Tag: android

HTC in crisis – Daniel Lazarides to leave

Another day, another story about the continuing and rapid changes in HTC. We’re now up to the ninth resignation from the top-ranking staff, and it comes from Daniel Lazarides, Worldwide Communications Lead for Social Marketing at HTC. He is actually based here in the UK and used to …

Three dish up some cheap May deals

Fancy saving some money? Who doesn’t eh? Right now Three have chopped down the cost of the Sony Xperia T, Nokia Lumia 620 and Samsung Galaxy Ace. It’s purely for this month, but you can get all three on Pay As You Go and ther Xperia T is …

Picture special – Huawei Ascend Mate

Woaha. Remember the Huawei Ascend Mate that we saw in Barcelona? Well, I’ve got one. It pushes the term “phablet” as close to “tablet” as you can get. The screen is a 6.1″ 1280×720 IPS unit and the handset itself is pretty huge. Specs include an 8 megapixel …

Galaxy Mega 6.3 up for pre-order with delivery in July

“Are they big? I like them big… BIG!” The Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 is on its way, and you could be one of the first in the country to be lugging around this massive handset, because two major internet retailers have them up for pre-order. Expansys are asking …

One on a mountain top. Video call from Everest

A video call isn’t, despite what Apple might tell you, that special. I remember my mate showing me a 3G video call on the Three network a decade ago so being able to see the person you’re calling isn’t a big deal. Well, unless you’re on top of …

8-inch Samsung Galaxy 3 Tablet Specs, Press Photo Leaked

SamMobile has reportedly acquired a press photo and possible specs for an upcoming 8-inch version of the Samsung Galaxy 3 tablet. It looks nearly identical to the 7.0 version that was officially announced at the end of April save for a thinner bezel and a different sensor layout. …

Samsung Galaxy S4 sales set to pass 10 million

The S4 seems to be selling a lot faster than the S3. Samsung Electronics co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun has told reporters that the S4 will fly past 10 million sales at the end of next week, making it the fastest selling smartphone in Samsung’s history. A huge advertising campaign …

Images of the Sony Xperia UL leak out

Sony are heading along a rather dodgy path, making dozens of different handsets each year. Only Samsung can really cope with the financial implications of doing that. It’s why HTC have decoded to try and stick to one device per year. But who am I to warn Sony …

Vodafone Smart III is now available

The Vodafone Smart range are at the budget end of the Smartphone market. Not everyone wants the latest and greatest device and not everyone wants to spend a whole load of cash each month either. That’s where the Smart III comes in with it’s basic spec and budget …

Google Hangouts – now featuring SMS?

The dust is settling after the rather long keynote at Google I/O yesterday and as things start to rollout we can start to examine things in a little more detail. One of the big enhancements to the Google ecosystem is the rehashing of Google Hangouts. This unification of …

Google Babel launches as the new Hangouts

  Google finally took the wraps of Babel yesterday with the relaunch of Hangouts, a cross-platform unified messaging service to take on the likes of iMessage, Facebook Chat and WhatsApp. Users no longer have to contend with separate Google Talk, G+ Messenger, G+ Hangouts and Google Voice apps. …

Google announces Galaxy S4 Nexus Edition

One of the bigger surprises announced by Google at yesterday’s I/O keynote was the release of a Nexus-like stock Galaxy S4. Gone is all the nasty TouchWiz S-rubbish, replaced by the beautiful vanilla Android experience. We’re also told we can expect a Nexus-like update schedule.  As someone who …

Google I/O 2013 Keynote Roundup

Google I/O 2013 has arrived and is open for business. The keynote speech (this year there is only one, instead of the usual two) has been made and it was a biggie. Lasting some three and a bit hours and with many of the major players from Google …

My choice of apps – 1Password

 Hands up if you use the same password at more than one website. Now keep your hand up if all your passwords are more than 12 characters, contain a mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers and characters. Where did everyone go?!  Until recently I used two …

Featured Android App – iDone

  Notes apps, have a look in the play store and there are literally hundreds.  Some are good, some are poor and some stand out from the crowd. Evernote is probably the biggest but requires a centrally registered account and, lets face it, isn’t exactly what could be …

Customer Support the right way

Sunday night bought with it a sheer sense of unhappiness. I was having issues connecting to the Wi-Fi at work (not an unusual occurrence!) so I tried to reboot my Nexus 4.  The power button having been pressed, off the device powered. I pressed the Power button once again …

BBM coming to Android and iOS

BlackBerry have just posted that BBM is coming to both Android and iOS this summer. It’ll be available as a free download from the relevant app stores. Although this is great news for anyone who’d like to keep on touch with their BlackBerry-packing friends, they have left it very …

HTC One vs Galaxy S4 – Part 2

OK, I’ll admit it. Sometimes I make mistakes. I fess up, it was me who caused the break-up between Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Oh wait.. no, sorry. The Samsung Galaxy S4 vs HTC One video I did the other day… that’s it. That’s where the mistake was. …

HTC First looks to be last – AT&T to kill handset

Let’s strap Facebook into a phone. That’s a winning idea. People will buy that. Everyone loves Facebook, don’t they? Sadly no, according to BGR the HTC First is actually about to be kicked out. LThe “Facebook Phone” is said to be an official flop in the USA. Prices …

No UK love from the Xperia ZR

Following our post this morning it seems that sadly the Xperia ZR won’t be arriving here in the UK. A post on the Clove blog states that…. There are no plans for the ZR to arrive in the UK, so if you think this is the device for …

Sony Xperia ZR – The Xperia Z’s little brother

We like the Xperia Z here at CoolSmartphone towers, it looks gorgeous and performs just as well. Dan had one for a while and wrote about it here, we were all jealous. What if you had small hands and struggled with the screen size though? Well Sony has …

Samsung Galaxy S4 – Review

It’s fair to say that Samsung’s success with the Galaxy S3 has been nothing short of astonishing. The handset even gave the lauded iPhone 5 a run for it’s money in terms of pure numbers, and for good reason. Great performance, a slim plastic (sorry Samsung, polycarbonate) shell …

Samsung Galaxy S2 receiving Jelly Bean right now?

We’ve had a couple of emails from Samsung Galaxy S2 owners saying that they’ve just received the Android Jelly Bean update over the air. So far it’s SIM-free handsets, with Dave telling us.. Upgrade was to 4.1.2 baseband XXMS2 and build XWLSS. Anyone else get this? Good question …

Coolsmartphone predicts……Google I/O

So the time is nearly upon us once again, Google is about to hold its annual developers conference, better known as Google I/O. This time last year at the Moscone Centre in San Francisco, Google announced not only the Nexus 7 but also Android 4.2 (jellybean) and Google …

Huawei Ascend P2 – Release details

Three, already famed for their rather speedy and unlimited data access, are to take the Ascend P2 from Huawei. Now, if you’re a regular visitor (and we hope you are), then you’ll remember that we got a hands-on demo from a rather lovely rep at Mobile World Congress …

Flipboard 2.0 arrives on Android

The new version of Flipboard for Android has hit the Google Play Store. It packs some new features including personally-curated magazines, improved search, notifications and a bookmarklet. It’s the Android version of the same Flipboard 2.0.1 update which hit the App Store in the middle of last April. …

Android ITV Player app exclusive to Samsung

TV catchup app ITV Player has been released for Android. Yay! But you can only use it on Samsung devices until 31st August. Booo! It’s been a while coming, but the new ITV Player app has finally hit the Google Play store. It seems pretty good too. All …

Sony Xperia A images leak

FCC applications are possibly the single biggest source of leaked information about new devices and this latest one is no exception. Sony are really just plugging away with their confusing naming convention and if this FCC application ever appears Sony will have just started again at the beginning …

My choice of apps – Android Edition #1

So you might have noticed that a few of us here at CoolSmartphone want to give you a bit of help selecting apps from the billions available on the Play Store. Most of us have been using our respective ecosystems for quite a while and built up a …

Cat B15 Review

It’s a sad fact that, if you choose to go for a traditional “tough” or “rugged” phone, people have often pointed and laughed at you. Oh, come on, don’t pretend. It’s true. Deep down you also know that you’ve cut some corners too. The screen is rubbish, the …

The S4 – Biggest marketing campaign ever

Now, I’ll be honest with you, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is everywhere this weekend. The money cannons from the Samsung marketing machine are now cranked up to full power, squirting a juicy splodge of Galaxy S4 all over every screen you care to look at. The Samsung PR …

Go on, Play with your Nook

Today it’s been announced that the Google Play store will be available for both the Nook HD and Nook HD+. You don’t have to wait either, just ensure that your little Nook is firmly attached to WiFi and an over-the-air patch will roll out to give you all …

Instagram introduces “Photos of you”

Instagram, the photo sharing app has announced a new feature. Billed as “Photos of You” the feature now allows users to tag photos, either with names or brands.  These photos will then show up in the Photos of you section of your profile. Notifications are sent when you …

Twitter for Android updated, menu option added

The official Twitter app for Android was recently updated bringing full implementation of the holo guidelines with one notable exception, the menu option was tucked away under the Me tab. Well, last night Twitter released a further update which corrects this oversight and gives easy access to the Accounts …

Jelly Bean is now on 28.4% of devices

Each month Google publishes information about the various distributions and each month it makes for worrying/interesting reading. Jelly Bean is now on 28.4%of devices, Ice Cream Sandwich on 27.5% and Gingerbread on 38.5%of devices. Google last month changed how they get the data as well. Note: Beginning in …

Sony Xperia SP now available on T-Mobile for £250

Do you like the Xperia Z but not the price tag? Want to sample the high speed data of 4G LTE technology? Well you could do a lot worse that pick up the new Sony Xperia SP that’s now available on contract with EE, Orange and T-Mobile. However, …