Pem’s Tech Blog

“Phones” is a category of stuff I’ve been playing with (reading about etc) lately. Phones have become (and are becoming) “smarter” (and more digital), and capable of doing a lot more than just person-to-person voice communication, in at least 2 major ways:
1) smart phones are PDAs that are becoming more powerful internet-capable mobile computing platforms, with additional capabilities like GPS and voice-focused and portability-focused uses and interfaces
2) voice-to-voice through the traditional phone number system has also become “smarter”, so you can essentially make phone calls to computer systems that provide a variety of services (many of which are free), or interact with these systems/services outside of data plans via SMS text

My original category idea was “Hardware -> Devices”. Then I thought it should be “Phones” to cover topics like cell phone services, smart phones, voice-capable devices, phone-related services, etc. Then I thought maybe “Communication -> Phones” along with “Communication -> Instant Message” and “Communication -> Email” or even just under some broader category like “Communications – Email, IM, Phone”. Another broad category idea was “Mobile”.

Finally I decided on… “Mobile Devices/Services”

“Mobile Devices/Services” is intended to focus on the mobility / ultra-mobility aspect, while (voice / email / IM) are not necessarily purely mobile things.

I chose this category name so that it does not include standard laptop computers, but it does include web-capable software-application-capable devices like smart phones, Nokia N810 internet tablet, iPod touch. Of course it also includes services that focus on mobility (such as phone-related services, GPS devices, etc). This category view looks at mobile devices as a platform for software and services, that is conceptually separatable (though sometimes intertwined with) the traditional computer platforms (and yes sometimes there may be gray areas).

Anyway, it’s just a category name (not that important)

Pem (Admin) :: Jun.07.2008 :: Mobility :: 1 Comment »

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