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2009-01-18T10:55:00.000-08:00

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Mobile Technology Solutions
Accenture's Mobile Solutions group helps clients to leverage business applications based on mobile technologies that enable high performance. We have extensive experience in implementing innovative solutions across a wide range of industries and business functions.

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Mobile Technology Summit 2007

2009-01-18T10:46:00.000-08:00

Thank you to all attendees and participants at Mobile Technology Summit, which ended on December 11, 2007. Combining in-depth investor and executive perspectives on what it takes to build a successful start-up in the mobile space, with business plan presentations delivered by the CEOs of 30 start-ups developing a wide range of technologies, the event was well-received by the investors, executives and entrepreneurs in attendance.
If you are interested in Dow Jones Events, you may view a full listing at http://events.dowjones.com/.
We look forward to seeing you at one of our events soon.

(Category)Mobile Technology

2009-01-18T10:42:00.000-08:00

Go in this link get data for (Category)Mobile Technology. Thanks

Changes in working and communication patterns highlight the need to bring enterprise applications to mobile devices

3G (3rd Generation) Mobile Technology

2009-01-18T10:36:00.000-08:00

'Third Generation' Mobile Technology

:: 3G Keywords

2G (Second Generation)

2.5G (Interim GSM Generation before 3G, after 2G - GPRS)

GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)

3G (Third Generation)

IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications 2000)

UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephony System)

CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)

W-CDMA (Wideband CDMA)

FOMA (Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access)

cdma2000

License Costs

Country
Issue Date In Billions Per Capita
Finland 3/99 0 0
Spain 3/00 0.5 11.2
Britain 4/00 35.4 594.2
Japan 6/00 0 0
Netherland 7/00 2.5 158.9
Germany 8/00 46.1 566.9
Italy 10/00 10 174.2
Austria 11/00 0.7 86
Norway 11/00 0.9 20.5
S. Korea 12/00 3.3 69.6
Australia 3/01 1.2 30.3
Singapore 4/01 0.2 42.6

:: 3G Overview
:: 3G Defined
3G (Third Generation) is a generic name for a set of mobile technologies set to be launched by the end of 2001 which use a host of high-tech infrastructure networks, handsets, base stations, switches and other equipment to allow mobiles to offer high-speed Internet access, data, video and CD-quality music services.

Data speeds in 3G networks should be show speeds of to up to 2 Megabits per second, an increase on current technology.

:: 2G/2.5G Defined
GSM for example is a 2G technology. It uses TDMA technology, proving data speeds of 9.6kbps/14.4kbps. The packet radio upgrade to GSM, called GPRS, can have speeds of up to 114kbps. GPRS an interim technology towards 3G, and hence is known as 2.5G. GSM might go the same way as the older first generation (1G) NMT and AMPS networks in 8-15 years because of the use of newer and better UMTS technology (More on GSM) ; (More on GPRS)

:: CDMA (See our CDMA section)
The new 3G services are almost all flavours of technolgies based on the generic name, CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). CDMA is a digital wireless technology that allows multiple users to share radio frequencies at the same time without interfering with each other. A telephone or data call is assigned a unique code that distinguishes it from others and and since the signals hop among different frequencies.

Current 2G services using the original CDMA "IS-95" technology are know as cdmaOne. 3G services will use new high-speed versions of CDMA called W-CDMA, or its competing technology, cdma2000. (More on CDMA)

IMT-2000
In all, these technologies fall under the ITUs generic name of IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications 2000). But when the ITU tried to unify and standardise 3G technologies, no consensus was reached. There were thus five terrestrial standards developed as part of the IMT-2000 program. Instead, depending on where in the world 3G will be implemented, the 3G standard will be based on CDMA variants cdma2000 or W-CDMA.

CDMA 3G Variants (in the IMT-2000 Family)
The primary CDMA variants that will be used in IMT-2000 3G networks are W-CDMA (Wideband CDMA) and cdma2000, which are similar but not the same, so that W-CDMA handsets will not work with cdma2000 handsets and visa versa.

W-CDMA (Wideband CDMA)
W-CDMA is the competitor to cdma2000 and one of two 3G standards that makes use of a wider spectrum than CDMA and therefore can transmit and receive information for faster and more efficiently. Co-developed by NTT DoCoMo, it is being backed by most European mobile operators and is expected to compete with cdma2000 to be the de facto 3G standard

UMTS (W-CDMA)
In Europe, 3G W-CDMA networks are known as UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephony System) another name for w-CDMA/3G services. Governments in the region held UMTS auctions for 3G licences netting $108 billion in 2000.

FOMA (W-CDMA)
Japanese giant NTT DoCoMo Inc brand name for 3G services is FOMA (Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access). Based on the W-CDMA format, FOMA services for a limited number of users is to begin at the end of May, with full commercial services due in October 2001.

cdma2000 (See more on cdma2000)
Then there is cdma2000, the other 3G standard. It is the upgarde to cdmaOne. It can use of a wider spectrum than CDMA and therefore can transmit and receive information faster and more efficiently, making fast Internet data, video, and CD-quality music transmission possible. There are however new cdma2000 variants called cdma2000 1X, 1X-EV-DV, 1X EV-DO, and cdma2000 3X. They deliver 3G services while occupying a very small amount of current spectrum (1.25 MHz per carrier) as opposed to UMTS which requires completely NEW spectrum (hence the auctions).

That is why cddma2000 is considered slightly more technologically advanced than the competing W-CDMA standard. CDMA2000 is not constrained to only the IMT band; it is defined to operate in existing cellular and PCS spectrum as well as IMT spectrum, thereby maximizing flexibility for operators. Cdma2000 is expected to be compatible with with CDMA and GSM/TDMA networks so that GSM networks can "overlay" a cdma2000 network over their GSM networks.more [more...]

UMTS™ and ETSI™ are trademarks of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute

Mobile Technology to drive consumer interection at London Olympics

2009-01-18T10:24:00.000-08:00

The BT team responsible for the communications infrastructure at the London 2012 Olympic Games is exploring ways to use mobile services to enhance the consumer experience. Under discussion are phone voting and the use of NFC for small payments and for event staff management.

MobileTechnology for on the go

2009-01-18T10:16:00.000-08:00

Mobile technologies are more than just dual-action processors that help your computer run faster and more efficiently. It also refers to mobile technology, such as pocket PCs, Smartphones and PDAs.

You really have to stay abreast of technological terms if you hope to understand the latest techno-gadgets that are available on the market. Sure, there will be some terms that apply to more than one thing, but it never hurts to learn all you can about technology, for when it comes time to make your hand-held purchase.

CNET is probably one of the most valuable tools you can use when it comes time to buy your hand held device. They offer both editorial reviews and user reviews of different products that are currently on the market, along with reviews of older pieces of technology. One example of mobile technologies is the hand held devices produced by Hewlett Packard. One in particular is the HP iPAQ Pocket PC HX4700. This device is top of the line and is currently being sold and manufactured around the world. Users gave the HX4700 a 7.3 and the editorial staff gave it a review of 7.9, which are both excellent ratings.

The four inch screen is unbelievable with its color pixels and it features a replaceable battery to ensure that documents and other information are not lost when the battery dies. It also features a large quantity of memory and is equipped with Outlook, Word, Excel and Internet Explorer.

So if there is a downside to the HX4700, then it’s all in size. It is a bit bulky, but is still a very sleek pocket PC. There is a small handicap present when the user first operates the new touchpad and this can translate into poor gaming, for those that use their pocket PC for gaming in particular. If you are in the market for a pocket PC for gaming purposes, then you may want to turn to Dell’s Axim.

Granted, there are other manufacturers of mobile technologies that may come with a cheaper price tag, but only you can make that determination. One opponent in the mobile technology market is Apple’s iPhone.

Some models are going to cost more than others, but the price may be worth it in the end depending on what you need. A great example of this is the $399 iPhone from Apple. Most owners would be hard pressed to tell you of any drawbacks to this phone/PDA, besides the staggering price. However, when you compare it to other models from different manufacturers, you may be surprised at how cost effective it really is.
About the Author:
Blackberry Curve 8300

Written by Michael PJ Erikson on January 18th, 2009

Tagged with cell phone, electronics, gadgets, handheld computer, pda, personal digital assistant, pocket computers, pocket pc, smartphone, Technology
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Mobile Technology

2009-01-18T10:12:00.000-08:00

Mobile Technology
MobileIN.com

Visit these sections for information about various mobile network technologies
Ad Hoc Networking CDMA GSM
Intelligent Networks Mobile Devices Mobile Billing
Next Generation Networks Standards TDMA
Mobile IT Intelligent Mobile Networks

MobileIN.com

MobileIN.com Home Page Applications Regulation Business

The mobile highway in 2009

2009-01-05T07:30:00.000-08:00

The mobile highway in 2009
Written by Jon Arne Sæterås
Friday, 12 December 2008 15:35
The development in the mobile industry is taking giant leaps every week. Its hard to keep up. Lots of new stuff, lots of changing stuff and lots of buzz in general. But this is a Mobiletechers job, so we'll worry about that for you.
Gartner predicts it will be sold 1.4 billion mobile devices in 2009. Many of these will no doubt be iPhones and devices from the "new kids on the block", such as Garmin for example. These new devices are all Internet devices with wlan and other high speed connectivity methods. Together with advanced browsers this makes the mobile Internet the perfect platform for almost any kind of application.

Focus on usability and user experience.

Usability will become more important. All potential fun for all stakeholders starts with, and rely on, the end users and that their good experience. So the moral is; make the end user happy. Apple has set some new standards in user experience with the iPhone. The usability principles are not revolutionary, but the boldness of daring to implement them on a mobile phone is admirable. So when doing stuff on mobile in 2009, ally your self with someone who knows interaction design and have the experience in creating device- and interaction model independent functional design. If it's for some reason not possible to achieve the perfect user experience, seriously consider aborting the project. Most likely it is not worth the money. Content is not king, consumer is king.

Mobile portal software.

Do you still need special portal software to handle these new high end devices in 2009? Yes. The diversity and fragmentation is increasing more than ever. So which one to choose...? (hint). Simple answer: 1) Choose the platform that supports the widest range of interaction models. 2) Choose the platform that allows highest level of editorial freedom and control.

Try to look for something else than the traditional feed based mobile portals as well. If you are an Esceninc customer, I recommend Escenic Mobile Solution. This is the most revolutionary mobile portal platform around! And what ever you do; dont fall into the pit of creating a stand-alone iPhone, or other device specific, portal. You will create a maintenace hell! Purcahse a software that handles all this stuff for you allowing you to focus on content!

Mobile metrics

Implement mobile metrics. In 2009 common metric currencies will emerge. In Norway this has already happened. Use these and publish them internally and externally. This will be of great motivation as the graphs will show a very positive trend in 2009! Metrics are also crucial in this phase, because you need to tweek and tune your service by analysing how your audience responds to the changes you make.

Distribution models

Once you have this magnificent mobile offering to your customers on the run, you need to make sure they get to know about it. Start 2009 by telling your marketing- or media agency that there is something called mobile. If you need help in explaining what a mobile phone can do, apart from calling and sending sms, please call us and we'll gladly help!

You should also implement logic that allows your mobile users to access your mobile portal using the URL they know. For example they can enter "portal.com" regardless of desktop PC/Mac or hand held device. This will simplify your market communication and enhance the user experience significantly! All metrics will increase by 50%! This trend has started and will continue in 2009.

Also remember to tell your users that they actually can use their mobile phone to access your services. Always communicate a keyword to a short code as well. For sms access. Remember that there are more mobile phones out there than PCs! Your users are more likely to have a mobile phone than a PC.

Search is the number one killer-app on mobile Internet. Users tend to use search as a replacement of bookmarks. If they want facebook, they search for facebook on google. They don't know the bookmark function in their device nor how to typ in a url, so next time they search as well. Be sure to choose a mobile portal platform that enables visibility in search engines.

Messaging

So what about the future of sms services? As mentioned, sms should at least be used as an entry point to your mobile experience. Spend a few quiet minutes during Christmas to think about how powerful sms and mms really is! It allows interaction and dialog initiated from both parties! During 2009 we will see a more holistic approach to mobile where communication includes both messaging and mobile Internet. And maybe also regular, old fashioned desktop based Internet. If you are really serious about mobile, buy a dedicated short code that your users can identify you with. Makes your users feel safe. But don't spam, be relevant! Send messages only to users that have opt'ed in.

Mobile advertising

Don't rely on ad networks. Especially local- or regional networks. They wont be able to serve your the ads you need as your traffic grows faster than the number of ad campaigns available in these networks. Another thing about ad networks is that the quality of the ads is so poor it becomes a usability issue. And this, the users of 2009 will not tolerate.

To have success with advertising there are two options in 2009; 1) make the value chain as short and efficient as possible by managing mobile ads in-house using your own ad-people and existing work flows. 2) Choose a ad provider with a network of networks. And also, don't forget to run campaigns for your own stuff.

If your are an advertiser, plan your mobile ad campaigns differently. Same as you plan differently for print, radio, tv and desktop web. There may not be a breath taking volume in 2009, but the quality of the leads will go way beyond what you are used to from other channels.

Users and usage.

Along with better accessibility and better mobile Internet devices, users will discover what a great thing mobile Internet is and the user count will grow significantly if you take good care of your users. But don't think that your mobile users will behave as your users on PC web. Most likely mobile users wil have an casual, almost random use of your service. Remember that the mobile phone is first and foremost a social device used for calling and sms'ing friends, not to consume content. Be prepared of getting almost the same number of unique users if you multiply one weeks unique users by 4 as the actual counted unique users within a month.

Don't forget to collect phone numbers! The phone number is the ultimate key to communicate with your customer! Collect opt-ins wherever you can, start using the mobile channel at once. It is all about CRM.

What else?

So what about Android? It will be there in 2009 alright, but most likely, you wont know unless you read the small print manual. Your customers will still buy a SonyEricsson or a Samsung that happens to have a different operating system. So dont worry about that. We will handle it for you and your users.

Another buzz word is "social networking". I say; don't try to create a social network, use the ones that already exist. It is not the social network it self that is the value, but the meta data around it. The social network trend is a step towards using the web as a platform or that funny stuff called web 2.0. The mobile phone is a crucial part of any web 2.0 project as it holds all the important capabilities you wont find on any other device. The mobile phone is simply the missing link.

Data and metadata about your mobile ecosystem is the real gold. Make sure that you can analyse all kinds of data accross channels. You can use the data to create a personal, relevant and surprisingly addictive service. 2009 is probably a year too soon to implement this, though. This strategy must be a part of a greater super-internet strategy. But you'll definitley hear and read a lot about this next year. To make this as less painfull as possible, make sure you choose a provider that can offer you the package. Do not shop around for bits and peaces. When all data is stored in the same basement, this becomes a much more smooth operation.

mCommerce? If you sell physical goods like books, tickets and stuff, 2009 will be a very interesting year for you! Imagine running a TV campaign and letting people buy the product as they see the commercial still sitting in the sofa! Stay tuned!

And most definitely; 2009 is the year of mobile!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2008 Mobiletech AS
"dextella -ae f. [a little right hand]"

Technology News Mobile Tech

2009-01-05T07:27:00.000-08:00

The human personality is as complex and diverse a system as anything that can be found in this world. Everyone ticks in their own way. While some can mask their inner selves and emotions well enough to win the World Series of Poker, others wear their hearts -- and even more -- on their sleeves. Either way, if you want to get a good snapshot of someone's personality, a peek at their iPod's playlist might just be the way there. Playlists, and the artists represented, are every bit as diverse as each layer of the individual listener's personality. [More...]

Move Over Kindle - E-Books Hit Cell Phones
Saturday - January 3, 2009
Adam Parks is an avid reader of digital books, but you won't find him downloading the 20 or so titles he reads each year onto an electronic book device like Amazon's Kindle. Instead, Parks flips through pages -- Web-site design manuals and Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" are recent favorites -- on his trusted iPhone. [More...]

The Day the Zunes Stood Still
Wednesday - December 31, 2008
At the stroke of midnight -- the first second of Dec. 31 in the Pacific time zone -- 30 GB Microsoft Zunes started spontaneously dying. The Microsoft Zune support site discussion boards started filling up with posts, in addition to others on ZuneScene and ZuneBoards, the latter of which may have experienced a server crash. [More...]

Joost for iPhone: A Bad Case of the Hiccups
Wednesday - December 31, 2008
For Internet junkies with high-speed access, there's a growing set of options for viewing online TV shows and movies. Sites like Hulu.com, Joost.com and even YouTube.com are showing full-length TV shows online. While YouTube is far behind Hulu and Joost in that regard, at least iPhone owners can watch YouTube videos on their mobile screens. [More...]

Drunk Dialing: iPhone Apps to Tally Your Tipsiness
Tuesday - December 30, 2008
Am iDrunk? It's a question that rains down during the holiday party season, especially with New Year's Eve just a couple of days away. Checking your sobriety is now just a reach away to an iPhone. A number of downloadable iPhone applications, or "apps," are ready to test your sobriety through blood-alcohol calculators and balance tests. [More...]

AT&T Hawks Refurbished iPhones on the Cheap

Monday - December 29, 2008
In AT&T's end-of-the-year online refurbished phone sale, the wireless service provider is offering reconditioned iPhone 3Gs for just $99 -- roughly half the cost of a new unit. It's not the first time iPhones have dipped below $199. Just this weekend, the much-rumored Walmart iPhone debuted at $197 -- just $2 lower than the standard entry price for the 8 GB iPhone 3G. [More...]

Rethinking Zero iPod Tolerance in the Classroom

Saturday - December 27, 2008
When the 11:45 a.m. bell signals lunch at Whitefish Bay High School, students burst through doors like executives out of a meeting, their phones and personal electronics shimmering into view. Sleek iPods appear and ear buds pop into place as students share songs or listen to podcasts or books over the lunch hour. [More...]

HP Adds iPrint Photo to App Store Inventory

Tuesday - December 23, 2008
HP has introduced a new application for the iPhone and iPod touch that leverages its diverse product line of inkjet printers. HP iPrint Photo is available for free at the App Store. As the name suggests, it allows users to print photos from their Apple devices using a local WiFi network and a nearby printer. [More...]

Elevation Gives Palm a Leg Up

Tuesday - December 23, 2008
Struggling smartphone maker Palm just got a $100 million shot in the arm from private equity group Elevation Partners. In an investment agreement announced Monday, Elevation acquired new issues of preferred stock in Palm for $3.25 per share, a 31 percent premium over the closing price of Palm's stock last week. [More...]

Small Screen Blues: Cutting Mobile Video Down to Size

Tuesday - December 23, 2008
The real estate crisis in this country is felt in the workplace. It's impacting our leisure time. It's affecting the way we look at everything. Actually ... make that how we look at everything that's in the video we watch on our smartphone screens. The 2.5 to 3.5-inch screen real estate on our iPhones, Storms, Dares and G1s is training a generation of users to consume their video on a very small scale. [More...]

A Dream Home for the True Blue Apple Fan

Tuesday - December 23, 2008
Way back in 1950, science fiction giant Ray Bradbury wrote a short story, "There Will Come Soft Rains," about a smart house that did just about everything for its resident family -- including cooking breakfast and keeping track of the bills. Unfortunately, all members of that family, along with all inhabitants of the town, were obliterated by a nuclear explosion. The house, though, kept right on going. [More...]

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Mobile Tech Targets AIDS

2009-01-05T06:55:00.000-08:00

As South Africa continues to battle one of the largest HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world, a group of health care workers and innovators is deploying what it hopes will be a powerful new weapon in the formidable fight: the cell phone.

As South Africa continues to battle one of the largest HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world, a group of...
As South Africa continues to battle one of the largest HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world, a group of health care workers and innovators is deploying what it hopes will be a powerful new weapon in the formidable fight: the cell phone. By blasting approximately 1 million HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis text messages each day to the personal cell phones of the general public, the initiative aims to overcome the widespread stigma that prevents millions of South Africans from seeking testing and treatment. (Getty Images/Pop!Tech, Nokia Siemens and Praekelt Foundation)
By blasting approximately 1 million HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis text messages each day to the personal cell phones of the general public, the initiative aims to overcome the widespread stigma that prevents millions of South Africans from seeking testing and treatment.
Calling it the "largest ever" use of mobile devices for the delivery of HIV/AIDS and TB care, organizers launched Project Masiluleke (or simply "Project M") last week at the annual Pop! Tech technology conference in Camden, Maine.
The name of the initiative means "to give wise counsel" and "lend a helping hand" in Zulu.
Related

Economic Woes to Hurt World's Poor Most

Study Finds AIDS Virus Is a Century Old

Clinton in Rwanda: 'Lifetime Responsibility'
The project grew out of the Pop! Tech Accelerator -– a social innovation incubator designed to support cutting edge, inter-disciplinary solutions to global problems -– and brings together an international coalition of partners, including design firm frog design and communications services giant Nokia Siemens Network.
"Because cell phone penetration in Africa and in South Africa is almost 100 percent ... this is the absolute perfect medium available to do this," said Dr. Krista Dong, an HIV and TB specialist and director of the South African HIV and TB outreach organization iTeach. Her organization is one of the key local partners on the initiative.
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Project M also focuses on tuberculosis because it is one of the most common killers of HIV-positive patients in sub-Saharan Africa. As HIV weakens a person's immune system, it makes it more vulnerable to opportunistic infections like TB. Recognizing this fatal relationship, Dong's nonprofit iTeach stands for "Integration of TB in Education and Care for HIV/AIDS."
Overcoming the Stigma
According to the United Nations, South Africa has one of the highest AIDS/HIV rates in the world. The disease kills 1,000 people in the country every day. Yet, according to Project M's organizers, just 5 percent of the population has been tested for it.
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Member Comments (4)
Since there is no cure for AIDS, prevention is the only option. For places like South Africa where the epidemic is so widespread, they need to do what is best for the people and stop worrying so much about hurting feelings. They need to test EVERYONE periodically and institute measures to protect those not infected and get treatment to those who are infected. How many people have to die because someone doesn't want to face the truth?redavtx Oct-28
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Gates Revolutionizes the World From Every Angle
Mbeki Resigns After Power Struggle
Study Finds AIDS Virus Is a Century Old
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Google's Good Deed: Web Access in Africa
Africa Needs More Aid to Meet U.N. Goals

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vcarLeftSlide.min=0.5;
vcarLeftSlide.ease = Easing['easeBothStrong'];
vcarLeftSlide.init = function(){
if(vcarouselPane1.content){
vcarouselPane1.content.style.left="330px";
}
if(vcarouselPane1.content && vcarouselPane1.content.parentNode != vcarouselPane1.viewport){
vcarouselPane1.viewport.appendChild(vcarouselPane1.content);
};
};
vcarLeftSlide.handler = function(val){
val = Math.round(val);
vcarouselPane1.content.style.left = val+"px";
return val;
};
vcarLeftSlide.callback = function(){
vcarouselPane1.content.style.left = "0px";
}
vcarouselLeftAnim1.addSequence(0,vcarLeftSlide);
var vcarouselRightAnim1 = new Animation();
//old moving right
var vcarRightOldSlide = new Sequence();
vcarRightOldSlide.start = 0;
vcarRightOldSlide.end = 330;
vcarRightOldSlide.duration = 600;
vcarRightOldSlide.min=0.5;
vcarRightOldSlide.ease = Easing['easeBothStrong'];
vcarRightOldSlide.handler = function(val){
val = Math.round(val);
vcarouselPane1.oldContent.style.left = val+"px";
return val;
};
vcarRightOldSlide.callback = function(){
vcarouselPane1.oldContent.style.left = "330px";
};
vcarouselRightAnim1.addSequence(0,vcarRightOldSlide);
//new moving right
var vcarRightSlide = new Sequence();
vcarRightSlide.start = -330;
vcarRightSlide.end = 0;
vcarRightSlide.duration = 600;
vcarRightSlide.min=0.5;
vcarRightSlide.ease = Easing['easeBothStrong'];
vcarRightSlide.init = function(){
if(vcarouselPane1.content){
vcarouselPane1.content.style.left="-330px";
}
if(vcarouselPane1.content && vcarouselPane1.content.parentNode != vcarouselPane1.viewport){
vcarouselPane1.viewport.appendChild(vcarouselPane1.content);
};
};
vcarRightSlide.handler = function(val){
val = Math.round(val);
vcarouselPane1.content.style.left = val+"px";
return val;
};
vcarRightSlide.callback = function(){
vcarouselPane1.content.style.left = "0px";
}
vcarouselRightAnim1.addSequence(0,vcarRightSlide);
vcarouselManager.pane=vcarouselPane1;
vcarouselList1.gotoItem('vcar1-1');

Technology

Smart and Sexy: The Hottest Geeks of 2008
Wired.com readers choose the sexiest geeks of the year.
// \n\nSmart and Sexy: The Hottest Geeks of 2008\n\nWired.com readers choose the sexiest geeks of the year.\n\n');
metadataManager11.addItem('lv6566630-11','/story/listViewer/preview?id=6566630');
setMarkup('/story/listViewer/preview?id=6562852','\n\n\nNow Boarding: A Better Way to Load a Plane\n\nAstrophysicist\'s computer simulations suggest airlines are doing it all wrong.\n\n');
metadataManager11.addItem('lv6562852-11','/story/listViewer/preview?id=6562852');
setMarkup('/story/listViewer/preview?id=6570273','\n\n\n PHOTOS: Top Environmental News Stories of 2008\n\n\n');
metadataManager11.addItem('lv6570273-11','/story/listViewer/preview?id=6570273');
setMarkup('/story/listViewer/preview?id=6565821','\n\n\nSchools Seek More Math, Science Teachers\n\nStudies show a shortage of qualified math and science teachers in the U.S.\n\n');
metadataManager11.addItem('lv6565821-11','/story/listViewer/preview?id=6565821');
setMarkup('/story/listViewer/preview?id=6564226','\n\n\nCyberwar: Gaza\'s Shadow Conflict Online\n\nInternet and social media are the latest battlegrounds in the clash.\n\n');
metadataManager11.addItem('lv6564226-11','/story/listViewer/preview?id=6564226');
metadataList11.gotoItem('lv6566630-11');
// ]]>
Smart and Sexy: The Hottest Geeks of 2008
Now Boarding: A Better Way to Load a Plane
PHOTOS: Top Environmental News Stories of 2008
Schools Seek More Math, Science Teachers
Cyberwar: Gaza's Shadow Conflict Online

Slideshows

// \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n PHOTOS: Hubble Captures Stunning Views of Mammoth Stars\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n PHOTOS: Boy Nearly Loses Head, Walks\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n PHOTOS: Detroit Welcomes Baby Aardvark\n\n\n\n');
vcarouselManager.addItem('vcar1-2','/technology/widgets/mediaPlayer/carousel/carouselPreview?ids=1884338~2033649~3351915~');

vcarouselManager.addItem('vcar2-2','/technology/widgets/mediaPlayer/carousel/carouselPreview?ids=2284437~5832219~5823219~');

vcarouselManager.addItem('vcar3-2','/technology/widgets/mediaPlayer/carousel/carouselPreview?ids=2205608~5573508~5558556~');

vcarouselManager.addItem('vcar4-2','/technology/widgets/mediaPlayer/carousel/carouselPreview?ids=5495952~3731241~3381380~');

vcarouselManager.addItem('vcar5-2','/technology/widgets/mediaPlayer/carousel/carouselPreview?ids=5185641~5448885~5443924~');

// ]]>

PHOTOS: Hubble Captures Stunning Views of Mammoth Stars

PHOTOS: Boy Nearly Loses Head, Walks

PHOTOS: Detroit Welcomes Baby Aardvark
var vcarOldProducer = function(){return getElementById(vcarouselPane2.oldContent,'carousel-dual2');};
var vcarNewProducer = function(){return getElementById(vcarouselPane2.content,'carousel-dual2');};
var vcarouselPane2 = new Pane('video-carousel-content2');
vcarouselPane2.addMouseOver(function(){vcarouselPane2.engage()});
vcarouselPane2.addMouseOut(function(){vcarouselPane2.disengage()});
vcarouselPane2.addEngage(function(){vcarouselList2.pause()});
vcarouselPane2.addDisengage(function(){vcarouselList2.resume()});
var vcarouselQuickAnim = new Animation();
var vcarouselLeftAnim2 = new Animation();
//old moving left
var vcarLeftOldSlide = new Sequence();
vcarLeftOldSlide.start = 0;
vcarLeftOldSlide.end = -330;
vcarLeftOldSlide.duration = 600;
vcarLeftOldSlide.min=0.5;
vcarLeftOldSlide.ease = Easing['easeBothStrong'];
vcarLeftOldSlide.callback = function(){
vcarouselPane2.oldContent.style.left = "-330px";
};
vcarLeftOldSlide.handler = function(val){
val = Math.round(val);
vcarouselPane2.oldContent.style.left = val+"px";
return val;
};
vcarouselLeftAnim2.addSequence(0,vcarLeftOldSlide);
//new moving left
var vcarLeftSlide = new Sequence();
vcarLeftSlide.start = 330;
vcarLeftSlide.end = 0;
vcarLeftSlide.duration = 600;
vcarLeftSlide.min=0.5;
vcarLeftSlide.ease = Easing['easeBothStrong'];
vcarLeftSlide.init = function(){
if(vcarouselPane2.content){
vcarouselPane2.content.style.left="330px";
}
if(vcarouselPane2.content && vcarouselPane2.content.parentNode != vcarouselPane2.viewport){
vcarouselPane2.viewport.appendChild(vcarouselPane2.content);
};
};
vcarLeftSlide.handler = function(val){
val = Math.round(val);
vcarouselPane2.content.style.left = val+"px";
return val;
};
vcarLeftSlide.callback = function(){
vcarouselPane2.content.style.left = "0px";
}
vcarouselLeftAnim2.addSequence(0,vcarLeftSlide);
var vcarouselRightAnim2 = new Animation();
//old moving right
var vcarRightOldSlide = new Sequence();
vcarRightOldSlide.start = 0;
vcarRightOldSlide.end = 330;
vcarRightOldSlide.duration = 600;
vcarRightOldSlide.min=0.5;
vcarRightOldSlide.ease = Easing['easeBothStrong'];
vcarRightOldSlide.handler = function(val){
val = Math.round(val);
vcarouselPane2.oldContent.style.left = val+"px";
return val;
};
vcarRightOldSlide.callback = function(){
vcarouselPane2.oldContent.style.left = "330px";
};
vcarouselRightAnim2.addSequence(0,vcarRightOldSlide);
//new moving right
var vcarRightSlide = new Sequence();
vcarRightSlide.start = -330;
vcarRightSlide.end = 0;
vcarRightSlide.duration = 600;
vcarRightSlide.min=0.5;
vcarRightSlide.ease = Easing['easeBothStrong'];
vcarRightSlide.init = function(){
if(vcarouselPane2.content){
vcarouselPane2.content.style.left="-330px";
}
if(vcarouselPane2.content && vcarouselPane2.content.parentNode != vcarouselPane2.viewport){
vcarouselPane2.viewport.appendChild(vcarouselPane2.content);
};
};
vcarRightSlide.handler = function(val){
val = Math.round(val);
vcarouselPane2.content.style.left = val+"px";
return val;
};
vcarRightSlide.callback = function(){
vcarouselPane2.content.style.left = "0px";
}
vcarouselRightAnim2.addSequence(0,vcarRightSlide);
vcarouselManager.pane=vcarouselPane2;
vcarouselList2.gotoItem('vcar1-2');

Top Stories

// \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIsrael Pounds Gaza; Hamas Orders Militants to \'Crush the Enemy\' \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHezbollah Threat: Lebanon Watches Gaza \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n WATCH: A Look at Life in the War Zone\n\n\n\n');
vcarouselManager.addItem('vcar1-3','/technology/widgets/mediaPlayer/carousel/carouselPreview?ids=6576099~6571656~6574853~');

vcarouselManager.addItem('vcar2-3','/technology/widgets/mediaPlayer/carousel/carouselPreview?ids=6576756~6575960~6567810~');

vcarouselManager.addItem('vcar3-3','/technology/widgets/mediaPlayer/carousel/carouselPreview?ids=6551048~6574472~6556057~');

vcarouselManager.addItem('vcar4-3','/technology/widgets/mediaPlayer/carousel/carouselPreview?ids=6567335~6557572~6557616~');

vcarouselManager.addItem('vcar5-3','/technology/widgets/mediaPlayer/carousel/carouselPreview?ids=6566630~3602873~6576840~');

// ]]>

Israel Pounds Gaza; Hamas Orders Militants to 'Crush the Enemy'

Hezbollah Threat: Lebanon Watches Gaza

WATCH: A Look at Life in the War Zone
var vcarOldProducer = function(){return getElementById(vcarouselPane3.oldContent,'carousel-dual3');};
var vcarNewProducer = function(){return getElementById(vcarouselPane3.content,'carousel-dual3');};
var vcarouselPane3 = new Pane('video-carousel-content3');
vcarouselPane3.addMouseOver(function(){vcarouselPane3.engage()});
vcarouselPane3.addMouseOut(function(){vcarouselPane3.disengage()});
vcarouselPane3.addEngage(function(){vcarouselList3.pause()});
vcarouselPane3.addDisengage(function(){vcarouselList3.resume()});
var vcarouselQuickAnim = new Animation();
var vcarouselLeftAnim3 = new Animation();
//old moving left
var vcarLeftOldSlide = new Sequence();
vcarLeftOldSlide.start = 0;
vcarLeftOldSlide.end = -330;
vcarLeftOldSlide.duration = 600;
vcarLeftOldSlide.min=0.5;
vcarLeftOldSlide.ease = Easing['easeBothStrong'];
vcarLeftOldSlide.callback = function(){
vcarouselPane3.oldContent.style.left = "-330px";
};
vcarLeftOldSlide.handler = function(val){
val = Math.round(val);
vcarouselPane3.oldContent.style.left = val+"px";
return val;
};
vcarouselLeftAnim3.addSequence(0,vcarLeftOldSlide);
//new moving left
var vcarLeftSlide = new Sequence();
vcarLeftSlide.start = 330;
vcarLeftSlide.end = 0;
vcarLeftSlide.duration = 600;
vcarLeftSlide.min=0.5;
vcarLeftSlide.ease = Easing['easeBothStrong'];
vcarLeftSlide.init = function(){
if(vcarouselPane3.content){
vcarouselPane3.content.style.left="330px";
}
if(vcarouselPane3.content && vcarouselPane3.content.parentNode != vcarouselPane3.viewport){
vcarouselPane3.viewport.appendChild(vcarouselPane3.content);
};
};
vcarLeftSlide.handler = function(val){
val = Math.round(val);
vcarouselPane3.content.style.left = val+"px";
return val;
};
vcarLeftSlide.callback = function(){
vcarouselPane3.content.style.left = "0px";
}
vcarouselLeftAnim3.addSequence(0,vcarLeftSlide);
var vcarouselRightAnim3 = new Animation();
//old moving right
var vcarRightOldSlide = new Sequence();
vcarRightOldSlide.start = 0;
vcarRightOldSlide.end = 330;
vcarRightOldSlide.duration = 600;
vcarRightOldSlide.min=0.5;
vcarRightOldSlide.ease = Easing['easeBothStrong'];
vcarRightOldSlide.handler = function(val){
val = Math.round(val);
vcarouselPane3.oldContent.style.left = val+"px";
return val;
};
vcarRightOldSlide.callback = function(){
vcarouselPane3.oldContent.style.left = "330px";
};
vcarouselRightAnim3.addSequence(0,vcarRightOldSlide);
//new moving right
var vcarRightSlide = new Sequence();
vcarRightSlide.start = -330;
vcarRightSlide.end = 0;
vcarRightSlide.duration = 600;
vcarRightSlide.min=0.5;
vcarRightSlide.ease = Easing['easeBothStrong'];
vcarRightSlide.init = function(){
if(vcarouselPane3.content){
vcarouselPane3.content.style.left="-330px";
}
if(vcarouselPane3.content && vcarouselPane3.content.parentNode != vcarouselPane3.viewport){
vcarouselPane3.viewport.appendChild(vcarouselPane3.content);
};
};
vcarRightSlide.handler = function(val){
val = Math.round(val);
vcarouselPane3.content.style.left = val+"px";
return val;
};
vcarRightSlide.callback = function(){
vcarouselPane3.content.style.left = "0px";
}
vcarouselRightAnim3.addSequence(0,vcarRightSlide);
vcarouselManager.pane=vcarouselPane3;
vcarouselList3.gotoItem('vcar1-3');

ABC News to Go
RSS Feeds
Podcasts
E-mail Newsletters
ABC News Mobile

Most Popular

Viewed
Commented
Emailed
The Truth About 10 Trendy New Year's Diets
Travoltas 'Heartbroken' Over Son's Death
Now Boarding: A Better Way to Load a Plane
WATCH: Birth Orgasms: Women Speak Out
WATCH: John Travolta's Son Dies
WATCH: New Year's Snow Falls in Times Square
PHOTOS: Israel Launches Ground Assault
PHOTOS: Sexy Stars Rock New Hairstyles
PHOTOS: Carey's Vision of Love
More Popular News »
//

//

Function VBGetSwfVer(i)
on error resume next
Dim swControl, swVersion
swVersion = 0
set swControl = CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash." + CStr(i))
if (IsObject(swControl)) then
swVersion = 0
swVersion = swControl.GetVariable("$version")
end if
VBGetSwfVer = swVersion
End Function
var SOB=new flashObj();
var enc_goto = escape(("" == "") ? "http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/Movies/story?id=6377068" : "");
SOB.ID = "ad_creative";
SOB.flashFile = "http://Adsatt.ABCNews.starwave.com/ad/sponsors/ABCNews_House/Dec_2008/abcn-322x70-0146.swf?clicktag=http://log.go.com/log?srvc%3dnws%26guid%3d5C17AB09-4F65-4779-91C7-A503AF2EF2F5%26drop%3d0%26addata%3d1089:75:471310:75%26a%3d1%26goto%3d"+enc_goto;
SOB.DenyIEdl = "TRUE";
SOB.wmode = "opaque";
SOB.width = "322";
SOB.height = "70";
SOB.FlashVer = 8;
SOB.cabVersion = "8,0,0,0";
SOB.altTxt = "";
SOB.render(true);

//ADVERTISER LINKThe New York TimesGet home delivery of The New York Times for as low as $3.45 a week';
if (document.getElementById("columnad") != null) {
document.getElementById("columnad").innerHTML += insert;
} else {
document.write(insert);
}
//]]>
ADVERTISER LINK
The New York TimesGet home delivery of The New York Times for as low as $3.45 a week

Must-Click Tech Features

// \n\n\n\n\n\nABC News\n\n\n\n\n\n PHOTOS: Spiders & Celebs in Name Game\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABC News\n\n\n\n\n\n PHOTOS: Poof! Hollywood Disappears\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABC News\n\n\n\n\n\n PHOTOS: Detroit Welcomes Baby Aardvark\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABC News\n\n\n\n\n\n PHOTOS: Hubble Captures Stunning Views of Mammoth Stars\n\n\n\n\n\n\nABC News\n\n\n\n\n\n PHOTOS: Cubs and Piglet: Bosom Buddies \n\n\n\n');
carouselManager.addItem('car1-1','/technology/story/carousel/carouselPreview?ids=5573508~5558556~3351915~1884338~3381380~');

carouselManager.addItem('car2-1','/technology/story/carousel/carouselPreview?ids=5481487~5479836~5443989~5448885~5451107~');

carouselManager.addItem('car3-1','/technology/story/carousel/carouselPreview?ids=5441728~5443469~5460431~5443924~5359750~');

carouselManager.addItem('car4-1','/technology/story/carousel/carouselPreview?ids=5460756~4819485~5351908~5310168~5303287~');

// ]]>

Mobile Tech Services

2009-01-05T06:31:00.000-08:00

Mobile Tech Services, Inc. is an onsite computer services company based out of Watkinsville Georgia.Mobile Tech Services, Inc. is a local name you can trust serving customers in our region ranging from large organizations to small business's and local residential customers. We are dedicated to providing quality onsite computer services that will meet and exceed your expectations. Our team understands how important it is to have your computer operating at its peak efficiency, that's why we are here to provide quality onsite computer sales, repairs, maintenance, upgrades, training and web site design. We also realize that everyone wants a good value, so we offer our services at rates lower than you will find anywhere- guaranteed

Wap Mobile Tech

2009-01-04T03:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome to MobiletechWe are a leading provider of software and services to enable the mobile web. Brands, content owners, media companies and enterprises can use Mobiletech’s platform to create a mobile experience for their customers which is both powerful and easy to use

PRODUCTS
Dextella Mobile RouterDextella FrameDextella DialogDextella AdsDextella PublishMore...
NEWS
Are you ready for the iphone
Mobiletech launches into Denmark with a new Danish subsidiary lead by the former leadership team of iLoop Mobile Denmark
Swedish Gota Media launches five mobile newspapers
More News>>
REFERENCES
Some references
ABOUT US
About Mobiletech
Contact us
BLOG
The mobile highway in 2009
Mobiletech at IFRA Amsterdam
Mobile Router - One url, regardless of device
More blog>>

Mobile Tech Specialist

2009-01-04T02:58:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Mobile Tech Specialist! We are Albany's best mobile computer repair resource. Tired of your new home computer running slower than the old one you just replaced? Want a tech support agent that speaks ENGLISH as a first language? Well you have come to the right place. We are here to fix your computer no matter what the problem. Virus, spam, malware, pop ups, running slow, or not running at all.
Not only do we fix issues with your computer equipment, we also set up home networking (wired or wireless), add memory, hard drive space, or anything else needed. We can install and show you how to use your new equipment. We are your full service computer technician ready to help you in anyway you need us to

Mobile Tech Blog

2009-01-04T02:56:00.000-08:00

If you feel that Apple iPhone 3G in India is priced a little too high, then you are certainly right. Apple’s pricing strategy for iPhones in India is yet another example of India being given a step motherly treatment by international corporations and Indian companies helping them for their own greed.
Let us first check out iPhone’s prices in two opposite countries, US and Hong Kong. I will return to you shortly why they are “opposite”.
In the US, iPhone 3G sells for $199 (Rs. 9700) for 8 GB version and $299 (Rs. 14,500) for the 16 GB version with which comes the carrier lock for 2 year with AT&T. Which means you can use AT&T network only and it costs about $20 (Rs.970) more per month than their other available plans.In Hong Kong, you get an iPhone 3G officially unlocked at HK$ 5400 (Rs.34,000) for 8 GB and HK$ 6200 (Rs.39,000) for 16 GB. So you can buy plans and insert sim card of any network provider.
Now on one hand you get an iPhone real cheap in the US but end up paying more to your cellphone provider (who pays to Apple) every month and its the exact opposite in HK where the phone comes quite expensive upfront but you are then free to use any network provider you want. Two extreme opposites, right? Additionally in US with the iPhone plans AT&T provides frills like free access to internet on your phone via thousands of WiFi hotspots it has all over the country, Visual Voicemail, GPS, etc (which, by the way, are not available in India).
Now let us see whats on offer for us desis. 8 GB iPhone for Rs.30,000 and 16 GB for Rs.36,000 PLUS you can only use either Vodafone or Airtel on their exorbitant “iPhone plans”.
Take for example, Vodafone’s cheapest iPhone plan has minimum monthly rental of Rs.799 with which you get 250 free minutes and Rs.0.6 per minute for local calls; this plan falls flat when compared to Vodafone “Corp 299″ plan where monthly rental is Rs.299 only with just as many free calls (250) and cheaper calling rate of Rs.0.5/min. Roughly you pay Rs. (799 - 299) = 500 more every month being an iPhone user. Similar is the situation with Airtel. And of course, neither Airtel nor Vodafone has a single wifi hotspot anywhere in the country.
So we are being given the worst of both the worlds, that is: high cost iPhones, network lock and zero additional frills from the network providers.
The bottomline? In India you pay almost as much for a locked iPhone as it costs unlocked. You do not enjoy free WiFi, you do not enjoy basic iPhone services like Visual Voicemail or GPS and yet you pay more monthly fees to Vodafone or Airtel with no choice of another service provider.
Do send this to your friends and family in India and save them from burning holes in their pockets for nothing.

-->
iPhone launch in India - Lukewarm at best
September 5, 2008 In iPhone Comments(0)
iPhone did launch in India, big bloggers blogged about it, there was this “midnight launch” but hardly any queues outside iphone shops and the general public’s response can be termed as lukeward at best.The biggest factor that has kept people away from this gadget is the price, priced at Rs.32,000 it is twice the amount it is being sold for in the US, and in today’s age of internet everyone is aware about it - and not too happy either.I will conclude this post with a link on iPhone discussion on a popular indian forum titled Iphone feature lack.

-->
Vodafone India starts iPhone pre-registrations
June 28, 2008 In iPhone Comments(0)
Vodafone has today started taking pre-registration information for potential customers interested in iPhone through its website http://vodafone.inAlthough the title and the feature scream out ‘iPhone 3G’, there is a disclaimer at the bottom of the pre-registration page saying “Currently compatible only with 2G networks. Only select features and services are currently available in India.”
In our next article, we will help you decide the new iPhone expected in India suits your needs or not.

-->
Next Page »

jkon the run mobile tech

2009-01-04T02:54:00.000-08:00

January 02, 2009
HipVoice (sorta) Brings Push To Talk on BlackBerry Now, iPhone Soon
PTT, or Push To Talk, is pretty common for business teams that are spread out and I can see why. You may need instant information from a peer who’s at another job-site, for example. Using PTT, your phone is essentially a half-duplex, walkie-talkie so you can have a semi-real-time conversation. Well, that’s assuming you can translate the oft-garbled communications; I think my vintage G.I.Joe walkie-talkie kit from the 1970’s sounded better in some cases.
Some U.S. carriers offer handsets that support the PTT service, but it requires specific hardware and typically works only within the particular carrier’s network. HipVoice intends to change the rules for PTT with their service that’s carrier independent. Another rule they’re changing is the traditional definition of PTT, because their clever solution is designed very differently from standard Push To Talk services. You still press a button to talk, but what happens after that is completely different from today’s PTT.
Continue reading »
Posted by Kevin C. Tofel at 1:54 PM in cool stuff, mobile tech Permalink Comments (4)
This week at Mobile Tech Manor #23- a look back at 2008
The new year is upon us and as I do each year it’s the time to take a look back at the year just ended. Mobile Tech Manor saw many big events and changes that have played a major role in my life and my work here on jkOnTheRun. Join me in this look back at 2008

Java Technology for Mobile and Interactive Devices

2009-01-04T01:36:00.000-08:00

The Mobile and Interactive Device Technology resource center shows how you can create, test, certify, and market applications for consumer devices, from phonetops to desktops to embedded devices, with these technologies:
Java ME A platform for mobile phones, PDAs, set-top boxes, and vehicle telematics systems.
Java Card A technology for applications that run on smart cards and devices with very limited memory and processing capabilities.
JavaFX A platform for creating rich media and interactive content.
Tools & toolkits include the MSA, MIDP, CLDC, CDC, Java Card, and NetBeans Mobility Packs.
What's New

December 2008Java TV ReleasesThe Java TV team has released the Java TV API TCK 1.1.1, and its Reference Implementation and TCK Configuration Kit for Blu-ray Disc (BDCK) 1.1. The releases are available at the Java Partner website.

December 2008Eric Arseneau on Project SquawkSun Labs Investigator Eric Arseneau rhapsodizes about his love for resource-constrained machines and making Java work on really, really small devices. » More

December 2008RIA Made Easy for Java DevelopersJavaFX lets developers create expressive rich Internet applications quickly across multiple screens, including mobile phones, desktops, televisions, and other consumer devices. » More
See archive of featured articles
Spotlight

December 2008LWUIT Tutorial AnnouncedThe LWUIT team, led by Chen Fishbein, architect of LWUIT, and Jonathan Knudsen, developer and author, will do a practical, focused tutorial for LWUIT content developers on the day after M3DD. M3DD attendees can register for the conference and the LWUIT tutorial at the same time.» More on LWUIT » More on M3DD
Community
Mobile and Embeddded Community is the open-source developer site for Java ME collaboration and innovation.
Sun Developer Network Join the Sun Developer Network. Leverage the community's expertise on the SDN Java Mobility Forums. Share content and interact with peers through voting and comments with SDN Share. Get free access to online training and special seating at Sun Tech Days. » Check it out..
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Sun Tech Days 2009Rich internet applications on mobile and wireless devices are among the topics. 2009 locations include Singapore; Hyderabad, London, Madrid, St. Petersburg, and Tel Aviv. » More

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Mobile, Media & eMbedded Developer DaysThe community-driven M3DD conference will be on January 21-22, 2009, at the Sun Santa Clara campus in California, USA. » More
The Java ME technology Device Matrix is a compilation of publicly available information from third-party sources, from Alcatel to Nokia to TTPcom. Go to the Authorized Licensees page to see the java ME licensees who claim compatibility with Java ME specifications and TCKs.

Mobile Tech EXPO2009

2009-01-03T07:23:00.000-08:00

Sponsored by Mobile Tech News & Detailers Digest
The 2009 EXPO is being held at the Harborview Center in
Beautiful CLEARWATER - FLORIDA - USA
2009 MOBILE TECH EXPO DATES Education DAY THURSDAY January 15th
MOBILE TECH EXPO DAYS January 16th and 17th

ATTENDEES DON'T FORGET TO PRE-REGISTER

This is a " TRADE SHOW" designed with the specific needs of theMobile Technician - and their "Shop On Wheels."
The MOBILE TECH EXPO is an INDUSTRY SHOW and not open to the public.The Trade Show includes FREE Clinics, Workshops, and Demonstrations.
WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING EVERYONE BACK FOR 2009
Click Here for Hotel and Motel Information
Click Here for Rental Car Information

Mobile Tech Support

2009-01-03T07:22:00.001-08:00

Affordable On-site services for your home or business
Why spend precious hours waiting on hold for incomprehensible tech support and finger pointing?Our knowledgeable technicians will answer your questions and solve your problems!
Mobile Tech Support is here to provide a full line of down to earth computer services for our local community. We can come to your home or place of business and assess your computing needs. Then we will provide you with a solution that fits your budget.
Often we find ourselves at a appointment working on a computer that is running too slow. Fixing the problem is only half of the job; securing the computer so that it is not vulnerable to future attack by viruses or spyware is the rest of the solution.
For example, computers running any version of Windows need frequent maintenance and updating, especially if connected to an always-on broadband connection. New vulnerabilities are always being found and your systems should be frequently patched with the latest updates. Keeping your computer up-to-date with service packs and critical updates should be a priority to any computer user.
Although, the reality is that spyware and virus removal, windows updating, scanner definition updates, disk defragmentation, etc., are only temporary solutions if not coupled with completely securing your computer and backing up your data. We can help you clean up and secure your system, and most importantly, we can help you make sure that you have a reliable back up system in place. Our goal is to protect your system, your network and your data. Allowing you to spend time the way you want, instead of wasting it struggling with your computer. We have been serving the valley for over 12 years.

Your complete computer services groupServing our community since 1993

Standard Services:
Internet setup
Virus removal and protection
Spyware removal and protection
Data backup
Computer repair
Computer upgrades
Troubleshooting / diagnosis
New system builds
Computer relocation
Custom built servers/workstations
New computer setup
Computer maintenance
Computer & software tutoring
Software installation
Consultation
Advanced Services:
Emergency data recovery
Onsite networking
Data transfers
Remote computing
Network security & firewall
Wireless network setup/security
Virtual private network solutions
Windows NT server/workstation
LAN/WAN (Intranet and Internet)
Network email setup (Exchange/Outlook)
Our Mission At Mobile Tech Support, we believe in the importance oflong standing business relationships and timely, personalized support.We continue to be successful because our clients know they cancount on us for any technical need.
Mobile Tech Support is staffed and structured for fast,expert on-site service. We remain the trusted "Silent-Partner,"providing ongoing maintenance of critical operations. Our goal is to ensure our clients' maximum uninterrupted productivity.
If we can be of any assistance please contact our friendly staff at:
Office: 623-937-8555Mobile: 602-989-7999

Catherine's Mobile Office Tech Blog

2009-01-03T07:20:00.000-08:00

Mobile Gear Accessories
Wednesday December 31, 2008
Guide Picks - Did you receive gift cards and just not sure what you should get? Here are some suggestions to consider. Accessories are not only incredibly useful but most people don't even think to buy any for themself.Browse this selection of accessories for laptops and PDAs and make someone's mobile life much easier.
Laptop Accessories
PDA Accessories Under $25
More PDA Accessories
Comments (0)
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Do I Need a Data Plan?
Tuesday December 23, 2008
FAQ - A reader has sent in the following question - "Recently my cell phone provider informed me that sending data over the network without purchasing a data package is illegal, and if caught, I could receive some sort of penalty from the FCC, as well as a huge bill from the provider for all the data I've ever transmitted over the network...To connect to the internet, I used the phone as a modem, and dialed into my ISP from home."Before you connect your cell phone to act as a modem, get a data plan first so that you don't get any nasty surprises down the road. I've read stories of people getting bills for thousands of dollars because they used their cell phone as modem with a data plan.
Comments (2)
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Mobile Gear Security
Wednesday December 17, 2008
Guide Tips - With the excitement of traveling home for holidays and being with friends and family this time of year can be very hectic for mobile professionals. It's very important not to forget basic security concerns.You need to ensure that you have taken proper security precautions with all your mobile gear. Protecting Your Mobile Gear Inside and Out:
Universal PDA Cases
PDA Security
Threats to Safety & Security
Laptop Case Buyer's Guide
Notebook Security Cables
Comments (0)
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How To Share Internet Access
Saturday December 13, 2008
How To - While on business trips or attending conferences, there may not always be multiple Internet connections available for all participants to take advantage of. Using a Wireless Access Point/Router you can share Internet access with co-workers during meetings or conferences in locations where there is just one Internet connection such as a hotel or conference centre. More
Belkin Wireless G Travel Router
Top 7 Travel Wireless Routers
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MOBILETECH Computer sales and services

2009-01-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

MOBILE TECH offers A+ Certified technicians that are experienced in all aspects of networking, on site repair and trouble shooting. Whether your business has 10 employees or 10,000, Mobile Tech can offer the support and service that your business needs. We offer the following services: mobile computer repair, on-site repairs, upgrades, hardware and software installation, network design, installation, cabling and maintenance, systems built to your specification, corporate network cabling, high speed broad band Internet access, web hosting and design, data center collocation, and eCommerce support.
MOBILE TECH provides a wide range of network integration services including on site installation and repair, consultation, technical support and training. We also provide specialized products and services in long range wireless networking, computer repair and network management, application development, and document management systems.
Contact us or Schedule your service call and we'll show you a better way to stay ahead in the computer industry!
MOBILE TECH Computer Sales and Service 311 West Edgewood DriveFriendswood, Texas 77546(281) 992-1700

Moile Tech Moments

2009-01-03T07:12:00.000-08:00

Welcome the first “steamy” photo editor for the iPhone and iPod touch. We are proud to deliver you the unique chance to turn your device into a foggy surface just like your mirror after a hot shower or your window on a winter day. iSteam exploits all the features of your iPhone (accelerometer, multitouch, microphone, speakers) like never before, for a totally realistic experience!

Check it out at iSteam
Posted to » Apple Share and Save
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IE Lost Share to Firefox, Safari and Chrome in December
Comment Written by Steve Trotto on January 2, 2009 – 11:02 am
Web sites saw visitors deserting Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser in favor of Apple’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome in December, according to Web analytics company Net Applications.
Internet Explorer was used by 68.15 percent of Web surfers monitored in December, down from 69.77 percent in November and 71.27 percent in October, according to preliminary figures published by Net Applications on its Hitslink Web site Friday. IE’s share has slipped from around 75 percent since the start of 2008.Read the rest of this entry »

More from Mobile tech news

2009-01-03T07:10:00.000-08:00

Step aside Dick Tracy. The first generation of watch phones were already quite impressive, managing to squeeze in mini-cameras and expansion slots into a form factor barely larger than a tea bag. LG's latest creation, the LG-GD910, ups the stakes by including a 3G HSDPA radio under the hood, giving it video call capability.The 1.43-inch touchscreen might be a mite too small for a virtual number pad, but with text-to-speech and music playback features, this is an amazing piece of technology. We expect more details to emerge when CES 2009 rolls around, but in the meantime, we keep out fingers crossed that this watch will also be water-resistant as well. Via Akihabara News
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Mobile Tech News

2009-01-03T07:03:00.000-08:00

LG watch phone enters HSDPA eraPosted: 29-Dec-2008 [Source: CNET]
[LG releases info on its LG-GD910 set for debut at CES. The watch phone offers video call capability.]
By Darius Chang -- "LG's latest creation (watch phone), the LG-GD910, ups the stakes by including a 3G HSDPA radio under the hood, giving it video call capability."
More...

Microsoft Acquires Mobile Search Technology Provider MotionBridge

2008-12-01T03:40:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Acquires Mobile Search Technology Provider MotionBridge
Deal enhances Windows Live services with innovative search solutions for mobile operators and their customers spanning work and play.
Related Links
Microsoft Resources:
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MSN Newsroom on PressPass
BARCELONA, Spain — Feb. 13, 2006 — Today, at the 3GSM World Congress 2006, Microsoft Corp. announced the acquisition of MotionBridge, a leading provider of search technology designed specifically for mobile operators and the mobile Internet. MotionBridge, based in Paris, is a worldwide leader in mobile search technology that is currently available to customers through contacts with major mobile communications companies in Europe and North America.
“The emerging field of mobile search is strategically important and crucial to delivering on our vision for Windows Live™ of providing a seamless and rich information experience for individuals and businesses across devices,” said Christopher Payne, corporate vice president of MSN Search at Microsoft. “With MotionBridge, we are excited to continue to offer mobile operators the tools to maximize the value of their content and data networks, and provide a powerful search engine for mobile users. By combining the mobile search solutions of MotionBridge with Microsoft mobile search instruments such as local and Web search, we will provide mobile operators and consumers with an even richer search experience.”
The MotionBridge technology brings superior simplicity for users, delivering clustered results and deep links to downloadable content from multiple providers with device filtering. Mobile operators are able to achieve precise control through flexible resolution rules, and manage their service with Web-based back-office tools and detailed usage statistics. Microsoft and MotionBridge will continue to support MotionBridge’s current operator partners such as Orange, Sprint and O2 Ltd. as part of the acquisition. Key assets obtained in Microsoft’s acquisition of MotionBridge include its technology and mobile operator relationships. In addition, Microsoft will benefit from the expertise of the MotionBridge team.
Besides the continued support of existing services and customers, the MotionBridge and Microsoft search teams plan to move forward on mobile search solutions for Windows Live™ to provide rich and seamless information experiences to individuals and small businesses, enabling mobile users to quickly find relevant search results on the Internet. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
About MSN and Windows Live
MSN attracts more than 440 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized versions available globally in 42 markets and 21 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering compelling programmed content experiences to consumers and online advertising opportunities to businesses worldwide. Windows Live™, a new set of personal Internet services and software, is designed to bring together in one place all the relationships, information and interests people care about most, with enhanced safety and security features across their PC, devices and the Web. MSN and Windows Live will be offered alongside each other as complementary services. Some Windows Live services entered an early beta phase on Nov. 1, 2005; these and future beta updates can be found at http://ideas.live.com. MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com. MSN worldwide sites are located at http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Microsoft and Windows Live are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft® Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx

Mobile Technology Solutions

2008-12-01T03:36:00.000-08:00

Accenture's Mobile Solutions group helps clients to leverage business applications based on mobile technologies that enable high performance. We have extensive experience in implementing innovative solutions across a wide range of industries and business functions.

Services
Accenture helps clients use mobile technologies effectively to improve productivity, lower costs, and enhance differentiation.

Client Successes
Accenture has helped businesses around the globe adapt to changing conditions and seize opportunities with realistic, innovative solutions that enable high performance.

Research and Insights
The proliferation of mobile computing and storage devices is allowing today's workers to enjoy newfound freedom—and enabling organizations to achieve high performance.

Need more information? Please Contact Us or submit a Request for Services

How mobile technology is facilitating development work

2008-12-01T03:31:00.000-08:00

The advent of mobile technology has transformed and facilitated the work of a number of NGOs involved in various forms of development work, mainly relief and advocacy. Nothing attests to this better than a report recently released by the United Nations Foundation and The Vodafone Group Foundation.The UN Foundation-Vodafone Group Foundation Partnership is a leading public-private alliance using strategic technology programmes to strengthen the United Nation's humanitarian efforts worldwide. The Partnership has three core commitments: to develop rapid response telecommunications teams to aid disaster relief; to develop health data systems that improve access to health data thereby helping to combat disease; and to promote research and innovative initiatives using technology as an agent and tool for international development. Emerging trends in mobile activismSheila Kinkade of ShareIdeas.org and Katrine Verclas of MobileActive.org have co-authored the report titled: Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use. The report examines emerging trends in 'mobile activism' by looking at 11 case studies of groups active in the areas of public health, humanitarian assistance and environmental conservation. Key highlights of the report include two conflict prevention projects, both active in Kenya. Oxfam-Great Britain and the Kenyan umbrella group PeaceNet created a text messaging 'nerve centre' that collected alerts about violent outbreaks during the recent civil unrest and mobilized local 'peace committees'. The project served as a vital tool for conflict management and prevention by providing a hub for real-time information about actual and planned attacks between rival ethnic and political groups. The report says that the GSM Association, together with a handful of non-profit and private sector groups in Kenya, developed another conflict prevention project that allows farmers to preserve their crops while protecting wildlife. The programme monitors instances when elephants approach farmed land, and provides an early warning system via mobile that is reducing the incidence of human-elephant conflict in an area where as many as five humans and 10 elephants are killed each year. The report, the second in the Access to Communications Publication Series, produces studies that give governments, NGOs and the private sector research and recommendations on how to use technology and telecom tools to effectively address some of the world's toughest challenges.Technology use for NGOsAlso highlighted in the report are the results of a global web-based survey of NGO mobile technology use. According to the survey, 86% of non-governmental organisation (NGO) employees use mobile technology in their work, and 25% believe it has revolutionised the way their organisation or project works. While the most common uses of mobile technology by NGO workers are voice calls (90%) and text messaging (83%), more sophisticated uses, such as mapping (10%), data analysis (8%) and inventory management (8%) also were reported.The survey notes that while voice and text messaging are still the most common applications of mobile technology among NGO workers, respondents report using wireless technology in a number of other ways, including photo and video (39%); data collection or transfer (28%); and multi-media messaging (27%). The survey also notes that the amount of money invested in mobile technology correlates to a higher diversity of application; those NGOs that spend more use this technology for higher-end functions. Users of mobile technology on projects with a health focus are also more likely to use mobile technology for data purposes.Mobile use in Aftercare programmeThe management of South Africa's ART programme provides a perfect example of such a project. Cell-Life, a non-governmental organisation based in Cape Town created its 'Aftercare' programme to work with the public health system and its health workers to provide home-based care for HIV/AIDS patients receiving ART treatments. The mobile technology-based Aftercare programme supports the effective treatment of HIV/AIDS patients, and covers other aspects such as voluntary counselling. Each Aftercare worker is assigned to monitor 15 to 20 patients. The worker visits the patient in his or her home, and in a one-on- one session discusses the patient's current treatment. Using their mobile phones for data capture, Aftercare workers record information about patient medical status, drug adherence and other factors that may affect a patient's ART therapy.Aftercare workers then relay this information via text message to a central Cell-Life database. The data sent via text message reaches the Cell-Life server, where a care manager uses a web-based system to access and monitor the incoming patient information. The manager can also respond to Aftercare workers' questions and provide supplemental information to improve patient care. The information collected not only facilitates individual patient care, but is also used to build a database of information on the severity and prevalence of the South African AIDS epidemic in these regions. "The goals of the programme include reduction of treatment errors, increased volume of patient data, and increased comfort for the patients as they receive HIV/AIDS care," the report notes.Post-election lifelineMobile technology also came in handy during the post-election violence that rocked Kenya recently. "In the wake of a government ban on live broadcasting of incidences of violence, the SMS Centre became a lifeline for information by linking Nairobi to incidences as they happened on the ground," says Barasa Mang?eni, PeaceNet-Kenya programme officer. "The initiative encouraged local level dialogue and mediation to stop violence and facilitated communication to security forces, the Kenya Red Cross, and UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Civil society actors were linked to peace processes at the community level, enabling them to contribute to nonviolence advocacy."Worldwide impactAround the world, mobile phones are being used in the environmental arena - from efforts to promote wildlife conservation to environmental advocacy to educating and influencing consumers about the environmental impact of their purchasing decisions. In the area of conservation, mobile phones are used to track wildlife and provide an early warning system designed to mitigate human/animal conflict. Wildlife monitoringAccording to the report, mobile technology is also being used to monitor wildlife. One pilot project initiated by Save the Elephants in Kenya employed Global Positioning System/Groupe Spéciale Mobile collars to track elephant movements. Unlike the more expensive satellite/very high frequency tracking systems, mobile communication inexpensively pinpoints the elephants' location and text messages the coordinates back to the researchers. "These efforts are in the beginning stages but show great potential for making animal tracking easier and more precise," the report observes.Mobile technology has particularly been used to solve human-worldlife conflict in Laikipia District of north central Kenya. Laikipia comprises a patchwork of small farms, large ranches, privately owned conservancies, and government land. Some 5,000 elephants, the second largest elephant population in the country, inhabit the region. As farmers, ranchers, and these animals struggle to co-exist, the region has gained a reputation for being one of the worst areas for human?elephant conflict, with more than 3,000 incidents occurring annually."The tension [in Laikipia] stems from communities having their crops damaged by elephants," explains Dr. Max Graham, Associate at the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), who has been studying and working in Laikipia for almost a decade. "There's a perception that the elephants belong to the government and ranchers, both of whom benefit from tourism. Meanwhile, communities suffer. Farmers get killed. Elephants get speared or poisoned."In associationBelieving that mobile technology could offer a solution, the Groupe Spéciale Mobile (GSM) Association (GSMA) Development Fund, together with Safaricom Ltd., Wireless Zeta Telecomunicaciones (Wireless ZT), Nokia, the Nokia Siemens Networks, and local conservation organisations, collaborated in launching a pilot project in Laikipia. Using GSM technology, the project sought to facilitate cost-effective communication among local communities, government wildlife service personnel, and private landowners through an early warning system that would allow farmers to preserve their crops while protecting wildlife.The pilot utilized 'Push to Talk on Cellular (Phones)' (PoC) technology, which combines the functionality of a walkie-talkie or two-way radio with a mobile phone. PoC enables communication between two individuals, or a group of people, and is particularly useful in connecting a user group intermittently over a period of time (e.g., a working day).

Mobile Technology and Commerce

2008-12-01T03:25:00.000-08:00

Author: Kara English

Publish Date: November 18, 2008Blog: By Merchants, For MerchantsTags: m-commerce, e-commerce, technology

On a recent trip to the movie theater my eyes were opened up to just how popular mobile technology really is.
I’ve read the studies and the articles and I know that I should start thinking about making my site "mobile ready" but it hadn’t really hit me until I took my kids to the movies on a Friday night.
It was opening night and the theater was packed. We arrived early so we could be sure to get our candy and get good seats. As we waited for the movie to start I was people watching, mainly a large group of teenagers. I couldn’t believe it. Each and every one of them had a phone in their hand and they were madly texting each other and laughing. They weren’t having conversations by talking, they were texting and they were all standing/sitting together! I noticed that they were also texting other kids, finding out where they were, telling them where they were sitting. I was shocked. These teenagers will by my customers in approximately 10 years. If this is how they communicate and these phones are such a major part of their lives now, what will it be like in 10 years when these kids are my customers? How will I be able to reach them, connect with them and sell to them? That’s when it hit me. I will have to be ready for m-commerce. It’s a reality that I just wasn’t ready to accept.
My kids were fascinated by the teenagers and kept asking me when they could get a cell phone. I leaned back and took a deep breath. My kids already know their way around a computer better than I do. In fact my son has even helped me when I can’t figure something out. (I’m a little embarrassed to admit that). Soon they will have their own phones and they too will be swept away with this technology.
There is a little glimmer of hope in this. In 10 years when my kids are 16, I can hire them to help me keep up with the changes. Until then I will take some webinars, do some more research and start saving some funds for a new m-commerce ready site.
What are your thoughts on m-commerce?
Add a Bookmark:
1 Comment

shoby says:
Thursday, November 20, 2008 · 05:03 PM
Kara, Defintely, there will be a time come when M-Commerce will be as important as e-commerce these days, and at that time those who are geting prepared for future will get the meximum benifits. Like if you start planning m-commerce from right now, you will be fully equiped at the time when it will be going to take up....... So, I wish you best of lukc for that... and do remember me when you start.

Empowerment Through Mobile Technology

2008-12-01T03:06:00.000-08:00

We were pretty moved by scifi author Bruce Sterling’s talk at LIFT Asia 2008 about the dynamic relationship between mobile technology and its users, particularly the urban poor. Core77 points out one of the most interesting insights he presents in his talk, where he discusses what he sees happening to the ecology of South Korea once North Korea comes to its inevitable demise and how cellphones and mobile services will play an enormous role in its evolution:
“When you are working on cell phones, when you are working on the web, when you are working on electronic money and payment systems, you need to think: What if my user is a North-Korean? How would I do this differently if I knew my user was from Pyongyang, that his regime had collapsed, that his economy had collapsed, he was completely bewildered, and he had never seen a cell phone or a computer in his life, and I intended to make him a productive and happy fellow citizen in ten years, what kind of technology would I give that person, what kind of trading system, economic system?”
Core77: Mobiles and the Urban Poor

Article categories: Arts & Culture, Electronics & Gadgets, Global Community, Lifestyle, Telecom, Work & Business
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All About Latest Mobile Technology

2008-12-01T02:52:00.000-08:00

Mobile SpeakAnish Gangar July 21, 2003 11:10 IST
A guide to the latest in mobile communications technology
From the heavy cordless phones of the 1980's to the smart phones of today, cellular phone technology has undergone a tremendous change.
But have you ever wondered how you can call someone across the world using a tiny phone? You might have heard of features like WAP and GPRS from cell phone vendors and service providers. But are you aware of what they really mean?
Rediff Guide to the Net has compiled a guide to make you familiar with today's mobile technologies. So next time you go to buy a phone, you know exactly what they're talking about.
Generations of mobile communications
The first generation (1G) of mobile communications was introduced in the late 1970s; it was primarily used for voice transfer. In the early 1990s, second generation (2G) systems came into existence and was further developed to 2.5G, which includes GSM, TDMA and CDMA. These were used for voice and data.
The next generation of mobile communications is 3G and this delivers data speeds from 384 kbps to 2 Mbps and over wireless interfaces such as GSM, TDMA and CDMA.
Mobile phone access technologiesFrequency division multiple access (FDMA)The first-generation analog mobile access method; FDMA uses separate frequencies for each call. For example if there are four stations, each will receive their own frequency. Thus there is no interference between them. This reduces interference, but limits the number of users.
Time division multiple access (TDMA)TDMA allocates unique time slots to each user within each channel, thus allowing many users to access the radio frequency without anyone's interference. Each mobile conversation uses only a particular frequency slot of the time. More information on TDMA
Code division multiple access (CDMA)Commercially introduced in 1995 by Qualcomm, CDMA quickly became one of the world's fastest-growing wireless technologies. 3G CDMA networks provide more capacity for voice traffic, along with high-speed data capabilities, hence many cellular service providers are now building or upgrading to it.
CDMA is used in both 2G and 3G wireless technologies. Indian Cell operators like Reliance IndiaMobile, TATA Indicom, BSNL and MTNL's Garuda all use CDMA2000 technology and its variant CDMA1x. More Information and White papers on CDMA Faqs on CDMA
Global system for mobile communications (GSM)Developed on TDMA protocol in Europe, GSM is now the worldwide standard technology for mobile communications. The advantage of GSM is that it provides a high level of security, globally accepted technology standards and superior sound quality.
For any GSM phone to work, it requires a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM), a card that contains your telephone account information. Thus, an Indian GSM phone can be used in USA and other countries too.Faqs on GSM
Wireless technology platforms: GPRS, EDGE and WAP
What is GPRS?GPRS, short for General Packet Radio Services, is an enhancement to GSM technology that integrates GSM and IP technology. GPRS offers an always-on, high speed connectivity to the Net. Thus you can check your email on the move and surf the Web at high speeds. Currently BPL Mobile and Hutch (Orange in Mumbai) offer GPRS services in India.Faqs on GPRS
What is WAP?In this hi-tech age, people on the move need any-time access to the Net. This is where WAP comes in. It provides Internet access to cell phones. It is an open standard for wireless protocols that is independent of the service providers. To display Web content, the cell phone must have a WAP browser. Nowadays, cell phones often come with WAP and GPRS technology.
WAP and GPRS also allows you to download games, send mail and even transfer your messages to your PC.More information on WAP
What is EDGE?The new EDGE ((Enhanced Data GSM Environment) interface has been developed specifically to meet the bandwidth needs of 3G. Promoted by Ericsson, it offers high-speed data transfers over GSM networks with just a software upgrade to the handset. EDGE allows speeds up to 384 kbps.More information on EDGE

Mobile Technology Introduction

2008-12-01T02:38:00.000-08:00

Mobile computing allows people to use IT without being tied to a single location. Any business with staff that work away from the office can benefit from using it.
Whether you or your employees are travelling to meetings, out on sales calls, working from a client's site or from home, mobile devices - from laptops and personal organisers to "third generation" (3G) phones and virtual private networks (VPNs) - can help you keep in touch and make the most productive use of your time.
Mobile IT devices can also change the way you do business - new technologies lead to new ways of working, and new products and services that can be offered to your customers. They can bring new business opportunities - for example the spin-off businesses surrounding the mobile phone industry.
This guide explains how mobile computing can benefit your business and introduces the key technologies available.
Subjects covered in this guide
Introduction
What is mobile technology and what are the benefits?
Laptops and PDAs
Mobile telephony devices
Mobile networking devices
Managing the use of mobile devices
Here's how I run my business while out on the road
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Mobile Technology Center

2008-11-30T02:25:00.000-08:00

Oracle provides a comprehensive set of mobile application development technologies. Today’s enterprises are challenged to deliver mobile applications that address users’ diverse functional requirements while away from their desks. To help enterprises meeting these evolving mobile requirements, Oracle delivers a set of technology products that supports the rapid development of connected and disconnected mobile applications. At the core of Oracle's mobile technologies are Application Development Framework (ADF) Mobile and Oracle Database Lite.
Mobile Technology Products
ADF Mobile: Mobile Application Development
ADF Mobile extends Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) to mobile users. With ADF Mobile, application developers can rapidly develop mobile applications using JDeveloper, and extends Fusion Middleware to mobile users.New - ADF Mobile 11g has just been released. Click on the ADF Mobile link above for details.
Oracle Database Lite: Always-Available Mobile Applications Development
Oracle Database Lite provides mobile workers the experience of continuous access to data unconstrained by network bandwidth and coverage. It extends the grid environment to mobile devices, allowing mobile workers to access enterprise data even in the absence of a network connection.
Related Applications Products

Mobile Technology for Education

2008-11-30T01:35:00.000-08:00

Mobile technology for education
MOBILE TECHNOLOGY and the concept of m-learning is an evolving trend in education at all levels. Even classrooms with younger children are benefiting from the use of hand-held and laptop computers.
Research into new mobile technologies that enhance instructional activities will continue to help the educational community as it embraces the idea of anytime, anywhere learning. M-learning is not just about readily accessible information -- it opens up the possibility for the delivery of audio information, interactive learning and assessment, and real-time distance collaboration.
Overview
As technology rapidly advances, new ideas for mobile learning will also emerge. The technologies discussed here are a few that are currently being researched in education. As costs and availability drop for technology in general, others will likely emerge to take their place. All of these devices can be used as an individual resource, but are best put to use as a collaborative tool, creating new interactions between students and faculty.
PDAs
Personal Digital Assistants, or PDAs, are probably now the most common type of mobile technology currently being researched and used in education. There are many instructional activities that can be enhanced using these hand-held devices such as note-taking, collaborative simulations, and accessing digital textbooks.

One research project being conducted with PDAs is a project at The University of California, San Diego called ActiveCampus. The ActiveCampus project includes ActiveClass and ActiveCampus Explorer. ActiveClass uses PDAs in the classroom to enable collaboration between students and professors by serving as a moderator for interaction in the classroom. Students can ask questions anonymously and vote on the relative importance of other’s questions using their PDAs. This enables the instructor to focus on the greatest interest and instructional needs of the class as a whole. ActiveCampus Explorer helps students engage in campus life by using their location on campus to provide information to their PDA.
Tablet PCs
A tablet PC is a compact and portable device typically the size of a spiral bound notebook. They incorporate many of the features of a laptop computer while also giving learners the power to write lecture notes and save them electronically among other features. Tablet PCs can easily be used for students to electronically take tests or fill out surveys and then send that information directly to the instructor over a network. Tablet PCs are the most versatile form of mobile technology at the moment because they combine the functionality of a laptop and a PDA.
There are many research projects using Tablet PCs, such as a project between MIT and Microsoft Corporation called the iCampus research project which used them to encourage student collaboration and creative design efforts. The project is experimenting on how technology can enhance the educational process by innovating technology’s use in instruction.

Cell phones
With technological advances and steadily decreasing cost, cell phones are emerging as a viable option for mobile education. Although their small screen size can have an effect on the types of activities they will support, their portability and interactivity expand other options and possibilities for research in learning. The idea of cell phones as mobile learning devices is currently more popular abroad than in the United States. In places like Japan, where more people own cell phones than PCs, the potential for m-learning with cell phones is on the rise.
Cell phones are suited particularly well for education in foreign languages and other instructional areas where audio is necessary or preferred. Projects are currently underway that enable students to receive school notes on their mobile phones and to answer exam questions as well as. Sprint has announced the availability of Sprint Campus Connect, a mobile solution that allows a school to make its educational and administrative resources available anytime, anywhere through a single, consistent interface on the enhanced Sprint Nationwide PCS Network.

Mobile Phone Technology for Environmental Activism

2008-11-30T01:23:00.000-08:00

Mobile phones are becoming an important tool for environmental activists around the world. Activists are developing new technological strategies in order to do things like educate consumers about the impact of purchasing decisions, monitor wildlife and polution levels, and advocate for the protection of forests.
A report from the United Nations Foundation and The Vodafone Group Foundation Technology Partnership published in April describes the many different ways mobile phones are used for social change around the world. It's called “Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in Mobile Use by NGOs” [PDF].
Below, I have listed the environmental initiatives highlighted by its writers, Sheila Kinkade (ShareIdea.org) and Katrin Verclas (MobileActive.org). I have also listed some new projects that have appeared since then.
Argentina
Using mobile phones, Greenpeace in Argentina were able to rally supporters and effectively pass Argentina's first federal forest protection law. The MobileActive blog wrote of their tree saving efforts earlier this month:
Mobile phones are nothing new for Greenpeace Argentina. The organization has used mobile phones multiple times to mobilize its now 350,000 person-strong mobile list to successfully lobby for important environmental legislation. One of Greenpeace's significant accomplishments was the passage of the Ley de Bosques, or Forest Law.
According to the Wireless Technology for Social Change report, GreenPeace accomplished this by building a large database containing both email addresses and mobile phone numbers of the people who signed a petition supporting the Forest Law. In addition, they sent out text message alerts during critical hearings, and before city council votes. They also coordinated demonstrations and meetings using text messages.
Ghana
In Ghana, one project has shown that mobile phones can be transformed from typical pervasive tool for communication, to a 'super sensing' tool for environmental data collection. This is achieved by attaching a special sensor to a mobile phone. The sensor collects scientific information on air quality or even urban traffic patterns, which can be studied later and even layered over a google map.
Corinne Ramey wrote about this initiative on the MobileActive blog in April:
In the Accra study, seven taxi drivers were provided with a dash-mounted global positioning system (GPS) device and a tube to hang from their passenger window. The tube contained a carbon monoxide sensor. Similarly, three students were each given a mobile clip sensor pack containing a GPS device, and a carbon monoxide sensor. The taxi drivers and students were asked to carry their sensors as much as possible during their normal everyday activities. Throughout the day, the sensing system automatically logged sensor data. At the end of each day, the pilot participants dropped off their sensor packs at a central location where the data was then extracted and the sensors recharged. resulted from the participatory data collection A heat-map visualization of carbon monoxide readings across Accra, Ghana rendered atop Google Earth. Colors represent individual intensity reading of carbon monoxide during a single 24-hour period across the city. Red circles are locations where actual readings were taken.
Kenya
The Wirelesss Technology for Social Change report describes the tension in Laikipia district, Kenya, between landowners and wildlife. Farmers have been killed by wildlife, and their crops being destroyed. Elephants and other animals are being killed. A conflict prevention program that utilizes mobile phone technology, enables communication between the local community, wildlife service personnel, and land owners.
The pilot utilized ‘Push to Talk on Cellular (Phones)’ (PoC) technology, which combines the functionality of a walkie-talkie or two-way radio with a mobile phone. PoC enables communication between two individuals, or a group of people, and is particularly useful in connecting a usergroup intermittently over a period of time (e.g., a working day).
South Africa
FishMS is an SMS-based service from The Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative that provides the status of global fish stocks to consumers. Users text the name of a fish they are considering buying to +27 79 499 8795, and are immediately advised as to whether the fish was sustainably harvested, or whether they should think twice before buying it. The following video shows the tool in action (the short film was shot on a mobile phone - Nokia N93).

History of Mobile Phones

2008-11-30T01:02:00.000-08:00

This article or section deals primarily with the United States and does not represent a worldwide view of the subject.Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

Top of a cellular radio tower
Mobile communication standards
GSM / UMTS (3GPP) Family
GSM (2G)
GPRS
EDGE (EGPRS)
EDGE Evolution
CSD
HSCSD
UMTS (3G)
W-CDMA (UMTS)
HSPA
HSDPA
HSUPA
HSPA+
UMTS-TDD
TD-CDMA
TD-SCDMA
FOMA
3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G)
E-UTRA
cdmaOne / CDMA2000 (3GPP2) Family
cdmaOne (2G)
CDMA2000 (3G)
EV-DO
AMPS Family
AMPS (1G)
TACS / ETACS
D-AMPS (2G)
Other Technologies
Pre Cellular
PTT
MTS
IMTS
AMTS
OLT
MTD
Autotel / PALM
ARP
1G
NMT
Hicap
CDPD
Mobitex
DataTAC
2G
iDEN
PDC
CSD
PHS
WiDEN
Pre-4G
iBurst
HiperMAN
WiMAX
WiBro
GAN (UMA)
Channel Access Methods
FDMA
OFDMA
TDMA
SSMA
CDMA
W-CDMA
Frequency bands
Cellular
GSM
UMTS
PCS
SMR
This history of mobile phones chronicles the development of handheld radio telephone technology from two-way radios in vehicles to handheld cellular phones.
In the beginning, two-way radios (known as mobile rigs) were used in vehicles such as taxicabs, police cruisers, ambulances, and the like, but were not mobile phones because they were not normally connected to the telephone network. Users could not dial phone numbers from their mobile radios in their vehicles. A large community of mobile radio users, known as the mobileers, popularized the technology that would eventually give way to the mobile phone. Originally, mobile phones were permanently installed in vehicles, but later versions such as the so-called transportables or "bag phones" were equipped with a cigarette lighter plug so that they could also be carried, and thus could be used as either mobile or as portable two-way radios. During the early 1940s, Motorola developed a backpacked two-way radio, the Walkie-Talkie and later developed a large hand-held two-way radio for the US military. This battery powered "Handie-Talkie" (HT) was about the size of a man's forearm.
Contents[hide]
1 Early years
2 First generation
3 Second generation
4 Third generation
5 Patents
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links
//

[edit] Early years
In December 1947, Douglas H. Ring and W. Rae Young, Bell Labs engineers, proposed hexagonal cells for mobile phones.[1] Philip T. Porter, also of Bell Labs, proposed that the cell towers be at the corners of the hexagons rather than the centers and have directional antennas that would transmit/receive in 3 directions (see picture at right) into 3 adjacent hexagon cells.[2] [3] The technology did not exist then and the frequencies had not yet been allocated. Cellular technology was undeveloped until the 1960s, when Richard H. Frenkiel and Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs developed the electronics.
In Europe, radio telephony was first used on the first-class passenger trains between Berlin and Hamburg in 1926. At the same time, radio telephony was introduced on passenger airplanes for air traffic security. Later radio telephony was introduced on a large scale in German tanks during the Second World War. After the war German police in the British zone of occupation first used disused tank telephony equipment to run the first radio patrol cars.[citation needed] In all of these cases the service was confined to specialists that were trained to use the equipment. In the early 1950s ships on the Rhine were among the first to use radio telephony with an untrained end customer as a user.
Recognizable mobile phones with direct dialing have existed at least since the 1950s. In the 1954 movie Sabrina, the businessman Linus Larrabee (played by Humphrey Bogart) makes a call from the phone in the back of his limousine.
The first fully automatic mobile phone system, called MTA (Mobile Telephone system A), was developed by Ericcson and commercially released in Sweden in 1956. This was the first system that didn't require any kind of manual control, but had the disadvantage of a phone weight of 40 kg (90 lb). MTB, an upgraded version with transistors, weighing 9 kg (20 lb), was introduced in 1965 and used DTMF signaling. It had 150 customers in the beginning and 600 when it shut down in 1983.
In 1967, each mobile phone had to stay within the cell area serviced by one base station throughout the phone call. This did not provide continuity of automatic telephone service to mobile phones moving through several cell areas. In 1970 Amos E. Joel, Jr., another Bell Labs engineer,[4] invented an automatic "call handoff" system to allow mobile phones to move through several cell areas during a single conversation without loss of conversation.
In December 1971, AT&T submitted a proposal for cellular service to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). After years of hearings, the FCC approved the proposal in 1982 for Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) and allocated frequencies in the 824-894 MHz band.[5] Analog AMPS was superseded by Digital AMPS in 1990.
One of the first truly successful public commercial mobile phone networks was the ARP network in Finland, launched in 1971. Posthumously, ARP is sometimes viewed as a zero generation (0G) cellular network, being slightly above previous proprietary and limited coverage networks.

Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola, made the first US analogue mobile phone call on a larger prototype model in 1973.
On April 3, 1973, Motorola employee Dr. Martin Cooper placed a call to rival Joel Engel, head of research at AT&T's Bell Labs, while walking the streets of New York City talking on the first Motorola DynaTAC prototype in front of reporters. Motorola has a long history of making automotive radio, especially two-way radios for taxicabs and police cruisers.
In 1978, Bell Labs launched a trial of first commercial cellular network in Chicago using AMPS [1].

[edit] First generation
Main article: 1G
The first commercial launch of cellular telecoms was launched by NET in Tokyo Japan in 1979. In 1981 the NMT system was launched in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The first handheld mobile phone in the US market was the Motorola_Dyna 8000X, which received approval in 1983. Mobile phones began to proliferate through the 1980s with the introduction of "cellular" phones based on cellular networks with multiple base stations located relatively close to each other, and protocols for the automated "handover" between two cells when a phone moved from one cell to the other. At this time analog transmission was in use in all systems. Mobile phones were somewhat larger than current ones, and at first, all were designed for permanent installation in vehicles (hence the term car phone). Soon, some of these bulky units were converted for use as "transportable" phones the size of a briefcase. Motorola introduced the first truly portable, hand held phone. These systems (NIT, AMPS, SACS, RT MI, C-Net, and Radio com 2000) later became known as first generation (1G) mobile phones.

[edit] Second generation
Main articles: 2G, 2.5G, and 2.75G
In the 1990s, 'second generation' (2G) mobile phone systems such as GSM, IS-136 ("TDMA"), iDEN and IS-95 ("CDMA") began to be introduced. The first pre-commercial digital cellular phone call was made in the United States in 1990, in 1991 the first GSM network (Radiolinja) opened in Finland. 2G phone systems were characterized by digital circuit switched transmission and the introduction of advanced and fast phone to network signaling. In general the frequencies used by 2G systems in Europe were higher though with some overlap, for example the 900 MHz frequency range was used for both 1G and 2G systems in Europe and so such 1G systems were rapidly closed down to make space for 2G systems. In America the IS-54 standard was deployed in the same band as AMPS and displaced some of the existing analog channels.
Coinciding with the introduction of 2G systems was a trend away from the larger "brickle" phones toward tiny 100–200g hand-held devices, which soon became the norm. This change was possible through technological improvements such as more advanced batteries and more energy-efficient electronics, but also was largely related to the higher density of cellular sites caused by increasing usage levels which decreased the demand for high transmit powers to reach distant towers for customers to be satisfied.
The second generation introduced a new variant to communication, as SMS text messaging became possible, initially on GSM networks and eventually on all digital networks. The first machine-generated SMS message was sent in the UK in 1991. The first person-to-person SMS text message was sent in Finland in 1993. Soon SMS became the communication method of preference for the youth. Today in many advanced markets the general public prefers sending text messages to placing voice calls.
2G also introduced the ability to consume media content on mobile phones, when Radiolinja (now Elisa) in Finland introduced the downloadable ringing tone as paid content. Finland was also the first country where advertising appeared on the mobile phone when a free daily news headline service on SMS text messaging was launched in 2000, sponsored by advertising.

[edit] Third generation
Main article: 3G
Not long after the introduction of 2G networks, projects began to develop third generation (3G) systems. Inevitably there were many different standards with different contenders pushing their own technologies. Quite differently from 2G systems, however, the meaning of 3G has been standardized in the IMT-2000 standardization processing. This process did not standardize on a technology, but rather on a set of requirements (2 Mbit/s maximum data rate indoors, 384 kbit/s outdoors, for example). At that point, the vision of a single unified worldwide standard broke down and several different standards have been introduced.
The first pre-commercial trial network with 3G was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in the Tokyo region in May 2001. NTT DoCoMo launched the first commercial 3G network on October 1, 2001, using the WCDMA technology. In 2002 the first 3G networks on the rival CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology were launched by SK Telecom and KTF in South Korea, and Monet in the USA. Monet has since gone bankrupt. By the end of 2002, the second WCDMA network was launched in Japan by Vodafone KK (now Softbank). In March the first European launches of 3G were in Italy and the UK by the Three/Hutchison group, on WCDMA. 2003 saw a further 8 commercial launches of 3G, six more on WCDMA and two more on the EV-DO standard.
During the development of 3G systems, 2.5G systems such as CDMA2000 1x and GPRS were developed as extensions to existing 2G networks. These provide some of the features of 3G without fulfilling the promised high data rates or full range of multimedia services. CDMA2000-1X delivers theoretical maximum data speeds of up to 307 kbit/s. Just beyond these is the EDGE system which in theory covers the requirements for 3G system, but is so narrowly above these that any practical system would be sure to fall short.
By the end of 2007 there were 295 Million subscribers on 3G networks worldwide, which reflected 9% of the total worldwide subscriber base. About two thirds of these are on the WCDMA standard and one third on the EV-DO standard. The 3G telecoms services generated over 120 Billion dollars of revenues during 2007 and at many markets the majority of new phones activated were 3G phones. In Japan and South Korea the market no longer supplies phones of the second generation. Earlier in the decade there were doubts about whether 3G might happen, and also whether 3G might become a commercial success. By the end of 2007 it had become clear that 3G was a reality and was clearly on the path to become a profitable venture.
Live streaming of radio and television [2] to 3G handsets is one future direction for the industry, with companies from RealNetworks [3] and Disney [4] recently announcing services.

[edit] Patents
U.S. Patent 3,663,762 -- Cellular Mobile Communication System -- Amos Edward Joel (Bell Labs), filed Dec 21, 1970, issued May 16, 1972
U.S. Patent 3,906,166 -- Radio Telephone System (Dyna-Tac) -- Martin Cooper et al. (Motorola), filed Oct 17, 1973, issued September 16, 1975
U.S. Patent 4,144,411 -- Cellular Radiotelephone System for Different Cell Sizes -- Richard H. Frenkiel (Bell Labs), filed Sep 22, 1976, issued March 13, 1979
U.S. Patent 4,399,555 -- Cellular Mobile Radiotelephone System -- Verne MacDonald, Philip Porter, Rae Young, (Bell Labs) filed April 28, 1980, issued August 16, 1983
U.S. Patent 5,265,158 -- Construction of a stand alone portable telephone unit -- Jouko Tattari (Nokia), filed May 11, 1992, issued November 23, 1993
U.S. Patent 5,722,067 -- Security cellular telecommunications system -- Douglas Fougnies et al (Freedom Wireless), filed Dec 1994, issued February 24, 1998
U.S. Patent 5,826,185 -- Cellular phone system wherein the air time use is predetermined -- Andrew Wise et al (Banana Communications), filed November 1994, issued October 20, 1998
U.S. Patent 5,841,856 -- Hands-free telephone set -- Yoshiyuki Ide (NEC), filed May 21, 1997, issued November 24, 1998

[edit] See also
Mobile phone
Personal Communications Service PCS

[edit] Notes
^ see external link for the 1947 memo
^ article by Tom Farley "Cellular Telephone Basics"
^ interview of Joel Engel, page 17 (image 18)
^ see Amos Joel patent 3,663,762
^ AT&T article

[edit] References
Farley, Tom (2007). "The Cell-Phone Revolution". American heritage of invention & technology (New York: American Heritage) 22 (3): 8–19. BL Shelfmark 0817.734000. ISSN 8756-7296. OCLC 108126426, http://www.americanheritage.com/events/articles/web/20070110-cell-phone-att-mobile-phone-motorola-federal-communications-commission-cdma-tdma-gsm.shtml. Retrieved on 21 April 2008.

Introduction to Mobile Technology and Communications

2008-11-28T07:04:00.000-08:00

Here you will learn about mobile technologies, mobile phones, wireless communication introduction, overview to gsm, gprs, sms and mms reviews. A cellular or mobile phone is a long range portable electronic device for communication over long distance.
Current Mobile Phones can support many latest services such as SMS, GPRS, MMS, email, packet switching, WAP, Bluetooth and many more. Most of the mobile phones connect to the cellular networks and which further connected with the PSTN (Public switching telephone network).
Mobile Network TechnologyMobile phones and their network vary very significantly from provider to provider and country to country. However the basic communication method of all of them is through the electromagnetic microwaves with a cell base station. The cellular companies have large antennas, which are usually mounted over towers, buildings and poles. The cell phones have low-power transceivers that transmit voice and data to the nearest sites usually within the 5 to 8 miles (8 to 13 kilometers away).

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When a mobile device or phone is turned on, it registers with the mobile telephone exchange or switch. It is a unique identifier and is alerted by the mobile switch when there is an incoming phone call.
The handset listens for the strong signals from the nearest base stations. When a user moves, the mobile device handoff to various nearest sites during phone calls or while waiting between calls it reselect the nearest cell phone sites.

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Cell sites have relatively less power radio transmitters. They broadcast their presence and relay communications between the mobile handsets and the switch. On the other hand, the switch connects the call to the same or another mobile network or subscriber. The dialogue between the mobile phone handset and the cell phone site is a stream of the digital data, which includes the digitized audio. This technology depends on the same system as of mobile phone operator. Some mobile phone technologies have adopted the AMPS for the analog communication and D-AMPS, CDMA2000, EVDO, GSM, UMTS, and GPRS for the digital communication. Each mobile phone network has a unique radio frequency.
There are different mobile communication methods, such as SMS, WAP, WLAN, WIFI, GPRS, Bluetooth, Infrared, IrDA and I-Phone etc. Mobile phones are different from the cordless telephones because they only operate within the specific range. Many types of the mobile computers have been introduced including the Laptop computer, Subnotebook, Portable data terminal (PDT), Personal digital assistance (PDA), Tablet personal computer and smart phone.
Mobile phone features
Mobile phones have features beyond sending text messages and making the short or long distance voice calls, the other features including internet browsing, mp3 playback music, email, personal organizer, built in cameras, MMS, PPT, SMS, call registries, built in games, voice mails, downloading, video call, Bluetooth, infrared and they also serve as the wireless modem for a pc. In many countries of the world such as Australia, Pakistan, India, Maldives and Israel the incoming calls are free. However, in Canada, Hong Kong and the United states a person can be charged per minute for the incoming calls. Few mobile phones carriers in the United States are beginning to receive unlimited phone calls. Mobile technology has both negative and positive impact on every day’s life.
Health impact
Since the invention of the mobile phones many concerns have been raised about the potential health from the mobile phones. Study at the Danish Institute of cancer epidemiology does not show any link between cancer and mobile phone usage. This study only covers the analog phone usage till 1995. However the study by the International Agency for research on cancer shows link between cellular phone usage and tumor frequency.
Mobile dating
Mobile dating also known as cell dating and it allows users to chat, meet and possible involves in romance by SMS, chatting and the web. These services allow their subscribers to provide information about themselves in a short profile and which is stored in the cell phone sets as a dating ID. The users can search for the other IDS or call at a number given to them by the service. Users can find others with the criteria of age, location and gender. Most of these sites are free to use but the standard fees of SMS and dating service charges can apply per minute. Mobile dating websites focus attention on users that share the same social network and proximity.Some cellular companies offer services such as homing device. This service alerts the users when someone is within the thirty feet of the user. Some cellular companies use Bluetooth technology to connect the users in the bars, clubs and social gatherings and this service is called proximity dating. These services are more popular in European countries, United States, Australia and Canada. Mobile dating websites are gaining popularity.
Mobile Learning
M-learning’ is the follow up of E-learning and which originates from D-learning (distance learning). M-learning is the delivery of education to the students who are not having fixed location or who prefer to use mobile phone technology for learning. The rapid growth in the mobile and communication sector make it possible to develop new forms of education. M-learning means delivery of education by means of the mobile phone devices, PDAs and audio players. M-learners seek the lessons in the small format.
Mobile software
Windows mobile, Palm OS and Symbian OS supports typical application binaries as found on the personal computers. Windows mobile also supports portable executable format which is associated with the .NET Framework. Both Windows Mobile and Palm OS provide free SDK and integrated development environment for the developers. BREW is another format which gives complete control of the handset and access to all its functions. Java (J2ME, Java ME) runs atop a virtual machine, which allows reasonable functionalities. Because of the extra security and compatibility, it is quite simple to write, distribute and execute the mobile Java applications.
Mobile Internet
According to the many sources, one of the major factors of the usage of mobile internet is its speed. Mobile internet has faster connection. Due to this fact, many users tend to use mobile internet. The introduction of the 3G cards has a competitive high speed. All the current service providers and trying to increase their bandwidth to get more customers. The numbers of mobile phones that are cable of surfing the net have been increasing rapidly. One of the greatest problems when browsing the net on the cell phones is the small size of the screen. Because of this many developers are developing the websites that can easily be seen on the cell phones as well.Mobile society.
Ongoing debates about the cyberspace, e-computing and E-commerce have suggested that the online world somehow will be dramatically different from the life in the analog world. It is true that E-commerce continues to grow and the specific locations of the persons and businesses do not matter that much anyone. This is also true that now we are seeing forums, blogs, discussion groups and social network to re-socialize and form new tribes on the internet. It seems that everyday we are increasingly connected via technologies such as email, cellular phones, instant messaging and all of these technologies are increasingly interconnected with each other. When we communicate on our cell phones, we are also mobile in the sense that we can move freely while in the constant communication.
Here Mobile Phones you will learn about the mobile technologies, cellular phones, wireless communication introduction, overview to gsm, gprs, sms and mms reviews

Mobile Technology Gizmag

2008-11-28T06:47:00.000-08:00

RCard becomes EDG and the multimedia business card hits the market
November 27, 2008 Three years ago we wrote rather optimistically about the coming of the rCard, a US$25 multimedia business card (and promotional give-away and gaming device and …) and now we’re pleased to report that the rCard has finally reached market, albeit with another name. It’s now called EDG (pronounced edge) and although it will be initially marketed as is a digital video card that enables pharmaceutical firms to build and maintain an interactive relationship with physicians, promote brand products with pharmacists, and communicate product benefits to consumers, it’s an evolution of the rCard and is now being marketed by Jumplab. Read More
Doro mobile phone keeps it simple
Image Gallery (2 images)
Like the recently discussed ClarityLife C900, Doro's HandleEasy mobile phones are aimed at the large number of consumers who simply want basic phone functionality without all the bells and whistles. The Swedish company has now entered the U.S. market with two models - the HandleEasy 330gsm and the HandleEasy 326i gsm - both of which feature an uncomplicated design, large display screens and finger-friendly keypads designed for easy calling and text-messaging rather than game playing or web-surfing. Read More

The Pogo Stylus - faster input for the iPhone
Image Gallery (8 images)
November 27, 2008 The Apple iPhone is clearly one of the most significant technological manifestations in history, but as much as we love it, it ain’t perfect. Typing on the virtual keyboard is difficult unless you have anorexic fingers and 20-20 vision and even then, input is painfully slow. Several manufacturers have developed viable variants of a high-tech stylus for the iPod Touch and iPhone capacitive touch screens and the best we’ve seen so far is the Pogo Stylus. Like many other online retailers this Black Friday (November 28) week, Ten One Design has slashed its prices early and is offering a 25 percent discount, meaning the Pogo can be had for US$14.96 including free USPS shipping. Read More

Saved by the cell – a Motorola Razr cell
Image Gallery (2 images)
November 27, 2008 A man in New Orleans had one of the luckiest escapes on record last week when a stray .45 bullet struck him the chest, directly above his heart, only to be thwarted on its journey by a cell phone. He escaped with a bruised chest and a dead Motorola Razr. We wrote earlier this week about the world’s toughest phone, currently the Sonim XP1 and soon to be the Sonim XP3. Amazingly, the lucky fellow, "R.J." Richard, normally clips his phone to his hip pocket but for some reason that day hooked it to bib on his chest. "Something hit me in the chest really hard," said Richard, who initially thought he had been struck by a rock kicked up by the motor of the tractor he was driving. But when he took off his sweater and opened the nylon case for his Motorola Razr phone, a .45-caliber bullet fell out. Read More
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Kensington 4-Port USB Charger for Mobile Devices
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Those of us accustomed to juggling multiple mobile devices are always looking for ways to reduce cord clutter and sort the whole process of getting juiced-up with the minimum of fuss. If that sounds like you, this idea may well appeal. As the name suggests, Kensington's 4-Port USB Charger can charge four mobile devices simultaneously using only one wall outlet. Read More

Lenovo's IdeaPad S10 Reviewed
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Netbooks are typically a "me too!" product, created by manufacturers who think their Intel Atom-based, small form factor notebook is going to stand out from the countless others, despite little to no attention being paid to the areas that could differentiate their product from the rest. Lenovo's IdeaPad S10 is a welcome deviation from the norm that's just as suited to the touring musician as it is to the couch surfer. Read on for our full review. Read More

The toughest phone in the world just got tougher
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Sonim’s XP1 phone is already unquestionably the world’s toughest, so the imminent release of the even tougher XP3 is more than noteworthy, particularly for those of us who spend a lot of time near, on or in the water. The XP3 can withstand more shocks and drops than its predecessor, it’s buttons have been tested to function beyond 500,000 pushes, and boasts a Military Spec rating of 810F against salt, fog humidity, transport and thermal shock. It is capable of working at -20C or at +60C, which is way better than the human body, and comes with a three year, no-questions-asked guarantee. Most significantly though, it can be fully submersed in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes. All this means you can call your pet goldfish. Read More

Pico projector features built-in media player
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Aiptek's PocketCinema V10 is both a stand alone media player and a highly-compact projector capable of throwing a 42-inch image at a distance of up to 6 feet. As a projector device can be used in conjunction with iPods, cameras, mobile phones, game consoles or other portable media devices and as a media player it supports SD cards up to 8GB in addition to its 1GB of internal memory. Read More

The ABnote-LAKS Smart Transaction Watch
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November 23, 2008 Approximately 1.1 billion watches are produced annually and around three billion credit cards are issued, which makes the LAKS Smart Transaction Watch look like a significant market opportunity given that it combines both. Laks is one of the most innovative producers of wrist-worn gadgetry in the world, with specialty watches that track the phases of the moon, play Mp3s and even monitor fertility cycles to aid women in getting pregnant, so the ingenuity of putting a smart card into a wristwatch to readily facilitate contactless payments was probably a no brainer for them. Perhaps one day we'll all be wearing these things, though our money is on the mobile phone being the logical long-term winner as the platform for contactless payments. Read More

iGo multi-device charger
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Laptops, cameras and other portable devices are often essential traveling companions, but the downside is the accompanying mess of incompatible charging units which can add considerable weight and take up precious luggage space. iGo aims to lighten this load with its recently launched line of multi-device chargers that allow you to charge a laptop and mobile device simultaneously. Read More

RXS launches two new Bluetooth adaptors
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November 19, 2008 Everyone hates headphone cords trailing around everywhere and getting in a tangle, which is one of the reasons Bluetooth has proven so popular for listening to music from Bluetooth capable players and phones. For those whose phones and portable music players aren’t Bluetooth capable, RXS has released two new adapters, which add Bluetooth functionality to iPods, iPhones or any device with a 3.5mm headphone socket. Read More

Lacie's LaCinema Rugged hard drive boasts HDMI output
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While retaining the same shock-resistant form factor as its predecessors, Lacie's latest addition to its Rugged line of portable hard disk drives is the first to sport an HDMI output for direct playback on HDTVs. Read More

The Top 50 Best Selling Laptops
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Need a new machine for the road or a Christmas gift idea for someone special? We've got something that might help you make a decision, and will definitely help you find the best price - a list of the 50 best selling laptops right now on PriceGrabber. Read More

3M MPro110 handheld digital projector
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The much anticipated advent of ultra-portable projector technology is upon us with new offerings hitting the market at a rapid rate. Early market mover 3M's work on miniature projection modules has crystalized the form of the handheld 3M MPro110, a 5.6 ounce unit measuring 4.5" long x 2" wide that can project up to a 50" image. Read More

Cricket portable laptop stand
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Laptop stands are a great solution for keeping your machine cool and your posture upright when spending hours at the desk, but when it comes time to pack your bags and get on the road, there just never seems to be room for these types of added extras. It's a problem that the collapsible, lightweight Cricket Laptop Stand is designed to solve. Read More

The (fake) MacBook Nano
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For some, one of the disappointing aspects of last month's raft of Notebook announcements from Apple was the absence of even a sniff of a sub-notebook model in the offing. Well it looks like someone has taken matters into their own hands, turning wishful thinking into a blatant rip-off with a fake "MacBook Nano" fashioned from an MSI U100 netbook running Mac OS X. Read More

The ClarityLife C900 Mobile Phone for Seniors
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November 12, 2008 The ClarityLife C900 is a very simple mobile phone with large controls, so it’s not the sort of technology we normally eulogise about in Gizmag. It’s key difference is that it has been reengineered to cater to the specific needs of the most technologically disenfranchised segment of our society – the elderly. The C900 is can be amplified an extra 20-decibels and it has oversized text for a group where hearing problems and failing eyesight are the norm. Most significantly, the US$270 cell phone incorporates an emergency response button capping off a very relevant feature set to an aging population that just goes on and on - hearing aid compatible, an extra strong vibrating ringer and a flashing orange LED to signal incoming calls for the hearing impaired and a flashlight. Read More

New Fujitsu Mini Notebook gets built-in GPS
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A netbook that combines full-featured PC functionality with voice-prompted GPS navigation, a 16-inch desktop replacement notebook that incorporates a second 4-inch touch screen and a 2.2 pound convertible tablet PC are among the latest mobile computing offerings from Fujitsu. Read More

Mophie Juice Pack for iPhone 3G now shipping
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If there’s one complaint iPhone 3G users have it is the battery life, so it’s hardly surprising to see the first Apple certified “Works With iPhone” attached battery hit the market. The Mophie Juice Pack for iPhone 3G is a rechargeable lithium polymer battery in the form of a non-slip, soft grip case that is designed to more than double the battery life of your iPhone and protect it at the same time. It offers pass-through USB so the iPhone can be charged and synced with iTunes via the included USB cable without removing it from the Juice Pack. Read More

MSI Wind BIOS update brings on-the-fly overclocking
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MSI has released BIOS update 1.09 for the Wind, allowing users to overclock the notebook by up to 24%, which increases performance by roughly 30%. The update retains the features of the 1.08 version, but provides added functionality and fixes some sleep and hibernation glitches. Read More

UK retailers create logo for promoting DRM free MP3s
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Ten years after the release of the first MP3 player, seven UK-based music download retailers are giving the universally compatible format a promotional boost by adopting an “MP3 compatible” logo to indicate they are able to be played on every PC, Mac and on virtually every digital music player. Read More

HP Mini 1000 netbook
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Following on from its release of the education focused Mini-Note PC earlier this year, and adding to the burgeoning list of netbook offerings now on the shelves, HP's new HP Mini 1000 manages to retain an (almost) full size laptop keyboard in a unit that's less than 1-inch thick and weighs only 2.25 lb. The Mini 1000 is powered by an Intel Atom N270 1.6-gigahertz (GHz) processor and is available with either a 8.9" or 10.2" widescreen display (1,024 x 600). System memory is either 512MB or 1GB DDR2 and HDD options include 8GB or 16GB SSD, or a 60GB HDD. Read More

New Toshiba projector tells you what to do
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Toshiba has launched a new lightweight wireless 3LCD projector, which is most notably the world’s first projector with voice guidance - a feature designed for non-technical users that talks you through operating instructions and provides system alerts. The network compatible TLP-X200U also incorporates closed captioning and a unique multiscreen function for large venue use. Read More

RXS launches pocket-sized Pico Media Projector
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With more than half of the global population now carrying a mobile phone, technologies that enhance one of their key limitations - namely small screen size - are bound to find traction in the market. Eventually we can expect to see tiny projectors embedded into the mobile devices themselves, but in the meantime, add-on products that transform the mobile viewing experience are providing a viable alternative. Joining early movers like Microvision and Optoma, RXS: Redshift has now entered this space with the launch of its Pico Media Projector in the UK. The pocket-sized, 160g unit can project images up to 50 inches in size from your phone, laptop or PC onto surfaces such as a walls or ceilings. Read More

Myvu Video Eyewear gets iPhone compatibility
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Myvu has announced that its flagship Myvu Crystal video glasses now work with the Apple iPhone. The 82 gram, USB rechargeable Crystal model tops the company's range with 640 x 480 (VGA) resolution and a 22.5 degrees diagonal field-of-view and ship with noise-cancelling earphones from Ultimate Ears. Read More

iPow protects and prolongs the iPhone
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iPow combines a protective case for the the first-gen iPhone with back up battery power that doubles the device's talk, usage and standby time. Recently launched in the UK, the hard-backed leather flip case has an integrated battery along with built-in mini stereo speakers which of course results in a bulkier, heavier (add 98g to the 135g iPhone) and not quite as cool unit, but the promise of half the number of re-charging stops could well be worth the trade-off for those on the road. Read More

Nextar adds to SNAP GPS line
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Nextar has added two new models to its SNAP line of GPS systems. Joining the 3.5" SNAP3, the 5” SNAP5 and 7” SNAP7 both feature touch-screen displays, built-in stereo speakers, Nextar’s magnetic docking station, text-to-speech (English) technology and both are only 0.7” thick. All models come with a 2GB SD card offering maps of the entire US and all of Canada. Read More

Techno-bling: Super Talent's 18-carat gold USB drive
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Memory specialist Super Talent has announced a limited edition 18-carat gold version of its diminutive Pico-C Drive. The swank 8GB USB device features 200X (30MB/sec) data transfer speeds, is water resistant and comes with a matching gold keychain and black velvet jewelry box. Read More

Dell Inspiron Mini 12 Netbook/Ultraportable hybrid
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Dell has released a big brother for its Inspiron Mini 9. Perhaps aiming for the customer that thinks a 9 or 10-inch display is too small, but a full size laptop is overkill for their needs, the Dell Inspiron Mini 12 features a bigger-than-your-average-Netbook 12.1-inch WXGA display, and runs on Netbook standard Intel Atom CPU. The hard drives are of the traditional platter variety in 60GB or 80GB sizes instead of the SSD drives found in the Mini 9 and the Mini 12 comes with 1GB of RAM, a built-in webcam and Windows Vista Home Basic – although XP and Ubuntu variants are due by year’s end. Read More

Netbooks get serious: three ExpressCard-packing portables for the road warrior
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ExpressCard brings high-bandwidth (2.5Gbps) PCI Express connectivity to laptops, and allows you to connect a range of audio interfaces, hard drives, wireless broadband modems, and (if you buy an adapter) FireWire 800/eSATA devices. So far, three manufacturers have managed to squeeze an ExpressCard/34 port into their 9/10" netbooks, opening up a range of possibilities for the road warrior. Read More

Fujitsu launches M1010 netbook
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Fujitsu has officially announced the first installment in its new M Series line-up, the Fujitsu M1010 netbook. Weighing in at 1kg (2.2lbs) with an 8.9-inch widescreen display, the M1010 has a touchpad and mouse button layout designed for use with one hand and features integrated wireless LAN, a PC Express card, 3G USB dongle support, 4-in-1 SD card reader and built-in 1.3 Mega Pixel web camera. Read More

T-Mobile G1 hits stores
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T-Mobile has announced that the first Android powered mobile phone handset - the T-Mobile G1 - is now available in retail stores across the US. The G1 features full touch-screen functionality plus a QWERTY keyboard, 3MP camera, built-in Google applications and access to the open platform Android market. Read More

Motorola AURA - a fob watch for the 21st century
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Motorola has broken new ground in the mobile phone fashion stakes with its latest handset - the uniquely designed AURA. While the phones' specs - which include a 2MP camera, H.264 video capture, 2GB on board memory, hands-free Bluetooth connectivity and an open source browser - don't exactly set it apart from the pack, the craftsmanship, classic styling and high-end materials that have been utilized to create it certainly do. The immediately recognizable highlight is the circular liquid-crystal display, an industry first innovation inspired by luxury watch design that incorporates 16 million colors and 300 dpi resolution protected by a highly scratch-resistant 62-carat sapphire crystal lens. Read More

MOTO Q 11 joins Motorola’s Q series of smartphones
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Motorola has announced the latest addition to its Q series of smartphones. The MOTO Q 11 is a quad-band GSM phone with EDGE, (no HSDPA or 3G), and features a 2.4” 320 x 240 TFT 262K screen and full QWERTY keyboard. In the wireless department it features Bluetooth, integrated 802.11b/g WiFi, which uses Boingo Mobile to automatically connect to thousands of WiFi locations worldwide, and integrated GPS for navigation support for applications such as Google Maps. Read More

Mobile Technology

2008-11-28T06:39:00.000-08:00

We will ensure you are provided with the most appropriate hardware for supporting the needs of your mobile workforce. All hardware recommendations are sourced from leading suppliers, and are subjected to rigorous testing, for each specific application.
Our off the shelf software products can help your organisation get the best return out of your mobile workforce.
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Mobile Technologies understands the importance of providing customers with a total solutions approach.

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Mobile Technology Web Blog

2008-11-28T06:32:00.000-08:00

Verizon Wireless has announced that the new Samsung Omnia will be available immediately online (and in stores on Dec. 8).As is the case of late, the Omnia will offer an advanced touch screen featuring Samsung's TouchWiz user interface. The unit will also feature a full on-screen QWERTY keyboard with haptic feedback (provides subtle vibrations to confirm key selections). An optical mouse offers easy navigation with the swipe of a finger. A high-quality 5.0-megapixel camera with digital zoom and power LED flash round out the goodies. Connectivity comes in the form of stereo Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technology.Coming standard with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, users can access Microsoft Outlook Mobile to connect to email, schedules and contacts while Office Mobile manages Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on the go.The Samsung Omnia starts at $249.99 after a $70 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.For full specs, click here.

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T-Mobile Inks Deal With Yahoo Title: T-Mobile Inks Deal With Yahoo PermaLink: http://www.mobile-weblog.com/50226711/tmobile_inks_deal_with_yahoo.php
Filed in archive Announcements by Jason Giacchino on November 24, 2008
After having introduced Web2go, a browsing experience designed to work across its wide portfolio of phones, T-Mobile has formed a deal with Yahoo to have Yahoo search included by default. Web2go simplifies navigating the web on mobile devices, providing better browsing, improved search with Yahoo oneSearch, a customizable home page and easier shopping and downloading.Yahoo began serving T-Mobile in 10 European countries this year, sharing ad search revenue and will nowreach 105 million U.S. cell subscribers between this latest deal with T-Mobile and another similar arrangement inked with AT&T.

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Top Five Cell Phone Makers Announce Green Rating System Title: Top Five Cell Phone Makers Announce Green Rating System PermaLink: http://www.mobile-weblog.com/50226711/top_five_cell_phone_makers_announce_green_rating_system.php
Filed in archive Mobile Society by Jason Giacchino on November 21, 2008
The world's top five cell phone makers have launched a common energy rating system for phone chargers, in the hopes of making it easier for consumers to compare and choose the model that consumes the least energy.The new rating system has been developed and supported by LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung Electronics and Sony Ericsson and will ranges from five stars (for the most efficient chargers) down to zero stars for those guilty of consuming the most electricity. The cell phone industry has become the world's top consumer electronics business by volume and environmentalism complaints have been frequent and persistent. Chargers actually continue to use electricity when left plugged in, even when the phone is disconnected. Around two-thirds of the electricity used by cell phones is wasted as a result.

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AT&T and LG Present the Incite Title: AT&T and LG Present the Incite PermaLink: http://www.mobile-weblog.com/50226711/att_and_lg_present_the_incite.php
Filed in archive Announcements by Jason Giacchino on November 19, 2008
AT&T looks to be the recipient of LG's latest Windows Mobile powered smartphone, the Incite.With 3.0-inch touch screen and 3.0-megapixel camera, the Incite will come loaded with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, Microsoft Office Mobile, Microsoft ActiveSync 4.5 and Windows Media Player 10. Navigation can be accomplished through screen touching, a scroll button to the upper right of the screen, or the included stylus. Texting allows for use of an on-screen virtual keyboard - full, QWERTY design in landscape mode or a 20-key keyboard in portrait view. Haptic keys provide vibration feedback to simulate typing on a physical board. Bluetooth 2.0, domestic and international 3G capabilities and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) round out the connectivity options.The LG Incite is available now in stores and online for $199.99 with a new two-year agreement and mail-in rebate.For full specs, click here.

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Come Surf The Friendly Skies Title: Come Surf The Friendly Skies PermaLink: http://www.mobile-weblog.com/50226711/come_surf_the_friendly_skies.php
Filed in archive Announcements by Jason Giacchino on November 17, 2008
Let's be honest, flying can be a bit of a drag. Gogo, whose catch phrase is accurately "wi-fi with wings" plans to do something to offset some of the natural potential of time spent high above the earth. Their new Inflight Internet program will allow PDA, cell-phone, and laptop users with Wi-Fi connectivity to stay connected at 10,000 feet on up.The process is as simple as creating an account before you board your next flight. Then, once your flight reaches 10,000 feet, log on, purchase Gogo and start surfing while soaring.Gogo will be available on select American Airlines flights, Virgin, America, Delta Air Lines and Air Canada. For more information or to create an account, head over to: Gogo's site.

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Samsung's Latest Smartphone Comes to Verizon Title: Samsung's Latest Smartphone Comes to Verizon PermaLink: http://www.mobile-weblog.com/50226711/samsungs_latest_smartphone_comes_to_verizon.php
Filed in archive Announcements by Jason Giacchino on November 14, 2008
Verizon Wireless today announced a new smartphone for business users from Samsung: The Saga. It features a 2.55-inch full touch screen in addition to a QWERTY keyboard.The Saga keeps users connected to their offices with email, text and instant messages. Additionally it's equipped with quad-band capability, optical mouse navigation, Wi-Fi access (802.11 b/g), Opera mobile browser all under the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating systemWindows Mobile includes Microsoft Office Mobile Suite so users can create and edit Word and Excel documents and view PowerPoint documents, Microsoft Active Sync 4.5 and Windows Mobile Device Center for Vista.Knowing that it's not an all work and no-play world, the Saga comes with a 2.0-megapixel camera with NightShot, microSD card slot for up to 16GB of external memory (sold separately), and Bluetooth stereo headset support.The Saga is available online now and hits stores Dec 1.

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Nokia's New E63 Means Business Title: Nokia's New E63 Means Business PermaLink: http://www.mobile-weblog.com/50226711/nokias_new_e63_means_business.php
Filed in archive Announcements by Jason Giacchino on November 12, 2008
Nokia's latest phone, the E63, appears to target the business segment of the mobile phone industry with just enough perks to interest non-business types alike. This new converged device can switch modes via the press of a button, from viewing corporate mail, appointments and intranet data, to viewing photos, personal email and text messages. Users can capture and view photos (and videos) with the 2.0-megapixel CMOS camera and bright 320 x 240 pixel landscape display. Music lovers can enjoy tunes downloaded from the Nokia Music Store via a 3.5 mm audio jack, and the Ovi application lets users remotely access files from their PC, even when their computer is offline.Featuring a full QWERTY thumb-board, the Nokia E63 will be available in ruby red or ultramarine blue. It is expected to begin shipping within weeks for around $250.For full specs click here.

All about Mobile Phones

2008-11-28T06:22:00.000-08:00

Applications
The most commonly used data application on mobile phones is SMS text messaging, with 74% of all mobile phone users as active users (over 2.4 billion out of 3.3 billion total subscribers at the end of 2007). SMS text messaging was worth over 100 billion dollars in annual revenues in 2007 and the worldwide average of messaging use is 2.6 SMS sent per day per person across the whole mobile phone subscriber base. (source Informa 2007). The first SMS text message was sent from a computer to a mobile phone in 1992 in the UK, while the first person-to-person SMS from phone to phone was sent in Finland in 1993.
The other non-SMS data services used by mobile phones were worth 31 Billion dollars in 2007, and were led by mobile music, downloadable logos and pictures, gaming, gambling, adult entertainment and advertising (source: Informa 2007). The first downloadable mobile content was sold to a mobile phone in Finland in 1998, when Radiolinja (now Elisa) introduced the downloadable ringing tone service. In 1999 Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo introduced its mobile internet service, i-Mode, which today is the world's largest mobile internet service and roughly the same size as Google in annual revenues.
The first mobile news service, delivered via SMS, was launched in Finland in 2000. Mobile news services are expanding with many organisations providing "on-demand" news services by SMS. Some also provide "instant" news pushed out by SMS. Mobile telephony also facilitates activism and public journalism being explored by Reuters and Yahoo![6] and small independent news companies such as Jasmine News in Sri Lanka.
Companies like Monster are starting to offer mobile services such as job search and career advice. Consumer applications are on the rise and include everything from information guides on local activities and events to mobile coupons and discount offers one can use to save money on purchases. Even tools for creating websites for mobile phones are increasingly becoming available.
Mobile payments were first trialled in Finland in 1998 when two Coca-Cola vending machines in Espoo were enabled to work with SMS payments. Eventually the idea spread and in 1999 the Philippines launched the first commercial mobile payments systems, on the mobile operators Globe and Smart. Today mobile payments ranging from mobile banking to mobile credit cards to mobile commerce are very widely used in Asia and Africa, and in selected European markets. For example in the Philippines it is not unusual to have one's entire paycheck paid to the mobile account. In Kenya the limit of money transfers from one mobile banking account to another is one million US dollars. In India paying utility bills with mobile gains a 5% discount. In Estonia the government found criminals collecting cash parking fees, so the government declared that only mobile payments via SMS were valid for parking and today all parking fees in Estonia are handled via mobile and the crime involved in the activity has vanished.
Mobile Applications are developed using the Six M's (previously Five M's) service-development theory created by the author Tomi Ahonen with Joe Barrett of Nokia and Paul Golding of Motorola. The Six M's are Movement (location), Moment (time), Me (personalization), Multi-user (community), Money (payments) and Machines (automation). The Six M's / Five M's theory is widely referenced in the telecoms applications literature and used by most major industry players. The first book to discuss the theory was Services for UMTS by Ahonen & Barrett in 2002.
The iPhone has revolutionized applications for mobile phones, allowing a vast array of applications that perform hundreds of different tasks to be easily downloaded an installed through the App Store, a native application on the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPod touch. Using a WiFi, EDGE or 3G connection, users can purchase applications (some are free) from the App Store and download them directly to the phone. Apps can also be downloaded from the iTunes Store and synced with the iPhone/iPod once the device is synced with iTunes. The App Store was developed by Apple to interface with the AT&T cellular network. T-Mobile is also developing their own version of the App Store, most likely to interface with their newest smart phone, the T-Mobile G1, the first phone built running the new Google Android cellular firmware, which was likely built as a competitor for the iPhone.

[edit] Media
The mobile phone became a mass media channel in 1998 when the first ringing tones were sold to mobile phones by Radiolinja in Finland. Soon other media content appeared such as news, videogames, jokes, horoscopes, TV content and advertising. In 2006 the total value of mobile phone paid media content exceeded internet paid media content and was worth 31 Billion dollars (source Informa 2007). The value of music on phones was worth 9.3 Billion dollars in 2007 and gaming was worth over 5 billion dollars in 2007 (source Netsize Guide 2008 [1]).
The mobile phone is often called the Fourth Screen (if counting cinema, TV and PC screens as the first three) or Third Screen (counting only TV and PC screens). It is also called the Seventh of the Mass Media (with Print, Recordings, Cinema, Radio, TV and Internet the first six). Most early content for mobile tended to be copies of legacy media, such as the banner advertisement or the TV news highlight video clip. Recently unique content for mobile has been emerging, from the ringing tones and ringback tones in music to "mobisodes," video content that has been produced exclusively for mobile phones.
The advent of media on the mobile phone has also produced the opportunity to identify and track Alpha Users or Hubs, the most influential members of any social community. AMF Ventures measured in 2007 the relative accuracy of three mass media, and found that audience measures on mobile were nine times more accurate than on the internet and 90 times more accurate than on TV.

[edit] Power supply
Mobile phones generally obtain power from batteries, which can be recharged from a USB port, from portable batteries, from mains power or a cigarette lighter socket in a car using an adapter (often called battery charger or wall wart) or from a solar panel or a dynamo (that can also use a USB port to plug the phone).
Formerly, the most common form of mobile phone batteries were nickel metal-hydride, as they have a low size and weight. Lithium-Ion batteries are sometimes used, as they are lighter and do not have the voltage depression that nickel metal-hydride batteries do. Many mobile phone manufacturers have now switched to using lithium-Polymer batteries as opposed to the older Lithium-Ion, the main advantages of this being even lower weight and the possibility to make the battery a shape other than strict cuboid. Mobile phone manufacturers have been experimenting with alternative power sources, including solar cells.

[edit] SIM card
In addition to the battery, GSM cellphones require a small microchip, called a Subscriber Identity Module or SIM Card, to function. Approximately the size of a small postage stamp, the SIM Card is usually placed underneath the battery in the rear of the unit, and (when properly activated) stores the phone's configuration data, and information about the phone itself, such as which calling plan the subscriber is using. When the subscriber removes the SIM Card, it can be re-inserted into another phone and used as normal.
Each SIM Card is activated by use of a unique numerical identifier; once activated, the identifier is locked down and the card is permanently locked in to the activating network. For this reason, most retailers refuse to accept the return of an activated SIM Card.
Those cell phones that do not use a SIM Card have the data programmed in to their memory. This data is accessed by using a special digit sequence to access the "NAM" as in "Name" or number programming menu. From here, one can add information such as a new number for your phone, new Service Provider numbers, new emergency numbers, change their Authentication Key or A-Key code, and update their Preferred Roaming List or PRL. However, someone from accidentally disabling their phone or removing it from the network, the Service Provider puts a lock on this data called a Master Subsidiary Lock or MSL.
The MSL also ensures that the Service Provider gets payment for the phone that was purchased or "leased". For example, the Motorola RAZR V9C costs upwards of CAD $500. You can get one for approximately $200, depending on the carrier. The difference is paid by the customer in the form of a monthly bill. If the carrier did not use a MSL, then they may lose the $300–$400 difference that is paid in the monthly bill, since some customers would cancel their service and take the phone to another carrier.

[edit] Usage

[edit] By civilians

This Railfone found on some Amtrak trains in North America uses cellular technology.
See also: List of mobile network operators
An increasing number of countries, particularly in Europe, now have more mobile phones than people. According to the figures from Eurostat, the European Union's in-house statistical office, Luxembourg had the highest mobile phone penetration rate at 158 mobile subscriptions per 100 people, closely followed by Lithuania and Italy.[7] In Hong Kong the penetration rate reached 139.8% of the population in July 2007.[8] Over 50 countries have mobile phone subscription penetration rates higher than that of the population and the Western European average penetration rate was 110% in 2007 (source Informa 2007). The U.S. currently has one of the lowest rates of mobile phone penetrations in the industrialised world at 85%.
There are over five hundred million active mobile phone accounts in China, as of 2007, but the total penetration rate there still stands below 50%.[9] The total number of mobile phone subscribers in the world was estimated at 2.14 billion in 2005.[10] The subscriber count reached 2.7 billion by end of 2006 according to Informa[citation needed], and 3.3 billion by November, 2007[3], thus reaching an equivalent of over half the planet's population. Around 80% of the world's population has access to mobile phone coverage, as of 2006. This figure is expected to increase to 90% by the year 2010.[11]
In some developing countries with little "landline" telephone infrastructure, mobile phone use has quadrupled in the last decade.[12] The rise of mobile phone technology in developing countries is often cited as an example of the leapfrog effect. Many remote regions in the third world went from having no telecommunications infrastructure to having satellite based communications systems. At present, Africa has the largest growth rate of cellular subscribers in the world,[13] its markets expanding nearly twice as fast as Asian markets.[14] The availability of prepaid or 'pay-as-you-go' services, where the subscriber is not committed to a long term contract, has helped fuel this growth in Africa as well as in other continents.
On a numerical basis, India is the largest growth market, adding about 6 million mobile phones every month.[15] With 256.55 million total landline and mobile phones, market penetration in the country is still low at 22.52%. India expects to reach 500 million subscribers by the end of 2010. Simultaneously, landline phone ownership is decreasing gradually and accounts for approximately 40 million connections.
There are three major technical standards for the current generation of mobile phones and networks, and two major standards for the next generation 3G phones and networks. All European and African countries and many Asian countries have adopted a single system, GSM, which is the only technology available on all continents and in most countries and covers over 74% of all subscribers on mobile networks. In many countries, such as the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, India,, South Korea, and Vietnam, GSM co-exists with other internationally adopted standards such as CDMA and TDMA, as well as national standards such as iDEN in the USA and PDC in Japan. Over the past five years several dozen mobile operators (carriers) have abandoned networks on TDMA and CDMA technologies, switching over to GSM.
With third generation (3G) networks, which are also known as IMT-2000 networks, about three out of four networks are on the W-CDMA (also known as UMTS) standard, usually seen as the natural evolution path for GSM and TDMA networks. One in four 3G networks is on the CDMA2000 1x EV-DO technology. Some analysts count a previous stage in CDMA evolution, CDMA2000 1x RTT, as a 3G technology whereas most standardization experts count only CDMA2000 1x EV-DO as a true 3G technology. Because of this difference in interpreting what is 3G, there is a wide variety in subscriber counts. As of June 2007, on the narrow definition there are 200 million subscribers on 3G networks. By using the more broad definition, the total subscriber count of 3G phone users is 475 million.

[edit] Culture and customs

Cellular phones allow people to communicate from anywhere at their leisure.
Between the 1980s and the 2000s, the mobile phone has gone from being an expensive item used by the business elite to a pervasive, personal communications tool for the general population. In most countries, mobile phones outnumber land-line phones, with fixed landlines numbering 1.3 Billion but mobile subscriptions 3.3 Billion at the end of 2007.
In many markets from Japan and South Korea , to Scandinavia, to Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, most children age 8-9 have mobile phones and the new accounts are now opened for customers aged 6 and 7. Where mostly parents tend to give hand-me-down used phones to their youngest children, in Japan already new cameraphones are on the market whose target age group is under 10 years of age, introduced by KDDI in February 2007. The USA also lags on this measure, as in the US so far, about half of all children have mobile phones.[16] In many young adults' households it has supplanted the land-line phone. Mobile phone usage is banned in some countries, such as North Korea and restricted in some other countries such as Burma.[17]
Given the high levels of societal mobile phone service penetration, it is a key means for people to communicate with each other. The SMS feature spawned the "texting" sub-culture amongst younger users. In December 1993, the first person-to-person SMS text message was transmitted in Finland. Currently, texting is the most widely used data service; 1.8 billion users generated $80 billion of revenue in 2006 (source ITU). Many phones offer Instant Messenger services for simple, easy texting. Mobile phones have Internet service (e.g. NTT DoCoMo's i-mode), offering text messaging via e-mail in Japan, South Korea, China, and India. Most mobile internet access is much different from computer access, featuring alerts, weather data, e-mail, search engines, instant messages, and game and music downloading; most mobile internet access is hurried and short.
The mobile phone can be a fashion totem custom-decorated to reflect the owner's personality.[18] This aspect of the mobile telephony business is, in itself, an industry, e.g. ringtone sales amounted to $3.5 billion in 2005.[19]

The use of a mobile phone is prohibited in some train company carriages
Mobile phone use can be an important matter of social discourtesy: phones ringing during funerals or weddings; in toilets, cinemas and theatres. Some book shops, libraries, bathrooms, cinemas, doctors' offices and places of worship prohibit their use, so that other patrons will not be disturbed by conversations. Some facilities install signal-jamming equipment to prevent their use, although in many countries, including the US, such equipment is illegal. Some new auditoriums have installed wire mesh in the walls to make a Faraday cage, which prevents signal penetration without violating signal jamming laws.[citation needed]
Trains, particularly those involving long-distance services, often offer a "quiet carriage" where phone use is prohibited, much like the designated non-smoking carriage of the past. In the UK however many users tend to ignore this as it is rarely enforced, especially if the other carriages are crowded and they have no choice but to go in the "quiet carriage".[citation needed] In Japan, it is generally considered impolite to talk using a phone on any train -- texting is generally the mode of mobile communication. Mobile phone usage on local public transport is also increasingly seen as a nuisance; the city of Graz, for instance, has mandated a total ban of mobile phones on its tram and bus network in 2008 (though texting is still allowed).[20][21]
Mobile phone use on aircraft is also prohibited and many airlines claim in their in-plane announcements that this prohibition is due to possible interference with aircraft radio communications. Shut-off mobile phones do not interfere with aircraft avionics; the concern is partially based on the crash of Crossair Flight 498.

[edit] By government agencies

[edit] Law enforcement
Main article: Lawful interception
Law enforcement have used mobile phone evidence in a number of different ways. In the EU the "communications of every mobile telephone user are recorded".[22] In other countries, evidence about the physical location of an individual at a given time has been introduced by triangulating the individual's cellphone between several cellphone towers. This triangulation technique can be used to show that an individual's cellphone was at a certain location at a certain time. The concerns over terrorism and terrorist use of technology prompted an inquiry by the British House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee into the use of evidence from mobile phone devices, prompting leading mobile telephone forensic specialists to identify forensic techniques available in this area.[23] NIST have published guidelines and procedures for the preservation, acquisition, examination, analysis, and reporting of digital information present on mobile phones can be found under the NIST Publication SP800-101.[24]
In the UK in 2000 it was claimed that recordings of mobile phone conversations made on the day of the Omagh bombing were crucial to the police investigation. In particular, calls made on two mobile phones which were tracked from south of the Irish border to Omagh and back on the day of the bombing, were considered of vital importance.[25]
Further example of criminal investigations using mobile phones is the initial location and ultimate identification of the terrorists of the 2004 Madrid train bombings. In the attacks, mobile phones had been used to detonate the bombs. However, one of the bombs failed to detonate, and the SIM card in the corresponding mobile phone gave the first serious lead about the terrorists to investigators. By tracking the whereabouts of the SIM card and correlating other mobile phones that had been registered in those areas, police were able to locate the terrorists.[26]

[edit] Disaster response
The Finnish government decided in 2005 that the fastest way to warn citizens of disasters was the mobile phone network. In Japan, mobile phone companies provide immediate notification of earthquakes and other natural disasters to their customers free of charge [27]. In the event of an emergency, disaster response crews can locate trapped or injured people using the signals from their mobile phones. An interactive menu accessible through the phone's Internet browser notifies the company if the user is safe or in distress.[citation needed] In Finland rescue services suggest hikers carry mobile phones in case of emergency even when deep in the forests beyond cellular coverage, as the radio signal of a cellphone attempting to connect to a base station can be detected by overflying rescue aircraft with special detection gear. Also, users in the United States can sign up through their provider for free text messages when an AMBER Alert goes out for a missing person in their area.
However, most mobile phone networks operate close to capacity during normal times and spikes in call volumes caused by widespread emergencies often overload the system just when it is needed the most. Examples reported in the media where this have occurred include the September 11, 2001 attacks, the 2003 Northeast blackouts, the 2005 London Tube bombings, Hurricane Katrina, the 2006 Hawaii earthquake, and the 2007 Minnesota bridge collapse, Thus mobile phones are better for isolated emergencies such as vehicle accidents.
Under FCC regulations, all mobile telephones must be capable of dialing emergency telephone numbers, regardless of the presence of a SIM card or the payment status of the account.

[edit] Business models

[edit] Tariff models
See also: GSM services#Voice charges
When cellular telecoms services were launched, phones and calls were very expensive and early mobile operators (carriers) decided to charge for all air time consumed by the mobile phone user. This resulted in the concept of charging callers for outbound calls and also for receiving calls. As mobile phone call charges diminished and phone adoption rates skyrocketed, more modern operators decided not to charge for incoming calls. Thus some markets have "Receiving Party Pays" models (also known as "Mobile Party Pays"), in which both outbound and received calls are charged, and other markets have "Calling Party Pays" models, by which only making calls produces costs, and receiving calls is free. An exception to this is international roaming tariffs, by which receiving calls are normally also charged.[citation needed]
The European market adopted a "Calling Party Pays" model throughout the GSM environment and soon various other GSM markets also started to emulate this model. As Receiving Party Pays systems have the undesired effect of phone owners keeping their phones turned off to avoid receiving unwanted calls, the total voice usage rates (and profits) in Calling Party Pays countries outperform those in Receiving Party Pays countries. Consequently, most countries previously with Receiving Party Pays models have either abandoned them or employed alternative marketing methods, such as massive voice call buckets, to avoid the problem of phone users keeping phones turned off.[citation needed]
In most countries today, the person receiving a mobile phone call pays nothing. However, in Hong Kong, Canada, and the United States, one can be charged per minute, for incoming as well as outgoing calls. In the United States and Canada, a few carriers are beginning to offer unlimited received phone calls. For the Chinese mainland, it was reported that both of its two operators will adopt the caller-pays approach as early as January 2007.[28]
While some systems of payment are 'pay-as-you-go' where conversation time is purchased and added to a phone unit via an Internet account or in shops or ATMs, other systems are more traditional ones where bills are paid by regular intervals. Pay as you go (also known as "pre-pay") accounts were invented simultaneously in Portugal and Italy and today form more than half of all mobile phone subscriptions. USA, Canada, Costa Rica, Japan and Finland are among the rare countries left where most phones are still contract-based.
One possible alternative is a sim-lock free mobile phone. Sim-lock free mobile phones allow portability between networks so users can use sim cards from various networks and not need to have their phone unlocked.

[edit] Impacts

[edit] Human health and behaviour
Main article: Mobile phone radiation and health
Since the introduction of mobile phones, concerns (both scientific and public) have been raised about the potential health impacts from regular use.[29] But by 2008, American mobile phones transmitted and received more text messages than phone calls.[30] Numerous studies have reported no significant relationship between mobile phone use and health, but the effect of mobile phone usage on health continues to be an area of public concern.
For example, at the request of some of their customers, Verizon created usage controls that meter service and can switch phones off, so that children could get some sleep.[30] There have also been attempts to limit use by persons operating moving trains or automobiles, coaches when writing to potential players on their teams, and movie theater audiences.[30] By one measure, nearly 40% of automobile drivers aged 16 to 30 years old text while driving, and by another, 40% of teenagers said they could text blindfolded.[30]

[edit] Mobile Phone Dermatitis
According to Reuters, The British Association of Dermatologists are warning of a rash occurring on people’s ears or cheeks caused by an allergic reaction from the nickel surface commonly found on mobile devices’ exteriors. There is also a theory it could even occur on the fingers if someone spends a lot of time text messaging on metal menu buttons. Earlier this year Lionel Bercovitch of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and colleagues tested 22 popular handsets from eight different manufacturers and found nickel in 10 of the devices.[31]

[edit] Safety concerns
As of 2007, several airlines are experimenting with base station and antenna systems installed to the aeroplane, allowing low power, short-range connection of any phones aboard to remain connected to the aircraft's base station.[32] Thus, they would not attempt connection to the ground base stations as during take off and landing.[citation needed] Simultaneously, airlines may offer phone services to their travelling passengers either as full voice and data services, or initially only as SMS text messaging and similar services. The Australian airline Qantas is the first airline to run a test aeroplane in this configuration in the autumn of 2007.[citation needed] Emirates has announced plans to allow limited mobile phone usage on some flights.[citation needed] However, in the past, commercial airlines have prevented the use of cell phones and laptops, due to the assertion that the frequencies emitted from these devices may disturb the radio waves contact of the airplane.
On March 20, 2008, an Emirates flight was the first time voice calls have been allowed in-flight on commercial airline flights. The breakthrough came after the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the United Arab Emirates-based General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) granted full approval for the AeroMobile system to be used on Emirates. Passengers were able to make and receive voice calls as well as use text messaging. The system automatically came into operation as the Airbus A340-300 reached cruise altitude. Passengers wanting to use the service received a text message welcoming them to the AeroMobile system when they first switched their phones on. The approval by EASA has established that GSM phones are safe to use on airplanes, as the AeroMobile system does not require the modification of aircraft components deemed "sensitive," nor does it require the use of modified phones.
In any case, there are inconsistencies between practices allowed by different airlines and even on the same airline in different countries. For example, Northwest Airlines may allow the use of mobile phones immediately after landing on a domestic flight within the US, whereas they may state "not until the doors are open" on an international flight arriving in the Netherlands. In April 2007 the US Federal Communications Commission officially prohibited passengers' use of cell phones during a flight.[33]
In a similar vein, signs are put up in many countries, such as Canada, the UK and the U.S., at petrol stations prohibiting the use of mobile phones, due to possible safety issues.[citation needed]
Cell phones are now wide spread among all age groups. Children are receiving cell phones as gifts for their 8th birthday party and are using them on a regular basis. This use may lead to brain cancer in later age. 18 studies have been conducted on the link between cell phones and brain cancer. A review of these studies found that cell phone use of 10 years or more "give a consistent pattern of an increased risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma"[34]. The tumors are found mostly on the side of the head that the cell phone is in contact with. In July 2008, Dr. Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, warned about the radiation from cell phones. He stated that there was no definitive proof of the link between cell phones and brain tumors but there was enough studies that cell phone usage should be reduced as a precaution[35]. Studies are also being done on children and how cell phone radiation affects their brains. When children start using cell phones at a young age, they will have more years to deal with cell phone radiation than adults will who started using cell phones at a later age. Also, children’s brains are still developing and radiation can affect the growth of the brain easier than adults. Children under 8 brains, in fact, absorb twice the amount of radiation that adult’s brains do. To reduce the amount of radiation being absorbed hands free devices can be used or texting could supplement calls. Calls could also be shortened or limit cell phone usage in rural areas. Radiation is found to be higher in areas that are located away from cell phone towers[36].

[edit] Etiquette
Most schools in the United States and Europe have prohibited mobile phones in the classroom, or in school due to the large number of class disruptions that result from their use, and the potential for cheating via text messaging[citation needed]. In the UK, possession of a mobile phone in an examination can result in immediate disqualification from that subject or from all that student's subjects.[37]. Cell phones can also be used for bullying and threats to other students, or displaying inappropriate material in school.
A working group made up of Finnish telephone companies, public transport operators and communications authorities has launched a campaign to remind mobile phone users of courtesy, especially when using mass transit—what to talk about on the phone, and how to. In particular, the campaign wants to impact loud mobile phone usage as well as calls regarding sensitive matters.[38]
Many US cities with subway transit systems underground are studying or have implemented mobile phone reception in their underground tunnels for their riders. Boston, Massachusetts has investigated such usage in their tunnels, although there is a question of usage etiquette and also how to fairly award contracts to carriers.[39][40]
The issue of mobile communication and etiquette has also become an issue of academic interest. The rapid adoption of the device has resulted in the intrusion of telephony into situations where it was previously not used. This has exposed the implicit rules of courtesy and opened them to reevaluation.[41]

[edit] Use by drivers

This driver is using two phones at once
Main article: Mobile phones and driving safety
The use of mobile phones by people who are driving has become increasingly common, either as part of their job, as in the case of delivery drivers who are calling a client, or by commuters who are chatting with a friend. While many drivers have embraced the convenience of using their cellphone while driving, some jurisdictions have made the practice against the law, such as Australia, the Canadian provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador as well as the United Kingdom, consisting of a zero-tolerance system operated in Scotland and a warning system operated in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Officials from these jurisdictions argue that using a mobile phone while driving is an impediment to vehicle operation that can increase the risk of road traffic accidents.
Studies have found vastly different relative risks (RR). Two separate studies using case-crossover analysis each calculated RR at 4,[42][43] while an epidemiological cohort study found RR, when adjusted for crash-risk exposure, of 1.11 for men and 1.21 for women.[44]
A simulation study from the University of Utah Professor David Strayer compared drivers with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% to those conversing on a cell phone, and after controlling for driving difficulty and time on task, the study concluded that cell phone drivers exhibited greater impairment than intoxicated drivers. [45] Meta-analysis by The Canadian Automobile Association [46] and The University of Illinois [47] found that response time while using both hands-free and hand-held phones was approximately 0.5 standard deviations higher than normal driving (i.e., an average driver, while talking on a cell phone, has response times of a driver in roughly the 40th percentile).
Driving while using a hands-free device is not safer than driving while using a hand-held phone, as concluded by case-crossover studies.[42][43] epidemiological studies,[44] simulation studies,[45] and meta-analysis[46][47]. Even with this information, California recently passed a cell phone law that requires drivers who are 18 years of age or older to use a hands-free device while using the phone in the vehicle. Moreover, this law also restricts drivers under the age of 18 from using a mobile phone. This law went into effect on July 1, 2008 with a $20 fine for the first offense and $50 fines for each subsequent conviction. The consistency of increased crash risk between hands-free and hand-held phone use is at odds with legislation in over 30 countries that prohibit hand-held phone use but allow hands-free. Scientific literature is mixed on the dangers of talking on a phone versus those of talking with a passenger, with the Accident Research Unit at the University of Nottingham finding that the number of utterances was usually higher for mobile calls when compared to blindfolded and non-blindfolded passengers,[48] but the University of Illinois meta-analysis concluding that passenger conversations were just as costly to driving performance as cell phone ones.[47]

[edit] Environmental impacts

Cellular antenna disguised to look like a tree
Like all high structures, cellular antenna masts pose a hazard to low flying aircraft. Towers over a certain height or towers that are close to airports or heliports are normally required to have warning lights. There have been reports that warning lights on cellular masts, TV-towers and other high structures can attract and confuse birds. US authorities estimate that millions of birds are killed near communication towers in the country each year.[49]
Some cellular antenna towers have been camouflaged to make them less obvious on the horizon, and make them look more like a tree.
An example of the way mobile phones and mobile networks have sometimes been perceived as a threat is the widely reported and later discredited claim that mobile phone masts are associated with the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) which has reduced bee hive numbers by up to 75% in many areas, especially near cities in the US. The Independent newspaper cited a scientific study claiming it provided evidence for the theory that mobile phone masts are a major cause in the collapse of bee populations, with controlled experiments demonstrating a rapid and catastrophic effect on individual hives near masts.[50] Mobile phones were in fact not covered in the study, and the original researchers have since emphatically disavowed any connection between their research, mobile phones, and CCD, specifically indicating that the Independent article had misinterpreted their results and created "a horror story".[51][52][53] While the initial claim of damage to bees was widely reported, the corrections to the story were almost non-existent in the media.
See also: Electronic waste
There are more than 500 million used mobile phones in the US sitting on shelves or in landfills [2], and it is estimated that over 125 million will be discarded this year alone. [3] The problem is growing at a rate of more than two million phones per week, putting tons of toxic waste into landfills daily. Several companies offer to buy back and recycle mobile phones from users. In the United States many unwanted but working mobile phones are donated to women's shelters to allow emergency communication.

[edit] History
Main article: History of mobile phones
In 1908, U.S. Patent 887,357 for a wireless telephone was issued in to Nathan B. Stubblefield of Murray, Kentucky. He applied this patent to "cave radio" telephones and not directly to cellular telephony as the term is currently understood.[54] Cells for mobile phone base stations were invented in 1947 by Bell Labs engineers at AT&T and further developed by Bell Labs during the 1960s. Radiophones have a long and varied history going back to Reginald Fessenden's invention and shore-to-ship demonstration of radio telephony, through the Second World War with military use of radio telephony links and civil services in the 1950s, while hand-held cellular radio devices have been available since 1973. A patent for the first wireless phone as we know today was issued in US Patent Number 3,449,750 to George Sweigert of Euclid, Ohio on June 10th, 1969.
In 1945, the zero generation (0G) of mobile telephones was introduced. 0G mobile phones, such as Mobile Telephone Service, were not cellular, and so did not feature "handover" from one base station to the next and reuse of radio frequency channels.[citation needed] Like other technologies of the time, it involved a single, powerful base station covering a wide area, and each telephone would effectively monopolize a channel over that whole area while in use. The concepts of frequency reuse and handoff as well as a number of other concepts that formed the basis of modern cell phone technology are first described in U.S. Patent 4,152,647 , issued May 1, 1979 to Charles A. Gladden and Martin H. Parelman, both of Las Vegas, Nevada and assigned by them to the United States Government.
This is the first embodiment of all the concepts that formed the basis of the next major step in mobile telephony, the Analog cellular telephone. Concepts covered in this patent (cited in at least 34 other patents) also were later extended to several satellite communication systems. Later updating of the cellular system to a digital system credits this patent.
Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive is widely considered to be the inventor of the first practical mobile phone for handheld use in a non-vehicle setting. Using a modern, if somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on April 3, 1973.[55]
The first commercial citywide cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979. Fully automatic cellular networks were first introduced in the early to mid 1980s (the 1G generation). The Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system went online in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in 1981.[56]
In 1983, Motorola DynaTAC was the first approved mobile phone by FCC in the United States. In 1984, Bell Labs developed modern commercial cellular technology (based, to a large extent, on the Gladden, Parelman Patent), which employed multiple, centrally controlled base stations (cell sites), each providing service to a small area (a cell). The cell sites would be set up such that cells partially overlapped. In a cellular system, a signal between a base station (cell site) and a terminal (phone) only need be strong enough to reach between the two, so the same channel can be used simultaneously for separate conversations in different cells.
Cellular systems required several leaps of technology, including handover, which allowed a conversation to continue as a mobile phone traveled from cell to cell. This system included variable transmission power in both the base stations and the telephones (controlled by the base stations), which allowed range and cell size to vary. As the system expanded and neared capacity, the ability to reduce transmission power allowed new cells to be added, resulting in more, smaller cells and thus more capacity. The evidence of this growth can still be seen in the many older, tall cell site towers with no antennae on the upper parts of their towers. These sites originally created large cells, and so had their antennae mounted atop high towers; the towers were designed so that as the system expanded—and cell sizes shrank—the antennae could be lowered on their original masts to reduce range.
The first "modern" network technology on digital 2G (second generation) cellular technology was launched by Radiolinja (now part of Elisa Group) in 1991 in Finland on the GSM standard which also marked the introduction of competition in mobile telecoms when Radiolinja challenged incumbent Telecom Finland (now part of TeliaSonera) who ran a 1G NMT network.
The first data services appeared on mobile phones starting with person-to-person SMS text messaging in Finland in 1993. First trial payments using a mobile phone to pay for a Coca Cola vending machine were set in Finland in 1998. The first commercial payments were mobile parking trialled in Sweden but first commercially launched in Norway in 1999. The first commercial payment system to mimick banks and credit cards was launched in the Philippines in 1999 simultaneously by mobile operators Globe and Smart. The first content sold to mobile phones was the ringing tone, first launched in 1998 in Finland. The first full internet service on mobile phones was i-Mode introduced by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in 1999.
In 2001 the first commercial launch of 3G (Third Generation) was again in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard.[57]
Until the early 1990s, most mobile phones were too large to be carried in a jacket pocket, so they were typically installed in vehicles as car phones. With the miniaturization of digital components and the development of more sophisticated batteries, mobile phones have become smaller and lighter

Mobile Phone Handsets

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Handsets
Nokia is currently the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones, with a global device market share of approximately 40% in 2008. Other major mobile phone manufacturers (in order of market share) include Samsung (14%), Motorola (14%), Sony Ericsson (9%) and LG (7%).[4] These manufacturers account for over 80% of all mobile phones sold and produce phones for sale in most countries.
Other manufacturers include Apple Inc., Audiovox (now UTStarcom), Benefon, BenQ-Siemens, CECT, High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC), Fujitsu, Kyocera, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Neonode, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), Pantech Curitel, Philips, Research In Motion (RIM), Sagem, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens, Sendo, Sierra Wireless, SK Teletech, Sonim Technologies, T&A Alcatel, Huawei, Trium and Toshiba. There are also specialist communication systems related to (but distinct from) mobile phones.
There are several categories of mobile phones, from basic phones to feature phones such as musicphones and cameraphones, to smartphones. The first smartphone was the Nokia 9000 Communicator in 1996 which incorporated PDA functionality to the basic mobile phone at the time. As miniaturisation and increased processing power of microchips has enabled ever more features to be added to phones, the concept of the smartphone has evolved, and what was a high-end smartphone five years ago, is a standard phone today. Several phone series have been introduced to address a given market segment, such as the RIM BlackBerry focusing on enterprise/corporate customer email needs; the SonyEricsson Walkman series of musicphones and Cybershot series of cameraphones; the Nokia N-Series of multimedia phones; and the Apple iPhone which provides full-featured web access and multimedia capabilities.

[edit] Features
Main article: Mobile phon e features
Mobile phones often have features beyond sending text messages and making voice calls, including Internet browsing, music (MP3) playback, memo recording, personal organiser functions, e-mail, instant messaging, built-in cameras and camcorders, ringtones, games, radio, Push-to-Talk (PTT), infrared and Bluetooth connectivity, call registers, ability to watch streaming video or download video for later viewing, video calling and serve as a wireless modem for a PC, and soon will also serve as a console of sorts to online games and other high quality games. The total value of mobile data services exceeds the value of paid services on the Internet, and was worth 31 billion dollars in 2006 (source Informa).[citation needed] The largest categories of mobile services are music, picture downloads, videogaming, adult entertainment, gambling, video/TV.
Nokia and the University of Cambridge are showing off a bendable cell phone called Morph [5].

Mobile phone

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"Cell phone" redirects here. For the movie, see Cell Phone (film).

Several examples of non-flip mobile phones.

A mobile phone (also known as a wireless phone, cell phone, or cellular telephone^[1]) is a short-range, electronic device used for mobile voice or data communication over a network of specialised base stations known as cell sites. In addition to the standard voice function of a mobile phone, telephone, current mobile phones may support many additional services, and accessories, such as SMS for text messaging, email, packet switching for access to the Internet, gaming, Bluetooth, infrared, camera with video recorder and MMS for sending and receiving photos and video. Most current mobile phones connect to a cellular network of base stations (cell sites), which is in turn interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (the exception is satellite phones).

[edit] Overview

According to internal memos, American Telephone & Telegraph discussed developing a wireless phone in 1915, but were afraid deployment of the technology could undermine its monopoly on wired service in the U.S.^[2]

The first commercial mobile phone service was launched in Japan by NTT in 1978. By November 2007, the total number of mobile phone subscriptions in the world had reached 3.3 billion, or half of the human population (although some users have multiple subscriptions, or inactive subscriptions), which also makes the mobile phone the most widely spread technology and the most common electronic device in the world.^[3]

The first mobile phone to enable internet connectivity and wireless email, the Nokia Communicator, was released in 1996, creating a new category of multi-use devices called smartphones. In 1999 the first mobile internet service was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan under the i-Mode service. By 2007 over 798 million people around the world accessed the internet or equivalent mobile internet services such as WAP and i-Mode at least occasionally using a mobile phone rather than a personal computer.

[edit] Cellular systems

See also: Cellular frequencies

Mobile phone tower

Mobile phones send and receive radio signals with any number of cell site base stations fitted with microwave antennas. These sites are usually mounted on a tower, pole or building, located throughout populated areas, then connected to a cabled communication network and switching system. The phones have a low-power transceiver that transmits voice and data to the nearest cell sites, normally not more than 8 to 13 km (approximately 5 to 8 miles) away.

When the mobile phone or data device is turned on, it registers with the mobile telephone exchange, or switch, with its unique identifiers, and can then be alerted by the mobile switch when there is an incoming telephone call. The handset constantly listens for the strongest signal being received from the surrounding base stations, and is able to switch seamlessly between sites. As the user moves around the network, the "handoffs" are performed to allow the device to switch sites without interrupting the call.

Cell sites have relatively low-power (often only one or two watts) radio transmitters which broadcast their presence and relay communications between the mobile handsets and the switch. The switch in turn connects the call to another subscriber of the same wireless service provider or to the public telephone network, which includes the networks of other wireless carriers. Many of these sites are camouflaged to blend with existing environments, particularly in scenic areas.

The dialogue between the handset and the cell site is a stream of digital data that includes digitised audio (except for the first generation analog networks). The technology that achieves this depends on the system which the mobile phone operator has adopted. The technologies are grouped by generation. The first-generation systems started in 1979 with Japan, are all analog and include AMPS and NMT. Second-generation systems, started in 1991 in Finland, are all digital and include GSM, CDMA and TDMA.

The nature of cellular technology renders many phones vulnerable to 'cloning': anytime a cell phone moves out of coverage (for example, in a road tunnel), when the signal is re-established, the phone sends out a 're-connect' signal to the nearest cell-tower, identifying itself and signalling that it is again ready to transmit. With the proper equipment, it's possible to intercept the re-connect signal and encode the data it contains into a 'blank' phone -- in all respects, the 'blank' is then an exact duplicate of the real phone and any calls made on the 'clone' will be charged to the original account.

Third-generation (3G) networks, which are still being deployed, began in Japan in 2001. They are all digital, and offer high-speed data access in addition to voice services and include W-CDMA (known also as UMTS), and CDMA2000 EV-DO. China will launch a third generation technology on the TD-SCDMA standard. Operators use a mix of predesignated frequency bands determined by the network requirements and local regulations.

In an effort to limit the potential harm from having a transmitter close to the user's body, the first fixed/mobile cellular phones that had a separate transmitter, vehicle-mounted antenna, and handset (known as car phones and bag phones) were limited to a maximum 3 watts Effective Radiated Power. Modern handheld cellphones which must have the transmission antenna held inches from the user's skull are limited to a maximum transmission power of 0.6 watts ERP. Regardless of the potential biological effects, the reduced transmission range of modern handheld phones limits their usefulness in rural locations as compared to car/bag phones, and handhelds require that cell towers be spaced much closer together to compensate for their lack of transmission power.

Some handhelds include an optional auxiliary antenna port on the back of the phone, which allows it to be connected to a large external antenna and a 3 watt cellular booster. Alternately in fringe-reception areas, a cellular repeater may be used, which uses a long distance high-gain dish antenna or yagi antenna to communicate with a cell tower far outside of normal range, and a repeater to rebroadcast on a small short-range local antenna that allows any cellphone within a few meters to function properly

2009 Congress Overview

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The GSMA Mobile World Congress (formerly 3GSM World Congress) combines the world's largest exhibition for the mobile industry with a stimulating and insightful congress that brings together prominent leaders and personalities from mobile operators and equipment vendors, as well as Internet and entertainment professionals. The 2009 Mobile World Congress is expected to attract approximately 60,000 attendees, so don’t miss this unrivalled opportunity to conduct business, discuss the hottest trends in mobile communications, and help define the industry’s path to continued growth. If you have general enquiries about the Mobile World Congress 2009, you can reach us by phone: +44 (0) 208 879 2422, or by completing this enquiry form.