Mobile Technology
This is a compilation of some of the terms and functions available commonly on mobile phones, to ensure you know whether or not that phone that you’ve been ga-ga-ing about suited your needs. Some insights on what does some of the term means - non-geeky language as possible. Of course, if you think some of the information given was inaccurate or something important has been left out, feel free to comment.
Mobile Hardware Input Device
QWERTY Keyboard - QWERTY (pronounced /’kw3:ti/) is the most used modern-day keyboard layout on English-language computer. This is then offered on mobile devices like handphone as mobile phone use has become extensive with texting (beyond SMS) through e-mail replies, Internet Messaging (IM) and social network involvement. Most mobile phones now offer this type of keyboard physically (normally through slide out keyboard) or virtually (like iPhone or 3rd party apps like Resco).
Integrated cameras - CMOS camera are usually very low resolution cameras that is used for low bandwidth connections for video calls. It has a very basic resolution to ensure that the data being transmitted over the 3G line will get through. It is also used sometimes to take pictures of contacts which requires minimal resolution.
Megapixels (camera) - when a camera said that it offers a high megapixel, it means that the picture that is taken can be blown up without losing its original quality. However, this does not guarantee the quality of the picture itself. What determines the quality of the picture is the lense that is offered. That is why Nokia for instance, uses Carl-Zeiss lense as their USP - to tell people that this mobile phone can take high quality pictures. Example: A 5 megapixel normal lense mobile phone camera can print an A3 size of the original picture without losing its original quality (normally average quality) while a 3.2 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera offers a better picture quality but can only be printed in normal 4R or the picture will ‘break’ if its being printed on an A3.
Mobile Internet Connections
GPRS - The first internet packet service through mobile telecommunication. It delivers around 128kbps speed or is equivalent to the days of dial-up connections when the internet was first introduced to home users (yes, it’s THAT slow).
EDGE - An enhanced version of the GPRS technology for mobile broadband. It offers speed to around 240 kbps. EDGE was not so popular as not many telecommunication companies adopt this technology as most of mobile carriers still stick to the GPRS service. There are also not much mobile phones that supported EDGE.
3G (Third Generation) - When a device says that it has 3G, it means that the device has HSPA (High Speed Access Packet). The name itself is self explanatory. It simply means, you can have home cable broadband experience delivered on your mobile phones. It has increased the capability to 384 kbps which means faster internet surfing. This is the revolution of mobile phone applications and also social networks as people can connect with friends and members of social network as they are connected everywhere.
HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) - faster video / music / images / media downloads. has the ability to receive large files like email attachments, videos, powerpoints and web pages. HSDPA offers maximum connection up to 3.6 Mbps download and 384 kbps upload - it took approximately 8 seconds to download a typical MP3 music file format that is 3MB in size or 14 seconds for 5MB video file.
HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) - faster video / music / images / media uploads. enhances the uploading capability of mobile internet connections where the upload capacity (video upload to YouTube) at 5.7Mbps (approximately 12 seconds of 3MB videos).
HSPA Evolved - is also known as HSPA+ is the future of mobile internet connections where the focus will be on delivering data services enabling speeds up to 42Mbps downlink and 11 Mbps uplink capabilities. In short, this is the fastest almost equivalent speed of internet access that you received at home through cabel but rather than surfing you favourite website, or watching your favourite videos on YouTube through the desktop, everything now can be used on that cool mobile phone of yours! This will increase user experience where you can also share your moments with friends in an instant.
Mobile Phone Screens
nHD - a screen that is exactly 1/9 ratio of the original HD screen resolution. The resolution is 640 x 360 px as compared to the HD screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 px. So what? you’d ask. Well, it can play an HD video (maybe compressed with .h264 or mp4 format) perfectly on this screen. No distortion of resolution, screen whatever and the picture will sharp and crystal clear.
TFT (Thin Film Transistor) - offers a thin screen.A technology that offers the best resolution but it is most expensive. Has a resolution of 240 x 320 (size and sharpness of the screen), and 262K color.
OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) - is a sharper screen than TFT which consumes less power, resulting longer mobile phone operation hours in one charge. This is because it doesn’t require a backlight to display the screen. It offers more response time, and higher contrasts ratio (sharper, brighter image) than TFT. It also has 262K color. It has better viewing angle (180 degree) for left, right, horizontal and vertical view.
Mobile Storage
OVI - OVI format is an online format that is introduced by Nokia. It acts as an online storage which allows mobile phone users to backup their data online. They can also share videos, images and daily updates with friends and vice versa. It helps to navigate through Nokia Maps applications, share Nokia Music store’s latest purchase and latest groove with friends, access PC and many more. In short, OVI lets you sync your daily lives with your PC and friends. More info here
SD Cards (variance : mini-SD, micro-SD) - the SD card is the de facto of mobile storage for all the devices in the world today. Almost all mobile devices from laptops to mobile phones to MP3 players uses SD cards to act as their external storage. The best thing, it is a standard in many portable devices and therefore data like MP3s, videos, images can be transferred from one device to another by just swapping the cards. Example : you take a picture with your digital camera, and take out the SD card and put it in a card reader that is attached to your laptop and the pictures can be stored or edited in an instant.
SDHC - SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity, SD 2.0) is an extension of the SD standard that appeared in June 2006. SDHC allows standard-compliant capacities in excess of 4 GB. SDHC cards are often formatted with the FAT32 file system - simply means it can be used on Mac and Windows based platform.
Satellite Navigation System
GPS (Global Position System) - GPS is a global satellite navigation system which uses the satellite signal to determine and calculate your current position, even velocity. This satellite signals can be used freely by civilians with the help of a receiver.
A-GPS (Assisted Global Position System) - To start the GPS calculations, the device needs to lock the signal and get the data before any calculations can be done on your whereabouts. This usually takes minutes (also known as a cold start) before the device can engage the system. There are also other short-comings like poor signal due to tall buildings, or weak signal because of obstacles (indoor or under a tree ). However, all this short-comings are improved with the use of A-GPS. Benefits of A-GPS:
* Faster location acquisition
* Less processing power is required by the device
* Saves battery life
* Location acquisition indoors or in non-optimal environmental settings
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