Should it just be about the camera?

At what point in history did the camera become the most important on a new smartphones spec sheet? Don’t get me wrong here, I love a decent camera phone, but increasingly I’m seeing manufacturers chase the “best camera ever” type of tagline and other specs or form factors …

G Cloud Backup receives huge update

Morning lovely reader. Let’s talk backups. No, no. Don’t switch off. Yes, I know it’s one of those “things” that you really don’t want to do but, let’s admit it, this is something you should look at. The G Cloud Backup app has always let you protect and …

It seems that Oppo are going to make a Windows Phone at some point

Oppo are a little known Chinese Android handset manufacturer that we’ve recently become smitten with, via the reseller Oppo Style eager Europeans have been able to purchase the Find 5 which Ronnie reviewed here. But something interesting has occurred on Sina Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter), the …

Google Maps update hits iOS

Google’s updated Maps app for iOS has hit the App Store. The new version, which brings improvements to search, navigation and traffic information, is also the first dedicated Google Maps app for iPad. Android users have had a week to play with the new features, as we detailed …

Hurry! Last chance to win a Nokia Lumia 520

I love giving stuff away to you guys, I  really do. I’ve got a couple of emails from the winners of our recent competitions thanking us for the prizes and it warms the ‘ole cockles. So, whether you read Lumia 520 review or not, this is your chance …

Worldwide Availability For The Optimus G Pro

While the Optimus G Pro (we mentioned here) has been available since February in LG’s home country of Korea, it has made a slow but steady march out to other countries around the world and is ready to reach a whole lot more in Q3. LG is announcing …

giffgaff to start selling handsets – have your say

It’s an MVNO that almost needs no introduction – giffgaff. They’re known for unlimited data, bargain-basement prices and no-frills SIM-only goodybags. However, they still don’t sell phones. If you want a phone, you need to go and grab a SIM-free handset yourself and then get a giffgaff SIM …

Streaming data, it’s both a sales pitch and a problem

As I’ve mentioned earlier I’ve switched networks recently and, whilst looking around, I checked into my usage habits. Streaming. That’s a big one. I love TuneIn because, put simply, every single station I find on FM radio is very samey and full of similar-sounding DJ’s saying similar-sounding things. …

Nokia Lumia 925 tours New York

Recently I went on a holiday I have always wanted…. a week in New York. I was also lucky enough to have a Lumia 925 on me at the time (big thanks to Nokia Connects). The camera is really good at low-light photos and the PureView technology meant …

MVNO Feature – giffgaff

We’ve covered a number of virtual network operators recently but perhaps the most well known is giffgaff. Sure, let’s be upfront, they’ve had a couple of bumps in the road with outages and the fact that a small selection of customers abused their “unlimited” data packages, but what …

Photo Editor by Aviary is now available for Windows Phone 8

Photo editors are ten a penny in the mobile app world, ranging from nice intuitive and easy to use through to something designed by an elephant with a hammer. I prefer the former myself and when something like Aviary comes to Windows Phone 8 it makes me happy …

New Play store launches on web

Overnight it looks like the Google Play store has been updated to match the look and feel of their latest Android phone and tablet app. We’ve all used the new-look app on Android got a while now. We saw a sneak peek at this new design back at …

HTC One Mini not mentioned by HTC in any way at all. Honest.

Ooo lookie here. HTC talking about something small? Something that’ll pack a “BIG PUNCH” ? That’s definitely nothing to do with the HTC One Mini we saw earlier or those pictures of a HTC One Mini or even these other leaked shots. Ohhh.. no. No way buddy. HTC …

[UPDATED] A lot of work for charity, don’t like to talk about it…

Don’t worry, this is not a cry for help from the impoverished staff here at CoolSmartPhone! Continuing in our irregular series of articles about MVNO’s (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) we turn our gaze to charities. There has been such a large uptake of mobile phone usage in the …

Geeksphone announce the Peak+

A few months ago the first Firefox OS mobile became available. They were the Keon and the Peak. In response to the community Geeksphone have decided to release another model with a higher spec, the Peak+ After the success achieved by Keon and Peak Firefox OS Developer Preview …

HTC One update on Three rolling

    Blimey, this was quick! So HTC announced this morning that the 4.2.2 update for the HTC One was being rolled out to the UK today, and now Three have tweeted the same for their phones. I think that’s one of the quickest updates from a carrier so …

Addictive free game – Bubble Box

It’s fair to say that we get a lot of emails from developers about their app or game. Some, sadly, don’t make it onto Coolsmartphone but this one had me hooked so it definitely deserves a mention. Bubble popping and breaking is something we’ve all seen before, but …