Size: A Brief History of Cell Phone Development

The first U.S. patent for a wireless telephone was issued in 1908 by Nathan B. Stubblefield. This was nothing near the kind of phones we would use today though. Cells for mobile phone base stations were invented much later on in 1947 by Bell Labs engineers at AT&T. The zero generation of mobile phones was introduced in 1945 but were still not cellular. It was required to take the mobile phones from one base station to another and reuse radio frequency channels. The problem with these phones, besides the transferring from base to base, was that when one was being used, it monopolized the who channel of that area. Finally, in 1973, Martin Cooper, who was a Motorala researcher, developed the first practical mobile phone for handheld use. He then made the first call on a handheld phone to his rival who worked for Bell Labs at the time. In 1983, Motorola DynaTac was the first approved cell phone in the United States.

The first commercial citywide cellular network was developed in Japan and is now known as the 1G generation and The first modern network technology on digital 2G cellular technology was launched in Finland 8 years later in 1991. Today, phones are using a more advanced 3G network that was developed in 2001.

Nowadays, cell phones have evolved to do much more things than just make phone calls. Text messages, or SMS messages, have become a very popular form of communication. The first SMS message was sent in 1993 and since then they have evolved to a completely new form of communication. Business is conducted through text messages every day and today SMS messaging is an 81 billion dollar industry.

Cell phones now come with cameras built in as a standard feature. Camera Phones, just like many complex systems, are results of converging and enabling technologies. The first picturephone prototype was known as intellect and was developed in 1993 and companies have built upon the idea of intellect ever since. In 1997, pictures taken from a phone were instantly shared for the first time. Camera phones today can share pictures through text messaging or directly through email and some cameras on phones have better pictures than ordinary digital cameras.

The first phone with Internet access was the Nokia 7110 and it was developed in 1999. It was designed to provide easy access to Internet content and would pave the way for phones in the near future. Now, all phone networks have at least some kind of Internet and most provide each of their models with Internet access. Phones are starting to use the Internet on the 3G network which makes Internet on phones rival the connection on desktop computers. Also, phones can easily access Wi-Fi networks to make their internet connection even faster in some cases. Along with easy access to the Internet, phones can also use Bluetooth connection to send files to eachother. Although both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth run on the same radio frequency, Wi-Fi is a lot more powerful. The advantage Bluetooth provides though is that it can be used wherever two phones have Bluetooth connection near one another so files can be sent from one phone to another.

Phones from the past used to be a lot bigger and fatter but as time went on they became smaller and sleaker. Some phones now are no bigger than credit cards and they continue to get smaller. Arguably the most technologically advanced phone today is the Apple iPhone. It has a built in accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and an infrared sensor. It also has a full touch screen along with a camera, full text messaging that appears like instant messages, mp3 music player, internet, email, third party applications, GPS and much more. Apple also provides updates for it that allows the iPhone to keep up with the latest technologies. The new update scheduled for the Summer of 2009 will allow the iPhone to send picture messages and voice text messages and provide it with newly developed technologies.

Size: A Brief history of Computer Types and Debuts

The Desktop Computer

In 1975 the first personal computer is marketed in kit form. The Altair features 256 bytes of memory. Bill Gates, with others, writes a BASIC compiler for the machine. The next year Apple begins to market PC's, also in kit form. It includes a monitor and keyboard. BASIC was the appropriate language to use because it did not use much memory.

The eight design principles of BASIC were:

1. Be easy for beginners to use.

2. Be a general-purpose programming language.

3. Allow advanced featured to be added for experts (while keeping the language simple for beginners).

4. Be interactive.

5. Provide clear and friendly error messages.

6. Respond quickly for small products.

7. Not to require an understanding of computer hardware.

8. Shield the user from the operating system.

Notebook Computer

Although the term Notebook is now often used interchangeably with the term Laptop, it was originally introduced to differentiate a smaller, thinner and lighter range of devices, which supplanted their larger counterparts. The computer considered by most historians to be the first true portable computer was the Osborne 1. Adam Osborne, an ex-book publisher founded Osborne Computer and produced the Osborne 1 in 1981, a portable computer that weighed 24 pounds. The Osborne 1 came with a five-inch screen, modem port, two 5 1/4 floppy drives, a large collection of bundled software programs, and a battery pack. The Osborne sold for $1795 and did good business selling 10,000 units a month. However, other larger companies jumped on the bandwagon, most notably Compaq - and the Osborne computer company went bankrupt in 1983.


Tablets

In the late 1980s, early pen computer systems generated a lot of excitement and there was a time when it was thought they might eventually replace conventional computers with keyboards. After all, everyone knows how to use a pen and pens are certainly less intimidating than keyboards. Pen computers, as envisioned in the 1980s, were built around handwriting recognition. In the early 1980s, handwriting recognition was seen as an important future technology.

PDA

The first PDA is considered t be the CASIO PF-3000 released in May 1983. GO Corp. was also pioneering in the field. The term was first used on January 7, 1992 by Apple Computer CEO John Sculley at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, referring to the Apple Newton. In 1996 Nokia introduced the first mobile phone with full PDA functionality, the 9000 Communicator, which has since grown to become the world’s best-selling PDA and which spawned a category of phones called the smartphone.

Speed Improvements in Computers and Cell Phones

Voice Recognition is a faster method of sorting through a phone book. It is a hands-free function that helps the technologically impaired. A name is said to the microphone and it gives you options to recognize what you said. Overall, it makes making calls a lot easier than three years ago.

T9 text entry is a specific language of short message service capability of text messaging. It allows you to text faster by using world completion to guess the world you are attempting to type by recognizing the pattern on the buttons you are pressing on the cell phone keypad.

Google Docs is a free, web-based word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation program that allows users to create, share, and collaborate to develop materials. Users can create documents, tables, and other presentations within Google Docs or upload existing files or create materials within the Google Docs program.

The real-time, collaborative feature lends itself to student group projects as well as to faculty and administrative use. Users determine who has access and editing privileges through invitational emails, files are stored online, and are safeguarded against hard drive or power outage loss. Usage requires a Google account.

The availability and use of online productivity web-based applications has exploded over the past few years and or good reasons! These powerful applications provide users with the ability to create and share documents over the Internet without the need of installed desktop applications. Some experts speculate that this emerging trend may mean the death to Microsoft Office and other software-based productivity tools, while others think web-based applications have their place, and not in the office. No matter which side of the office suite platform you side with, both sides seem to agree that web-based apps have their place.

Crucial Developments in the Mobility of Computers and Cell Phones

Videoconferencing is a set of interactive telecommunication technologies, which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously. It differs from videophone in that it is designed to serve a conference rather than individuals. Besides the audio and visual transmission of meeting activities, videoconferencing can be used to share documents, computer-displayed information, and white boards. There are cheap and convenient uses of videoconferencing such as Net Meeting, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and Skype.

Bluetooth is a standard and communications protocol primarily designed for low power consumption, with a short range based on low-cost transceiver microchips in each device to communicate with each other when they are in range. Since the devices use a radio broadcast communications system, they do not have the be in line of sight of each other.

Applications of Bluetooth

• Wireless control of and communication between a mobile phone and a hands-free headset. This was one of the earliest applications to become popular.
• Wireless networking between PCs in a confined space and where little bandwidth is required.
• Wireless communication with PC input and output devices, the most common being the mouse, keyboard, and printer.
• Transfer of files, contact, details, calendar appointments, and reminders between devices with OPEX.
• Replacement of traditional wired serial communications in test equipment, GPS receivers, medical equipment, bar code scanners, and traffic control devices.
• For controls where infrared was traditionally used
• Sending small advertisements from Bluetooth-enabled advertising hoardings to other discoverable Bluetooth devices.
• Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 3 use Bluetooth in their wireless game controllers.
• Dial-up Internet access on personal computers or PDAs using a data-capable mobile phone as a modem.

WiFi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance, founded in 1999. It comprises more than 300 companies, whose products are certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, based on certain standards identified as IEEE 802.11 (also known as WLAN). This certification warrants interoperability between different wireless devices. IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards carrying out wireless local area network (WLAN) computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6, and 5 GHz frequency bands.

The Wi-Fi Alliance tests the wireless components to their own terms of reference. Products that pass become Wi-Fi certified and may carry the Wi-Fi logo. Only products of Wi-Fi are tested because they pay membership and per-item feeds. Absence of the Wi-Fi logo does not necessarily mean non-compliance with the standard. Wi-Fi certification is provided for technology used in home netwoeks, mobile phones, video games, and other devices that require wireless networking. Most personal computer operating systems, many game consoles, laptops, smartphones, printers, and other peripherals support Wi-Fi.

A Wi-Fi enabled device such as a PC, game console, mobile phone, MP3 player of PDA can connect to the Internet when within range of a wireless network connected to the Internet. The coverage of one or more interconnected access points, a hot spot, can comprise an area as small as a single room with wireless-opaque walls or as large as many square miles covered by overlapping access points.