Planning your summer holiday? Try these companion apps

With Christmas and the entire festive season just a dim and distant memory now, people are planning to escape the dark, cold and wet winter nights by booking a summer holiday. After getting the right deal, you’ve got to consider saving the money to pay for it all …

Bose closing all European and US stores

Here at Coolsmartphone w’ve heard that top audio brand Bose is going to close a significant number of its brick and mortar stores. It’s believed the move is due to the popularity of online shopping and the reduced consumer interest in traditional stores. The closures will also impact …

USB-C finally coming to your next iPhone?

A few years ago the EU tried to get all phone charging cables the same. It was pretty successful, and the USB-C format is now widespread. The USB-C format works well because you don’t need to worry about which way up it’s inserted (let’s ignore the other end) …

Huawei – Who needs Google Play?

Well, if you’ve been around these parts for a while, you’ll know that Huawei (and therefore Honor) have had a rough time of late. America really doesn’t like Huawei right now, and they’re of the opinion that Huawei are bad in every way. It’s all cobblers of course …

Chrome OS to get Android 10 Gestures.

Lots of us here at Coolsmartphone use Chromebooks as our primary computing device, and now we’re hearing from the folks over at Android Police that they can be used in “tablet mode” with a gesture input. This is very similar to the one you’ll use in Android 10. …

Sky Mobile adding 5G

Sitting on the O2 network, Sky Mobile have today announced that customers will be getting 5G for no extra cost if you’re on their Sky VIP loyalty programme – this is a free perk for existing users. Sky Mobile is promising to deliver 5G in 50 towns and …

Benefits of using car insurance apps on your phone

Looking for your next insurance quote, you’ll find that there’s a number of comparison sites online. These will usually be your best bet if you’re trying to find the best deal and, even if it does seem like a bit of hard work, it’s worth it when you …

Deal on the original Huawei Watch GT

Right now I’m wearing the Honor MagicWatch 2. It’s a familiar bit of kit because it’s pretty much a replica of the Huawei Watch GT2. Now, whilst doing a bit of research whilst writing the review, I stumbled across the original Huawei Watch GT Active on Amazon for …

Board games without the boredom

Well, Christmas is over now but, it there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that board games are making a big come-back. In our house at least. Monopoly seems to be a favourite right now, and we’ve ended up with three different Monopoly boards which are themed around different …

Huawei in the spotlight again, for all the wrong reasons.

The US imposed a trade block on Huawei and stopped US companies doing anything with the company. This prevented Google from delivering Gmail, YouTube and Google Play plus many other apps to about-to-appear Huawei and Honor Android handsets. In short, all the Honor and Huawei handsets on sale …

OnePlus goes 120 Hz

So, you thought the super-slick screen on the OnePlus 7T was smooth ? That’s 90 Hz and slides along like butter on a hotplate, but now OnePlus want to go further. The company have just finished off a 120 Hz Fluid Display and they’ll be introducing it this …

Getting your mobile app design right

What I loved most about the old BBC iPlayer Radio app was the GUI. The design of the interface was straightforward, easy-to-understand and worked well. Whether you were sat still or going for a jog – you had a natural and simple interface that did exactly what you …

Asus ROG Phone II – Review

Gaming phones have now become a thing and manufacturers are standing up and taking attention. This all kicked off back in 2017 when Razer released their first Razer Phone. I reviewed it shortly after it arrived on our shores and was very impressed. At the time it was …

Kygo XENON headphones – with memory foam for your ears.

We’ve reviewed some of the Kygo headphones in the past and we’ve always been impressed with them. Check out our review of the Kygo A9/600 headphones as an example. Now they’re launching “XENON” – some new noise-canceling headphones which have been approved and developed by Kygo himself. These …

Nokia 7.1 to join the Android 10 deployment

People do tend to overlook Nokia when looking for a new phone, however – it should be noted that they’re continuing to update a lot of their phones. The people behind Nokia phones – HMD Global – have announced that the Nokia 7.1 will also be joining the …

Honor phones drop in price during January

If you’re after a cheap phone, Honor have reduced the price of many handsets in their range this January. Their Honor 8A smartphone (which has an octa-core 2.3GHz CPU, minimalistic dewdrop display and great power-saving) is now down to just £119.99 from Argos, but you’ve got to be …

Samsung Galaxy A71 and Galaxy A51 landing next month

Yes, we’re actually quite liking the sometimes-overlooked “A range” of phones from Samsung. You may remember our up-close look at the Samsung A70 here, and now Samsung have announced further devices – the Galaxy A71 and the Galaxy A51. These two handsets include the “Infinity-O” display and a …

Galaxy S10 Lite and Galaxy Note10 Lite announced

New phones! We like new phones. Samsung have just announced two new handsets which “build on the legacy” of the Galaxy S and Note series phones. The Galaxy S10 Lite and Galaxy Note10 Lite devices were revealed by DJ Koh, President and CEO of the IT & Mobile …

Free TV being given out with Virgin Media deal

If you don’t need a new LG Smart TV, you can instead bag yourself a £150 credit on your bill. That is, of course, if you take the appropriate TV, broadband and phone bundle with Virgin Media. Either option is available if you bag the Bigger bundle + …

How the home of 2020 looked in 1989

This has been doing the rounds on social media and I think it’s worth a mention here. Back in 1989 (yes, 31 years ago), some predictions were made by BBC technology show, “Tomorrow’s World”. The video is below, so have a look and we’ll go through each point …