Tag: data

Here at Coolsmartphone we live and breathe mobile, so we figured that being shackled to a LAN connection just wasn’t the thing to do, especially when you’re in Barcelona covering the biggest mobile conference around. So I decided not to spend all my time in a hotel and …

Let’s put aside the “Trump” business and all the #Brexit news shall we? I’m here to tell you that being part of Europe is a good thing.. for your phone bill. Whilst we in the UK are part of it, roaming charges are no longer a problem. From …

If you’re on a Pay As You Go deal and have a certain slice of data per month, you kinda need to use it. It’s a little like those old-fashioned cameras that used to take film – you’d take 30 shots of your holiday and then you’d have …

Using your phone abroad is still something we have to think about ahead of our flight. Operators like Three have their Feel At Home service and other networks have packages and bolt-ons or a certain amount of roaming minutes and data included. EE have today unveiled the Travel …

Our man Dan has definitely got some “skills” when it comes to finding fast networks. Back in 2014 he managed to get 149.74Mbps from a Vodafone mast outside Victoria station in London on an early Sunday morning. After visiting Wembley recently it’s clear that competitor EE are proud …

The UK mobile network, Three, has seen an increasing level of attempted handset fraud in recent weeks. Now, following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA), three men have been arrested in connection with a data breach. Although credit card and bank details weren’t taken, the company …

Whilst Yahoo! isn’t as big as it once was, there’s a lot of Yahoo! Mail users out there and, worse still, this is a data breach which dates back to 2014. Details of 500 million users are now in the wild, including names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates …

OK, story so far then. We’re all fairly familiar with the “bill shock” that comes with a trip across a local border here in Europe. Take a short trip on the Eurostar and your phone suddenly costs a whole lot more to use than it does back home. …

No, I didn’t know there was such a thing either, but apparently it is a “thing”. To be honest though, after a bit of reading, I became quite interested. A carry-on suitcase that is water resistant, scratch resistant and has GPS and 3G technology built in? Remote and …

We’ve got something similar on test at the moment, but this is the new iKlips DUO+. Coming soon, it’s basically a flash drive for your iPhone. On one end, a Lightning connector, and at the other a USB. You plug it into the bottom of your phone, transfer …

Recently I switched network. I moved to Vodafone after spotting this deal that got me a SIM-only plan with 10GB of data for just £11.59 per month. I’m a bit of a mobile geek, as you’ll know, and like many of you I become aware of the “not …

Hey people. It’s Friday. We can wind down now, possibly get on a plane and go and get some sunshine yeah? Well, if that’s the plan, you can always get yourself a Three SIM and enjoy their “Feel at Home” service. As you know by now, it’ll let …

Honestly. I’m no good at the Search Engine Optimisation business. I’m writing this during the last few days of August. It’s when most of you guys are returning from holiday but here, here I am writing an article on how to prepare for a holiday. That’s a bit …

Since Facebook’s huge purchase of the WhatsApp platform in 2014 and getting rid of the 99p annual fee, they’ve introduced a voice call facility, a desktop application and end-to-end encryption since. However, they never capitalised on any new revenue streams. Well, as you saw yesterday, Facebook-owned WhatsApp announced upcoming …

This has been a hotly debated topic. It’s understandable because, when you’re in the UK using Three on a brisk 4G connection, you get certain expectations about download speeds. It’s these expectations that you might take with you when you go abroad and, with the Three Feel At …

Three were caused shockwaves in the industry when they originally announced “Feel at Home”. The roaming offer let’s you use your calls, texts and data in selected foreign countries, just as if you were home. Over time more and more locations have been added so customers can enjoy …

Here at Coolsmartphone we love a good bargain, and when this news popped up we just had to share it with you. It appears that someone at Vodafone UK has gone completely mad, as the company is blazing a trail within the industry by abolishing the line rental …

Remember that clever KnowRoaming sticker that we tried out? It sticks onto your existing SIM card but, when you go abroad, it’ll let you roam without that bill-shock problem. Now, for $7.99 (which is £6.09) per day, you can get completely unlimited data in places like Canada and …

Want 4G data on Pay As You Go? Tesco Mobile is going to deliver with their new “Rocket Packs”. They’ve been announced just weeks after the virtual mobile network announced a money-saving scheme which reduces mobile bills if you watch some ads. Now they’re offering 4G data on …

I’ve reached the end of an EE SIM-only deal that I took out last year. It should’ve been £20.99 but I managed to get it down to £16.99 per month for 4GB of data and enough minutes to keep me waffling to the missus. However, that deal is …

Upgrading or changing your phone can mean a certain amount of apprehension when you turn on the shiny new device. Where’s all your text messages? What about those special pictures you received? Will your background be the same? What about the position of your icons and shortcuts? Well, …

There was a time, not too long ago, when I’d be pretty annoyed at using an emoji. My wife loves them, but when she sent me a text message my phone wouldn’t be able to understand it and I’d just get a stack of question marks where the …

Google has released the Android distribution numbers for June 2016, and the breakdown makes for interesting reading. Every month Google releases the stats which indicate the percentages of users running a version of Android and using the Google Play Store. This is useful to developers (and testers) because …

As a UK resident, it was certainly a flash from the past to receive an email from Orange. They are, of course, still going strong elsewhere in Europe and, if you’re heading across Europe for the EURO 2016 tournament. The Orange Holiday plan is available here (this is …

As you’ll no doubt be aware by now, I’m terrible at organising my photos and videos. I’ve got the Meem cable to backup my stuff when I’m charging, but what if you want to have a flash drive on my iPhone instead? SanDisk have the answer people. This …

Would you class more than 3.5GB of monthly data as “excessive”? Well, Virgin Media doesn’t seem to think that. At least not when selling their SIM-only packages. As an example, you can buy a 4GB plan for £15 per month or an 8GB plan for £23 per month. …

Some time ago I took out a 12 month EE SIM-only plan. It was a pretty good deal I thought, and delivered 4GB of data every month for £19.99. Not bad, but it was made even better thanks to a cashback offer I’d grabbed. It brought the monthly …

You like a bit of data don’t you? Oh yes, you love it. You need it. But at the same time you worry. Sure, you love your hot juicy data, but you worry about the size of your package. Just when you’re watching a movie and getting to …

EE have returned with their rather insane SIM-only data-only plan. You get double-speed 4G data and a massive 25GB monthly allowance for just £15! Here’s how to get it. Head to the SIM Only EE pages and choose the £30 25GB package at the bottom. Then open the …

Getting your tweets and Facebook updates can be a little infuriating if your signal isn’t up to scratch, but think back 32 years and you’ll suddenly realise how lucky you are. For a moment, let’s pretend you’re back there. Back in 1984. Mobile phones were a pipe dream. …

The worst feeling in the world. Well, perhaps one of the worst feelings in the world, is when you accidentally delete something. It’s one of those “Oh no” moments, and I’ll confess that I’ve done it fairly recently. You know me. I’m the guy that carries around 40GB of photos …

Fancy getting yourself some free data? Who wouldn’t eh? Three are now offering up a whizzy new mobile broadband deal which will give you 200MB of free data every month. The Data Reward plan give you that “always on” vibe without the need to be tied into a …

Three have caused a right old ruckus by tweaking their plans recently and now EE are at it too. However, it looks like this change will actually be quite beneficial for some and perhaps not so much for others. We’ve got a naughty picture from an EE shop …

We’ve taken a look at just what it’s like to work at Vodafone HQ in Newbury. However, I need to start asking some questions on behalf of you lot. Firstly I’d like to find out just why mobile handsets take so long to become available through the network …

I’m already getting a bit of Black Friday Blindness, but out of all the mails I’m receiving I’ve spotted this rather nice little gadget. It’s a SanDisk Ultra +Cloud Flash Drive. It plugs into your computer or laptop like every other USB pen drive, but this 64GB unit …

If you’ve ever wanted to completely destroy your data allowance and find out how fast your mobile network is, you could download the Ookla Speedtest or browse to Speedtest.net. It will, if you do it enough, give you a rough idea of just how quick your connection is. …

Hopefully it’ll actually definitely happen this time, because we’ve been promised an end to roaming charges before. Now, we hope, the European Parliament will stick to the decision. First, from April 30th next year, an interim cap on roaming charges in Europe will kick in. This will mean …

Remember FreedomPop? After other networks tried and failed to offer completely free mobile plans, FreedomPop said in May that they’d be heading to the UK to offer free and paid-for SIM-only tariffs. However, with a launch date of “summer” we were getting more than a little worried when …

You want MORE data? Three have just launched a brand new 40GB mobile broadband package. This is based on a 12 month contract for customers here in the UK. Before now the highest allowance was 15GB. Just the other day we spotted a new 20GB plan on offer …

If you’re a traveller and you NEED data, you may have already heard of an operation called Goodspeed. They basically let you either buy a MiFi unit outright or pay for it monthly (£8.79 p/m on a 24 month contract) which you can then take with you on …