You may have seen videos such as this one, where a group of people at a party put their phones on the table around some corn kernels. They call the phones, and when the phones start ringing, the popcorn pops. Does this really happen? Wouldn’t the phone be doing the same to our brains when [more...]
There are three main technologies you can use to connect a laptop or webtop to the internet: WiFi, WiMax and Cellular radio. A satellite connection is also technically possible but is likely to be expensive and impractical. A WiFi connection can use the home WiFi connection from your wireless router. Away from home you will find [more...]
Bluetooth is a versatile wireless standard which allows electronic devices to exchange data with other nearby devices. For two Bluetooth devices to work together, it’s not enough that they both contain a Bluetooth chip and antenna. They must also support the same Bluetooth profile, which defines how the data exchange takes place. The iPhone 3G has [more...]
Google sure caused a lot of confusion here! Their very vocal announcements of the Android project on 5 November 2007 raised the expectation that Android phones would contain open software and be readily hackable, but the only Android phone released to date has been locked down. What gives? One cause for concern was that the most [more...]
The terms HSPA, HS*PA, HSDPA and HSUPA all relate to the high speed data access provided by high-specification cellphones and the cellular networks to which those phones are attached. These are “high speed” technologies over and above that provided by “third generation” (3G) cellphone technology. HSDPA stands for “high speed downlink packet access” and is a way [more...]