Tag: internet
Like it hate it, the Daily Mail website is one of the largest in the planet. Take a look at Wikipedia and you suddenly realise just how large it is. It’s massive. Absolutely massive. There’s separate home pages for the UK, USA, India and Australia. It’s therefore geared …
If you’ve got a standard ADSL connection then, even if you’re sitting next to the telephone exchange, you’re not going to get much more than 20 Mbps on ADSL2+. You’ll be connected via some copper wire hanging off telegraph poles or in trunking under footpaths. Here in the …
You’ve got an iPad, perhaps you’ve got a MiFi or you just don’t like talking to people and you only want to use WhatsApp or something else to communicate. If text messages and old-school phone calls aren’t your thing, you can get a great deal on this EE …
Long-time, handsome, intelligent readers will know that Vodafone have a solution for rural signal issues. It basically involves installing a ramped-up version of their Vodafone Sure Signal into rural communities to enhance the coverage. Now EE are on a similar mission, but with 4G home broadband antennas sitting …
It’s good news for those with fast internet connections, but perhaps not an option for those living with poor internet speeds. With Sky already providing on-demand content through their boxes, the company is now looking to put their entire suite of channels online too. That’ll mean that you …
Update: According to TheBestVPN, the most secure and reputable VPN is ExpressVPN. You can read their ExpressVPN review here. Right. Let’s be honest. People don’t want to pay for WiFi. Get to the airport and, if you connect and find there’s some insane pricing structure, you’ll probably decide …
If you read my epic explanation about how cable broadband works then you may have noticed that, like a lot of people, my phone, the internet router and the TV is all in the corner of the house. In the “old days” the smiley BT engineer would instead …
Good morning everyone, and welcome again to my quest to get rid the home phone. Having a phone at home can, for some, be a necessary evil. You may not use it, but it’s usually given to you even if you only want broadband. The thing is, when …
The Autumnal air is here and yes, the Christmas decorations are already in the shops. Wait a minute, weren’t we on holiday just a few minute ago? Weren’t we sitting on a foreign beach, enjoying the sunshine? Well yes, we were. If, however, you still fancy a break …
Reading this on a PC? Well, there’s not many of you left. The PC now seems to be more widely seen in the workplace, whilst at home and everywhere else, the smartphone is becoming king. Verto Analytics, a research company that tracks the devices used by 5,000 UK …
Remember my attempts at removing the need for a phone line? My goal is to only require a data connection. Nothing else. No phone line rental, no separate cabling for the phone at home. Just an internet connection. Why? Well, freedom and a fair slice of geekiness in …
Today is June 15th 2017. This article, though, will be ignored by many. For reasons I can’t quite understand, it’s difficult to get clear and concise information across to some. I noticed this at the airport recently. We’d just landing at BHX (Birmingham Airport) and, despite standing next …
You’re at home. You’re struggling with slow broadband. The reality of “Superfast internet” is either a flaky ADSL connection or, if you’re properly unlucky, old-school dial-up access. Some are lucky. Some can get fibre to the cabinet or cable broadband access, but for the rest it’s a super-slow …
Now, I’ll admit, I’m a penny pincher at times. If there’s a cheaper way of doing something, even if it’s a bit geeky, I’ll give it a go. Stick with me on this one, because it involves something that Virgin have just announced which I think is a …
A few days ago I was logging into my Virgin Media account. However, I got a bit distracted by an advert and ended up on the Virgin Business website instead. Why was I distracted? Well, I’ll show you… Yes. £30 a month for an internet connection which goes …
I’ve used the internet for quite a number of years now. In fact, I remember BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) before that and the noisy, clunky, temperamental modems that got us connected. Fast-forward a few years and I remember working on an IT contract in Lancashire which involved installing …
The internet, in our modern world, has become essential. It’s no longer a “nice to have” thing so that you can look things up. Now we’re watching live IPTV, downloading movies, conducting video calls and working from home. And, also, if you are a student you have a …
Whilst it will still be owned by BT and it remains to be seen how things will change, Openreach is finally to become a legally separate entity. Telecoms regulator Ofcom has announced they will no longer have to take legal action to split the two companies, and BT …
We’ve received another Android TV box to test today so I thought I’d give you a quick overview as it’s an improved version of an already very popular box. This is from EntertainmentBox – it’s the EBox T8 V and is powered by an Amlogic S912 64bit octa-core …
I’m sure I’ve posted this video before, but it really is interesting. It was filmed way back in 1969 by the GPO (the General Post Office) and shows some of the ideas and expectations of communications in the 1990’s. The Post Office Research Station at Dollis Hill shows …
No, I’d never heard of Hebron before writing this either. It’s in Northumberland and there’s less than a couple of hundred houses in the entire parish. However, despite BT digging stuff up and putting a nice green street cabinet for “Superfast Broadband”, residents are still stuck in the …
Three are now selling something to keep the kids happy on those long drives. Whether you’re off on holiday, going to relatives far away or you simply need to keep the iPads, iPods and tablets connected for a journey to the shops, the new Huawei RoadFi should sort …
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 …
Hello Coolsmartphoners. At home I’ve got that “FTTC” gubbins that most people either know as “BT Infinity” or, when it’s sold through other providers, “Fibre broadband” ..which it isn’t quite, not all the way. Anyhoo. I’m pretty lucky. However, if you’re not, you can try this. The idea …
Finding an age-appropriate game for kids can be tricky at times. Only recently I found my son asking Siri a question and, as Siri sometimes does, it responded with some links which I would’ve wanted checking first. I always like to check the games he downloads first too, …
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. …
If you’ve read this site for a while, you’ll probably know how I’m a big campaigner for internet safety, especially when it involves kids. The “lag” involved in locking down unsafe videos on sites like YouTube meant that anyone could’ve watched a double murder online. Plus, with so …
First, a bit of detail about how all this came about. Phones. I get a lot of them to review. I borrow them then send them back, but with different sizes of SIM cards and some handsets offering dual-SIM functionality, it can result in me using Pay As …
I’ll be up front and honest here. giffgaff have not sent me any cake, beer or phones to say any of this. I’ve started using them because the in-building coverage on my previous network wasn’t great and giffgaff are offering plenty of data plus a fuss-free service for …
Beyond accessing radio stations through apps on my iPhone, internet radio was a new concept that I had never really considered. So, when I was given to opportunity to test the Grace Digital Mondo Internet Radio, I was keen to see what it offered. Complete with a catalogue …
People will do things they’re not supposed to sometimes. It’s a fact. We get told not to do something but there’s always going to be a certain majority that’ll go ahead and do it anyway. Don’t drive in the centre lane of a motorway when the lane to …
It’s not going to mean that farmers and remote villages will suddenly be getting high-speed broadband, but a Virgin Media announcement today will increase the size of the cable network in the UK. A massive £3 billion should mean that your fibre-less neighbours will be soon able to …
If you’re in London then you’ve already got quite a selection when it comes to home broadband, however you’ll usually find that line rental is an essential. Those headline figures try not the mention the all-important line rental cost, which is tucked away in the corner of the …
I’m on the fence with this one, so I’d love to know your thoughts. Called the “Triby” it’s a Bluetooth speaker, Bluetooth speakerphone, notification system, internet radio and communication system. It’ll stick via a magnet to your fridge and then lets you make calls or play music. When …
I’m on holiday at the moment, but the temptation to check email and Facebook is just too much for some. Where I am, there’s sadly no free roaming from the likes of Three so you either have incredibly expensive data roaming or the hunt for free Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi …
Got giffgaff? Well, right now you probably haven’t. Many of their customers have been in contact with us after internet connectivity mysteriously dropped and, as we type, it still hasn’t come back online again. A status page has been updated on the giffgaff website and it shows that …
If you want more people viewing your adverts content then one rather expensive solution is to whack a load of satellites into orbit so that a stack more people can get online. Here in the UK we’ve had satellite internet access for some time, and those living “out …
Recently we brought you the news Three UK have launched a new 4G dongle and a 4G Mifi device. These will allow customers access to mobile internet at speeds up to 50Mbps download and upload around 20Mbps on the new 4G network. We now have one if these …
The recently refreshed TuneIn Radio app introduced us to a brand new UI and a clean design, however it also brought with it some additional “features” which weren’t well received. First was the lack of an exit button, which had been available before, whilst the second annoyance was …
I’ve got a secret to confess. I don’t buy music. Sure, I listen to it, but I rarely buy it. Call me weird, but that’s me. Most of the time I listen to one internet radio station, but the MixPal.fm app has a bit of a twist – …
