yourself this Christmas

It’s that time of year again, so we’re on the hunt for deals and bargains on the internet. One that caught my eye, purely as a cheeky gift for myself, was this Hibsan Nano quadcopter. Bigger (and more expensive) versions equipped with cameras have been making the news …

A Texting Aid for Drivers – What is this madness?

You can’t text and drive… Texting and Driving is Dangerous so you shouldn’t do it….ever…..so imagine our surprise when we received a press release which seems to promote an app to make texting easier whilst behind the wheel. Available in the App Store now, the “My Phrases” keyboard …

WinZip now adds Dropbox support

If you’ve already grabbed the WinZip app for Android then you’ll hopefully have noticed a cheeky little addition lately. If not, grab it now and you’ll now find that the app lets you encrypt, squish and share files directly to Dropbox. It basically means that you have one …

Nexus 6 Review

It’s here. The latest generation of the Nexus lineup, the Nexus 6. We have finally managed to get hold of one of these unobtainable devices by buying our own review unit. The device we have here is the 32GB model in blue. There has been much said about …

Latest update to Hangouts brings new features.

Today Google revealed the latest update to their own messaging app, Hangouts. The update sees the addition of 16 sticker packs, new video filters for calls, the ability to add contacts with their phone number, smart location suggestions and a “last seen” timestamp that shows you when your contact …

HERE Maps is now available on the Google Play Store

For a while one of the unique selling points behind Nokia Windows Phone devices was the HERE Maps suite. It offered a truly offline mapping solution for free. It was one of the reason I always took a Windows Phone on holiday. Now the HERE maps team have …

Phone4U surplus stock auction

It’s always a sad day when good businesses close but, on the upside, there are potential bargains to be had! The Phones4U administrators are auctioning off surplus stock with some decent deals available. The stock has been split across several auctions and at the last look they had …

Sky Fibre 38Mbps broadband for just £10 a month.

There is a 25GB limit though. UK TV/Phone/Broadband supplier Sky has announced a new broadband package. For those interested, it’ll cost just £10 a month for up to 38Mbps fibre internet. However, it’s really for those who don’t use too much data as it is capped to a limit …

Carousel by Dropbox update now recovers space on your phone.

Recently I moved to using my Nexus 5 as my daily driver again (just to use the pure Lollipop Android experience).. Thing is, with it being a 16GB version, space is at a premium, as it is with a number of handsets that haven’t got microSD slots. I …

4G Speed – Red-lining Vodafone

Whilst 4G speeds, in theory, are rather insane, the “real world” experience can be a little different. There’s a range of factors that’ll alter your experience. Location, of course, is the major one, but we must also consider the time of day. Trying to “nail” a speed testing …

Cheap Karbonn Mobile A5S now on Amazon

We don’t know a great deal about Karbonn Mobile just yet, but they are pushing out some relatively cheap Android kit via Amazon. Their Karbonn A5S is SIM free and available in black or white. It has a 5 megapixel rear camera, 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 4GB ROM, 512MB …

Android Studio is out of beta

If you are an app developer you’re probably familiar with Eclipse and the Android SDK. Back in 2013 Google announced Android Studio which was to be a more integrated and smarter way to build apps. It’s been available to use as a 0.1 Alpha version since May 2013 …

Vbox TV Gateway Review – Your TV, on your phone

This particular review has taken quite some time because I was kinda confused by the idea to start with. The VBox I have here will basically take the input from your TV aerial or your satellite dish and squirt in onto your tablet, smartphone or smart TV. I …

Crank up your Chromecast and get a movie for free

Back in the year 2000, when I was born (shut it) Captain Picard starred in a film with Wolverine and Halle Berry, who wasn’t Catwoman at the time. Anyhow, the film is called X-Men (the original one) and you can get it for absolutely nothing if you’ve got …