The Coolsmartphone Podcast – Episode 74

Episode 74 of our podcast marks my return to the fold, I’ve been away for a few weeks and I’ve missed out on lots. Hopefully filling me in on what’s happened over the last few weeks are Dan and Ronnie. This weeks topics are roughly as follows: The …

OFCOM to make 0800 free from mobiles

A common bugbear among mobile users is that you can have all the free minutes in the world but it still costs you money to phone an 0800 number, so this and broadband are the often the main reason people keep a landline. With 4G on the rise, …

Piikki – Keeping track of your expenses easily

I’ll be honest, I’m pretty rubbish when it comes to money. I firmly believe that there’s some magical fairies sitting in my bank account because, even though I try not to spend anything, money seems to leak out all over the place. If you’re a contractor or regularly …

HTC One Mini sales can resume following appeals ruling

Following a patent ruling against HTC in a case bought by Nokia an injunction was placed on the sale of certain HTC handsets in the UK.  At the time the judge said “If the licensee has no right to sell in the UK, then a purchaser from the …

Android App Review – Smart IR Remote

Having an infra red blaster on my phone has recently become something that I can really appreciate. The app offerings from HTC, LG and Samsung are a bit basic or they get bogged down with TV listings and the like. What I wanted was something I could fiddle …

Christmas Gift Guide 2013: RHA MA-600i

Shopping days are running out rapidly, panic buying will soon be setting in.  The festive period is nearly upon us and all of the shops are playing that peskily annoying Christmas music that we have all heard a million times before.  The old ladies are saying “Oooo I …

Galaxy Note 3 shifts 10 million units

Meet the Galaxy Note 3. We’ve already penned our Samsung Galaxy Note 3 review and we were pretty impressed. It’s powered by a quad-core 2.3GHz CPU and has 3GB of RAM with a 13 megapixel camera. Big yes, but it’s popular too. 10 million of these have gone …

Santa Claus is coming to town, follow him on your mobile

Santa, as you know, will be unloading his sack in your front room very soon. On Christmas Eve you can not only track his movements on Google Maps, but you can also now follow the jolly fella via this Android app too. The app includes lots of little …

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas now for iOS

No one realised the potential of the franchise when the original Grand Theft Auto launched way back in the depths of beyond.  The top down splat them up was a great success and was swiftly followed by sequel after sequel with the latest installment becoming one of the …

GMail for Android updated with vacation responders and more

If you’re a GMail user then, if you’re honest, you’re probably never offline. However, if you do ever disconnect yourself, you’ll know that setting a vacation message is a bit of a pain. Currently in GMail you’ll need to log onto the normal web interface to set it …

Tiny Run Seasons – Android App Review

Tiny Run Seasons is a seasonal version of the Android game Tiny Run. It is in effect a racing game except instead of driving something you are running. In this seasonal version you play as Santa running along snowy levels in a race against such characters as Bruce, …

Oppo tease their next device the Find 7

Barely a day goes by without us mentioning Oppo in some way shape or form and today is no different, thanks to Oppo posting a teaser image on Weibo the Chinese social network. The rumoured specs for the Find 7 are going to be top end if it …

Spotify launches free music streaming for iOS and Android

It was hinted at a short while ago (here to be precise) but it is now official, Spotify users can now stream music for free on the iOS and Android apps, but not Windows Phone yet. This now brings the apps in line with the desktop version of …

Angry Birds Go – Go Go Go!

Almost everyone knows of Angry Birds now and Rovio have fired out another game continuing the series. This one is a little different to the usual fling the birds at the pigs. The birds are driving cars. Check out the trailer below. The game has come to the …

Nexus Wireless Charger Now Available in the UK Play Store

One of the major unique selling points of the newer Nexus devices is the ability to charge wirelessly. The Nexus 4 had an orb shaped wireless charger which took an age to appear in the UK however the new version, a small slab of a thing has now …

Android Device Manager app now available

When Google launched Android Device manager it was purely as a web interface. This however has now changed as the new Android Device Manager app has appeared in the Google Play Store. The app will help you to locate devices associated with your Google account, reset your devices …

Rumour – Microsoft considering free Windows Phone version

Windows Phone, as an OS, has a cost attached to it. It’s an actual financial cost that needs to be paid by manufacturers who use the mobile OS. Trouble is, Microsoft have just bought the phone-making side of Nokia, and guess who provided the bulk of their Windows …

ASUS PadFone mini arrives officially

Earlier in the week we covered the leaked Asus Padfone Mini and now, according Engadget China it’s now official. It’s the marriage of a 4.3″ (960×540) Android handset with a 7″ (1280×800) dock and comes with a Snapdragon MSM8226 quad-core CPU running at 1.4GHz. Running on Android 4.3 …

Nova Launcher 2.3 erm… launches

One of the most popular third party launchers available for Android is Teslacoil’s Nova Launcher. The feature packed app has now seen a major update which brings it into line with Android 4.4 Kitkat after the release of the beta version a little over a month ago. Many …