Introduction
Smart phones are PDAs (or personal digital assistants) that have color screens and audio and telephone capabilities. They are palm-top computers and cellular phones rolled into one.
Smart-Phone Features
Smart phones are mini PCs and have many of the capabilities of a regular PC, but also serve as phones. They come with wireless network connectivity, email capability, a browser, a pager, fax, Internet access, a calendar, an address book, a contact list as large as the phone's memory, a touchscreen and an operating system that enables the phone to function like a computer. Added features on smart phones include embedded cameras and video cameras. Some smart phones have music players, FM radios and navigation software to give directions.
Micro-Browser and Keyboard
The micro-browser is a compact browser designed to be used on a mobile phone. It is specially designed for small screens and portable devices. The differences between a regular PC browser and the micro-browser are its size and the need to connect to a mobile-phone tower or cellular-phone network for downloading data. The data display is through HTML and XML. The qwerty keyboard is a feature that has all the components of a regular PC keyboard in a handy portable device. A stylus is provided with some smart phones; data can be written directly on the screen with the electronic stylus or pen.
Operating System
The smart phone is a miniature computer and requires an operating system like a PC. The Symbian operating system is the most popular and enjoys the largest market share. It has come under criticism because of the virus it often downloads to the phone in the form of Trojan horses.The iPhone is the operating system for smart phones manufactured by Apple. Blackberry introduced smart phones as business machines; their users will be able to connect to an intra-company cellular service. Microsoft has introduced Windows Mobile for the growing smart-phone market. The open-source operating system Linux is popular among many smart-phone companies. Palm Source is the operating system in Palm smart phones; Android from Google is a recent operating system used by smart phones.
The Smart-Phone Camera
Smart phones usually have an embedded camera and the infrastructure to share pictures. The camera and the phone work as an integrated duo for instant picture communication. A photograph can be shared within minutes among everyone who is on the phone's "Contacts" list.
The Smart-Phone Portable Office
A smart phone is a portable office. The user can access and send information, mail and messages. He can edit and read text, both in HTML and in PDF formats. All smart phones can be synchronized to a PC so the user has information from the PC literally at her fingertips at all times. Smart phones have organizers and organizer alarms to help busy professionals. A businessperson can access or read documents at any time and at any place. The smart phone is usually sleek and lightweight for easy portability, yet it packs in a great deal of software. Any number of contacts can be entered in the "Contacts" list, depending on the memory of the phone. This feature makes it unlike the mobile phone, which allows only a limited number of contacts regardless of the memory.
Tags: operating system, smart phone, smart phones, Contacts list, mobile phone, number contacts