iPhone

iPhone is a smart made by Apple that combines an iPod, a tablet PC , a digital camera and a cell phone. The device includes Internet browsing and networking capabilities. iPhone is extremely thin (only 11.6 millimeters thick) but wider and longer than many comparable devices. The display area is a 3.5-inch wide screen multi-touch interface with unusually high resolution (160 pixels per inch). Unlike most other smartphones, iPhone does not use a hardware keyboard or a stylus . To navigate, a user uses multiple taps and drags to navigate through a mobile version of Apple's OS X operating system . Like iPod, iPhone synchronizes data with a user's personal computer, using iTunes as a client software and Apple's proprietary USB port. iPhone is compatible with Microsoft's Windows operating systems, including Vista. iPhone's networking features include: Automatic detection of Wifi networks. Support for the 802.11b and 802.11b standards. The use of quadband GSM and SIM cards to access cellular networks. EDGE support for high-speed data transfer where available. Bluetooth connectivity for short range networking with peripherals, other iPhones and PCs. Apple says that iPhone carries 8 hours of life on the internal lithium-ion battery for talk or video, and up to 24 hours for music mode. The device ships with either a 4 or 8 GB hard drive, an Intel CPU and Apple's OS X operating system, modified for mobile use. iPhone comes preloaded with a suite of media management software and communications software, including iTunes, the Safari Web browser and iPhoto. iPhoto may be used in combination with the 2 megapixel camera on the back of the device. Google’s search and mapping services are fully integrated, including the ability to initiate phone calls from within Google Maps. Users can also view YouTube videos on the device, along with Microsoft Office documents and most imaging formats, including .JPEG, .GIF and .TIFF. A partnership with Yahoo allows iPhone users to send and receive rich HTML email. Other IMAP or POP3 e-mail services are integrated as well, along with webmail access in the browser. While iPhone was released under an exclusive two-year partnership with AT&T Wireless, it took less than three months for hackers working in concert worldwide to unlock the device for use on any GSM network, though the process involved a level of technical sophistication well beyond the consumer level.

Crowd-beating

During the festive season, high streets and shopping malls across Europe are packed with shoppers armed with mobile phones. But the big crowds in small areas put intense strain on mobile networks, causing connection failures and reduced quality of service. Better network resource management offers a low-cost solution. The need for greater network capacity has been a constant concern of mobile operators as mobile phone traffic has increased in recent years and new data services have become available. There are two main ways to meet the demand: invest in costly new infrastructure or improve the way you manage the resources you have. “Better resource management allows operators to provide more services of better quality to more users on existing infrastructure without having to spend money on new infrastructure,” explains Ferran Casadevall, a researcher at the Technical University of Catalonia. And, because it is a more dynamic solution, resource management technologies allow operators to optimise traffic capacity as and when it is needed, whether in shopping malls during the busy holiday season or at a sports’ stadium during a football match. However, for resource management systems to be truly effective, they must be able to manage a variety of different radio access technologies, from GSM and third-generation (3G) UMTS to high-speed WLAN, simultaneously. A team of researchers led by Casadevall have come up with a solution. In the EU-funded Aroma project, they developed Common Radio Resource Management (CRRM) algorithms that function within and between mobile and wireless systems. “We have taken a global approach in that we focused not on one access technology alone, but rather on all that are available. Our approach manages network connections depending on where users are and what they are doing. In essence, it provides operators with a better way to balance traffic from different sources, and it does so intelligently,” Casadevall says. “Someone making a voice call, for example, would probably only need GSM but someone watching streaming video or digital TV would want to use high-speed WLAN where it is available, such as inside a building, and then be handed over seamlessly to UMTS when they leave the coverage area,” he adds. The CRRM concept and some of the algorithms developed by Casadevall’s team are being considered for adoption by the four big European mobile operators in the Aroma consortium – Telefónica, telecom Italia, Portugal Telecom and TeliaSonera. They have also elicited interest from other operators. Telecom Italia has one patent pending as a result of the project, while the Technical University of Catalonia has another. More calls, more messages, more TV… more quality of service For mobile phone users, the Aroma approach provides better quality of service because no matter what they are doing or where they are, the algorithms fine-tune the network to suit their needs. In high-traffic situations, that means more people will be able to make calls, send messages or watch television without suffering from service losses. For operators, CRRM promises major cost savings. According to the Aroma consortium’s projections, the resource management solutions could save operators a significant amount of money per year by reducing how much they need to invest in new UMTS infrastructure in order to continue to add clients. That is especially important at a time when the rollout of new services, such as digital mobile television, will put increased strain on existing networks. In addition, no big leap in communications technology is expected in the coming years. “The first generation of mobile communications was the analogue networks introduced in the 1980s. Those then underwent a major switch in Europe and much of the world to GSM, the second generation, and then a big leap to UMTS, the third generation. Now we are witnessing a more gradual evolution toward integrating new services and systems into existing technology and improving the management of them globally in order to free up bandwidth. In the future, new services will appear that you couldn’t even imagine today,” Casadevall predicts. In his view, the introduction of new services and the need to optimise network capacity to handle them is part of a virtuous circle that will continue to spur growth in the mobile communications industry. “People demand more services, which requires more bandwidth, which requires better resource management, which in turn improves services and allows new ones to be created,” he says. “Until now, voice has been the major driving force behind the sector, but a big switch is starting to occur toward data – and that creates new demands.”

Satellite Phones

Whether you're posting a breaking news story from the mountains of Afghanistan or just staying in touch with the office during a Caribbean cruise, satellite phones can be the only choice when you absolutely, positively need a phone in the far reaches of the world. Satellite Phones can be expensive, though Iridium's $1.50/minute USD charge is sometimes equaled or surpassed by international mobile roaming rates for some GSM carriers. However, only recently have they achieved acceptable speeds for data transmission. Since there needs to be a clear line of sight between the antenna and satellite, performance can also be affected by poor weather and use is generally restricted to outdoors (though they will sometimes work through glass or canvas). This can also limit the ability to receive incoming calls, though external antenna connections can help overcome some of these limitations. Also, satellite phones like the Hughes 7100 (shown at right) allow users of the Thuraya system (serving Europe, North & Central Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent) to also access local GSM networks in those areas. Other phones offer compatibility with existing AMPS and CDMA networks to help alleviate some of the drawbacks while allowing users to stay connected well beyond the reach of lowly terrestrial networks. Satellite phone systems are expensive to build and far less competitive than conventional mobile systems, so there are only a few providers to choose from like Iridium, Globalstar, ICO Global, Ellipso, Inmarsat and the previously mentioned Thuraya. Great strides have been made in making these phones increasingly portable, though many of them need an oversized antenna for satellite use.