SMARTPHONES

A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant (PDA) and a mobile phone or camera phone. Today's models also serve to combine the functions of portable media players, low-end compact digital cameras, pocket video cameras, and GPS navigation units. Modern smartphones typically also include highresolution touchscreens, web browsers that can access and properly display standard web pages rather than just mobile-optimized sites, and high-speed data access via WiFi and mobile broadband. The most common mobile operating systems (OS) used by modern smartphones include Apple's iOS, Google's Android, Microsoft's Windows Phone, Nokia's Symbian, RIM's BlackBerry OS, and embedded Linux distributions such as Maemo and MeeGo. Such operating systems can be installed on many different phone models, and typically each device can receive multiple OS software updates over its lifetime. One of the most significant differences is that the advanced application programming interfaces (APIs) on smartphones for running third-party applications can allow those applications to have better integration with the phone's OS and hardware than is typical with feature phones. In comparison, feature phones more commonly run on proprietary firmware, with third-party software support through platforms such as Java ME or BREW. An additional complication in distinguishing between smartphones and feature phones is that over time the capabilities of new models of feature phones can increase to exceed those of phones that had been promoted as smartphones in the past.

History
The first smartphone was the IBM Simon; it was designed in 1992 and shown as a concept product that year at COMDEX, the computer industry trade show held in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was released to the public in 1993 and sold by BellSouth. Besides being a mobile phone, it also contained a calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail client, the ability to send and receive faxes, and games. It had no physical buttons, instead customers used a touchscreen to select telephone numbers with a finger or create faxes and memos with an optional stylus. Text was entered with a unique on-screen "predictive" keyboard. By today's standards, the Simon would be a fairly low-end product, lacking a camera and the ability to download third-party applications. However, its feature set at the time was highly advanced. The Nokia Communicator line was the first of Nokia's smartphones starting with the Nokia 9000, released in 1996. This distinctive palmtop computer style smartphone was the result of

a collaborative effort of an early successful and costly personal digital assistant (PDA) by Hewlett-Packard combined with Nokia's best-selling phone around that time, and early prototype models had the two devices fixed via a hinge. The Communicators are characterized by a clamshell design, with a feature phone display, keyboard and user interface on top of the phone, and a physical QWERTY keyboard, high-resolution display of at least 640200 pixels and PDA user interface under the flip-top. The software was based on the GEOS V3.0 operating system, featuring email communication and text-based web browsing. In 1998, it was followed byNokia 9110, and in 2000 by Nokia 9110i, with improved web browsing capability. In 1997 the term 'smartphone' was used for the first time when Ericsson unveiled the concept phone GS88, the first device labelled as 'smartphone'.

Evolution of smartphones
Symbian

The Nokia 9210 Communicator(Symbian 2000 model smartphone) In 2000, the touchscreen Ericsson R380 Smartphone was released. It was the first device to use an open operating system, the Symbian OS. It was the first device marketed as a 'smartphone'. It combined the functions of a mobile phone and a personal digital assistant (PDA). In December 1999 the magazine Popular Science appointed the Ericsson R380 Smartphone to one of the most important advances in science and technology. It was a ground breaking device since it was as small and light as a normal mobile phone. In 2002 it was followed up by P800. Also in 2000, the Nokia 9210 communicator was introduced, which was the first color screen model from the Nokia Communicator line. It was a true smartphone with an open operating system, the Symbian OS. It was followed by the 9500 Communicator, which also was Nokia's first camera phone and first Wi-Fi phone. The 9300 Communicator was smaller, and the latest E90 Communicator includes GPS. The Nokia Communicator model is remarkable for also having been the most costly phone model sold by a major brand for almost the full life of the model series, costing easily 20% and sometimes 40% more than the next most expensive smartphone by any major producer.

In 2007 Nokia launched the Nokia N95 which integrated a wide range of multimedia features into a consumer-oriented smartphone: GPS, a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity and TV-out. In the next few years these features would become standard on high-end smartphones. The Nokia 6110 Navigator is a Symbian based dedicated GPS phone introduced in June 2007. In 2010 Nokia released the Nokia N8 smartphone with a stylus-free capacitive touchscreen, the first device to use the new Symbian^3 OS. It featured a 12 megapixel camera with Xenon flash able to record HD video in 720p, described by Mobile Burn as the best camera in a phone, and satellite navigation that Mobile Choice described as the best on any phone. It also featured a front-facing VGA camera for videoconferencing. Symbian was the number one smartphone platform by market share from 1996 until 2011 when it dropped to second place behind Google's Android OS. In February 2011, Nokia announced that it would replace Symbian with Windows Phone as the operating system on all of its future smartphones. This transition was completed in October 2011, when Nokia announced its first line of Windows Phone 7.5 smartphones, Lumia 710 and 800.

Palm, Windows, and BlackBerry

The HTC Touch Pro2smartphone (May 2009) In the late 1990s the vast majority of mobile phones had only basic phone features and many people who needed functionality beyond that also carried PDA and/or pager type devices running early versions of operating systems such as Palm OS, BlackBerry OS or Windows

CE/Pocket PC. Later versions of these systems started integrating cell phone capabilities with their PDA and messaging features and support of third-party applications. Today, high-end devices running these systems are often branded smartphones. In 2001 Microsoft announced its Windows CE Pocket PC OS would be offered as "Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone 2002." Microsoft originally defined its Windows Smartphone products as lacking a touchscreen and offering a lower screen resolution compared to its sibling Pocket PC devices. In early 2002 Handspring released the Palm OS Treo smartphone, utilizing a full keyboard that combined wireless web browsing, email, calendar, and contact organizer with mobile third-party applications that could be downloaded or synced with a computer. In 2002 RIM released their first BlackBerry devices with integrated phone functionality and shifted the positioning of their products from 2-way pagers to email-capable mobile phones. The BlackBerry line evolved into the first smartphone optimized for wireless email use and had achieved a total customer base of about 32 million subscribers by December 2009. In February 2011 Nokia announced a plan to make Microsoft Windows Phone its main operating system of choice for new Nokia smartphones.

iPhone

The original iPhone (June 2007) In 2007, Apple Inc. introduced its first iPhone. The first mobile phone to use a multitouch interface, the iPhone was notable for its use of a large touchscreen for direct finger input as its main means of interaction, instead of having a stylus, keyboard, and/or keypad, which were the typical input methods for other smartphones at the time. The iPhone featured a web browser that Ars Technica then described as "far superior" to anything offered by that of its competitors. Initially lacking the capability to install native applications beyond the ones built-in to its OS, at WWDC in June 2007 Apple announced that the iPhone would

support third-party "web 2.0 applications" running in its web browser that share the look and feel of the iPhone interface. In July 2008, Apple introduced its second generation iPhone with 3G support. Released with it, Apple also created the App Store, adding the capability for any iPhone or iPod Touch to officially execute additional native applications (both free and paid) installed directly over a Wi-Fi or cellular network, without the more typical process at the time of requiring a PC for installation. Applications could additionally be browsed through and downloaded directly via the iTunes software client on Macintosh and Windows PCs, rather than by searching through multiple sites across the Internet. Featuring over 500 applications at launch, Apple's App Store was immediately very popular, quickly growing to become a huge success. In June 2010, Apple introduced iOS 4, which included APIs to allow third-party applications to multitask, and the iPhone 4, which included a 960640 pixel display with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch(ppi), a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash capable of recording HD video in 720p at 30 frames per second, a front-facing VGA camera for videoconferencing, a 1 GHz processor, and other improvements. In early 2011 the iPhone 4 became available through Verizon Wireless, ending AT&T's exclusivity of the handset in the U.S. and allowing the handset's 3G connection to be used as a wireless Wi-Fi hotspot for the first time, to up to 5 other devices. Software updates subsequently added this capability to other iPhones running iOS 4. The iPhone 4S was announced on October 4, 2011, improving upon the iPhone 4 with a dual core A5 processor, an 8 megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p video at 30 frames per second, World phone capability allowing it to work on both GSM & CDMA networks, and the Siri automated voice assistant. On October 10, Apple announced that over one million iPhone 4Ss had been pre-ordered within the first 24 hours of it being on sale, beating the 600,000 device record set by the iPhone 4, despite the iPhone 4S failing to impress some critics at the announcement due to their expectations of an "iPhone 5" with rumored drastic changes compared to the iPhone 4 such as a new case design and larger screen. Along with the iPhone 4S Apple also released iOS 5 and iCloud, untethering iOS devices from Macintosh or Windows PCs for device activation, backup, and synchronization, along with additional new and improved features. There are about 35 percent of Americans that have some sort of smartphone. This shows that the market is spreading fast and there are also more capabilities for smartphones because of this spread. Smartphones are also mainly valuable based on the operating system. For example, the iPhone runs on the iOS and other devices run different operating systems which makes the functionality of these systems different.

Android

Galaxy Nexus, the latest "Google phone" The Android operating system for smartphones was released in 2008. Android is an opensource platform backed by Google, along with major hardware and software developers (such as Intel, HTC,ARM, Motorola and Samsung, to name a few), that form the Open Handset Alliance. The first phone to use Android was the HTC Dream, branded for distribution by TMobile as the G1. The software suite included on the phone consists of integration with Google's proprietary applications, such as Maps, Calendar, and Gmail, and a full HTML web browser. Android supports the execution of native applications and a pre emptive multitasking capability (in the form of services). Third-party apps are available via the Android Market (released October 2008), including both free and paid apps. In January 2010, Google launched the Nexus One smartphone using its Android OS. Although Android has multi-touch abilities, Google initially removed that feature from the Nexus One, but it was added through a firmware update on February 2, 2010. Concerning the Xperia Play smartphone, an analyst at CCS Insight said in March 2011 that "Console wars are moving to the mobile platform". In the same month, the HTC EVO 3D was announced by HTC Corporation, which can produce 3D effects with no need for special glasses (autostereoscopy). The HTC EVO 3D was officially released on June 24, 2011.

Bada
The Bada operating system for smartphones was announced by Samsung on 10 November 2009. The first Bada-based phone was the Samsung Wave S8500, released on June 1, 2010, which sold one million handsets in its first 4 weeks on the market.

Samsung shipped 3.5 million phones running Bada in Q1 of 2011. This rose to 4.5 million phones in Q2 of 201.

Environmental factors
With the need for information on the go becoming more and more necessary, many users are moving towards smartphones to satisfy this need. Much more portable than a laptop, and offering almost the same functions, smartphones have become very popular in recent times... Advancing technology has made possible many things that once seemed impossible. In the telecom industry, huge advances have been made since Marconi transmitted the radio signal and Alexander Graham Bell invented the first telephone. As compared to the bulky wired instruments of the past, today's phones are getting smaller and slimmer each day. The invention of the mobile phone has allowed people to communicate like never before. Mobile phones - also called mobiles, cell phones, cellular phones, and wireless phones - have also gone through tremendous makeovers since they were first invented. From the big and bulky instruments with limited functionalities, the phones today, besides being smaller and sleeker, can perform a very wide and very impressive range of functions, leading to the term 'smartphone'.

Why Today's College Student Should Have a Smartphone

This text is from a person who doesnt have a smartphone and what problem he faces. Let me start off by saying, I do not own a smartphone. I owned a pseudo-smartphone with my last model, a Nokia E71x, but I didn't have a data plan and what was considered a smartphone in 2009 does not quite meet todays standards of phone intelligence, capabilities and what have you. I loved that phone, and it got me through a couple of years of high school, but it was not stunningly impressive. stunningly impressive phones. One of my roommates has a Motorola Droid X, another has a BlackBerry Curve, and a friend who might as well be a roommate has an Apple iPhone 4. On any given day, if someone were to peek into our living room, chances are wed all be sitting around doing something digital with the TV on in the background. The difference between me and them: Id be sitting under a laptop, while their phones would be catching them up on world news, friend news and e-mail. When I need to know whats on TV, I ask my friend with theDroid X to check out his TV Listings for Android app. If I need to know how the New York Mets are doing, I ask my friend with the BlackBerry to keep me updated (just kidding, I already know how the Mets are doing: poorly). Granted, I could do both on my laptop, but sometimes its on the other side of the room. These are just every day conveniences that Id love to have a smartphone take care of. Apps are tailored to directly and quickly give information on a very particular subject, which is what the kids want. Sitting around the dorm room, though, does not quite showcase the times when Id really need to have a smartphone on me. That really becomes more apparent, for me at least, when considering the unexpected events that make up my week and weekend, and that occasionally lead to me ending up on the wrong side of Boston.

As a college student, Ive found that two themes have developed regarding my lifes activities: spontaneity, and a severe lack of planning. Spontaneity is hard if youre tied to a computer, so generally when I make my way into the world Im cutting my electronic leash (or poking a hole in my electronic life preserver, depending on how one looks at it). The two biggest things that I lose when I go out are Google Maps and Facebook. Both show me where Im going, in essence; Google Maps in an obvious manner, and Facebook through its events and constant updates on where my friends are and what theyre up to. Both of these staples of college life have been fully integrated into the large majority of popular smartphones currently available, and I think youd find that most people my age would find it to be a huge boon to have constant access to these apps. Without them there are points in time where Im out, and I dont know where Im going, how to get there, or how to get home. Add on to that the fact that I dont know my teams score (ESPN Radio app), I cant figure out what the song playing in the background is (Shazam app), Im dreadfully bored (1,000s of games in the iTunes App Store or Android Market) and I dont have a flashlight (an embarrassingly high number of flashlight apps), and the whole situation becomes pretty terrifying. When Im in my car I have my GPS, when Im at home I have my iPod Touch, but I cant bring my peripheral technology with me everywhere. My pockets simply dont have the space. From majorly important, incredibly useful apps like Google Maps, to the little list above, smartphones have the incredible ability to have seemingly everything you could need, and to always have it available. Smartphones are the modern embodiment of the Boy Scout motto always be prepared. They are the technological Swiss army knife, and all I would need to survive in the wilds of Boston, Massachusetts and on my colleges campus. Do I absolutely, desperately need a smartphone? No. But should I have one/would it be nice? Absolutely. (Does Dad still read my articles? I certainly hope so.) According to me today smartphones is a necessity and todays world demand PORTABILITY, which increases the need of smartphones. Today on our smartphone we can access any site we want to, we can make presentations, we can give presentations, we can change slides through it, we can listen to and access any kind of news anywhere through internet with just one click.

CONNECTING SOLDIERS TO DIGITAL APPLICATIONS

Many new information technologies are connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications. A lot of people are interested in the potential of smartphone technology and digital applications across administrative, training and tactical functions. That's why ARCIC developed Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications (CSDA) to explore the value and potential of this technology. With that context, it's important to recognize that CSDA is not an acquisition program and any future procurement and fielding plans are pending the results of CSDA and other Army pilot projects.

Other factors affecting development and introduction of smartphones are Status Symbol Coping up with the present trend To make our lives easier To improve our technological know how To increase efficient portability

HOW HAVE SMARTPHONES CHANGED OUR CULTURE?

Many phone users are completely unaware of how underused their cell phone plans are. Smartphones are no longer mere communication platforms, gaming devices or calendars. Instead, these computers on our belts are being used in ways that are changing the world in ways difficult to imagine. In recent years, developers have begun giving the internetconnected nature of smartphones an increasing amount of attention, and the result is an innovative array of solutions to many major problems.

1. The Workforce Is More Mobile

If smartphones have done anything for the corporate world, they have made employees more mobile. Gone are the days when employees are able to step away from the office and untethered. Nowadays, workers are expected to be productive no matter where they are. And the enterprise has smartphones to thank for that.

2. Security Concerns
With smartphones comes the threat of new security problems. Smartphones are being used by millions across the globe. And the average malicious hacker or cyber criminal is increasingly looking towards those devices to capitalize. For companies, that means they need to keep a watchful eye on smartphone data security to ensure they dont see important information leak out into the wrong hands.

3. Apps, Apps, Apps

Mobile applications have become central to the success of smartphones over the past couple years, due mainly to the efforts of Google and Apple. But along with apps comes more concerns for companies. Not only do they need to think about the security of those programs, but they must also consider the impact apps might have on productivity. On one hand, they might help improve productivity. But if app use isnt properly managed, employees could

start downloading something like games and spend less time getting work done. Simply put, apps can be both good and bad for corporate customers.

4. Productivity
Productivity can mean the difference between success and failure in the corporate world. The company that has more of it will be a success, while the firm with less productivity from employees will fail. And once again, smartphones can both improve and reduce productivity. They make people more accessible and capable of working while on-the-go, but they also can distract folks from the work at hand. When productivity is a concern, smartphones must be managed properly.

6. Savings On Computers?
As smartphones become more capable, IT decision-makers are rethinking their PC-buying efforts. Admittedly, smartphones arent necessarily a replacement for computers. However, for those employees that need only to check e-mail and perform basic tasks, getting them a high-end smartphone, while having them keep their outdated PC might be a fine option. Smartphones simply give IT decision-makers more options when it comes time to buy new PCs.

7. CONSUMER SHOPPING
Smartphones have changed how consumers shop. Gone are the days of driving miles between stores to compare prices, then holding off on a purchase until an online search can be performed. Smartphone apps not only compare prices of local brick-and-mortar stores, but provide access to a wealth of online product reviews and ratings with little more than the snap of a picture. The most popular app in this category is Google Shopper. Using Googles extensive Products and Maps services, Shopper provides context-sensitive offers based on a consumers current location, along with results from its database of online merchants. Other apps such as TheFind, RedLaser and ShopKick are completely changing the game for consumers, vastly reducing the inconvenience of finding the better deal and forcing retailers to compete more effectively.

8. OBTAINING MEDICAL CARE

Smartphones have changed how medical care is obtained. Inexpensive apps are beginning to replace dedicated devices for monitoring glucose levels in diabetics, tracking and reminding patients about medication use and communicating verbally. Medical apps are especially helpful in developing countries, where qualified physicians may be miles away. By entering symptoms into a medical application, villagers in remote areas can provide doctors and nurses with enough information to determine whether it is necessary to visit an expert for further help.

Other apps aid physicians. References, notes and cards are replaced by apps which help calculate dosages, track contraindications and provide a wealth of information right at a doctors fingertips. Smartphones can even diagnose Parkinsons disease. By using the accelerometer to analyze a smartphones motions, researchers can determine whether a given shake represents a Parkinsons tremor.

9. HELP BLIND PEOPLE TO READ

Smartphones also help blind people to read. On-board cameras are used to capture text which is then spoken aloud, or converted into Braille via vibrations on the touchscreen. These applications replace cumbersome desktop scanners and computer systems with devices that fit within the palm of a hand, thus empowering the visually impaired to read in a variety of circumstances unavailable to them previously. Mobile apps do more than process text, however. Many are also capable of identifying currency, books, DVDs and other products, making it easy to identify items in a pantry or on a bookshelf without sight. Again, many of these uses are yet in their infancy. Some companies are exploring using live video chat functionality to provide assistance with tasks that computers cannot yet accomplish. As the smartphone industry grows, cell phone plans will become more than a means of keeping in touch with family and friends. For many, they will become an essential tool for living more healthily and happily. These are but a few of the many areas in which smartphones are changing the world, and each is full of yet untapped potential. The future of smartphone applications is indeed a bright one.

GENDER SENSITIVE PRODUCT

I would like to elaborate on the product jeans as a genders sensitive product. Women wearing jeans were thought by some to be historically almost non-existent, apart from Amazonian women, but have become more commonplace since the advent of feminism in the middle to late 20th century. In the Western world, women have historically worn dresses and skirt-like garments while men have worn trousers. During the late 19th century, women started to wear trousers and blouses for industrial work. During World War II, women wore their husbands' trousers while they took on jobs, and in the 1970s, trousers became especially fashionable for women. In the United States, this may be due to the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which made public education treat males and females equally and in turn dresses could not be required of female students and dress codes changed in public schools across the United States. Today, trousers are worn by many women but most women still wear skirts or dresses some of the time. Although trousers for women in western countries did not become fashion items until the later 20th century, women began wearing men's trousers (suitably altered) for outdoor work a hundred years earlier.

The Wigan pit brow girls scandalized Victorian society by wearing trousers for their dangerous work in the coal mines. They wore skirts over their trousers and rolled them up to their waist to keep them out of the way. Women working the ranches of the 19th century American West also wore trousers for riding, and in the early 20th century aviatrices and other working women often wore trousers. Actresses Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn were often photographed in trousers from the 1930s and helped make trousers acceptable for women. During World War II, women working in factories and doing other forms of "men's work" on war service wore trousers when the work demanded it, and in the post-war era trousers became acceptable casual wear for gardening, the beach, and other leisure pursuits. In Britain during the Second World War, because of the rationing of clothing, many women took to wearing their husbands' civilian clothes, including their trousers, to work while their husbands were away in the armed forces. This was partly because they were seen as practical garments of workwear, and partly to allow women to keep their clothing allowance for other uses. As this practice of wearing trousers became more widespread and as the men's clothes wore out, replacements were needed, so that by the summer of 1944 it was reported that sales of women's trousers were five times more than in the previous year. In the 1960s, Andr Courrges introduced long trousers for women as a fashion item, leading to the era of the pantsuit and designer jeans and the gradual eroding of the prohibitions against girls and women wearing trousers in schools, the workplace, and fine restaurants.

Present Era: 1980 2012

While high fashion had greatly declined during the free-for-all of the 1960s and 1970s, the 1980s saw a definite rise in the popularity of designer styles. Wealthy people across the country flocked to New York boutiques and Paris fashion shows to purchase directly from designers lines, while mass producers replicated the high fashions for the general public. Power and money dominated the styles of the 1980s, with women donning expensive business suits and dresses during the day and extravagant designer gowns in the evening. While not everybody could afford the expensive designer clothing, some top fashion designers such as Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren also produced ready-to-wear lines to appeal to less-affluent customers. During the 1980s, clothing was a sign of power, and the top designers reigned supreme with their fashionable apparel. But by the 1990s, women had begun to reject the moneyed, designer styles of the 1980s and opt for more comfortable, casual clothing. Flannel shirts and ripped jeans inspired by the grunge movement in rock and roll became popular, while the rising hip-hop movement brought baggy pants into fashion. Today, while expensive designer clothing is still sought after by some women, casual, comfortable clothing styles at reasonable prices are the popular choice at the start of the new century. But one never knows what new trendy or outrageous style will emerge next on the fashion scene.