Mobile Phone Technology
By Wayne Brown, Sat Dec 10th
When was the last time you heard a Tring..Tring…! The genuinesound (ringtone as we say today) of a TELEPHONE ringing(TELEPHONE as in Alexander Graham Bell). Long time I guess.. 3years… more ?
Communication technology in the past 100 years has come a longway, gone far beyond a common man’s expectations giving orgifting him the toys to communicate on the move. Be it laptops,palmtops, mobile phones, satellite phones and the wirelessinternet. What else can we expect in the next 100 years ofexistence? Hard to imagine, harder to believe. Whoever believedin a 20-25 years back?
Well, the gizmos have arrived and are here to stay. We’d betterget used to them before we are left far behind in the past. Inorder to stay abreast of mobile technologies and mobile gadgetsone needs a simple basic know how of using a telephone. Believeit or not, despite all advertisements and promos (with featurelists) that we see everyday for mobile phones, they are very,very easy and simple to use. The fun lies here.
Apart from being a basic telephone, the has evolvedinto a personal accessory which speaks a lot about the personwho carries it. Thereby, it also carries a snob value, becauseof which a person always tends to have the latest, with the bestfeatures despite the cost of procuring or replacement.
Once a has evolved into a personal accessory, a lotof customization goes into it. Therefore the need for softwareand content viz. ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers, logos,games, themes, headsets, facia, software, comes to the fore.Thank god we’ve always had a resource called the “Internet”, thesource of all information, be it the basic phones or the contentor the software.
Customization of a to suit your personal tastes isnot the work for an engineer. You can do it yourself, if youfiddle around with one for a couple of days or so. Every mobilephone model is different in itself as far as looks, features,menus etc go, but basically the same. It only takes some gettingused to.
A mobile phone’s future is that it wants to grow to be acomputer. Well, pretty much so when we see PDA’s evolving frommobile phones and computers shrinking to Palm tops. You knowwhere you are headed, just use a little compu-sense when you useyour mobile, you will get off to a flying start.
Let’s get on a little “What is” on these features…
Wallpaper: A background picture that you see when youlook at the LCD of your mobile phone.
Ringtones: The sound that is played by your mobile phonewhen someone calls you.
Games: Gaming software that you can load into your mobilephone to play when you are free.
Themes: Wallpaper, ringtone, logo, color schemes etc allrolled into one so that you don’t have to set them individually.
WAP: Internet access settings for your mobile phone,these have to be set manually as per your service operatorspecifications.
Software: Miscellaneous stuff viz. games etc. Othersoftware to lock, unlock your phones, diagnosing problems etc.
A now-a-days comes with a lot of features like abuilt in camera, an MP3 player, a voice recorder etc…. You canuse all the features, or you can learn to use all the features,alternatively decide on what features you need and make a buyingdecision. Believe it or not, many people want to say that theirmobile phone has a camera, many people use it regularly, andmost people who have a with a camera hardly use itafter the first week. Imagine that they must have spent at least£50 - $100 extra for the camera…why?