Mobile technology

Mobile technology is the technology used for cellular communication. Mobile code-division multiple access (CDMA) technology has evolved rapidly over the past few years. Since the start of this millennium, a standard mobile device has gone from being no more than a simple two-way pager to being a mobile phone, GPS navigation device, an embedded web browser and instant messaging client, and a handheld gaming console. Many experts believe that the future of computer technology rests in mobile computing with wireless networking. Mobile computing by way of tablet computers are becoming more popular. Tablets are available on the 3G and 4G networks. Mobile technology is the technology used for cellular communication. Mobile code-division multiple access (CDMA) technology has evolved rapidly over the past few years. Since the start of this millennium, a standard mobile device has gone from being no more than a simple two-way pager to being a mobile phone, GPS navigation device, an embedded web browser and instant messaging client, and a handheld gaming console. Many experts believe that the future of computer technology rests in mobile computing with wireless networking. Mobile computing by way of tablet computers are becoming more popular. Tablets are available on the 3G and 4G networks. In the early 1980s, 1G was introduced as voice-only communication via 'brick phones'. Later in 1991, the development of 2G introduced Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) capabilities, allowing picture messages to be sent and received between phones. In 1998, 3G was introduced to provide faster data-transmission speeds to support video calling and internet access. 4G was released in 2008 to support more demanding services such as gaming services, HD mobile TV, video conferencing, and 3D TV. 5G technology has been planned for the upcoming future. 4G is the current mainstream cellular service offered to cell phone users, performance roughly 10 times faster than 3G service. One of the most important features in the 4G mobile networks is the domination of high-speed packet transmissions or burst traffic in the channels. The same codes used in the 2G-3G networks are applied to 4G mobile or wireless networks, the detection of very short bursts will be a serious problem due to their very poor partial correlation properties. A recent study has indicated that traditional multilayer network architecture based on the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model may not be well suited for 4G mobile network, where transactions of short packets will be the major part of the traffic in the channels. As the packets from different mobiles carry completely different channel characteristics, the receiver should execute all necessary algorithms, such as channel estimation, interactions with all upper layers and so on, within a very 'short' period of time. Many types of mobile operating systems (OS) are available for smartphones, including Android, BlackBerry OS, webOS, iOS, Symbian, Windows Mobile Professional (touch screen), Windows Mobile Standard (non-touch screen), and Bada. The most popular are the Apple iPhone, and the newest: Android. Android, a mobile OS developed by Google, is the first completely open-source mobile OS, meaning that it is free to any cell phone mobile network. Since 2008 customizable OSs allow the user to download apps like games, GPS, utilities, and other tools. Users can also create their own apps and publish them, e.g. to Apple's App Store. The Palm Pre using webOS has functionality over the Internet and can support Internet-based programming languages such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), HTML, and JavaScript. The Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry is a smartphone with a multimedia player and third-party software installation. The Windows Mobile Professional Smartphones (Pocket PC or Windows Mobile PDA) are like personal digital assistants (PDA) and have touchscreen abilities. The Windows Mobile Standard does not have a touch screen but uses a trackball, touchpad, or rockers. There will be a hit to file sharing, the normal web surfer would want to look at a new web page every minute or so at 100 kbs a page loads quickly. Because of the changes to the security of wireless networks users will be unable to do huge file transfers because service providers want to reduce channel use. AT&T claimed that they would ban any of their users that they caught using peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing applications on their 3G network. It then became apparent that it would keep any of their users from using their iTunes programs. The users would then be forced to find a Wi-Fi hotspot to be able to download files. The limits of wireless networking will not be cured by 4G, as there are too many fundamental differences between wireless networking and other means of Internet access. If wireless vendors do not realize these differences and bandwidth limits, future wireless customers will find themselves disappointed and the market may suffer setbacks. Increasing mobile technology use has changed how the modern family interacts with one another through technology. With the rise of mobile devices, families are becoming increasingly 'on-the-move', and spend less time in physical contact with one another. However, this trend does not mean that families are no longer interacting with each other, but rather have evolved into a more digitized variant. A study has shown that the modern family actually learns better with usage of mobile media, and children are more willing to cooperate with their parents via a digital medium than a more direct approach. For example, family members can share information from articles or online videos via mobile devices and thus stay connected with one another during a busy day. This trend is not without controversy, however. Many parents of elementary school-age children express concern and sometimes disapproval of heavy mobile technology use. Parents may feel that excessive usage of such technologies distracts children from 'un-plugged' bonding experiences, and many express safety concerns about children using mobile media. While parents may have many concerns are, they are not necessarily anti-technology. In fact, many parents express approval of mobile technology usage if their children can learn something from the session. for example, through art or music tutorials on YouTube. The next generation of smartphones will be context-aware, taking advantage of the growing availability of embedded physical sensors and data exchange abilities. One of the main features applying to this is that phones will start keeping track of users' personal data, and adapt to anticipate the information will need. All-new applications will come out with the new phones, one of which is an X-ray device that reveals information about any location at which the phone is pointed. Companies are developing software to take advantage of more accurate location-sensing data. This has been described as making the phone a virtual mouse able to click the real world. An example would be pointing the phone's camera at a building while having the live feed open, and the phone will show text with the image of the building, and save its location for use in the future.