Mobile Device – Mobile Computing Devices
Mobile Device – Mobile Computing Devices –Mobile computing devices are designed and developed to work in the mobile environment.
Features of Mobile Computing Devices
Mobile computing devices have the following features-
- Mobile computing devices are portable devices
- They are capable of operating, executing in the mobile environment.
- They provide services to their users anytime and anywhere
- They are handheld and easy to carry devices
- These are therefore smaller and lighter than desktop and laptop systems.
There are various mobile computing devices and more new mobile devices will be in the future due to the huge growth in mobile computing technology. The most important mobile device is a mobile phone.
Common Mobile Devices
Some commonly used mobile devices are as follows-
Mobile Phone or Smartphones
It is the most common mobile device. Now, mobile phones are migrating more and more toward PDAs.
Mobile phones with colorful graphical displays, touch screens, and Internet browsers are easily available.
Smartphones include the features of both cell phones and handheld computing devices which is the greatest technology revolution of the time.
A smartphone can do everything that a personal computer can do.
Due to its mobility, processing power, and much more these phones have become the need of a layman.
They can perform routine tasks easily including copy, move, and share data.
Generally, smartphones have sufficient processing power that allows people to play games, edit documents and spreadsheets, read text and ebooks, listen to music, and do a variety of other tasks even when people are moving.
Smartphones available in a variety of categories
The best way to categorize smartphones is by the Operating system they use. According to the use of the operating system, the smartphones can be of the following types-
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Apple iOS made by Apple
These phones are used by iPhones and iPads.
This OS is available only on Apple hardware.
It does not run on any third-party devices.
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Androids OS
It is designed by Google.
It is a variant of Linux, particularly for mobile devices.
Most of the lower-cost phones and tablets employ the free and open-source Android OS.
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Windows Phones
It designed by Microsoft
It is a mobile-device version of Microsoft Windows.
A windows based tablet is known as Windows 10 mobile.
Sensor
The sensor is a simple wireless mobile device
It is for sensor transmitting state information.
The most common example could be a switch sensing the office door. If the door is closed, the switch transmits this information to the mobile phone inside the office which will not accept incoming calls. Without user interaction, the semantics of a closed-door is applied to phone calls.
Recently, many sensor-based devices came into the market due to the advancement in IoT.
Embedded Controller
The embedded controller is a popular mobile device.
Many appliances contain a simple or complex embedded controller.
Keyboards, mice, headsets, washing machines, coffee machines, hairdryers, microwave,s and Television sets are just some examples.
Pager
Pager is a very simple mobile device used as a receiver.
Pager can display short text messages,
It has a tiny display, and cannot send any messages.
Pagers can even be integrated into watches.
The tremendous success of mobile phones has made the pager virtually redundant in many countries. Short messages have replaced paging.
Personal Digital Assistant
A personal digital assistant is known as a handheld PC device.
It is a variety of mobile device which functions as a personal information manager.
It is a handheld organizer used to store contact information, manage calendars, communicate by e-mail, and handle documents and spreadsheets, usually in communication with the user’s personal computer.
Web browsers and many other software packages are available for these devices.
Pocket Computer
Pocket computers are commonly used in mobile devices.
The next steps toward full computers are pocket computers offering tiny keyboards, color displays, and simple versions of programs found on desktop computers
These computers are used for text processing, spreadsheets, etc.
Notebook
It is a widely used mobile device.
Notebook offers more or less the same performance as standard desktop computers.
They use the same software – the only technical difference being size, weight, and the ability to run on a battery.
If operated mainly via a sensitive display like touch-sensitive or electromagnetic, the devices are also known as notepads or tablet PCs.
Laptop
A laptop (also laptop computer)
It is a small, portable personal computer with a “clamshell” form factor, characteristically having a thin LCD or LED computer screen mounted on the inside of the upper lid of the clamshell.
It has an alphanumeric keyboard on the inside of the lower lid.
The clamshell is opened up to use the computer.
Laptops are folded shut for transportation, and thus are suitable for mobile use
Tablet
It is a popular mobile device.
A tablet is similar to smartphones but with a large screen and having no cellphone feature.
Recently, tablets are available that have cellphone capability inbuilt and hence, known as Phablets.
In fact, the tablet lies between the Laptop and smartphone.
The iPad is the most popular tablet, using the same iOS operating system as the iPhone.
Other tablets like Samsung Galaxy Tab, HTC Tab, and much more use the Android Operating system.
E-readers
The E-reader is a recently developed mobile device.
An e-reader is a device designed as a convenient way to read e-books.
The E-reader has electronic paper rather than an LCD screen
It is different from the tablet.
The main difference between the eReader and tablet is the type of screen they have.
eReaders have E-Ink screens, while tablets have LCD screens.
Hence, E-reader has lower resolutions than the tablet
An E-reader is much closer to a printed page, particularly the Kindle Paperwhite.