SIM Only Guides & Advice

For many people, the only protection their smartphone needs is a leather case, or a cheap plastic screen protector. However, some phones lead tougher lives than others. If you work on a building site or as a coastguard, the inherent flimsin...

When desktop computers represented our only link to the wider world, it was inevitable they would be targeted by miscreants and troublemakers. Annoying worms and corrupting viruses soon mutated into more destructive forms of malware, includ...

It’s a measure of how crucial smartphones have become that we’ve invented a term to describe the fear of being without them. Nomophobia sounds like a name Charlie Brooker or Armando Iannucci might have come up with, but it’s a conditi...

There’s a popular misconception that mobile networks don’t have blackspots in urban areas. The reality is often different, as many frustrated customers will readily acknowledge. Even in city centres, a traditional building with thick st...

Although it represents a quantum leap from the dial-up speeds of 3G, 4G connectivity isn’t really fit for purpose any more. Meteoric growth in demand for internet-hosted entertainment, communications and other services has seen 4G network...

Once upon a time, ringing someone involved either digging out a well-thumbed notebook, or memorising their area code and four/five/six digit landline number. Then mobile phones arrived, with SIM cards storing hundreds of contact numbers and...

If you weren’t around in the late 1990s, you probably won’t understand why downloadable ringtones for mobile phones represented such an exciting phenomenon. Until that point, mobile phones were generic lumps of plastic. There weren’t ...

It might come as a surprise to discover that smartphone manufacturers are quite restrictive about how we use their products. Taking photographs and making calls is fine, but what if you want to spread your creative wings and exploit the pho...

Music festivals have become a staple of the summer months. Over 500 high-profile festivals take place throughout the UK every year, from bluegrass to opera via punk and folk. Up to 100,000 people will attend the Download heavy metal festiva...

History is populated by unfortunate anecdotes involving mobile phones and water. There are tales of phones that fell into the sink while applying hair dye, handsets falling out of trouser pockets while boarding a boat, and so on. A few year...