Smartphone

Smartphone is a mobile phone that offers more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a basic 'feature phone'. While some feature phones are able to run simple applications based on generic platforms such as Java ME or BREW, a smartphone allows the user to install and run much more advanced applications based on a specific platform. Smartphones run complete operating system software providing a platform for application developers.

Growth in demand for advanced mobile devices boasting powerful processors, abundant memory, larger screens and open operating systems has outpaced the rest of the mobile phone market for several years. According to a study by ComScore, in 2010, over 45.5 million people in the United States owned smartphones and it is the fastest growing segment of the mobile phone market, which comprised of 234 million subscribers in the United States.

Operating systems that can be found on smartphones include Symbian (including S60 series), iPhone OS, , Palm WebOS, BlackBerry OS, Samsung bada, Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless, Windows Mobile, Android and Maemo. WebOS, Android and Maemo are built on top of Linux, and the iPhone OS is derived from the BSD and NeXTSTEP operating systems, which all are related to Unix.

Smartbook is a concept of a mobile device that falls between smartphones and netbooks, delivering features typically found in smartphones (always on, all-day battery life, 3G connectivity, GPS) in a slightly larger device with a full keyboard. Smartbooks will tend to be designed to work with online applications.

Smartbooks use the ARM processor, which gives them much greater battery life than a netbook which uses a traditional Intel x86 processor. They are likely to be sold initially through mobile network operators, like mobile phones are today, along with a wireless data plan.

Videophone

Videophone is a telephone  with a video screen, and is capable of full duplex (bi-directional) video and audio transmissions for communication between people in real-time. It is the earliest form of videotelephony.

At the dawn of the technology, videotelephony also included image phones which would exchange still images between units every few seconds over conventional POTS-type telephone lines, essentially the same as slow scan TV systems.

Currently videophones are particularly useful to the deaf and speech-impaired who can use them with sign language and with a video relay service, and also to those with mobility issues or those who are located in distant places and are in need of telemedical or tele-educational services.

The world's first public video telephone service was developed by Dr. Georg Schubert and opened by the German  Reichspost  in 1936 using square displays of 8 inches (20 cm),  but which quickly closed in 1940 due to the WWII. In that service trial, video telephone lines linked Berlin to Nuremberg, Munich, and Hamburg, with terminals integrated within public telephone booths and transmitting at the same resolution as the first German TV sets, at 440 lines. The service was offered to the general public who had to simultaneously visit special post office videotelephone booths in their respective cities, but at the same time also had Nazi political and propagandistic  overtones similar to the broadcasting of the 1936 Olympic Games  in Berlin.

The Deutsche Bundespost postal service would later develop and deploy its BIGFON video telephony network from 1981 to 1988, serving several large German cities.

Videophones in popular culture

• In many science fiction movies and TV programs that are set in the future, videophones are used as a primary method of communication. One of the first movies where a videophone was used was Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Other famous examples of videophones include 2001: A Space Odyssey, Space: 1999, Star Trek, Total Recall, and Blade Runner. Of particular note, the videophone was a staple, everyday technology in the futuristic Hanna Barbera cartoon The Jetsons.
• In science fiction literature, other names variously used for videophone include vidphone, visiphone, and viewphone.
• A videophone was featured in the 1944 Warner Bros. cartoon, "Plane Daffy", in which the female spy Hatta Mari used a videophone to communicate with Adolf Hitler.
• In the British cartoon DangerMouse, where the title character regularly communicated with headquarters via videophones from both his home and his car.
• A device with the same functionality has been used by the comic strip character Dick Tracy since 1964. Called the "2-Way Wrist TV", the fictional detective often used the phone to communicate with police headquarters.
• AT&T's VideoPhone 2500 prototypes are visible in the movie Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
• In the animated television program Futurama, the videophone is often used within the delivery service spaceship.
• Videophones are occasionally used in the Pokémon anime.
• A "Picturephone" is used in The Simpsons episode "Lisa's Wedding".
• The singer Beyoncé Knowles released a single called Video Phone from her 2008 album "I am... Sasha Fierce"
• Popular U.S. TV talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey incorporated videotelephony into her TV program on a regular basis from May 21, 2009, with an initial episode called "Where the Skype Are You?", as part of a marketing agreement with the Internet telecommunication company Skype.

Mobile Phone Features

General features

Mobile phones are designed to work on cellular networks and contain a standard set of services that allow phones of different types and in different countries to communicate with each other. However, they can also support other features added by various manufacturers over the years:

• roaming which permits the same phone to be used in multiple countries, providing that the operators of both countries have a roaming agreement.
• send and receive data and faxes (if a computer is attached), access WAP services, and provide full Internet access using technologies such as GPRS.
• applications like a clock, alarm, calendar and calculator and a few games.
• Sending and receiving pictures and videos through MMS, and for short distances with e.g. Bluetooth.
• GPS receivers integrated or connected (i.e. using Bluetooth) to cell phones, primarily to aid in dispatching emergency responders and road tow truck services. This feature is generally referred to as E911.
• Push to talk, available on some mobile phones, is a feature that allows the user to be heard only while the talk button is held, similar to a walkie-talkie.
• features aimed toward personalisation, such as user defined and downloadable ring tones and logos, and interchangeable covers, which have helped in the uptake by the teenage market. Mobile phone content advertising has become massively popular but has also drawn a great deal of criticism. Usually one can choose between a ring tone, a vibrating alert, or a combination of both.

As a result of all these features packed into a tiny device, mobile phones have recently gained reputations for their poor ergonomics. Their small size, plethora of features and modes, and attempts at stylish design may make them difficult and confusing to use.

Other Features

• Multi-mode and multi-band mobile phones
• Data communications
• Cameras

Mobile Phones

A mobile phone also called mobile, cellphone or handphone is an electronic device used for mobile telecommunications over a cellular network of base stations known as cell sites. Mobile phones differ from cordless telephones, which only offer telephone service within limited range through a single base station attached to a fixed line, for example within a home or an office. Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones, whereas high-end mobile phones that offer more advanced computing ability are referred to as smartphones.

A mobile phone allows its user to make and receive telephone calls to and from the public telephone network which includes other mobiles and fixed line phones across the world. It does this by connecting to a cellular network owned by a mobile network operator. A key feature of the cellular network is that it enables seamless telephone calls even when the user is moving around wide areas via a process known as handoff or handover.

In addition to being a telephone, modern mobile phones also support many additional services, and accessories, such as SMS (or text) messages, email, Internet access, gaming, Bluetooth, infrared, camera, MMS messaging, MP3 player, radio and GPS.

The first hand held phone was demonstrated by Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing in at two kilos. By the end of 2009, the number of mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide reached approximately 4.6 billion, penetrating the developing economies and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid.

The Nokia 6700 Slide

Although the world's leading cell phone manufacturer has already pushed out a few touchscreen handsets, it's touch-sensitive portfolio remains relatively tiny, compared to that of some other companies, say Samsung. For good or bad, in this review we'll be looking at a new non-touch phone from Nokia - the 6700 slide. Our journey won't be boring though, as the Nokia 6700 slide is a smartphone, running the Symbian S60 3rd Edition operating system. Not only that, but it's also really pretty, has very good build quality and owns a 5MP AF camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar optics. So, let's not waste any more time and get down to business.

Here's what you'll find in the box:

• Nokia 6700 slide
• Charger
• 2GB microSD card
• Wired handsfree
• Way too short microSD cable
• Extensive user guide

Most of the Nokia 6700 slide's body is made of aluminum, giving it a solid and high-quality feel. In addition, Nokia has come up with a beautiful design, which looks incredibly stylish. Well, at least our silver color variant is stylish, but the Nokia 6700 slide also comes in many other colors, including red, green and blue, which look somewhat more youthful. The in-hand feel of the phone is what it's meant to be - superb, while the sliding mechanism works flawlessly.

The display on the Nokia 6700 slide measures 2.2 inches and has a resolution of 240x320 pixels, which is more than enough for the size. It has a light sensor for automatic brightness handling that we found to work okay. Still, when outdoors you'll have to shield the screen with your hand in order to get a clear view of what's going on.

The keys below the display are nice to use, including the two circular buttons for "home" and "delete" that give the phone a kind of retro appearance. Although a bit on the smaller side, the numpad is well-made and won't give you headaches. Its keys have a well-pronounced click, which makes it easy to feel when you've pressed them.

Surprisingly, there is no volume rocker on the Nokia 6700 slide. On the right side you'll find the two-step camera shutter, the second step of which could work better, and on the top are the 2.5mm headset jack, Nokia charging port and a wisely-hidden standard microUSB port.

A design element that is worth mentioning is that if you want to remove the aluminum back cover, you'll first have to open the microUSB and then press a key that releases the battery door. Although it's a rather unconventional solution, we can't help but admit we like it, as it is a nice touch that gives the phone even more sense of classiness.

The back side lets you look at its pleasant-to-the-eye 5MP camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar optics and dual-LED flash.