Why buy new? gifgaff dishing out some great refurbished phones

Last year I bought my son a reconditioned iPhone. I’ve got him on a SIM-only Virgin Media deal and, because I paid cheap for a second-hand iPhone, it’s a low monthly outgoing. If you’re looking to do something similar, just get yourself a refurbished “like new” phone, find …

Review – Volutz USB Cables. Damn, these are good!

USB cables. It’s fair to say that we’ve gone through quite a few of these during our years writing about smartphones. Indeed, just last week one caught fire here at Coolsmartphone Towers so it’s definitely worth getting a good quality one. Head to the Volutz website and they …

Traditional brick and mortar stores struggle as times change

The coronavirus lockdown has forced even the most smartphone illiterate customers to begin doing more of their shopping online. Shops that were already geared up for delivery and “click and collect” have performed really well, including stores like Screwfix, which I’ve visited many times during lockdown for DIY …

Honor 9A – Up close and personal. Is the App Gallery good enough?

A microUSB port, single-band (2.4GHz only) WiFi and a price-tag of just £129.99. This is entry-level, but (as usual for Honor / Huawei), it’s a beautiful design and seems to tick along relatively well on the MediaTek Helio P22 octa-core 2GHz CPU. It’s 9mm thick and comes with …

New more affordable OnePlus phones on the way

The recent OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro are really good phones. We’ve given them stacks of coverage and you can pickup the base OnePlus 8 for £599, which the base OnePlus 8 Pro starts at £799 for an 8GB + 128GB model or £899 for the top-end …

Sony Xperia 10 II and Sony Xperia 1 II coming to giffgaff too

Both the “Mark II” versions, news of giffgaff carrying more Sony phones comes just after Sky Mobile added the Xperia 10 II too. The Xperia 10 II will be available to purchase at a “buy outright” price of just £319. You can also stick just the phone on …

Poco F2 Pro, goes live in the UK – sells out immediately

We’ve mentioned this phone a couple of times now. We’ve dubbed it the “flagship killer” due to the excellent specs and low cost. The UK version 8GB RAM, 256GB storage version and a rapid Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 octa-core CPU. There’s LiquidCool Technology (2.0) with a vapour chamber, multi-layered …

Getting a proper web presence for your business – now easier than ever

Have you spent the lockdown thinking about starting your own business? You’ll have several ways of doing it. For many, you can start easily and sell on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Gumtree, or Shpock. That’s simple enough, and, during the lockdown, that’s what our local cake shop has been …

EE to deliver air-to-ground 4G for the emergency services

EE, working with Nokia, have announced the world’s first 4G Air-to-Ground network. The A2G network will support 300,000 emergency service personnel, providing high speed 4G broadband services, with a range from 500 feet up to 10,000 feet above ground. It’ll deliver seamless connectivity between ground operations and air …

Sky Mobile offers up the Xperia 10 II and Xperia L4

Sitting on the O2 network, Sky Mobile are now ranging the new Sony Xperia 10 II and Sony Xperia L4. Prices start at £18 and £13 per month respectively if you’re OK with 2GB of data. You can bag the Xperia 10 II with 25GB of data for …

FourFit Mini2 – A fitness band designed for kids

Tracking activity, steps, heart rate, lung health, blood pressure and sleep – this is the FourFit Mini 2. During the lockdown, we’re all sat around more, so this FourFit Mini2 will ensure that your child stays active, with daily updates and reminders to get off the sofa or …

UK’s First Shared rural network goes live

In south Wales there’s a small village called Devauden. It’s tucked away in the Wye Valley but has become the first rural community to receive new mobile coverage. Why is this a big deal? Well, the government-backed plan for operators to share masts and other infrastructure hit a …

E-Bikes. Now Triumph Motorcycles are doing them too.

A Triumph bike for less than £3,000?! Well yes, but this is an e-bike, not a motorbike or ….. errr.. an electric motorbike.. Confusing isn’t it? There’s electric motorbikes (like these) which are basically motorbikes powered by electric. Then there’s electric bikes (bicycles / cycles) which are electric-assisted …

RedMagic 5G Eclipse Black with 12GB RAM. Not just China any more.

Want an ultra-powerful phone which will easily cope with even the most demanding gamers? Check out the RedMagic 5G. A phone with 6.65″ AMOLED screen operating at a mad 144Hz refresh, with 5G connectivity, the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 CPU and Active Liquid-Cooling which includes a Turbo Fan. …

Extra prize bundles up for grabs on VeryMe

If you’ve got a Vodafone plan, download the My Vodafone app. You can manage your bills, your account and you can get some freebies via the “VeryMe” Rewards feature. Right now they’ve added a load of prize draws. You just need to open the app and push a …

Test your skills. Park it!

I passed my driving test many years ago, but the Bill Plant Driving School still sticks in my memory and I see their cars going round on a regular basis. Available only on iOS right now, they’ve launched “Parkathon”, an app where you need to navigate various obstacles …

Fancy 12GB of data for just £4 per month?

This is one of those redemption deals, so you’ll need to do a bit of claiming in month 3, 5, 7, 9 and 12, however it does deliver a really cheap SIM-only deal. The original £10 per month cost gets hammered down to just £4 on this Three …

The OBike – Unboxed

Over the years we’ve grown familiar with clever PR campaigns but this one is proper weird. No price, no details, no real shipping info or anything. We’ve just been sent a video of a bike. The website behind this is orionec.com and that basically contains an animated space …

Tricks for staying safe when using dating apps

A quarter of people in the UK use dating apps to find someone to connect with. They may be looking for love, for companionship, for a serious relationship, or just a bit of fun. No matter what your reasons for using dating apps, it is important that you use them with …