An Internet appliance is a product which accesses services on the Internet, such as the World Wide Web or Internet telephony. These include intelligent kitchen appliances, intelligent phones, PDAs, home networked computers and other devices connected to the Internet so people can access and operate home equipment from a distance. An additional example of an Internet Appliance would be a computer, that performs tasks that can be accessed and remotely controlled without using the computers operating system, from a distance, usually using the web browser as an interface. Computer servers that have this type of interface are commonly called server appliances. The idea behind Internet appliances is that they can be made cheaper than general-purpose computers and by being dedicated to a single function or series of functions are generally simpler to use. They constitute a specialized form of information appliance.
The first such appliances to be marketed successfully gave constant information on the weather or on the state of the stock market, by means of changes in colors or by using analog gauges.
Another type of Internet appliance is the Internet Tablet. The most famous (or infamous) examples of the Internet Tablet are the Sony Airboard, Nokia 770, and the recently unveiled Nokia N800
Internet appliances were promoted by a variety of technology companies during the 1990s but, as the price of full-featured computers dropped, never met the market expectations. Jim Louderback would later describe the concept as one of the "eight biggest tech flops ever".
However, a resurgence in Internet appliances may be underway in 2006-07. With the rise in home networking, a new breed of devices, such as Vonage Internet Phones, PenguinRadio's Internet Radio, and IPTV boxes are starting to use the broadband connections of users in non-PC dependent ways.
An example of a popular server appliance is the Cobalt Networks, Cobalt RaQ series of server appliances.
Walled gardens versus open standards
In an ideal world, any true information appliance would be able to communicate with any other information appliance using open standard protocols and technologies, regardless of the maker of the software or the hardware. The communications aspects and all user interface elements would be designed together so that a user could switch seamlessly from one information appliance to another.
Some vendors are attempting to create "walled gardens" of closed proprietary content for information appliances, leveraging existing proprietary technologies. However, with the exception of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, these efforts have been less successful than predicted, due to the willingness of most vendors to work together within open standards frameworks, and the pre-existing widespread adoption of open standards such as GSM, IP, SMS and SMTP.
Related concepts
The idea of ubiquitous computing is related to the notion of information appliance because both take into account the need to design dedicated, interconnected devices from the ground up, by taking human factors as well as software and hardware issues into account. They differ on other matters such as the importance accorded to social aspects of computing.
Notable Internet appliances (currently in production)
* MSN TV
* Pepper Pad
* Nokia 770 Internet Tablet
* Nokia N800 Internet Tablet
* Sony Mylo
Notable Internet appliances (no longer in production)
* 3Com Audrey
* i-Opener
* Sony eVilla
* Virgin Webplayer
* The New Internet Computer Company's NIC[1]
* ePods
* Compaq iPAQ
Minggu, 21 Oktober 2007
Personal Digital Assistant
Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are handheld computers, but have become much more versatile over the years. PDAs are also known as pocket computers or palmtop computers. PDAs have many uses: calculation, use as a clock and calendar, accessing the Internet, sending and receiving E-mails, video recording, typewriting and word processing, use as an address book, making and writing on spreadsheets, scanning bar codes, use as a radio or stereo, playing computer games, recording survey responses, and Global Positioning System (GPS). Newer PDAs also have both color screens and audio capabilities, enabling them to be used as mobile phones (smartphones), web browsers, or portable media players. Many PDAs can access the Internet, intranets or extranets via Wi-Fi, or Wireless Wide-Area Networks (WWANs). Many PDA's employ touch screen technology.
Typical features
Currently, a typical PDA has a touch screen for entering data, a memory card slot for data storage and at least one of the following for connectivity: IrDA, Bluetooth and/or WiFi. However, many PDAs (typically those used primarily as telephones) may not have a touch screen, using softkeys, a directional pad and either the numeric keypad or a thumb keyboard for input.
Software typically required to be a PDA includes an appointment calendar, a to-do list, an address book for contacts and some sort of note program. Connected PDAs also typically include E-mail and Web support.
Touch screen
Many original PDAs, such as the Apple Newton and the Palm Pilot, featured touch screens for user interaction, having only a few buttons usually reserved for shortcuts to often used programs. Touch screen PDAs, including Windows Pocket PC devices, usually have a detachable stylus that can be used on the touch screen. Interaction is then done by tapping the screen to activate buttons or menu choices, and dragging the stylus to, for example, highlight. Text input is usually done in one of two ways:
* Using a virtual keyboard, where a keyboard is shown on the touch screen. Input is done by tapping the letters.
* Using letter or word recognition, where letters or words are written on the touch screen, and then "translated" to letters in the currently activated text field. Despite rigorous research and development projects, end-users experience mixed results with this input method, with some finding it frustrating and inaccurate, while others are satisfied with the quality. Recognition and computation of handwritten horizontal and vertical formulas such as "1 + 2 =" was also under development.
PDAs for business use, including the BlackBerry and Treo, have full keyboards and scroll wheels or thumb wheels to facilitate data entry and navigation, in addition to supporting touch-screen input. There are also full-size foldable keyboards available that plug directly, or use wireless technology to interface with the PDA and allow for normal typing. BlackBerry also has additional functionality as push based email and applications.
Newer PDAs, such as the Apple iPhone include new user interfaces using other means of input. The iPhone uses a technology called Multi-touch.
Memory cards
Although many early PDAs did not have memory card slots, now most have either an SD (Secure Digital) and/or a Compact Flash slot. Although originally designed for memory, SDIO and Compact Flash cards are available for such things as Wi-Fi and Webcams. Some PDAs also have a USB port, mainly for USB flash drives.
As more PDAs include telephone support, to keep the size down, many now offer miniSD or microSD slots instead of full-sized SD slots.
Wired connectivity
While many earlier PDAs connected via serial ports or other proprietary format, many today connect via USB cable. This served primarily to connect to a computer, and few, if any PDAs were able to connect to each other out of the box using cables, as USB requires one machine to act as a host - functionality which was not often planned. Some PDAs were able to connect to the internet, either by means of one of these cables, or by using an extension card with an ethernet port/RJ-45 adaptor.
Wireless connectivity
Most modern PDAs have Bluetooth wireless connectivity, an increasingly popular tool for mobile devices. It can be used to connect keyboards, headsets, GPS and many other accessories, as well as sending files between PDAs. Many mid-range and superior PDAs have Wi-Fi/WLAN/802.11-connectivity, used for connecting to Wi-Fi hotspots or wireless networks. Older PDAs predominantly have an IrDA (infrared) port; however fewer current models have the technology, as it is slowly being phased out due to support for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. IrDA allows communication between two PDAs: a PDA and any device with an IrDA port or adapter. Most universal PDA keyboards use infrared technology because many older PDAs have it, and infrared technology is low-cost.
Synchronization
An important function of PDAs is synchronizing data with a PC. This allows up-to-date contact information stored on software such as Microsoft Outlook or ACT! to update the database on the PDA. The data synchronization ensures that the PDA has an accurate list of contacts, appointments and e-mail, allowing users to access the same information on the PDA as the host computer.
The synchronizing also prevents the loss of information stored on the device in case it is lost, stolen, or destroyed. Another advantage is that data input is usually a lot quicker on a PC, since text input via a touch screen is still not quite optimal. Transferring data to a PDA via the computer is therefore a lot quicker than having to manually input all data on the handheld device.
Most PDAs come with the ability to synchronize to a PC. This is done through synchronization software provided with the handheld, such as HotSync Manager, which comes with Palm OS handhelds, Microsoft ActiveSync for older versions of Windows or Windows Mobile Device Center on Windows Vista, which comes with Windows Mobile handhelds.
These programs allow the PDA to be synchronized with a Personal information manager. This personal information manager may be an outside program or a proprietary program. For example, the BlackBerry PDA comes with the Desktop Manager program which can synchronize to both Microsoft Outlook and ACT!. Other PDAs come only with their own proprietary software. For example, some early Palm OS PDAs came only with Palm Desktop while later Palms such as the Treo 650 has the built-in ability to sync to Palm Desktop and/or Microsoft Outlook, while Microsoft's ActiveSync and Windows Mobile Device Center only synchronize with Microsoft Outlook or a Microsoft Exchange server.
Third-party synchronization software is also available for many PDAs from companies like Intellisync and CompanionLink. This software synchronizes these handhelds to other personal information managers which are not supported by the PDA manufacturers, such as GoldMine and Lotus Notes.
Customization
As with personal computers, it is possible to install additional software on most PDAs. Software can be bought or downloaded from the Internet, allowing users to personalize their PDAs to their liking. An example of this would be the display theme for the PDA. Almost all PDAs also allow for adding some form of hardware. The most common is a memory card slot, which allows the users to get additional and exchangeable storage space on their handheld devices. There are also miniature keyboards that can be connected to most mainstream PDAs for quicker text input. PDAs with Bluetooth use Bluetooth-enabled devices like headsets, mice and (possibly foldable) keyboards.
Uses
PDAs are used to store information that can be accessed at any time and any where.
Automobile navigation
Many PDAs are used in car kits and are fitted with differential Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers to provide realtime automobile navigation. PDAs are increasingly being fitted as standard on new cars.
Many systems can also display traffic conditions, dynamic routing and roadside mobile radar guns.[citation needed] This information is usually downloaded from the Internet prior to travel, or can be downloaded on the fly with PDAs equipped with Internet access capability.
Popular software in Europe for this functionality is TomTom software showing road conditions and 3D environments.
Ruggedized PDAs
For many years businesses and government organizations have relied upon rugged PDAs for mobile data applications. Typical applications include supply chain management in warehouses, package delivery, route accounting, medical treatment and record keeping in hospitals, facilities maintenance and management, parking enforcement, access control and security, capital asset maintenance, meter reading by utilities, and "wireless waitress" applications in restaurants and hospitality venues. There are even PDAs designed to take significant amounts of punishment, probably meant for military use. Unfortunately, these devices often lack the features of other PDAs, and come with a steep price tag.
Medical and scientific uses
In medicine, PDAs have been shown to aid diagnosis and drug selection and some studies have concluded that their use by patients to record symptoms improves the effectiveness of communication with hospitals during follow-up. The first landmark study in testing the effectiveness of PDAs in a medical setting was conducted at the Brigham & Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospitals in affiliation with Harvard Medical School. Led by the team of Steven Labkoff, MD and Sandeep Shah, the Constellation project used Apple's Newton (first PDA in the market) to cater to the demands of the medical professionals.
Constellation's objective was to test how clinicians in various medical environments (wired vs un wired) would use medical reference books on a hand-held device. The study validated the hypothesis that PDAs with medical content would be used to a greater degree (>40% more often) in unwired environments.
Today, the company evolved from the effort Skyscape offers a wide range of resources including drug information, treatment options, guidelines, evidence based information and journal summaries including the drug & safety alerts. Other entrants include Epocrates and ABX guide, which supply drug databases, treatment information and relevant news in formats specific to mobile devices and services such as AvantGo translate medical journals into readable formats and provide updates from journals. WardWatch organizes medical records to remind doctors making ward rounds of information such as the treatment regimens of patients and programs. Finally, Pendragon and Syware provide tools for conducting research with mobile devices, and connecting to a central server allowing the user to enter data into a centralized database using their PDA. Additionally, Microsoft Visual Studio and Sun Java provide programming tools for developing survey instruments on the handheld. These development tools allow for integration with SQL databases that are stored on the handheld and can be synchronized with a desktop/server based database. Recently the development of Sensor Web technology has led to discussion of using wearable bodily sensors to monitor ongoing conditions like diabetes and epilepsy and alerting medical staff or the patient themselves to the treatment required via communication between the web and PDAs.
Educational uses
As mobile technology has become almost a necessity, it is no surprise that personal computing has become a vital learning tool by this time. Educational institutes have commenced a trend of integrating PDAs into their teaching practices (mobile learning). With the capabilities of PDAs, teachers are now able to provide a collaborative learning experience for their students. They are also preparing their students for possible practical uses of mobile computing upon their graduation.
PDAs and handheld devices have recently allowed for digital note taking. This has increased student’s productivity by allowing individuals to quickly spell-check, modify, and amend their class notes or e-notes. Educators are currently able to distribute course material through the use of the internet connectivity or infrared file sharing functions of the PDA. With concerns to class material, textbook publishers have begun to release e-books, electronic textbooks, which can be uploaded directly to a PDA. This eliminates the exhausting effort of carrying multiple textbooks at one time.
To meet the instructive needs sought by educational institutes, software companies have developed programs with the learning aspects in mind. Simple programs such as dictionaries, thesauri, and word processing software are important to the digital note taking process. In addition to these simple programs, encyclopedias and digital planning lessons have created added functionality for users.
With the increase in mobility of PDAs, school boards and educational institutes have now encountered issues with these devices. School boards are now concerned with students utilizing the internet connectivity to share test answers or to gossip during class time, which creates disruptions. Many school boards have modernized their computer policies to address these new concerns. Software companies such as Scantron Corp. have now created a program for distributing digital quizzes. The quiz software disables the infrared function on PDAs, which eliminates the element of information sharing among individuals during the examination.[2]
Sporting uses
PDAs are used by glider pilots for pre-flight planning and to assist navigation in cross-country competitions. They are linked to a GPS to produce moving-map displays showing the tracks to turn-points, airspace hazards and other tactical information.
Technical details
Architecture
Many PDAs run using a variation of the ARM architecture (usually denoted by the Intel XScale trademark). This encompasses a class of RISC microprocessors that are widely used in mobile devices and embedded systems, and its design was influenced strongly by a popular 1970s/1980s CPU, the MOS Technology 6502.
OS
The currently major PDA operating systems are:
* Palm OS - owned by PalmSource
* Windows Mobile Professional and Classic for use on Pocket PCs, (based on the Windows CE kernel) - owned by Microsoft
* BlackBerry OS - owned by Research In Motion
* Many operating systems based on the Linux kernel - free (not owned by any company) These include
o Familiar (comes in three flavours: GPE, Opie and barebone)
o OpenZaurus (for Zaurus PDAs)
o Intimate (for PDAs with an exceedingly large amount of memory)
* Symbian OS (formerly EPOC) owned by Motorola, Panasonic, Nokia, Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson
Typical features
Currently, a typical PDA has a touch screen for entering data, a memory card slot for data storage and at least one of the following for connectivity: IrDA, Bluetooth and/or WiFi. However, many PDAs (typically those used primarily as telephones) may not have a touch screen, using softkeys, a directional pad and either the numeric keypad or a thumb keyboard for input.
Software typically required to be a PDA includes an appointment calendar, a to-do list, an address book for contacts and some sort of note program. Connected PDAs also typically include E-mail and Web support.
Touch screen
Many original PDAs, such as the Apple Newton and the Palm Pilot, featured touch screens for user interaction, having only a few buttons usually reserved for shortcuts to often used programs. Touch screen PDAs, including Windows Pocket PC devices, usually have a detachable stylus that can be used on the touch screen. Interaction is then done by tapping the screen to activate buttons or menu choices, and dragging the stylus to, for example, highlight. Text input is usually done in one of two ways:
* Using a virtual keyboard, where a keyboard is shown on the touch screen. Input is done by tapping the letters.
* Using letter or word recognition, where letters or words are written on the touch screen, and then "translated" to letters in the currently activated text field. Despite rigorous research and development projects, end-users experience mixed results with this input method, with some finding it frustrating and inaccurate, while others are satisfied with the quality. Recognition and computation of handwritten horizontal and vertical formulas such as "1 + 2 =" was also under development.
PDAs for business use, including the BlackBerry and Treo, have full keyboards and scroll wheels or thumb wheels to facilitate data entry and navigation, in addition to supporting touch-screen input. There are also full-size foldable keyboards available that plug directly, or use wireless technology to interface with the PDA and allow for normal typing. BlackBerry also has additional functionality as push based email and applications.
Newer PDAs, such as the Apple iPhone include new user interfaces using other means of input. The iPhone uses a technology called Multi-touch.
Memory cards
Although many early PDAs did not have memory card slots, now most have either an SD (Secure Digital) and/or a Compact Flash slot. Although originally designed for memory, SDIO and Compact Flash cards are available for such things as Wi-Fi and Webcams. Some PDAs also have a USB port, mainly for USB flash drives.
As more PDAs include telephone support, to keep the size down, many now offer miniSD or microSD slots instead of full-sized SD slots.
Wired connectivity
While many earlier PDAs connected via serial ports or other proprietary format, many today connect via USB cable. This served primarily to connect to a computer, and few, if any PDAs were able to connect to each other out of the box using cables, as USB requires one machine to act as a host - functionality which was not often planned. Some PDAs were able to connect to the internet, either by means of one of these cables, or by using an extension card with an ethernet port/RJ-45 adaptor.
Wireless connectivity
Most modern PDAs have Bluetooth wireless connectivity, an increasingly popular tool for mobile devices. It can be used to connect keyboards, headsets, GPS and many other accessories, as well as sending files between PDAs. Many mid-range and superior PDAs have Wi-Fi/WLAN/802.11-connectivity, used for connecting to Wi-Fi hotspots or wireless networks. Older PDAs predominantly have an IrDA (infrared) port; however fewer current models have the technology, as it is slowly being phased out due to support for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. IrDA allows communication between two PDAs: a PDA and any device with an IrDA port or adapter. Most universal PDA keyboards use infrared technology because many older PDAs have it, and infrared technology is low-cost.
Synchronization
An important function of PDAs is synchronizing data with a PC. This allows up-to-date contact information stored on software such as Microsoft Outlook or ACT! to update the database on the PDA. The data synchronization ensures that the PDA has an accurate list of contacts, appointments and e-mail, allowing users to access the same information on the PDA as the host computer.
The synchronizing also prevents the loss of information stored on the device in case it is lost, stolen, or destroyed. Another advantage is that data input is usually a lot quicker on a PC, since text input via a touch screen is still not quite optimal. Transferring data to a PDA via the computer is therefore a lot quicker than having to manually input all data on the handheld device.
Most PDAs come with the ability to synchronize to a PC. This is done through synchronization software provided with the handheld, such as HotSync Manager, which comes with Palm OS handhelds, Microsoft ActiveSync for older versions of Windows or Windows Mobile Device Center on Windows Vista, which comes with Windows Mobile handhelds.
These programs allow the PDA to be synchronized with a Personal information manager. This personal information manager may be an outside program or a proprietary program. For example, the BlackBerry PDA comes with the Desktop Manager program which can synchronize to both Microsoft Outlook and ACT!. Other PDAs come only with their own proprietary software. For example, some early Palm OS PDAs came only with Palm Desktop while later Palms such as the Treo 650 has the built-in ability to sync to Palm Desktop and/or Microsoft Outlook, while Microsoft's ActiveSync and Windows Mobile Device Center only synchronize with Microsoft Outlook or a Microsoft Exchange server.
Third-party synchronization software is also available for many PDAs from companies like Intellisync and CompanionLink. This software synchronizes these handhelds to other personal information managers which are not supported by the PDA manufacturers, such as GoldMine and Lotus Notes.
Customization
As with personal computers, it is possible to install additional software on most PDAs. Software can be bought or downloaded from the Internet, allowing users to personalize their PDAs to their liking. An example of this would be the display theme for the PDA. Almost all PDAs also allow for adding some form of hardware. The most common is a memory card slot, which allows the users to get additional and exchangeable storage space on their handheld devices. There are also miniature keyboards that can be connected to most mainstream PDAs for quicker text input. PDAs with Bluetooth use Bluetooth-enabled devices like headsets, mice and (possibly foldable) keyboards.
Uses
PDAs are used to store information that can be accessed at any time and any where.
Automobile navigation
Many PDAs are used in car kits and are fitted with differential Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers to provide realtime automobile navigation. PDAs are increasingly being fitted as standard on new cars.
Many systems can also display traffic conditions, dynamic routing and roadside mobile radar guns.[citation needed] This information is usually downloaded from the Internet prior to travel, or can be downloaded on the fly with PDAs equipped with Internet access capability.
Popular software in Europe for this functionality is TomTom software showing road conditions and 3D environments.
Ruggedized PDAs
For many years businesses and government organizations have relied upon rugged PDAs for mobile data applications. Typical applications include supply chain management in warehouses, package delivery, route accounting, medical treatment and record keeping in hospitals, facilities maintenance and management, parking enforcement, access control and security, capital asset maintenance, meter reading by utilities, and "wireless waitress" applications in restaurants and hospitality venues. There are even PDAs designed to take significant amounts of punishment, probably meant for military use. Unfortunately, these devices often lack the features of other PDAs, and come with a steep price tag.
Medical and scientific uses
In medicine, PDAs have been shown to aid diagnosis and drug selection and some studies have concluded that their use by patients to record symptoms improves the effectiveness of communication with hospitals during follow-up. The first landmark study in testing the effectiveness of PDAs in a medical setting was conducted at the Brigham & Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospitals in affiliation with Harvard Medical School. Led by the team of Steven Labkoff, MD and Sandeep Shah, the Constellation project used Apple's Newton (first PDA in the market) to cater to the demands of the medical professionals.
Constellation's objective was to test how clinicians in various medical environments (wired vs un wired) would use medical reference books on a hand-held device. The study validated the hypothesis that PDAs with medical content would be used to a greater degree (>40% more often) in unwired environments.
Today, the company evolved from the effort Skyscape offers a wide range of resources including drug information, treatment options, guidelines, evidence based information and journal summaries including the drug & safety alerts. Other entrants include Epocrates and ABX guide, which supply drug databases, treatment information and relevant news in formats specific to mobile devices and services such as AvantGo translate medical journals into readable formats and provide updates from journals. WardWatch organizes medical records to remind doctors making ward rounds of information such as the treatment regimens of patients and programs. Finally, Pendragon and Syware provide tools for conducting research with mobile devices, and connecting to a central server allowing the user to enter data into a centralized database using their PDA. Additionally, Microsoft Visual Studio and Sun Java provide programming tools for developing survey instruments on the handheld. These development tools allow for integration with SQL databases that are stored on the handheld and can be synchronized with a desktop/server based database. Recently the development of Sensor Web technology has led to discussion of using wearable bodily sensors to monitor ongoing conditions like diabetes and epilepsy and alerting medical staff or the patient themselves to the treatment required via communication between the web and PDAs.
Educational uses
As mobile technology has become almost a necessity, it is no surprise that personal computing has become a vital learning tool by this time. Educational institutes have commenced a trend of integrating PDAs into their teaching practices (mobile learning). With the capabilities of PDAs, teachers are now able to provide a collaborative learning experience for their students. They are also preparing their students for possible practical uses of mobile computing upon their graduation.
PDAs and handheld devices have recently allowed for digital note taking. This has increased student’s productivity by allowing individuals to quickly spell-check, modify, and amend their class notes or e-notes. Educators are currently able to distribute course material through the use of the internet connectivity or infrared file sharing functions of the PDA. With concerns to class material, textbook publishers have begun to release e-books, electronic textbooks, which can be uploaded directly to a PDA. This eliminates the exhausting effort of carrying multiple textbooks at one time.
To meet the instructive needs sought by educational institutes, software companies have developed programs with the learning aspects in mind. Simple programs such as dictionaries, thesauri, and word processing software are important to the digital note taking process. In addition to these simple programs, encyclopedias and digital planning lessons have created added functionality for users.
With the increase in mobility of PDAs, school boards and educational institutes have now encountered issues with these devices. School boards are now concerned with students utilizing the internet connectivity to share test answers or to gossip during class time, which creates disruptions. Many school boards have modernized their computer policies to address these new concerns. Software companies such as Scantron Corp. have now created a program for distributing digital quizzes. The quiz software disables the infrared function on PDAs, which eliminates the element of information sharing among individuals during the examination.[2]
Sporting uses
PDAs are used by glider pilots for pre-flight planning and to assist navigation in cross-country competitions. They are linked to a GPS to produce moving-map displays showing the tracks to turn-points, airspace hazards and other tactical information.
Technical details
Architecture
Many PDAs run using a variation of the ARM architecture (usually denoted by the Intel XScale trademark). This encompasses a class of RISC microprocessors that are widely used in mobile devices and embedded systems, and its design was influenced strongly by a popular 1970s/1980s CPU, the MOS Technology 6502.
OS
The currently major PDA operating systems are:
* Palm OS - owned by PalmSource
* Windows Mobile Professional and Classic for use on Pocket PCs, (based on the Windows CE kernel) - owned by Microsoft
* BlackBerry OS - owned by Research In Motion
* Many operating systems based on the Linux kernel - free (not owned by any company) These include
o Familiar (comes in three flavours: GPE, Opie and barebone)
o OpenZaurus (for Zaurus PDAs)
o Intimate (for PDAs with an exceedingly large amount of memory)
* Symbian OS (formerly EPOC) owned by Motorola, Panasonic, Nokia, Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson
SMARTPHONE
A smartphone is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities beyond a typical mobile phone, often with personal computer like functionality. There is no industry standard definition of a smartphone . For some, a smartphone is a phone which runs complete operating system software providing a standardized interface and platform for application developers . For others, a smartphone is simply a phone with advanced features
Definition
There is no agreement in the industry about what a smartphone actually is, and definitions have changed over time . According to David Wood, EVP at Symbian, "Smart phones differ from ordinary mobile phones in two fundamental ways: how they are built and what they can do" . Other definitions put different stresses on these two factors .
Most devices considered smartphones today use an identifiable operating system, often with the ability to add applications (e.g. for enhanced data processing, connectivity or entertainment) - in contrast to regular phones which only support sandboxed applications . These smartphone applications may be developed by the manufacturer of the device, by the network operator or by any other third-party software developer.
In terms of features, most smartphones support full featured email capabilities with the functionality of a complete personal organizer. Other functionality might include an additional interface such as a miniature QWERTY keyboard, a touch screen or a D-pad, a built-in camera, contact management, an accelerometer, built-in navigation hardware and software, the ability to read business documents in a variety of formats such as PDF and Microsoft Office, media software for playing music, browsing photos and viewing video clips, internet browsers or even just secure access to company mail, such as is provided by a BlackBerry.
History
The first smartphone was called Simon designed by IBM 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, send and receive FAX, and games. It had no physical buttons to dial with. Instead customers used a touch-screen to select phone numbers with a finger or create facsimiles 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 smartphone.
The Nokia 9000, released in 1996, was marketed as a Communicator, but was arguably the first in a line of smartphones. The Ericsson R380 was sold as a 'smartphone' but could not run native 3rd party applications. Although the Nokia 9210 was arguably the first true smartphone with an open operating system, Nokia continued to refer to it as a Communicator.
Although the Nokia 7650, announced in 2001, was referred to as a 'smart phone' in the media, and is now called a 'smartphone' on the Nokia support site, the press release referred to it as an 'imaging phone'. The term gained further credence in 2002 when Microsoft announced its mobile phone OS would thenceforth be known as "Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone 2002".
Out of 1 billion camera phones to be shipped in 2008, smartphones, the higher end of the market with full email support, will represent about 10% of the market or about 100 million units.
Operating Systems
The most common operating systems (OS) used in smartphones are:
Symbian OS from Symbian Ltd. (72.4% Market Share)
Symbian has the largest share in most markets worldwide, but lags other companies in the relatively small but highly visible North American market. This matches the success of its largest shareholder and customer, Nokia, in all markets except Japan. Nokia itself enjoys 44.5% of the smartphone market. In Japan Symbian is strong due to a relationship with NTT DoCoMo, with only one of the 44 Symbian handsets released in Japan coming from Nokia. It is used by all the major handset manufacturers, including Motorola, Samsung, LG, and BenQ. It has received some adverse press attention due to virus threats (actually trojan horses).
Linux operating system (13.3% Market Share)
Linux is strongest in China where it is used by Motorola, and in Japan, used by DoCoMo. Rather than being a platform in its own right, Linux is used as a basis for a number of different platforms developed by several vendors, including Motorola and TrollTech, which are mostly incompatible. PalmSource (now Access) is moving towards an interface running on Linux. Another platform based on Linux is being developed by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, Samsung, and Vodafone.
Windows Mobile from Microsoft (6.1% Market Share)
Windows CE operating system along with Windows Mobile middleware are widely spread in Asia. The two improved variants of this operating system, Windows Mobile 6 Professional (for touch screen devices) and Windows Mobile 6 Standard were unveiled February 2007 and in the first half of 2008 respectively.
RIM BlackBerry operating system (5.3% Market Share)
This OS is focused on easy operation and was originally designed for business. Recently it has seen a surge in third party applications and has been improved to offer full multimedia support.
Palm OS developed by PalmSource (now a subsidiary of ACCESS). (1.6% Market Share)
PalmSource traditionally used its own platform developed by Palm Inc. Access Linux Platform (ALP) is an improvement that was planned to be launched in the first half of 2007. It will use technical specifications from the Linux Phone Standards Forum. The Access Linux Platform will include an emulation layer to support applications developed for Palm-based devices.
OS X from Apple, Inc. (1.3% Market Share)
The iPhone uses an operating system derived from Mac OS X. Note that Apple and AT&T do not currently allow third party programs to be installed onto iPhones. Currently, developers can only write applications for the iPhone by creating a web service that can be accessed via the included web browser. However, some have been able to install applications onto the iPhone via unofficial methods. Apple have announced that an SDK for creating native third party applications will be released in February 2008.
Market Share data from Canalys report "Worldwide smart mobile device market, Canalys Q2 2007"
Dual-OS handsets have also been announced, such as the FIC Neo1973 which may run OpenMoko or Windows Mobile.
Definition
There is no agreement in the industry about what a smartphone actually is, and definitions have changed over time . According to David Wood, EVP at Symbian, "Smart phones differ from ordinary mobile phones in two fundamental ways: how they are built and what they can do" . Other definitions put different stresses on these two factors .
Most devices considered smartphones today use an identifiable operating system, often with the ability to add applications (e.g. for enhanced data processing, connectivity or entertainment) - in contrast to regular phones which only support sandboxed applications . These smartphone applications may be developed by the manufacturer of the device, by the network operator or by any other third-party software developer.
In terms of features, most smartphones support full featured email capabilities with the functionality of a complete personal organizer. Other functionality might include an additional interface such as a miniature QWERTY keyboard, a touch screen or a D-pad, a built-in camera, contact management, an accelerometer, built-in navigation hardware and software, the ability to read business documents in a variety of formats such as PDF and Microsoft Office, media software for playing music, browsing photos and viewing video clips, internet browsers or even just secure access to company mail, such as is provided by a BlackBerry.
History
The first smartphone was called Simon designed by IBM 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, send and receive FAX, and games. It had no physical buttons to dial with. Instead customers used a touch-screen to select phone numbers with a finger or create facsimiles 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 smartphone.
The Nokia 9000, released in 1996, was marketed as a Communicator, but was arguably the first in a line of smartphones. The Ericsson R380 was sold as a 'smartphone' but could not run native 3rd party applications. Although the Nokia 9210 was arguably the first true smartphone with an open operating system, Nokia continued to refer to it as a Communicator.
Although the Nokia 7650, announced in 2001, was referred to as a 'smart phone' in the media, and is now called a 'smartphone' on the Nokia support site, the press release referred to it as an 'imaging phone'. The term gained further credence in 2002 when Microsoft announced its mobile phone OS would thenceforth be known as "Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone 2002".
Out of 1 billion camera phones to be shipped in 2008, smartphones, the higher end of the market with full email support, will represent about 10% of the market or about 100 million units.
Operating Systems
The most common operating systems (OS) used in smartphones are:
Symbian OS from Symbian Ltd. (72.4% Market Share)
Symbian has the largest share in most markets worldwide, but lags other companies in the relatively small but highly visible North American market. This matches the success of its largest shareholder and customer, Nokia, in all markets except Japan. Nokia itself enjoys 44.5% of the smartphone market. In Japan Symbian is strong due to a relationship with NTT DoCoMo, with only one of the 44 Symbian handsets released in Japan coming from Nokia. It is used by all the major handset manufacturers, including Motorola, Samsung, LG, and BenQ. It has received some adverse press attention due to virus threats (actually trojan horses).
Linux operating system (13.3% Market Share)
Linux is strongest in China where it is used by Motorola, and in Japan, used by DoCoMo. Rather than being a platform in its own right, Linux is used as a basis for a number of different platforms developed by several vendors, including Motorola and TrollTech, which are mostly incompatible. PalmSource (now Access) is moving towards an interface running on Linux. Another platform based on Linux is being developed by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, Samsung, and Vodafone.
Windows Mobile from Microsoft (6.1% Market Share)
Windows CE operating system along with Windows Mobile middleware are widely spread in Asia. The two improved variants of this operating system, Windows Mobile 6 Professional (for touch screen devices) and Windows Mobile 6 Standard were unveiled February 2007 and in the first half of 2008 respectively.
RIM BlackBerry operating system (5.3% Market Share)
This OS is focused on easy operation and was originally designed for business. Recently it has seen a surge in third party applications and has been improved to offer full multimedia support.
Palm OS developed by PalmSource (now a subsidiary of ACCESS). (1.6% Market Share)
PalmSource traditionally used its own platform developed by Palm Inc. Access Linux Platform (ALP) is an improvement that was planned to be launched in the first half of 2007. It will use technical specifications from the Linux Phone Standards Forum. The Access Linux Platform will include an emulation layer to support applications developed for Palm-based devices.
OS X from Apple, Inc. (1.3% Market Share)
The iPhone uses an operating system derived from Mac OS X. Note that Apple and AT&T do not currently allow third party programs to be installed onto iPhones. Currently, developers can only write applications for the iPhone by creating a web service that can be accessed via the included web browser. However, some have been able to install applications onto the iPhone via unofficial methods. Apple have announced that an SDK for creating native third party applications will be released in February 2008.
Market Share data from Canalys report "Worldwide smart mobile device market, Canalys Q2 2007"
Dual-OS handsets have also been announced, such as the FIC Neo1973 which may run OpenMoko or Windows Mobile.
Kamis, 04 Oktober 2007
Information Appliance
An information appliance (IA) is a device that focuses on handling a particular type of information and related tasks. Typical devices are smartphones and PDAs. The term is often confused with internet appliance, a type of consumer product which accesses services on the Internet.
Information appliances may overlap in definition or are sometimes referred to as smart devices, mobile devices, wireless devices, Internet appliances, web appliances, handhelds, handheld devices or smart handheld devices.
The term was coined by Jef Raskin in the early 1980s.
For a short while during the mid- and late 1980s, there were a few models of simple electronic typewriters with screens and some form of memory storage. They had some of the attributes of an information appliance. One of these dedicated word processor machines was the Canon Cat, designed by Jef Raskin as the forerunner of his idea of information appliance. Raskin described some properties of his definition of information appliance in his book The Humane Interface.
The term and the ideas behind it were later explained in detail by Donald Norman in his book The Invisible Computer. Larry Ellison, Oracle Corporation CEO, predicted that information appliances and network computers, would supersede desktop PCs.
Walled gardens versus open standards
In an ideal world, any true information appliance would be able to communicate with any other information appliance using open standard protocols and technologies, regardless of the maker of the software or the hardware. The communications aspects and all user interface elements would be designed together so that a user could switch seamlessly from one information appliance to another.
Some vendors are attempting to create "walled gardens" of closed proprietary content for information appliances, leveraging existing proprietary technologies. However, with the exception of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, these efforts have been less successful than predicted, due to the willingness of most vendors to work together within open standards frameworks, and the pre-existing widespread adoption of open standards such as GSM, IP, SMS and SMTP.
Related concepts
The idea of ubiquitous computing is related to the notion of information appliance because both take into account the need to design dedicated, interconnected devices from the ground up, by taking human factors as well as software and hardware issues into account. They differ on other matters such as the importance accorded to social aspects of computing.
Information appliances may overlap in definition or are sometimes referred to as smart devices, mobile devices, wireless devices, Internet appliances, web appliances, handhelds, handheld devices or smart handheld devices.
The term was coined by Jef Raskin in the early 1980s.
For a short while during the mid- and late 1980s, there were a few models of simple electronic typewriters with screens and some form of memory storage. They had some of the attributes of an information appliance. One of these dedicated word processor machines was the Canon Cat, designed by Jef Raskin as the forerunner of his idea of information appliance. Raskin described some properties of his definition of information appliance in his book The Humane Interface.
The term and the ideas behind it were later explained in detail by Donald Norman in his book The Invisible Computer. Larry Ellison, Oracle Corporation CEO, predicted that information appliances and network computers, would supersede desktop PCs.
Walled gardens versus open standards
In an ideal world, any true information appliance would be able to communicate with any other information appliance using open standard protocols and technologies, regardless of the maker of the software or the hardware. The communications aspects and all user interface elements would be designed together so that a user could switch seamlessly from one information appliance to another.
Some vendors are attempting to create "walled gardens" of closed proprietary content for information appliances, leveraging existing proprietary technologies. However, with the exception of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, these efforts have been less successful than predicted, due to the willingness of most vendors to work together within open standards frameworks, and the pre-existing widespread adoption of open standards such as GSM, IP, SMS and SMTP.
Related concepts
The idea of ubiquitous computing is related to the notion of information appliance because both take into account the need to design dedicated, interconnected devices from the ground up, by taking human factors as well as software and hardware issues into account. They differ on other matters such as the importance accorded to social aspects of computing.
History of iPhone
The genesis of the iPhone was Jobs' direction that Apple engineers investigate touch-screens. At the time he had been considering having Apple work on tablet PCs. Many have noted the device's similarities to Apple's previous touch-screen portable device, the Newton MessagePad. Like the Newton, the iPhone is nearly all screen. Its form factor is credited to Apple's head of design, Jonathan Ive. Comments made by Jobs in April 2003 at the "D: All Things Digital" executive conference expressed his belief that tablet PCs and traditional PDAs were not good choices as high-demand markets for Apple to enter, despite many requests made to him that Apple create another PDA. He did believe that cell phones were going to become important devices for portable information access, and that what cell phones needed to have was excellent synchronization software. At the time, instead of focusing on a follow-up to their Newton PDA, Jobs had Apple put its energies into the iPod, and the iTunes software (which can be used to synchronize content with iPod devices), released January 2001. On September 7, 2005, Apple and Motorola released the ROKR E1, the first mobile phone to use iTunes. Jobs was unhappy with the ROKR, feeling that having to compromise with a non-Apple designer (Motorola) prevented Apple from designing the phone they wanted to make. In September 2006, Apple discontinued support for the ROKR and released a version of iTunes that included references to an as-yet unknown mobile phone that could display pictures and video. On January 9, 2007, Jobs announced the iPhone at the Macworld convention, receiving substantial media attention, and on June 11, 2007 announced at the Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference that the iPhone would support third-party applications using the Safari engine on the device. Third-parties would create the Web 2.0 applications and users would access them via the internet. Such applications appeared even before the release of the iPhone; the first being "OneTrip", a program meant to keep track of the user's shopping list. On June 29, 2007, Apple released version 7.3 of iTunes to coincide with the release of the iPhone. This release contains support for iPhone service activation and syncing.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the iPhone is manufactured on contract in the Shenzhen factory of the Taiwanese company Hon Hai.
Advertising
The first advertisement for iPhone, titled "Hello," aired during the 79th Academy Awards on February 25, 2007 on ABC. The ad features clips from several notable films and television shows over the last seventy years, showing iconic characters answering telephones and saying "hello" or a similar greeting. The iPhone is shown at the end with the caption "Hello. Coming in June."
The commercial was created by TBWA\Chiat\Day, Apple's ad agency since CEO Steve Jobs' return to the company in 1997. TBWA's Media Arts Lab will continue to handle all upcoming advertising for iPhone, much as it has for iPod.
On June 3, 2007, Apple released four advertisements that announce a June 29, 2007 release date, and which concluded, "Use requires minimum new 2 year activation plan."; the footnote has since been removed from all four of the ads. A fifth ad featuring YouTube was released on June 21, 2007. All five advertisements feature a voice over describing various iPhone features, demonstrated on-screen. The song "Perfect Timing (This Morning)" by Orba Squara plays in the background.
U.S. Release
On June 28, 2007, during an address to Apple employees, Steve Jobs announced that all full-time Apple employees and those part-time employees that have been with the company at least one year would receive a free iPhone. Employees received their phones in July after the initial demand subsided.
On June 29, 2007, Apple closed its stores during the hours between 2:00 and 6:00 PM local time to prepare for the iPhone launch. Meanwhile, hundreds of customers lined up at stores nationwide until each stores re-opened their doors to sell the first devices.
There were some concerns with service and plans provided by AT&T. The iPhone is only available for those who subscribe to a two-year AT&T service plan unless they have poor credit, in which case they can use a pre-paid plan. There is no way to opt out of the data plan and thus people who do not want to use the iPhone's web capability may find the fee superfluous. The iPhone cannot be added to an AT&T Business account, and any existing business account discounts cannot be applied to an iPhone AT&T account. One report stated that the iPhone could not be added to an existing AT&T consumer account if it had been ported from Cingular at the time of the BellSouth-AT&T merger. This has since been corrected.
The AP reported also that some users were unable to activate their phones due to what AT&T reported was "high volume of activation requests were taxing the company's computer servers."
Early estimates by technology analysts estimated sales of between 250,000 to 700,000 units in the first weekend alone, with strong sales continuing after the initial weekend. As part of their quarterly earnings announcement, AT&T reported that 146,000 iPhones were activated in the first weekend. Though this figure does not include units that were purchased for resale on eBay or otherwise not activated until after the opening weekend, it is still less than most initial estimates. It is also estimated that 95% of the units sold are the 8 GB model.
Sales
Apple announced in their 2007 Q3 sales report and conference call that they sold 270,000 iPhones in the first 30 hours on launch weekend. AT&T reported 146,000 iPhones activated in the same time period. Apple anticipated selling their millionth iPhone in the first full quarter of availability, and 10 million by the end of fiscal 2008. On September 10, 2007, Apple announced sales of 1 million iPhones.
Price drop controversy
On September 5, 2007, the 4 GB model was discontinued, and the 8 GB model price reduced to US$399. Those who had purchased an iPhone in the 14-day period before the September 5, 2007 announcement were eligible for a US$200 "price protection" rebate from Apple or AT&T. However, it was widely reported that some who bought between the June 29, 2007 launch and the August 22, 2007 price protection kick-in date complained that this was a larger-than-normal price drop for such a relatively short period and accused Apple of unfair pricing. In response to the controversy, on September 6, 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote in an open letter to iPhone customers that everyone who purchased an iPhone at the higher price "and who is not receiving a rebate or other consideration", would receive a US$100 credit to be redeemed towards the purchase of any product sold in Apple's retail or online stores.
On September 24, 2007, one disgruntled customer filed a lawsuit against Apple, Steve Jobs, and AT&T over the price cut, citing price discrimination, underselling, discrimination in rebates, deceptive actions, and other wrongdoings.
Domain name
On July 1, 2007, it was reported that Apple paid at least US$1 million to Michael Kovatch for the transfer of the iphone.com domain name. Kovatch registered the domain in 1995. That URL now redirects to Apple's iPhone page.
Activation and SIM lock bypassing
The iPhone normally prevents access to its media player and web features unless it has also been activated as a phone through AT&T. On July 3, 2007, Jon Lech Johansen reported on his blog that he had successfully bypassed this requirement and unlocked the iPhone's other features with a combination of custom software and modification of the iTunes binary. He published the software and offsets for others to use.
On August 14, 2007, Gizmodo reported verification of a method to bypass the iPhone's SIM lock, allowing the phone to work freely with carriers other than AT&T. This method requires a Turbo SIM card costing approximately US$80 and essentially tricks the iPhone into believing that it is operating on the AT&T network even when it is connected natively (not in roaming mode) to another carrier. Australian Personal Computer later published a 10 step guide to unlocking the iPhone using the Turbo SIM method.
In mid-August, UniquePhones announced an unlocking service for the iPhone, only to retract this service the following week after receiving a phone call from a lawyer representing AT&T.
On August 24, 2007, George Hotz, a 17 year old hacker from Glen Rock, New Jersey, broke the lock that ties Apple's iPhone to AT&T's Wireless Network. He confirmed that he unlocked the phone and was using it on T-Mobile's Network. The hack opens up a realm of possibilities for overseas customers because the iPhone is only sold in the U.S. By unlocking it, Hotz opened up the phone to all kinds of phone networks across the world. Hotz posted the hack on his blog. The process is complicated and requires both disassembling the iPhone and executing software commands on a personal computer. Hotz, along with four others across the world, reportedly spent about 500 hours to unlock the phone.
Also, on August 24, 2007, Engadget reported, by way of photos and a video clip, that they were called by the "iPhoneSimFree" team to view a demonstration of unlocking the iPhone using a software only solution. Unlike Hotz's hardware hack, the code in this hack has not been made available to the general public. Sales of the unlock started on September 11, by way of several resellers who were able to order "keys" from iPhoneSimFree which are then passed onto the customer to use the software.
After only one full day of sales, early on September 12 the iPhoneDevTeam announced that they had also created a working "software unlock", and released it to the public for free. Utilizing the existing unlock requires some technical knowledge, although a GUI-based version was under construction.
On 24 September 2007 Apple issued a warning that future updates could render unlocked iPhones unusable. On 27 September 2007, owners of unlocked iPhones who took advantage of the version 1.1.1 update through iTunes reported that the update rendered the device virtually inoperable. There have also been reports that the update even affected some iPhones that were not unlocked. There are no current hacks to unlock iPhones using v1.1.1.
Custom application development
Development efforts towards using AJAX and Web 2.0 frameworks to create web applications have been discussed on Google's iPhoneWebDev group site, and developer knowledge published at the iPhone Developers' Wiki.
On July 20, 2007, the first simple independent native application was run on the iPhone. Since then, many third-party native applications have appeared. Efforts in the vein of Cocoa application development and unlocking the frameworks and low-level device access have been mostly centralized at FiveForty.net.
Disputes
Apple has filed more than 200 patents related to the technology behind the iPhone.
LG Electronics claimed the iPhone's design was copied from the LG Prada. Woo-Young Kwak, head of LG Mobile Handset R&D Center, said at a press conference, “We consider that Apple copied Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006.”
Trademark
On September 3, 1993, Infogear filed for the U.S. trademark "I PHONE" and on March 20, 1996 applied for the trademark "IPhone". "I Phone" was registered in March 1998, and "IPhone" was registered in 1999. Since then, the I PHONE mark was abandoned. Infogear's trademarks cover "communications terminals comprising computer hardware and software providing integrated telephone, data communications and personal computer functions" (1993 filing), and "computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks" (1996 filing). Infogear released a telephone with an integrated web browser under the name iPhone in 1998. In 2000, Infogear won an infringement claim against the owners of the iphones.com domain name. In June 2000, Cisco Systems acquired Infogear, including the iPhone trademark. On December 18, 2006 they released a range of re-branded Voice over IP (VoIP) sets under the name iPhone.
In October 2002, Apple applied for the "iPhone" trademark in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and the European Union. A Canadian application followed in October 2004 and a New Zealand application in September 2006. As of October 2006 only the Singapore and Australian applications had been granted. In September 2006, a company called Ocean Telecom Services applied for an "iPhone" trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and Hong Kong, following a filing in Trinidad and Tobago. As the Ocean Telecom trademark applications use exactly the same wording as Apple's New Zealand application, it is assumed that Ocean Telecom is applying on behalf of Apple. The Canadian application was opposed in August 2005 by a Canadian company called Comwave who themselves applied for the trademark three months later. Comwave have been selling VoIP devices called iPhone since 2004.
Shortly after Steve Jobs' January 9, 2007 announcement that Apple would be selling a product called iPhone in June 2007, Cisco issued a statement that it had been negotiating trademark licensing with Apple and expected Apple to agree to the final documents that had been submitted the night before. On January 10, 2007 Cisco announced it had filed a lawsuit against Apple over the infringement of the trademark iPhone, seeking an injunction in federal court to prohibit Apple from using the name. More recently, Cisco claimed that the trademark lawsuit was a "minor skirmish" that was not about money, but about interoperability.
On February 2, 2007, Apple and Cisco announced that they had agreed to temporarily suspend litigation while they hold settlement talks, and subsequently announced on February 20, 2007 that they had reached an agreement. Both companies will be allowed to use the "iPhone" name in exchange for "exploring interoperability" between Apple's products and Cisco's iPhone.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the iPhone is manufactured on contract in the Shenzhen factory of the Taiwanese company Hon Hai.
Advertising
The first advertisement for iPhone, titled "Hello," aired during the 79th Academy Awards on February 25, 2007 on ABC. The ad features clips from several notable films and television shows over the last seventy years, showing iconic characters answering telephones and saying "hello" or a similar greeting. The iPhone is shown at the end with the caption "Hello. Coming in June."
The commercial was created by TBWA\Chiat\Day, Apple's ad agency since CEO Steve Jobs' return to the company in 1997. TBWA's Media Arts Lab will continue to handle all upcoming advertising for iPhone, much as it has for iPod.
On June 3, 2007, Apple released four advertisements that announce a June 29, 2007 release date, and which concluded, "Use requires minimum new 2 year activation plan."; the footnote has since been removed from all four of the ads. A fifth ad featuring YouTube was released on June 21, 2007. All five advertisements feature a voice over describing various iPhone features, demonstrated on-screen. The song "Perfect Timing (This Morning)" by Orba Squara plays in the background.
U.S. Release
On June 28, 2007, during an address to Apple employees, Steve Jobs announced that all full-time Apple employees and those part-time employees that have been with the company at least one year would receive a free iPhone. Employees received their phones in July after the initial demand subsided.
On June 29, 2007, Apple closed its stores during the hours between 2:00 and 6:00 PM local time to prepare for the iPhone launch. Meanwhile, hundreds of customers lined up at stores nationwide until each stores re-opened their doors to sell the first devices.
There were some concerns with service and plans provided by AT&T. The iPhone is only available for those who subscribe to a two-year AT&T service plan unless they have poor credit, in which case they can use a pre-paid plan. There is no way to opt out of the data plan and thus people who do not want to use the iPhone's web capability may find the fee superfluous. The iPhone cannot be added to an AT&T Business account, and any existing business account discounts cannot be applied to an iPhone AT&T account. One report stated that the iPhone could not be added to an existing AT&T consumer account if it had been ported from Cingular at the time of the BellSouth-AT&T merger. This has since been corrected.
The AP reported also that some users were unable to activate their phones due to what AT&T reported was "high volume of activation requests were taxing the company's computer servers."
Early estimates by technology analysts estimated sales of between 250,000 to 700,000 units in the first weekend alone, with strong sales continuing after the initial weekend. As part of their quarterly earnings announcement, AT&T reported that 146,000 iPhones were activated in the first weekend. Though this figure does not include units that were purchased for resale on eBay or otherwise not activated until after the opening weekend, it is still less than most initial estimates. It is also estimated that 95% of the units sold are the 8 GB model.
Sales
Apple announced in their 2007 Q3 sales report and conference call that they sold 270,000 iPhones in the first 30 hours on launch weekend. AT&T reported 146,000 iPhones activated in the same time period. Apple anticipated selling their millionth iPhone in the first full quarter of availability, and 10 million by the end of fiscal 2008. On September 10, 2007, Apple announced sales of 1 million iPhones.
Price drop controversy
On September 5, 2007, the 4 GB model was discontinued, and the 8 GB model price reduced to US$399. Those who had purchased an iPhone in the 14-day period before the September 5, 2007 announcement were eligible for a US$200 "price protection" rebate from Apple or AT&T. However, it was widely reported that some who bought between the June 29, 2007 launch and the August 22, 2007 price protection kick-in date complained that this was a larger-than-normal price drop for such a relatively short period and accused Apple of unfair pricing. In response to the controversy, on September 6, 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote in an open letter to iPhone customers that everyone who purchased an iPhone at the higher price "and who is not receiving a rebate or other consideration", would receive a US$100 credit to be redeemed towards the purchase of any product sold in Apple's retail or online stores.
On September 24, 2007, one disgruntled customer filed a lawsuit against Apple, Steve Jobs, and AT&T over the price cut, citing price discrimination, underselling, discrimination in rebates, deceptive actions, and other wrongdoings.
Domain name
On July 1, 2007, it was reported that Apple paid at least US$1 million to Michael Kovatch for the transfer of the iphone.com domain name. Kovatch registered the domain in 1995. That URL now redirects to Apple's iPhone page.
Activation and SIM lock bypassing
The iPhone normally prevents access to its media player and web features unless it has also been activated as a phone through AT&T. On July 3, 2007, Jon Lech Johansen reported on his blog that he had successfully bypassed this requirement and unlocked the iPhone's other features with a combination of custom software and modification of the iTunes binary. He published the software and offsets for others to use.
On August 14, 2007, Gizmodo reported verification of a method to bypass the iPhone's SIM lock, allowing the phone to work freely with carriers other than AT&T. This method requires a Turbo SIM card costing approximately US$80 and essentially tricks the iPhone into believing that it is operating on the AT&T network even when it is connected natively (not in roaming mode) to another carrier. Australian Personal Computer later published a 10 step guide to unlocking the iPhone using the Turbo SIM method.
In mid-August, UniquePhones announced an unlocking service for the iPhone, only to retract this service the following week after receiving a phone call from a lawyer representing AT&T.
On August 24, 2007, George Hotz, a 17 year old hacker from Glen Rock, New Jersey, broke the lock that ties Apple's iPhone to AT&T's Wireless Network. He confirmed that he unlocked the phone and was using it on T-Mobile's Network. The hack opens up a realm of possibilities for overseas customers because the iPhone is only sold in the U.S. By unlocking it, Hotz opened up the phone to all kinds of phone networks across the world. Hotz posted the hack on his blog. The process is complicated and requires both disassembling the iPhone and executing software commands on a personal computer. Hotz, along with four others across the world, reportedly spent about 500 hours to unlock the phone.
Also, on August 24, 2007, Engadget reported, by way of photos and a video clip, that they were called by the "iPhoneSimFree" team to view a demonstration of unlocking the iPhone using a software only solution. Unlike Hotz's hardware hack, the code in this hack has not been made available to the general public. Sales of the unlock started on September 11, by way of several resellers who were able to order "keys" from iPhoneSimFree which are then passed onto the customer to use the software.
After only one full day of sales, early on September 12 the iPhoneDevTeam announced that they had also created a working "software unlock", and released it to the public for free. Utilizing the existing unlock requires some technical knowledge, although a GUI-based version was under construction.
On 24 September 2007 Apple issued a warning that future updates could render unlocked iPhones unusable. On 27 September 2007, owners of unlocked iPhones who took advantage of the version 1.1.1 update through iTunes reported that the update rendered the device virtually inoperable. There have also been reports that the update even affected some iPhones that were not unlocked. There are no current hacks to unlock iPhones using v1.1.1.
Custom application development
Development efforts towards using AJAX and Web 2.0 frameworks to create web applications have been discussed on Google's iPhoneWebDev group site, and developer knowledge published at the iPhone Developers' Wiki.
On July 20, 2007, the first simple independent native application was run on the iPhone. Since then, many third-party native applications have appeared. Efforts in the vein of Cocoa application development and unlocking the frameworks and low-level device access have been mostly centralized at FiveForty.net.
Disputes
Apple has filed more than 200 patents related to the technology behind the iPhone.
LG Electronics claimed the iPhone's design was copied from the LG Prada. Woo-Young Kwak, head of LG Mobile Handset R&D Center, said at a press conference, “We consider that Apple copied Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006.”
Trademark
On September 3, 1993, Infogear filed for the U.S. trademark "I PHONE" and on March 20, 1996 applied for the trademark "IPhone". "I Phone" was registered in March 1998, and "IPhone" was registered in 1999. Since then, the I PHONE mark was abandoned. Infogear's trademarks cover "communications terminals comprising computer hardware and software providing integrated telephone, data communications and personal computer functions" (1993 filing), and "computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks" (1996 filing). Infogear released a telephone with an integrated web browser under the name iPhone in 1998. In 2000, Infogear won an infringement claim against the owners of the iphones.com domain name. In June 2000, Cisco Systems acquired Infogear, including the iPhone trademark. On December 18, 2006 they released a range of re-branded Voice over IP (VoIP) sets under the name iPhone.
In October 2002, Apple applied for the "iPhone" trademark in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and the European Union. A Canadian application followed in October 2004 and a New Zealand application in September 2006. As of October 2006 only the Singapore and Australian applications had been granted. In September 2006, a company called Ocean Telecom Services applied for an "iPhone" trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and Hong Kong, following a filing in Trinidad and Tobago. As the Ocean Telecom trademark applications use exactly the same wording as Apple's New Zealand application, it is assumed that Ocean Telecom is applying on behalf of Apple. The Canadian application was opposed in August 2005 by a Canadian company called Comwave who themselves applied for the trademark three months later. Comwave have been selling VoIP devices called iPhone since 2004.
Shortly after Steve Jobs' January 9, 2007 announcement that Apple would be selling a product called iPhone in June 2007, Cisco issued a statement that it had been negotiating trademark licensing with Apple and expected Apple to agree to the final documents that had been submitted the night before. On January 10, 2007 Cisco announced it had filed a lawsuit against Apple over the infringement of the trademark iPhone, seeking an injunction in federal court to prohibit Apple from using the name. More recently, Cisco claimed that the trademark lawsuit was a "minor skirmish" that was not about money, but about interoperability.
On February 2, 2007, Apple and Cisco announced that they had agreed to temporarily suspend litigation while they hold settlement talks, and subsequently announced on February 20, 2007 that they had reached an agreement. Both companies will be allowed to use the "iPhone" name in exchange for "exploring interoperability" between Apple's products and Cisco's iPhone.
Pricing and availability of iPhone
Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone will be available during the fourth quarter 2007 in Europe and in 2008 for Asia.
Apple also announced that its goal is to capture 1% of the global mobile phone market, which would be approximately 10 million units being sold in the first full calendar year of iPhone availability. For comparison, Jobs announced that the Apple iPod commands 62% of the U.S. market share for MP3 players.
United States
With the initial June 29, 2007 United States release, the iPhone was offered in two configurations: a 4 GB model for US$499 and an 8 GB model for US$599. It was speculated that the original launch price provided Apple with significant product margins. According to a research paper released by iSuppli in January 2007, the initial launch price, based on the estimated cost of the phones' componentry, yielded a unit profit margin of 45%.
On September 5, 2007, the 4 GB model was dropped, and the 8 GB model price fell to US$399.
AT&T Mobility is the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the United States and will remain so until 2009 or later. The iPhone may be purchased with a two-year service plan with AT&T with plans ranging from US$59.99 to US$219.99 per month, or pre-paid month to month at a slightly higher rate.
United Kingdom
On September 18, 2007, Apple announced that Telefónica's O2 Telecommunications will be the carrier of the iPhone in the United Kingdom, and the 8 GB model will go on sale on November 9, 2007 for £269. It will be available through Apple stores and The Carphone Warehouse and will require a new 18-month contract.
Three packages will be available; each include unlimited data, Wi-Fi, and Visual Voicemail.
Germany
In press releases on September 19, 2007, Apple and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile announced the iPhone would go on sale November 9, 2007 throughout Germany in Telekom Shops of Deutsche Telekom and on the T-Mobile web shop. The T-Mobile iPhone will require a new 2-year T-Mobile tariff.
France
On September 20, 2007, France Télécom announced their wireless division Orange SA has a contract with Apple to offer iPhones in France. The phones will go on sale sometime in November. Pricing and an exact release date have not been announced yet.
Others
In Canada, Rogers Wireless (including its Fido subsidiary) is the only national wireless provider operating on the GSM network used by iPhone. According to Rogers, no negotiations are underway and Apple has not set any timeline for a Canadian release. A dispute with Comwave over Canadian rights to the "iPhone" trademark (separate from the previous U.S. dispute with Cisco) may also affect timing for any release.
Apple is expected to release the iPhone in Australia, and Japan in 2008.
In Israel some reports were published on the iPhone being translated to Hebrew and evidence of some fully functional versions spread throughout Tel Aviv.
Specifications
The specifications as listed on Apple's website are:
* Screen size: 8.9 cm (3.5 in)
* Screen resolution: 320×480 pixels at 160 ppi
* Input method: Multi-touch screen interface (the "Home" button is the iPhone's only physical front panel button)
* Operating System: OS X
* Storage: 8 GB flash memory (originally: 4 or 8 GB choice)
* Quad band GSM (GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900)
* Wi-Fi (802.11g), EDGE and Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
* 2 megapixel camera
* Built-in rechargeable, non-removable battery with up to 8 hours of talk, 6 hours of internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and up to 24 hours of audio playback, lasting over 250 hours on standby.
* Size: 115×61×11.6 mm (4.5×2.4×0.46 in)
* Weight: 135 g (4.8 oz)
* Digital SAR of 0.974 W/kg
An analysis of the iPhone's firmware has revealed that the main Samsung chip (designated S5L8900) contains an ARM 1176 processor, together with a PowerVR MBX 3D graphics co-processor.
Package contents
* iPhone
* Stereo earphones with in-line microphone
* Dock
* Dock connector to USB cable
* USB power adapter
* Documentation, including two white Apple stickers
* Cleaning/polishing cloth
A separate dock is also available which charges both the iPhone and Apple Bluetooth Headset.
Apple also announced that its goal is to capture 1% of the global mobile phone market, which would be approximately 10 million units being sold in the first full calendar year of iPhone availability. For comparison, Jobs announced that the Apple iPod commands 62% of the U.S. market share for MP3 players.
United States
With the initial June 29, 2007 United States release, the iPhone was offered in two configurations: a 4 GB model for US$499 and an 8 GB model for US$599. It was speculated that the original launch price provided Apple with significant product margins. According to a research paper released by iSuppli in January 2007, the initial launch price, based on the estimated cost of the phones' componentry, yielded a unit profit margin of 45%.
On September 5, 2007, the 4 GB model was dropped, and the 8 GB model price fell to US$399.
AT&T Mobility is the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the United States and will remain so until 2009 or later. The iPhone may be purchased with a two-year service plan with AT&T with plans ranging from US$59.99 to US$219.99 per month, or pre-paid month to month at a slightly higher rate.
United Kingdom
On September 18, 2007, Apple announced that Telefónica's O2 Telecommunications will be the carrier of the iPhone in the United Kingdom, and the 8 GB model will go on sale on November 9, 2007 for £269. It will be available through Apple stores and The Carphone Warehouse and will require a new 18-month contract.
Three packages will be available; each include unlimited data, Wi-Fi, and Visual Voicemail.
Germany
In press releases on September 19, 2007, Apple and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile announced the iPhone would go on sale November 9, 2007 throughout Germany in Telekom Shops of Deutsche Telekom and on the T-Mobile web shop. The T-Mobile iPhone will require a new 2-year T-Mobile tariff.
France
On September 20, 2007, France Télécom announced their wireless division Orange SA has a contract with Apple to offer iPhones in France. The phones will go on sale sometime in November. Pricing and an exact release date have not been announced yet.
Others
In Canada, Rogers Wireless (including its Fido subsidiary) is the only national wireless provider operating on the GSM network used by iPhone. According to Rogers, no negotiations are underway and Apple has not set any timeline for a Canadian release. A dispute with Comwave over Canadian rights to the "iPhone" trademark (separate from the previous U.S. dispute with Cisco) may also affect timing for any release.
Apple is expected to release the iPhone in Australia, and Japan in 2008.
In Israel some reports were published on the iPhone being translated to Hebrew and evidence of some fully functional versions spread throughout Tel Aviv.
Specifications
The specifications as listed on Apple's website are:
* Screen size: 8.9 cm (3.5 in)
* Screen resolution: 320×480 pixels at 160 ppi
* Input method: Multi-touch screen interface (the "Home" button is the iPhone's only physical front panel button)
* Operating System: OS X
* Storage: 8 GB flash memory (originally: 4 or 8 GB choice)
* Quad band GSM (GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900)
* Wi-Fi (802.11g), EDGE and Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
* 2 megapixel camera
* Built-in rechargeable, non-removable battery with up to 8 hours of talk, 6 hours of internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and up to 24 hours of audio playback, lasting over 250 hours on standby.
* Size: 115×61×11.6 mm (4.5×2.4×0.46 in)
* Weight: 135 g (4.8 oz)
* Digital SAR of 0.974 W/kg
An analysis of the iPhone's firmware has revealed that the main Samsung chip (designated S5L8900) contains an ARM 1176 processor, together with a PowerVR MBX 3D graphics co-processor.
Package contents
* iPhone
* Stereo earphones with in-line microphone
* Dock
* Dock connector to USB cable
* USB power adapter
* Documentation, including two white Apple stickers
* Cleaning/polishing cloth
A separate dock is also available which charges both the iPhone and Apple Bluetooth Headset.
Functions iPhone
Phone
The iPhone allows conferencing, call holding, call merging, caller ID, and integration with other cellular network features and iPhone functions. For example, a playing song fades out when the user receives a call. Once the call is ended the music fades back in. Voice dialing is not supported by the iPhone.
The iPhone includes a Visual Voicemail feature in conjunction with AT&T which allows users to view a list of current voicemail messages on-screen, without having to call into their voicemail. Unlike most other systems, messages can be listened to in a non-chronological order, by choosing messages from an on-screen list. AT&T modified their voicemail infrastructure to accommodate this new feature designed by Apple.
A ringtone feature, introduced on September 5, 2007, allows users to buy custom ringtones from their purchased iTunes music.
Text messaging
Text messages are presented chronologically in a mailbox format similar to Mail, which places all text from recipients together with replies. Text messages are displayed in speech bubbles (similar to iChat) under each recipient's name. The iPhone does not support instant messaging, MMS, multi-recipient SMS, or copy/cut/paste capability.
Camera
The iPhone features a built in 2.0 megapixel camera located on the back for still digital photos, but not video recording. It also includes software that allows the user to upload, view, and e-mail photos. The user zooms in and out of photos by "unpinching" and "pinching" them through the multi-touch interface. The software interacts with iPhoto on the Mac.
Multimedia
The layout of the music library differs from previous iPods, with the sections divided more clearly alphabetically, and with a larger font. Similar to previous iPods, the iPhone can sort its media library by songs, artists, albums, videos, playlists, genres, composers, podcasts, audiobooks, and compilations. The Cover Flow, like that on iTunes, shows the different album covers in a scroll-through photo library. Scrolling is achieved by swiping a finger across the screen.
Like the fifth generation iPods introduced in 2005, the iPhone can play video, allowing users to watch TV shows and films. Unlike other image-related content, video on the iPhone plays only in the landscape orientation, when the phone is turned sideways. Double tapping switches between wide-screen and fullscreen video playback.
The iPhone will allow users to purchase and download songs from the iTunes Store directly to their iPhone over Wi-Fi, but not over the cellular data network.
Web connectivity
The iPhone has built-in Wi-Fi, with which it is able to access the World Wide Web (through a wireless network) via a modified version of the Safari web browser. The iPhone is also able to connect to the web through AT&T's EDGE network, but is not able to utilize AT&T's 3G/HSDPA network; Steve Jobs mentioned at the Keynote presentation that 3G support would be a future feature of a new version. The use of the EDGE network instead of 3G has been criticized by analysts. When the user is not in a Wi-Fi hot spot, the iPhone's network connection will use the older EDGE network; before the launch, reviewers found that the EDGE network was "excruciatingly slow," with the iPhone taking as long as 100 seconds to download the Yahoo! home page for the first time. Immediately before the launch the observed speed of the network increased to almost 200 kbit/s. This is probably due to the new "Fine EDGE" upgrades AT&T has been making to their network prior to the launch. The EDGE network does benefit iPhone users by providing greater availability than 3G, although 3G continues to be expanded to most major cities in the United States. The iPhone does not provide tethering for laptop users.
The web browser displays full web pages as opposed to simplified pages as on most non-smartphones. The iPhone does not support Flash or Java technology. Web pages may be viewed in portrait or landscape mode and support automatic zooming by "pinching" or double-tapping images or text. The iPhone also has Bluetooth 2.x+EDR built in, which only works with wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth technology, but does not support A2DP or common Bluetooth file transfer (OBEX).
An agreement between Apple and Google provides for access to a specially modified version of Google Maps—in map, local list, or satellite form, optimized for the iPhone, which also provides optional real-time traffic information. During the product's announcement, Jobs demonstrated this feature by searching for nearby Starbucks locations and then placing a prank call to one with a single tap. Google's ownership of YouTube means that viewing videos on the website can be achieved on the iPhone through a specialised application built into the system.
E-mail
The iPhone also features an e-mail program that supports HTML e-mail, which enables the user to embed photos in an e-mail message. PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel attachments to mail messages can be viewed on the phone. Yahoo! is currently the only e-mail provider offering a free Push-IMAP e-mail service similar to that on a BlackBerry for the iPhone; IMAP and POP3 mail standards are also supported, including Microsoft Exchange. The iPhone will sync e-mail account settings over from Apple's own Mail application, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Entourage, or can be manually configured using the device's Settings tool. With the correct settings, the e-mail program can check many IMAP or POP3-enabled web based accounts such as Gmail, .Mac mail, and AOL.
Software
OS X
Apple has confirmed that an optimized version of the Mac OS X operating system (without unnecessary components) runs on the iPhone, although differences between the operating system (OS X) running on Macs and the iPhone have not been officially explained. The iPhone's version of OS X includes the software component "Core Animation" which is responsible for the smooth animations used in its user interface. Core Animation has not yet been released for Macs, but will be part of Mac OS X v10.5. The operating system takes up about 300 MB of the device's total 8 GB storage according to the size of the OS partition. It will be capable of supporting bundled and future applications from Apple.
As the iPhone's CPU is an ARM-based processor, the version of OS X that runs on iPhone differs from the desktop version in that code written in high-level programming languages is compiled to, and code written in assembly language is written in, instructions from the ARM instruction set architecture (ISA) instead of the x86 and PowerPC ISAs that Mac OS X uses.
Applications
There are several applications located on the "Home" screen. The YouTube application streams videos over Wi-Fi and/or EDGE after encoding them using QuickTime's H.264 codec, to which YouTube has converted about 10,000 videos. They are expected to convert the entire catalog by the third quarter of 2007. As a result, the YouTube application on iPhone can currently only view a certain selection of videos from the site. Also, because YouTube displays videos using Flash, the iPhone can only view videos through the YouTube application as opposed to accessing the website using Safari.
At WWDC 2007 on June 11, 2007 Apple Inc. announced that the iPhone will support third-party "applications" via the Safari web browser that share the look and feel of the iPhone interface. The applications must be created in Ajax or JavaScript to maintain device security. The iPhone cannot officially install full programs from anyone but Apple, although Steve Jobs has hinted that future third-party applications are in development. Enthusiasts have demonstrated the possibility of unauthorized native code with a simple "Hello, World" program, as well as a fully functional terminal emulator.
Analysts also claim that iPhone lacks any type of firewall, which some experts claim is posing a data security risk. It is not confirmed by Apple or by independent analysts that used the actual device for tests that it doesn't have a firewall. Daniel Eran writes: "Dulaney doesn't know if the iPhone has a firewall, has no reason to suggest that its installation of OS X wouldn't offer a firewall, and offers no reasons why a mobile device would need a firewall anyway."
Platform support
The iPhone is compatible with Mac OS X version 10.4.10 or later, and 32-bit Windows XP or Vista. For each, the user must download iTunes version 7.3 or later. The iPhone is not compatible with any 64-bit version of Windows such as Windows XP x64 or any 64-bit edition of Windows Vista.
Software updates
Apple provides updates to the iPhone's operating system through iTunes, in a similar fashion to the way that iPods are updated, and touts this as an advantage compared to other cell phones. Security patches as well as new and improved features, such as a mobile chat client, Flash support, and voice recording, may be released in this fashion.
The first iPhone software update, 1.0.1, was released on July 31, 2007 to patch an exploit, discovered on July 23, 2007. It allowed hackers to take complete control of the iPhone via Wi-Fi connection or by luring a person to a website with that included malicious code. Once the hacker had control of the iPhone they could download the entire content of the iPhone, make phone calls, or turn the phone into a covert listening device.
The first full update, 1.1.1, was released on September 27, 2007. In addition to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, this update also adds home button shortcuts and other features from the iPod touch. It also disabled third party apps and hacks. See the Activation and SIM lock bypassing section for further information.
Miscellaneous
Battery
The iPhone features a built-in rechargeable battery that is not intended to be user-replaceable, similar to existing iPods. Once the battery reaches the end of its life time the phone will need to be returned to Apple and replaced for a fee. The cost of replacing the battery is US$79 and US$6.95 for shipping. The battery is stated to be capable of providing up to seven hours of video, six hours of web browsing, or eight hours of talk time (depending on configuration). The battery life for music playing is stated to be 24 hours. The battery also allows for up to 250 hours of standby time. Apple's site says that the battery life "is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 400 full charge and discharge cycles."
The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a consumer advocate group, has sent a complaint to Apple and AT&T over the fee that consumers have to pay to get the battery replaced. In addition, the scheme and pricing was not made known to buyers until after the product was launched
SIM card
The SIM card is located in a slot at the top of the device, and the device is activated through iTunes. The iPhone does not contain a memory card slot.
The iPhone allows conferencing, call holding, call merging, caller ID, and integration with other cellular network features and iPhone functions. For example, a playing song fades out when the user receives a call. Once the call is ended the music fades back in. Voice dialing is not supported by the iPhone.
The iPhone includes a Visual Voicemail feature in conjunction with AT&T which allows users to view a list of current voicemail messages on-screen, without having to call into their voicemail. Unlike most other systems, messages can be listened to in a non-chronological order, by choosing messages from an on-screen list. AT&T modified their voicemail infrastructure to accommodate this new feature designed by Apple.
A ringtone feature, introduced on September 5, 2007, allows users to buy custom ringtones from their purchased iTunes music.
Text messaging
Text messages are presented chronologically in a mailbox format similar to Mail, which places all text from recipients together with replies. Text messages are displayed in speech bubbles (similar to iChat) under each recipient's name. The iPhone does not support instant messaging, MMS, multi-recipient SMS, or copy/cut/paste capability.
Camera
The iPhone features a built in 2.0 megapixel camera located on the back for still digital photos, but not video recording. It also includes software that allows the user to upload, view, and e-mail photos. The user zooms in and out of photos by "unpinching" and "pinching" them through the multi-touch interface. The software interacts with iPhoto on the Mac.
Multimedia
The layout of the music library differs from previous iPods, with the sections divided more clearly alphabetically, and with a larger font. Similar to previous iPods, the iPhone can sort its media library by songs, artists, albums, videos, playlists, genres, composers, podcasts, audiobooks, and compilations. The Cover Flow, like that on iTunes, shows the different album covers in a scroll-through photo library. Scrolling is achieved by swiping a finger across the screen.
Like the fifth generation iPods introduced in 2005, the iPhone can play video, allowing users to watch TV shows and films. Unlike other image-related content, video on the iPhone plays only in the landscape orientation, when the phone is turned sideways. Double tapping switches between wide-screen and fullscreen video playback.
The iPhone will allow users to purchase and download songs from the iTunes Store directly to their iPhone over Wi-Fi, but not over the cellular data network.
Web connectivity
The iPhone has built-in Wi-Fi, with which it is able to access the World Wide Web (through a wireless network) via a modified version of the Safari web browser. The iPhone is also able to connect to the web through AT&T's EDGE network, but is not able to utilize AT&T's 3G/HSDPA network; Steve Jobs mentioned at the Keynote presentation that 3G support would be a future feature of a new version. The use of the EDGE network instead of 3G has been criticized by analysts. When the user is not in a Wi-Fi hot spot, the iPhone's network connection will use the older EDGE network; before the launch, reviewers found that the EDGE network was "excruciatingly slow," with the iPhone taking as long as 100 seconds to download the Yahoo! home page for the first time. Immediately before the launch the observed speed of the network increased to almost 200 kbit/s. This is probably due to the new "Fine EDGE" upgrades AT&T has been making to their network prior to the launch. The EDGE network does benefit iPhone users by providing greater availability than 3G, although 3G continues to be expanded to most major cities in the United States. The iPhone does not provide tethering for laptop users.
The web browser displays full web pages as opposed to simplified pages as on most non-smartphones. The iPhone does not support Flash or Java technology. Web pages may be viewed in portrait or landscape mode and support automatic zooming by "pinching" or double-tapping images or text. The iPhone also has Bluetooth 2.x+EDR built in, which only works with wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth technology, but does not support A2DP or common Bluetooth file transfer (OBEX).
An agreement between Apple and Google provides for access to a specially modified version of Google Maps—in map, local list, or satellite form, optimized for the iPhone, which also provides optional real-time traffic information. During the product's announcement, Jobs demonstrated this feature by searching for nearby Starbucks locations and then placing a prank call to one with a single tap. Google's ownership of YouTube means that viewing videos on the website can be achieved on the iPhone through a specialised application built into the system.
The iPhone also features an e-mail program that supports HTML e-mail, which enables the user to embed photos in an e-mail message. PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel attachments to mail messages can be viewed on the phone. Yahoo! is currently the only e-mail provider offering a free Push-IMAP e-mail service similar to that on a BlackBerry for the iPhone; IMAP and POP3 mail standards are also supported, including Microsoft Exchange. The iPhone will sync e-mail account settings over from Apple's own Mail application, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Entourage, or can be manually configured using the device's Settings tool. With the correct settings, the e-mail program can check many IMAP or POP3-enabled web based accounts such as Gmail, .Mac mail, and AOL.
Software
OS X
Apple has confirmed that an optimized version of the Mac OS X operating system (without unnecessary components) runs on the iPhone, although differences between the operating system (OS X) running on Macs and the iPhone have not been officially explained. The iPhone's version of OS X includes the software component "Core Animation" which is responsible for the smooth animations used in its user interface. Core Animation has not yet been released for Macs, but will be part of Mac OS X v10.5. The operating system takes up about 300 MB of the device's total 8 GB storage according to the size of the OS partition. It will be capable of supporting bundled and future applications from Apple.
As the iPhone's CPU is an ARM-based processor, the version of OS X that runs on iPhone differs from the desktop version in that code written in high-level programming languages is compiled to, and code written in assembly language is written in, instructions from the ARM instruction set architecture (ISA) instead of the x86 and PowerPC ISAs that Mac OS X uses.
Applications
There are several applications located on the "Home" screen. The YouTube application streams videos over Wi-Fi and/or EDGE after encoding them using QuickTime's H.264 codec, to which YouTube has converted about 10,000 videos. They are expected to convert the entire catalog by the third quarter of 2007. As a result, the YouTube application on iPhone can currently only view a certain selection of videos from the site. Also, because YouTube displays videos using Flash, the iPhone can only view videos through the YouTube application as opposed to accessing the website using Safari.
At WWDC 2007 on June 11, 2007 Apple Inc. announced that the iPhone will support third-party "applications" via the Safari web browser that share the look and feel of the iPhone interface. The applications must be created in Ajax or JavaScript to maintain device security. The iPhone cannot officially install full programs from anyone but Apple, although Steve Jobs has hinted that future third-party applications are in development. Enthusiasts have demonstrated the possibility of unauthorized native code with a simple "Hello, World" program, as well as a fully functional terminal emulator.
Analysts also claim that iPhone lacks any type of firewall, which some experts claim is posing a data security risk. It is not confirmed by Apple or by independent analysts that used the actual device for tests that it doesn't have a firewall. Daniel Eran writes: "Dulaney doesn't know if the iPhone has a firewall, has no reason to suggest that its installation of OS X wouldn't offer a firewall, and offers no reasons why a mobile device would need a firewall anyway."
Platform support
The iPhone is compatible with Mac OS X version 10.4.10 or later, and 32-bit Windows XP or Vista. For each, the user must download iTunes version 7.3 or later. The iPhone is not compatible with any 64-bit version of Windows such as Windows XP x64 or any 64-bit edition of Windows Vista.
Software updates
Apple provides updates to the iPhone's operating system through iTunes, in a similar fashion to the way that iPods are updated, and touts this as an advantage compared to other cell phones. Security patches as well as new and improved features, such as a mobile chat client, Flash support, and voice recording, may be released in this fashion.
The first iPhone software update, 1.0.1, was released on July 31, 2007 to patch an exploit, discovered on July 23, 2007. It allowed hackers to take complete control of the iPhone via Wi-Fi connection or by luring a person to a website with that included malicious code. Once the hacker had control of the iPhone they could download the entire content of the iPhone, make phone calls, or turn the phone into a covert listening device.
The first full update, 1.1.1, was released on September 27, 2007. In addition to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, this update also adds home button shortcuts and other features from the iPod touch. It also disabled third party apps and hacks. See the Activation and SIM lock bypassing section for further information.
Miscellaneous
Battery
The iPhone features a built-in rechargeable battery that is not intended to be user-replaceable, similar to existing iPods. Once the battery reaches the end of its life time the phone will need to be returned to Apple and replaced for a fee. The cost of replacing the battery is US$79 and US$6.95 for shipping. The battery is stated to be capable of providing up to seven hours of video, six hours of web browsing, or eight hours of talk time (depending on configuration). The battery life for music playing is stated to be 24 hours. The battery also allows for up to 250 hours of standby time. Apple's site says that the battery life "is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 400 full charge and discharge cycles."
The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a consumer advocate group, has sent a complaint to Apple and AT&T over the fee that consumers have to pay to get the battery replaced. In addition, the scheme and pricing was not made known to buyers until after the product was launched
SIM card
The SIM card is located in a slot at the top of the device, and the device is activated through iTunes. The iPhone does not contain a memory card slot.
iPhone
The iPhone is a multimedia and Internet-enabled quad-band GSM EDGE-supported mobile phone designed and sold by Apple Inc. The iPhone's functions include those of a camera phone and a portable media player ("iPod"), in addition to text messaging and visual voicemail. It also offers Internet services including e-mail, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. User input is accomplished via a multi-touch screen with virtual keyboard and buttons.
The iPhone has been available since June 29, 2007 in the United States from Apple retail and online stores, and from AT&T Mobility. The current price is US$399 for an 8 GB model. On September 18, 2007, Apple announced in a special event that the iPhone will be available on November 9, 2007 on the carrier O2 in the United Kingdom. On September 19, 2007, Apple and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile announced the iPhone would go on sale November 9, 2007 throughout Germany. On September 20, 2007, France Télécom also announced they would be selling the iPhone in France.
Features
Apple has released a video explaining many of iPhone's features through a series of demonstrations.
Outputs
Touch screen
The 3.5 in liquid crystal display (320×480 px at 160 ppi) HVGA touch screen topped with optical-quality, scratch-resistant glass is specifically created for use with a finger, or multiple fingers for multi-touch sensing. Because the screen is a capacitive touch screen, no stylus is needed, nor can one be used. The requirement for bare skin to be used has caused concerns for users in areas with winter climates; unless the gloves they are wearing are electrically conductive, they would have to be removed to use the touchpad.
The user interface also features other visual effects, such as horizontally sliding sub-selections and co-selections from right and left, vertically sliding system menus from the bottom (e.g. favorites, keyboard), and menus and widgets that turn around to allow settings to be configured on their back sides.
Audio
When music is played on the iPhone, album art is shown on most of the screen, with play controls beneath.
When music is played on the iPhone, album art is shown on most of the screen, with play controls beneath.
The iPhone's headphones are similar to those of current iPods, but also incorporate a microphone. Calls can be answered and ended by squeezing a bud, toggling the microphone. The 3.5 mm TRS connector for the headphones is located on the top left corner (as seen from front upright). Wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth technology to communicate with the iPhone are sold separately.
The loudspeaker is used both for handsfree operations and media playback, but does not support voice recording.
With the iPhone firmware update 1.1.1, released in late September 2007, video can be output from the headset jack using a three-way jack plug. Rather annoyingly, the Apple video cables that many iPod owners use are not compatible with the iPhone's recessed jack.
Inputs
Touch screen
For text input, the device implements a virtual keyboard on the touchscreen. It has automatic spell checking, predictive word capabilities, and a dynamic dictionary that learns new words. The predictive word capabilities have been integrated with the dynamic virtual keyboard so that users will not have to be extremely accurate when typing—i.e. touching the edges of the desired letter or nearby letters on the keyboard will be predictively corrected when possible. The keys are somewhat larger and spaced further apart when in landscape mode (currently, only using Safari). Reviewers, writers and analysts have pointed out several areas in which the iPhone falls short. The virtual keyboard has been considered its chief weakness and a risk for Apple. David Pogue of The New York Times and Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal both tested the iPhone for two weeks and found learning to use it initially difficult, although eventually usable. Pogue stated use was "frustrating" and "text entry is not the iPhone’s strong suit" but Mossberg considered the keyboard a "nonissue." Both found that the typo-correcting feature of the iPhone was the key to using the virtual keyboard successfully.
Scrolling through a long list works as if the list is pasted on the surface of a wheel: the wheel can be "spun" by sliding a finger over the display from bottom to top (or vice versa). After the finger is lifted from the display the wheel continues to "spin" for a short moment before coasting down. In this way, the iPhone simulates the physics of a real object, which gives a natural feel to the process.
The iPhone varies from common desktop interfaces by using a direct manipulation model of scrolling. Where a typical desktop GUI achieves scrolling by using a scroll-arrow to push a view-window down and thus the content itself up (or the reverse, clicking up to move content down), the iPhone interface enables the user to move the content itself up or down by a touch-drag-lift motion of the finger, much as one would slide a playing card across a table. Additionally, the speed desired for scrolling is computed based on the speed and acceleration with which the drag motion is performed.
The photo album and web page magnifications are examples of multi-touch sensing. It is possible to zoom in and out of objects such as web pages and photos by respectively "unpinching" and "pinching" them, that is, placing two fingers (usually thumb and forefinger) on the screen and moving them farther apart or closer together as if stretching or squeezing the image. This scaling is done uniformly and proportionally based on the image in question so there is no distortion of the image itself, as would be the case if the image were actually stretched or squeezed.
One disadvantage of multi-touch with regards to AJAX web sites is that there is no mechanism for right clicking on a UI element. That is, there are no separate paradigms for emulating certain functions of a multi-button mouse. However, 'hovering' over a UI element can still be achieved by touching and holding a UI element.
The iPhone's touch interface has been compared by some media to the HTC Touch, which also features a touchscreen designed for fingers, although it can also be used with a stylus and lacks multi-touch.
Other
The display responds to three sensors: a proximity sensor that shuts off the display and touchscreen when the iPhone is brought near the face to save battery power and to prevent spurious inputs from the user's face and ears, an ambient light sensor that adjusts the display brightness which in turn saves battery power, and a 3-axis accelerometer, which senses the orientation of the phone and changes the screen accordingly. Web browsing and music playing support three orientations, while videos play in only one widescreen orientation.
A single "home" hardware button below the display brings up the main menu. Subselections are made via the touchscreen. The iPhone utilizes a full-paged display, with context-specific submenus at the top and/or bottom of each page, sometimes depending on screen orientation. Detail pages display the equivalent of a "Back" button to go up one menu.
The iPhone has three physical switches on its sides: sleep / wake, volume up / down, ringer on / off. All other multimedia and phone operations are done via the touch screen.
The iPhone has been available since June 29, 2007 in the United States from Apple retail and online stores, and from AT&T Mobility. The current price is US$399 for an 8 GB model. On September 18, 2007, Apple announced in a special event that the iPhone will be available on November 9, 2007 on the carrier O2 in the United Kingdom. On September 19, 2007, Apple and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile announced the iPhone would go on sale November 9, 2007 throughout Germany. On September 20, 2007, France Télécom also announced they would be selling the iPhone in France.
Features
Apple has released a video explaining many of iPhone's features through a series of demonstrations.
Outputs
Touch screen
The 3.5 in liquid crystal display (320×480 px at 160 ppi) HVGA touch screen topped with optical-quality, scratch-resistant glass is specifically created for use with a finger, or multiple fingers for multi-touch sensing. Because the screen is a capacitive touch screen, no stylus is needed, nor can one be used. The requirement for bare skin to be used has caused concerns for users in areas with winter climates; unless the gloves they are wearing are electrically conductive, they would have to be removed to use the touchpad.
The user interface also features other visual effects, such as horizontally sliding sub-selections and co-selections from right and left, vertically sliding system menus from the bottom (e.g. favorites, keyboard), and menus and widgets that turn around to allow settings to be configured on their back sides.
Audio
When music is played on the iPhone, album art is shown on most of the screen, with play controls beneath.
When music is played on the iPhone, album art is shown on most of the screen, with play controls beneath.
The iPhone's headphones are similar to those of current iPods, but also incorporate a microphone. Calls can be answered and ended by squeezing a bud, toggling the microphone. The 3.5 mm TRS connector for the headphones is located on the top left corner (as seen from front upright). Wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth technology to communicate with the iPhone are sold separately.
The loudspeaker is used both for handsfree operations and media playback, but does not support voice recording.
With the iPhone firmware update 1.1.1, released in late September 2007, video can be output from the headset jack using a three-way jack plug. Rather annoyingly, the Apple video cables that many iPod owners use are not compatible with the iPhone's recessed jack.
Inputs
Touch screen
For text input, the device implements a virtual keyboard on the touchscreen. It has automatic spell checking, predictive word capabilities, and a dynamic dictionary that learns new words. The predictive word capabilities have been integrated with the dynamic virtual keyboard so that users will not have to be extremely accurate when typing—i.e. touching the edges of the desired letter or nearby letters on the keyboard will be predictively corrected when possible. The keys are somewhat larger and spaced further apart when in landscape mode (currently, only using Safari). Reviewers, writers and analysts have pointed out several areas in which the iPhone falls short. The virtual keyboard has been considered its chief weakness and a risk for Apple. David Pogue of The New York Times and Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal both tested the iPhone for two weeks and found learning to use it initially difficult, although eventually usable. Pogue stated use was "frustrating" and "text entry is not the iPhone’s strong suit" but Mossberg considered the keyboard a "nonissue." Both found that the typo-correcting feature of the iPhone was the key to using the virtual keyboard successfully.
Scrolling through a long list works as if the list is pasted on the surface of a wheel: the wheel can be "spun" by sliding a finger over the display from bottom to top (or vice versa). After the finger is lifted from the display the wheel continues to "spin" for a short moment before coasting down. In this way, the iPhone simulates the physics of a real object, which gives a natural feel to the process.
The iPhone varies from common desktop interfaces by using a direct manipulation model of scrolling. Where a typical desktop GUI achieves scrolling by using a scroll-arrow to push a view-window down and thus the content itself up (or the reverse, clicking up to move content down), the iPhone interface enables the user to move the content itself up or down by a touch-drag-lift motion of the finger, much as one would slide a playing card across a table. Additionally, the speed desired for scrolling is computed based on the speed and acceleration with which the drag motion is performed.
The photo album and web page magnifications are examples of multi-touch sensing. It is possible to zoom in and out of objects such as web pages and photos by respectively "unpinching" and "pinching" them, that is, placing two fingers (usually thumb and forefinger) on the screen and moving them farther apart or closer together as if stretching or squeezing the image. This scaling is done uniformly and proportionally based on the image in question so there is no distortion of the image itself, as would be the case if the image were actually stretched or squeezed.
One disadvantage of multi-touch with regards to AJAX web sites is that there is no mechanism for right clicking on a UI element. That is, there are no separate paradigms for emulating certain functions of a multi-button mouse. However, 'hovering' over a UI element can still be achieved by touching and holding a UI element.
The iPhone's touch interface has been compared by some media to the HTC Touch, which also features a touchscreen designed for fingers, although it can also be used with a stylus and lacks multi-touch.
Other
The display responds to three sensors: a proximity sensor that shuts off the display and touchscreen when the iPhone is brought near the face to save battery power and to prevent spurious inputs from the user's face and ears, an ambient light sensor that adjusts the display brightness which in turn saves battery power, and a 3-axis accelerometer, which senses the orientation of the phone and changes the screen accordingly. Web browsing and music playing support three orientations, while videos play in only one widescreen orientation.
A single "home" hardware button below the display brings up the main menu. Subselections are made via the touchscreen. The iPhone utilizes a full-paged display, with context-specific submenus at the top and/or bottom of each page, sometimes depending on screen orientation. Detail pages display the equivalent of a "Back" button to go up one menu.
The iPhone has three physical switches on its sides: sleep / wake, volume up / down, ringer on / off. All other multimedia and phone operations are done via the touch screen.
Kamis, 27 September 2007
Devices of Wifi
Standard devices
Wireless access points connects a group of wireless devices to an adjacent wired LAN. An access point is similar to an ethernet hub, relaying data between connected wireless devices in addition to a (usually) single connected wired device, most often an ethernet hub or switch, allowing wireless devices to communicate with other wired devices.
Wireless adapters allow devices to connect to a wireless network. These adapters connect to devices using various external or internal interconnects such as PCI, miniPCI, USB, ExpressCard, Cardbus and PC card. Most newer laptop computers are equipped with internal adapters. Internal cards are generally more difficult to install.
Wireless routers integrate WAP, ethernet switch, and internal Router firmware application that provides IP Routing, NAT, and DNS forwarding through an integrated WAN interface. A wireless router allows wired and wireless ethernet LAN devices to connect to a (usually) single WAN device such as cable modem or DSL modem. A wireless router allows all three devices (mainly the access point and router) to be configured through one central utility. This utility is most usually an integrated web server which serves web pages to wired and wireless LAN clients and often optionally to WAN clients. This utility may also be an application that is run on a desktop computer such as Apple's AirPort.
Wireless Ethernet bridges connect a wired network to a wireless network. This is different from an access point in the sense that an access point connects wireless devices to a wired network at the data-link layer. Two wireless bridges may be used to connect two wired networks over a wireless link, useful in situations where a wired connection may be unavailable, such as between two separate homes.
Wireless range extenders or wireless repeaters can extend the range of an existing wireless network. Range extenders can be strategically placed to elongate a signal area or allow for the signal area to reach around barriers such as those created in L-shaped corridors. Wireless devices connected through repeaters will suffer from an increased latency for each hop. Additionally, a wireless device at the end of chain of wireless repeaters will have a throughput that is limited by the weakest link within the repeater chain.
Most commercial devices (routers, access points, bridges, repeaters) designed for home or business environments use either RP-SMA or RP-TNC antenna connectors. PCI wireless adapters also mainly use RP-SMA connectors. Most PC card and USB wireless only have internal antennas etched on their printed circuit board while some have MMCX connector or MC-Card external connections in addition to an internal antenna. A few USB cards have a RP-SMA connector. Most Mini PCI wireless cards utilize Hirose U.FL connectors, but cards found in various wireless appliances contain all of the connectors listed. Many high-gain (and homebuilt antennas) utilize the Type N connector more commonly used by other radio communications methods.
Non-standard devices
USB-Wi-Fi adapters, food container "Cantennas", parabolic reflectors, and many other types of self-built antennas are increasingly made by do-it-yourselfers. For minimal budgets, as low as a few dollars, signal strength and range can be improved dramatically.
As of 2007, Long Range Wi-Fi kits have begun to enter the market. Companies like BroadbandXpress offer long range, inexpensive kits that can be setup with limited knowledge. These kits utilize specialized antennas which increase the range of Wi-Fi dramatically, up to the world record 137.2 miles (220 km). These kits are commonly used to get broadband internet to a place without direct broadband access.[4]
The longest link ever achieved was by the Swedish space agency. They attained 310 km, but used 6 watt amplifiers to reach an overhead stratospheric balloon.[citation needed] The longest link without amplification was 279 km in Venezuela, 2006.[5]
Embedded systems
Wi-Fi availability in the home is on the increase. This extension of the Internet into the home space will increasingly be used for remote monitoring. Examples of remote monitoring include security systems and tele-medicine. In all these kinds of implementation, if the Wi-Fi provision is provided using a system running one of operating systems mentioned above, then it becomes unfeasible due to weight, power consumption and cost issues.
Increasingly in the last few years (particularly as of early 2007), embedded Wi-Fi modules have become available which come with a real-time operating system and provide a simple means of wireless enabling any device which has and communicates via a serial port.
This allows simple monitoring devices – for example, a portable ECG monitor hooked up to a patient in their home – to be created. This Wi-Fi enabled device effectively becomes part of the internet cloud and can communicate with any other node on the internet. The data collected can hop via the home's Wi-Fi access point to anywhere on the internet.
These Wi-Fi modules are designed so that minimal Wi-Fi knowledge is required by designers to wireless enable their product.
Unintended and intended use by outsiders
During the early popular adoption of 802.11, providing open access points for anyone within range to use was encouraged to cultivate wireless community networks;[6] particularly since people on average use only a fraction of their upstream bandwidth at any given time. Later, equipment manufacturers and mass-media advocated isolating users to a predetermined whitelist of authorized users — referred to as "securing" the access point.[dubious – discuss]
Wikinews has related news:
Florida man charged with stealing WiFi
Measures to deter unauthorized users include suppressing the AP's service set identifier (SSID) broadcast, allowing only computers with known MAC addresses to join the network, and various encryption standards. Access points and computers using no encryption are vulnerable to eavesdropping by an attacker armed with packet sniffer software. If the eavesdropper has the ability to change his MAC address then he can potentially join the network by spoofing an authorised address.
WEP encryption can protect against casual snooping but may also produce a misguided sense of security since freely available tools such as AirSnort can quickly recover WEP encryption keys. Once it has seen 5-10 million encrypted packets, AirSnort will determine the encryption password in under a second.[7] The newer Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and IEEE 802.11i (WPA2) encryption standards do not have the serious weaknesses of WEP encryption, but require strong passphrases for full security.
Recreational logging and mapping of other people's access points has become known as wardriving. It is also common for people to use open Wi-Fi networks without explicit authorization, termed piggybacking. These activities may be illegal in certain jurisdictions, but existing legislation and case-law is often unclear. A proposal to leave graffiti describing available services was called warchalking, but did not catch on.
Piggybacking is sometimes unintentional. Most access points are configured without encryption by default, and operating systems such as Windows XP SP2 and Mac OS X may be configured to automatically connect to any available wireless network. A user who happens to start up a laptop in the vicinity of an access point may find the computer has joined the network without any visible indication. Moreover, a user intending to join one network may instead end up on another one if the latter's signal is stronger. In combination with automatic discovery of other network resources (see DHCP and Zeroconf) this could possibly lead wireless users to send sensitive data to the wrong destination.[citation needed]
Wi-Fi vs. amateur radio
In the U.S., Canada and Australia, a portion of the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi radio spectrum is also allocated to amateur radio users. In the U.S., FCC Part 15 rules govern non-licensed operators (i.e. most Wi-Fi equipment users). Under Part 15 rules, non-licensed users must "accept" (i.e. endure) interference from licensed users and not cause harmful interference to licensed users. Amateur radio operators are licensed users, and retain what the FCC terms "primary status" on the band, under a distinct set of rules (Part 97). Under Part 97, licensed amateur operators may construct their own equipment, use very high-gain antennas, and boost output power to 100 watts on frequencies covered by Wi-Fi channels 2-6. However, Part 97 rules mandate using only the minimum power necessary for communications, forbid obscuring the data, and require station identification every 10 minutes. Therefore, output power control is required to meet regulations, and the transmission of any encrypted data (for example https) is questionable.
In practice, microwave power amplifiers are expensive. On the other hand, the short wavelength at 2.4 GHz allows for simple construction of very high gain directional antennas. Although Part 15 rules forbid any modification of commercially constructed systems, amateur radio operators may modify commercial systems for optimized construction of long links, for example. Using only 200 mW link radios and high gain directional antennas, a very narrow beam may be used to construct reliable links with minimal radio frequency interference to other users.
Wireless access points connects a group of wireless devices to an adjacent wired LAN. An access point is similar to an ethernet hub, relaying data between connected wireless devices in addition to a (usually) single connected wired device, most often an ethernet hub or switch, allowing wireless devices to communicate with other wired devices.
Wireless adapters allow devices to connect to a wireless network. These adapters connect to devices using various external or internal interconnects such as PCI, miniPCI, USB, ExpressCard, Cardbus and PC card. Most newer laptop computers are equipped with internal adapters. Internal cards are generally more difficult to install.
Wireless routers integrate WAP, ethernet switch, and internal Router firmware application that provides IP Routing, NAT, and DNS forwarding through an integrated WAN interface. A wireless router allows wired and wireless ethernet LAN devices to connect to a (usually) single WAN device such as cable modem or DSL modem. A wireless router allows all three devices (mainly the access point and router) to be configured through one central utility. This utility is most usually an integrated web server which serves web pages to wired and wireless LAN clients and often optionally to WAN clients. This utility may also be an application that is run on a desktop computer such as Apple's AirPort.
Wireless Ethernet bridges connect a wired network to a wireless network. This is different from an access point in the sense that an access point connects wireless devices to a wired network at the data-link layer. Two wireless bridges may be used to connect two wired networks over a wireless link, useful in situations where a wired connection may be unavailable, such as between two separate homes.
Wireless range extenders or wireless repeaters can extend the range of an existing wireless network. Range extenders can be strategically placed to elongate a signal area or allow for the signal area to reach around barriers such as those created in L-shaped corridors. Wireless devices connected through repeaters will suffer from an increased latency for each hop. Additionally, a wireless device at the end of chain of wireless repeaters will have a throughput that is limited by the weakest link within the repeater chain.
Most commercial devices (routers, access points, bridges, repeaters) designed for home or business environments use either RP-SMA or RP-TNC antenna connectors. PCI wireless adapters also mainly use RP-SMA connectors. Most PC card and USB wireless only have internal antennas etched on their printed circuit board while some have MMCX connector or MC-Card external connections in addition to an internal antenna. A few USB cards have a RP-SMA connector. Most Mini PCI wireless cards utilize Hirose U.FL connectors, but cards found in various wireless appliances contain all of the connectors listed. Many high-gain (and homebuilt antennas) utilize the Type N connector more commonly used by other radio communications methods.
Non-standard devices
USB-Wi-Fi adapters, food container "Cantennas", parabolic reflectors, and many other types of self-built antennas are increasingly made by do-it-yourselfers. For minimal budgets, as low as a few dollars, signal strength and range can be improved dramatically.
As of 2007, Long Range Wi-Fi kits have begun to enter the market. Companies like BroadbandXpress offer long range, inexpensive kits that can be setup with limited knowledge. These kits utilize specialized antennas which increase the range of Wi-Fi dramatically, up to the world record 137.2 miles (220 km). These kits are commonly used to get broadband internet to a place without direct broadband access.[4]
The longest link ever achieved was by the Swedish space agency. They attained 310 km, but used 6 watt amplifiers to reach an overhead stratospheric balloon.[citation needed] The longest link without amplification was 279 km in Venezuela, 2006.[5]
Embedded systems
Wi-Fi availability in the home is on the increase. This extension of the Internet into the home space will increasingly be used for remote monitoring. Examples of remote monitoring include security systems and tele-medicine. In all these kinds of implementation, if the Wi-Fi provision is provided using a system running one of operating systems mentioned above, then it becomes unfeasible due to weight, power consumption and cost issues.
Increasingly in the last few years (particularly as of early 2007), embedded Wi-Fi modules have become available which come with a real-time operating system and provide a simple means of wireless enabling any device which has and communicates via a serial port.
This allows simple monitoring devices – for example, a portable ECG monitor hooked up to a patient in their home – to be created. This Wi-Fi enabled device effectively becomes part of the internet cloud and can communicate with any other node on the internet. The data collected can hop via the home's Wi-Fi access point to anywhere on the internet.
These Wi-Fi modules are designed so that minimal Wi-Fi knowledge is required by designers to wireless enable their product.
Unintended and intended use by outsiders
During the early popular adoption of 802.11, providing open access points for anyone within range to use was encouraged to cultivate wireless community networks;[6] particularly since people on average use only a fraction of their upstream bandwidth at any given time. Later, equipment manufacturers and mass-media advocated isolating users to a predetermined whitelist of authorized users — referred to as "securing" the access point.[dubious – discuss]
Wikinews has related news:
Florida man charged with stealing WiFi
Measures to deter unauthorized users include suppressing the AP's service set identifier (SSID) broadcast, allowing only computers with known MAC addresses to join the network, and various encryption standards. Access points and computers using no encryption are vulnerable to eavesdropping by an attacker armed with packet sniffer software. If the eavesdropper has the ability to change his MAC address then he can potentially join the network by spoofing an authorised address.
WEP encryption can protect against casual snooping but may also produce a misguided sense of security since freely available tools such as AirSnort can quickly recover WEP encryption keys. Once it has seen 5-10 million encrypted packets, AirSnort will determine the encryption password in under a second.[7] The newer Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and IEEE 802.11i (WPA2) encryption standards do not have the serious weaknesses of WEP encryption, but require strong passphrases for full security.
Recreational logging and mapping of other people's access points has become known as wardriving. It is also common for people to use open Wi-Fi networks without explicit authorization, termed piggybacking. These activities may be illegal in certain jurisdictions, but existing legislation and case-law is often unclear. A proposal to leave graffiti describing available services was called warchalking, but did not catch on.
Piggybacking is sometimes unintentional. Most access points are configured without encryption by default, and operating systems such as Windows XP SP2 and Mac OS X may be configured to automatically connect to any available wireless network. A user who happens to start up a laptop in the vicinity of an access point may find the computer has joined the network without any visible indication. Moreover, a user intending to join one network may instead end up on another one if the latter's signal is stronger. In combination with automatic discovery of other network resources (see DHCP and Zeroconf) this could possibly lead wireless users to send sensitive data to the wrong destination.[citation needed]
Wi-Fi vs. amateur radio
In the U.S., Canada and Australia, a portion of the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi radio spectrum is also allocated to amateur radio users. In the U.S., FCC Part 15 rules govern non-licensed operators (i.e. most Wi-Fi equipment users). Under Part 15 rules, non-licensed users must "accept" (i.e. endure) interference from licensed users and not cause harmful interference to licensed users. Amateur radio operators are licensed users, and retain what the FCC terms "primary status" on the band, under a distinct set of rules (Part 97). Under Part 97, licensed amateur operators may construct their own equipment, use very high-gain antennas, and boost output power to 100 watts on frequencies covered by Wi-Fi channels 2-6. However, Part 97 rules mandate using only the minimum power necessary for communications, forbid obscuring the data, and require station identification every 10 minutes. Therefore, output power control is required to meet regulations, and the transmission of any encrypted data (for example https) is questionable.
In practice, microwave power amplifiers are expensive. On the other hand, the short wavelength at 2.4 GHz allows for simple construction of very high gain directional antennas. Although Part 15 rules forbid any modification of commercially constructed systems, amateur radio operators may modify commercial systems for optimized construction of long links, for example. Using only 200 mW link radios and high gain directional antennas, a very narrow beam may be used to construct reliable links with minimal radio frequency interference to other users.
Advantages of Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi allows LANs to be deployed without cabling for client devices, typically reducing the costs of network deployment and expansion. Spaces where cables cannot be run, such as outdoor areas and historical buildings, can host wireless LANs.
As of 2007 wireless network adapters are built into most modern laptops. The price of chipsets for Wi-Fi continues to drop, making it an economical networking option included in ever more devices. Wi-Fi has become widespread in corporate infrastructures, which also helps with the deployment of RFID technology that can piggyback on Wi-Fi.[2]
Different competitive brands of access points and client network interfaces are inter-operable at a basic level of service. Products designated as "Wi-Fi Certified" by the Wi-Fi Alliance are backwards inter-operable. Wi-Fi is a global set of standards. Unlike mobile telephones, any standard Wi-Fi device will work anywhere in the world.
Wi-Fi is widely available in more than 250,000 public hotspots and tens of millions of homes and corporate and university campuses worldwide. WPA is not easily cracked if strong passwords are used and WPA2 encryption has no known weaknesses. New protocols for Quality of Service (WMM) make Wi-Fi more suitable for latency-sensitive applications (such as voice and video), and power saving mechanisms (WMM Power Save) improve battery operation.
Disadvantages of Wi-Fi
Spectrum assignments and operational limitations are not consistent worldwide. Most of Europe allows for an additional 2 channels beyond those permitted in the U.S for the 2.4 GHz band. (1-13 vs. 1-11); Japan has one more on top of that (1-14). Europe, as of 2007, is now essentially homogeneous in this respect. A very confusing aspect is the fact a WiFI signal actually occupies five channels in the 2.4 GHz resulting in only 3 non-overlapped channels in the US: 1, 6, 11, and four in Europe: 1,5,9,13
Some countries, such as Italy, formerly required a 'general authorization' for any Wi-Fi used outside an operator's own premises, or require something akin to an operator registration.[citation needed] Equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) in the EU is limited to 20 dBm (0.1 W).
Power consumption is fairly high compared to some other low-bandwidth standards, such as Zigbee and Bluetooth, making battery life a concern.
The most common wireless encryption standard, Wired Equivalent Privacy or WEP, has been shown to be easily breakable even when correctly configured. Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA and WPA2), which began shipping in 2003, aims to solve this problem and is now available on most products. Wi-Fi Access Points typically default to an open (encryption-free) mode. Novice users benefit from a zero-configuration device that works out of the box, but this default is without security enabled, providing open wireless access to their LAN. To turn security on requires the user to configure the device, usually via a software graphical user interface (GUI). Wi-Fi networks that are open (unencrypted) can be monitored and used to read and copy data (including personal information) transmitted over the network, unless another security method is used to secure the data, such as a VPN or a secure web page. (See HTTPS/Secure Socket Layer.)
Many 2.4 GHz 802.11b and 802.11g Access points default to the same channel on initial startup, contributing to congestion on certain channels. To change the channel of operation for an access point requires the user to configure the device.
Wi-Fi networks have limited range. A typical Wi-Fi home router using 802.11b or 802.11g with a stock antenna might have a range of 32 m (120 ft) indoors and 95 m (300 ft) outdoors. Range also varies with frequency band. Wi-Fi in the 2.4 GHz frequency block has slightly better range than Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz frequency block. Outdoor range with improved (directional) antennas can be several kilometres or more with line-of-sight.
Wi-Fi pollution, or an excessive number of access points in the area, especially on the same or neighboring channel, can prevent access and interfere with the use of other access points by others, caused by overlapping channels in the 802.11g/b spectrum, as well as with decreased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) between access points. This can be a problem in high-density areas, such as large apartment complexes or office buildings with many Wi-Fi access points. Additionally, other devices use the 2.4 GHz band: microwave ovens, cordless phones, baby monitors, security cameras, and Bluetooth devices can cause significant additional interference. General guidance to those who suffer these forms of interference or network crowding is to migrate to a WiFi 5GHz product (802.11a) usually a dual band product as the 5GHz band is relatively unused and there are many more channels available. This also requires users to set up the 5GHz band to be the preferred network in the client and to configure each network band to a different name(SSID).
It is also an issue when municipalities,[3] or other large entities such as universities, seek to provide large area coverage. Everyone is considered equal for the base standard without 802.11e/WMM when they use the band. This openness is also important to the success and widespread use of 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, but makes it unsuitable for "must-have" public service functions or where reliability is required.
Interoperability issues between brands or proprietary deviations from the standard can disrupt connections or lower throughput speeds on other user's devices that are within range. Additionally, Wi-Fi devices do not, as of 2007, pick channels to avoid interference.
As of 2007 wireless network adapters are built into most modern laptops. The price of chipsets for Wi-Fi continues to drop, making it an economical networking option included in ever more devices. Wi-Fi has become widespread in corporate infrastructures, which also helps with the deployment of RFID technology that can piggyback on Wi-Fi.[2]
Different competitive brands of access points and client network interfaces are inter-operable at a basic level of service. Products designated as "Wi-Fi Certified" by the Wi-Fi Alliance are backwards inter-operable. Wi-Fi is a global set of standards. Unlike mobile telephones, any standard Wi-Fi device will work anywhere in the world.
Wi-Fi is widely available in more than 250,000 public hotspots and tens of millions of homes and corporate and university campuses worldwide. WPA is not easily cracked if strong passwords are used and WPA2 encryption has no known weaknesses. New protocols for Quality of Service (WMM) make Wi-Fi more suitable for latency-sensitive applications (such as voice and video), and power saving mechanisms (WMM Power Save) improve battery operation.
Disadvantages of Wi-Fi
Spectrum assignments and operational limitations are not consistent worldwide. Most of Europe allows for an additional 2 channels beyond those permitted in the U.S for the 2.4 GHz band. (1-13 vs. 1-11); Japan has one more on top of that (1-14). Europe, as of 2007, is now essentially homogeneous in this respect. A very confusing aspect is the fact a WiFI signal actually occupies five channels in the 2.4 GHz resulting in only 3 non-overlapped channels in the US: 1, 6, 11, and four in Europe: 1,5,9,13
Some countries, such as Italy, formerly required a 'general authorization' for any Wi-Fi used outside an operator's own premises, or require something akin to an operator registration.[citation needed] Equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) in the EU is limited to 20 dBm (0.1 W).
Power consumption is fairly high compared to some other low-bandwidth standards, such as Zigbee and Bluetooth, making battery life a concern.
The most common wireless encryption standard, Wired Equivalent Privacy or WEP, has been shown to be easily breakable even when correctly configured. Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA and WPA2), which began shipping in 2003, aims to solve this problem and is now available on most products. Wi-Fi Access Points typically default to an open (encryption-free) mode. Novice users benefit from a zero-configuration device that works out of the box, but this default is without security enabled, providing open wireless access to their LAN. To turn security on requires the user to configure the device, usually via a software graphical user interface (GUI). Wi-Fi networks that are open (unencrypted) can be monitored and used to read and copy data (including personal information) transmitted over the network, unless another security method is used to secure the data, such as a VPN or a secure web page. (See HTTPS/Secure Socket Layer.)
Many 2.4 GHz 802.11b and 802.11g Access points default to the same channel on initial startup, contributing to congestion on certain channels. To change the channel of operation for an access point requires the user to configure the device.
Wi-Fi networks have limited range. A typical Wi-Fi home router using 802.11b or 802.11g with a stock antenna might have a range of 32 m (120 ft) indoors and 95 m (300 ft) outdoors. Range also varies with frequency band. Wi-Fi in the 2.4 GHz frequency block has slightly better range than Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz frequency block. Outdoor range with improved (directional) antennas can be several kilometres or more with line-of-sight.
Wi-Fi pollution, or an excessive number of access points in the area, especially on the same or neighboring channel, can prevent access and interfere with the use of other access points by others, caused by overlapping channels in the 802.11g/b spectrum, as well as with decreased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) between access points. This can be a problem in high-density areas, such as large apartment complexes or office buildings with many Wi-Fi access points. Additionally, other devices use the 2.4 GHz band: microwave ovens, cordless phones, baby monitors, security cameras, and Bluetooth devices can cause significant additional interference. General guidance to those who suffer these forms of interference or network crowding is to migrate to a WiFi 5GHz product (802.11a) usually a dual band product as the 5GHz band is relatively unused and there are many more channels available. This also requires users to set up the 5GHz band to be the preferred network in the client and to configure each network band to a different name(SSID).
It is also an issue when municipalities,[3] or other large entities such as universities, seek to provide large area coverage. Everyone is considered equal for the base standard without 802.11e/WMM when they use the band. This openness is also important to the success and widespread use of 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, but makes it unsuitable for "must-have" public service functions or where reliability is required.
Interoperability issues between brands or proprietary deviations from the standard can disrupt connections or lower throughput speeds on other user's devices that are within range. Additionally, Wi-Fi devices do not, as of 2007, pick channels to avoid interference.
Channels of Wifi
Channels
Except for 802.11a/n, which operates at 5 GHz, Wi-Fi devices historically primarily use the spectrum in 2.4 GHz, which is standardized and unlicensed by international agreement, although the exact frequency allocations and maximum permitted power vary slightly in different parts of the world. Channel numbers, however, are standardized by frequency throughout the world, so authorized frequencies can be identified by channel numbers. The 2.4 GHz band is also used by microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices, Amateur radio, legal domestic videosenders, Security systems (including cordless CCTV), also (in North America) cordless phones and baby monitors.
The maximum number of available channels for Wi-Fi enabled devices are:
* 7 for Israel (only Channels 3 through 9 are permitted)
* 11 for North America. Only channels 1, 6, and 11 are recommended for 802.11b/g to minimize interference from adjacent channels.[1] (Note: In Mexico Channels 1 through 8 are reserved "for indoor use only")
* 13 for China and most countries in Europe. A typical channel layout for 802.11b would be 1/7/13 (or 1/6/11 for compatibility to devices bought in North America). For traffic that is predominantly 802.11g, 1/5/9/13 provides a fourth frequency enabling a much better frequency plan. (Note: In France only Channels 10 through 13 are available)
* 14 for Japan.
There are also restrictions on power levels and permitted antenna types which vary by country.
Wi-Fi on various operating systems
There are two sides to Wi-Fi support under an operating system: driver level support, and configuration and management support.
Driver support is usually provided by the manufacturer of the hardware or, in the case of Unix clones such as Linux and FreeBSD, sometimes through open source projects.
Configuration and management support consists of software to enumerate, join, and check the status of available Wi-Fi networks. This also includes support for various encryption methods. These systems are often provided by the operating system backed by a standard driver model. In most cases, drivers emulate an ethernet device and use the configuration and management utilities built into the operating system. In cases where built in configuration and management support is non-existent or inadequate, hardware manufacturers may include their own software to handle the respective tasks.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows has comprehensive driver-level support for Wi-Fi, the quality of which depends on the hardware manufacturer. Hardware manufactures almost always ship Windows drivers with their products. Windows ships with very few Wi-Fi drivers and depends on the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)and device manufacturers to make sure users get drivers. Configuration and management depend on the version of Windows.
* Earlier versions of Windows, such as 98, ME and 2000 do not have built-in configuration and management support and must depend on software provided by the manufacturer
* Microsoft Windows XP has built-in configuration and management support. The original shipping version of Windows XP included rudimentary support which was dramatically improved in Service Pack 2. Support for WPA2 and some other security protocols require updates from Microsoft. There are still problems with XP support of Wi-Fi. (One simple interface problem is that if the user makes a mistake in the (case sensitive) passphrase, XP keeps trying to connect but never tells the user that the passphrase is wrong. A second problem is not allowing the user to see different BSSID's for the same ESSID; that is, it provides no way for the user to differentiate access points with the same name.) To make up for Windows’ inconsistent and sometimes inadequate configuration and management support, many hardware manufacturers include their own software and require the user to disable Windows’ built-in Wi-Fi support. See article "Windows XP Bedevils Wi-Fi Users" in Wired News.
* Microsoft Windows Vista has improved Wi-Fi support over Windows XP. The original betas automatically connected to unsecured networks without the user’s approval. The release candidate (RC1 or RC2) does not continue to display this behavior, requiring user permissions to connect to an unsecured network, as long as the user account is in the default configuration with regards to User Account Control.
Apple Mac OS
Apple was an early adopter of Wi-Fi, introducing its AirPort product line, based on the 802.11b standard, in July 1999. Apple then introduced AirPort Extreme as an implementation of 802.11g. All Macs starting with the original iBook included AirPort slots for which an AirPort card can be used, connecting to the computer's internal antenna. All Intel-based Macs either come with built-in Airport Extreme or a slot for an AirPort card. In late 2006, Apple began shipping Macs with Broadcom Wi-Fi chips that also supported the Draft 802.11n standard which can be unlocked through buying a $2 driver released by Apple at the January 2007 Macworld Expo. The driver is also included for free with Apple's 802.11n AirPort Extreme.
Apple makes the Mac OS operating system, the computer hardware, the accompanying drivers, AirPort WiFi base stations, and configuration and management software, simplifying Wi-Fi integration. The built-in configuration and management is integrated throughout many of the operating system's applications and utilities. Mac OS X has Wi-Fi support, including WPA2, and ships with drivers for Apple’s Broadcom-based AirPort cards. Many third-party manufacturers make compatible hardware along with the appropriate drivers which work with Mac OS X’s built-in configuration and management software. Other manufacturers distribute their own software.
Apple's older Mac OS 9 does not have built in support for Wi-Fi configuration and management nor does it ship with Wi-Fi drivers, but Apple provides free drivers and configuration and management software for their AirPort cards for OS 9, as do a few other manufacturers. Versions of Mac OS before OS 9 predate Wi-Fi and do not have any Wi-Fi support, although some third-party hardware manufacturers have made drivers and connection software that allows earlier OSes to use Wi-Fi.[3]
Open source Unix-like systems
Linux, FreeBSD and similar Unix-like clones have much coarser support for Wi-Fi. Due to the open source nature of these operating systems, many different standards have been developed for configuring and managing Wi-Fi devices. The open source nature also fosters open source drivers which have enabled many third party and proprietary devices to work under these operating systems. See Comparison of Open Source Wireless Drivers for more information on those drivers.
* Linux has patchy Wi-Fi support.[4] Native drivers for many Wi-Fi chipsets are available either commercially or at no cost,[5] although some manufacturers don't produce a Linux driver, only a Windows one. Consequently, many popular chipsets either don't have a native Linux driver at all, or only have a half-finished one. For these, the freely available NdisWrapper and its commercial competitor DriverLoader[6] allow Windows x86 and 64 bit variants NDIS drivers to be used on x86-based Linux systems but not on other architectures. As well as the lack of native drivers, some Linux distributions do not offer a convenient user interface and configuring Wi-Fi on them can be a clumsy and complicated operation compared to configuring wired Ethernet drivers.[7] This is changing with NetworkManager, a utility that allows users to automatically switch between networks without using the command line.
* FreeBSD has Wi-Fi support similar to Linux. Support under FreeBSD is best in the 6.x versions, which introduced full support for WPA and WPA2, although in some cases this is driver dependent. FreeBSD comes with drivers for many wireless cards and chipsets, including those made by Atheros, Ralink, Cisco, D-link, Netgear, and many Centrino chipsets, and provides support for others through the ports collection. FreeBSD also has "Project Evil", which provides the ability to use Windows x86 NDIS drivers on x86-based FreeBSD systems as NdisWrapper does on Linux, and Windows amd64 NDIS drivers on amd64-based systems. ndisgen.
* NetBSD, OpenBSD, and DragonFly BSD have Wi-Fi support similar to FreeBSD. Code for some of the drivers, as well as the kernel framework to support them, is mostly shared among the 4 BSDs.
* Haiku has no Wi-Fi support at all as of April 2007.
Except for 802.11a/n, which operates at 5 GHz, Wi-Fi devices historically primarily use the spectrum in 2.4 GHz, which is standardized and unlicensed by international agreement, although the exact frequency allocations and maximum permitted power vary slightly in different parts of the world. Channel numbers, however, are standardized by frequency throughout the world, so authorized frequencies can be identified by channel numbers. The 2.4 GHz band is also used by microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices, Amateur radio, legal domestic videosenders, Security systems (including cordless CCTV), also (in North America) cordless phones and baby monitors.
The maximum number of available channels for Wi-Fi enabled devices are:
* 7 for Israel (only Channels 3 through 9 are permitted)
* 11 for North America. Only channels 1, 6, and 11 are recommended for 802.11b/g to minimize interference from adjacent channels.[1] (Note: In Mexico Channels 1 through 8 are reserved "for indoor use only")
* 13 for China and most countries in Europe. A typical channel layout for 802.11b would be 1/7/13 (or 1/6/11 for compatibility to devices bought in North America). For traffic that is predominantly 802.11g, 1/5/9/13 provides a fourth frequency enabling a much better frequency plan. (Note: In France only Channels 10 through 13 are available)
* 14 for Japan.
There are also restrictions on power levels and permitted antenna types which vary by country.
Wi-Fi on various operating systems
There are two sides to Wi-Fi support under an operating system: driver level support, and configuration and management support.
Driver support is usually provided by the manufacturer of the hardware or, in the case of Unix clones such as Linux and FreeBSD, sometimes through open source projects.
Configuration and management support consists of software to enumerate, join, and check the status of available Wi-Fi networks. This also includes support for various encryption methods. These systems are often provided by the operating system backed by a standard driver model. In most cases, drivers emulate an ethernet device and use the configuration and management utilities built into the operating system. In cases where built in configuration and management support is non-existent or inadequate, hardware manufacturers may include their own software to handle the respective tasks.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows has comprehensive driver-level support for Wi-Fi, the quality of which depends on the hardware manufacturer. Hardware manufactures almost always ship Windows drivers with their products. Windows ships with very few Wi-Fi drivers and depends on the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)and device manufacturers to make sure users get drivers. Configuration and management depend on the version of Windows.
* Earlier versions of Windows, such as 98, ME and 2000 do not have built-in configuration and management support and must depend on software provided by the manufacturer
* Microsoft Windows XP has built-in configuration and management support. The original shipping version of Windows XP included rudimentary support which was dramatically improved in Service Pack 2. Support for WPA2 and some other security protocols require updates from Microsoft. There are still problems with XP support of Wi-Fi. (One simple interface problem is that if the user makes a mistake in the (case sensitive) passphrase, XP keeps trying to connect but never tells the user that the passphrase is wrong. A second problem is not allowing the user to see different BSSID's for the same ESSID; that is, it provides no way for the user to differentiate access points with the same name.) To make up for Windows’ inconsistent and sometimes inadequate configuration and management support, many hardware manufacturers include their own software and require the user to disable Windows’ built-in Wi-Fi support. See article "Windows XP Bedevils Wi-Fi Users" in Wired News.
* Microsoft Windows Vista has improved Wi-Fi support over Windows XP. The original betas automatically connected to unsecured networks without the user’s approval. The release candidate (RC1 or RC2) does not continue to display this behavior, requiring user permissions to connect to an unsecured network, as long as the user account is in the default configuration with regards to User Account Control.
Apple Mac OS
Apple was an early adopter of Wi-Fi, introducing its AirPort product line, based on the 802.11b standard, in July 1999. Apple then introduced AirPort Extreme as an implementation of 802.11g. All Macs starting with the original iBook included AirPort slots for which an AirPort card can be used, connecting to the computer's internal antenna. All Intel-based Macs either come with built-in Airport Extreme or a slot for an AirPort card. In late 2006, Apple began shipping Macs with Broadcom Wi-Fi chips that also supported the Draft 802.11n standard which can be unlocked through buying a $2 driver released by Apple at the January 2007 Macworld Expo. The driver is also included for free with Apple's 802.11n AirPort Extreme.
Apple makes the Mac OS operating system, the computer hardware, the accompanying drivers, AirPort WiFi base stations, and configuration and management software, simplifying Wi-Fi integration. The built-in configuration and management is integrated throughout many of the operating system's applications and utilities. Mac OS X has Wi-Fi support, including WPA2, and ships with drivers for Apple’s Broadcom-based AirPort cards. Many third-party manufacturers make compatible hardware along with the appropriate drivers which work with Mac OS X’s built-in configuration and management software. Other manufacturers distribute their own software.
Apple's older Mac OS 9 does not have built in support for Wi-Fi configuration and management nor does it ship with Wi-Fi drivers, but Apple provides free drivers and configuration and management software for their AirPort cards for OS 9, as do a few other manufacturers. Versions of Mac OS before OS 9 predate Wi-Fi and do not have any Wi-Fi support, although some third-party hardware manufacturers have made drivers and connection software that allows earlier OSes to use Wi-Fi.[3]
Open source Unix-like systems
Linux, FreeBSD and similar Unix-like clones have much coarser support for Wi-Fi. Due to the open source nature of these operating systems, many different standards have been developed for configuring and managing Wi-Fi devices. The open source nature also fosters open source drivers which have enabled many third party and proprietary devices to work under these operating systems. See Comparison of Open Source Wireless Drivers for more information on those drivers.
* Linux has patchy Wi-Fi support.[4] Native drivers for many Wi-Fi chipsets are available either commercially or at no cost,[5] although some manufacturers don't produce a Linux driver, only a Windows one. Consequently, many popular chipsets either don't have a native Linux driver at all, or only have a half-finished one. For these, the freely available NdisWrapper and its commercial competitor DriverLoader[6] allow Windows x86 and 64 bit variants NDIS drivers to be used on x86-based Linux systems but not on other architectures. As well as the lack of native drivers, some Linux distributions do not offer a convenient user interface and configuring Wi-Fi on them can be a clumsy and complicated operation compared to configuring wired Ethernet drivers.[7] This is changing with NetworkManager, a utility that allows users to automatically switch between networks without using the command line.
* FreeBSD has Wi-Fi support similar to Linux. Support under FreeBSD is best in the 6.x versions, which introduced full support for WPA and WPA2, although in some cases this is driver dependent. FreeBSD comes with drivers for many wireless cards and chipsets, including those made by Atheros, Ralink, Cisco, D-link, Netgear, and many Centrino chipsets, and provides support for others through the ports collection. FreeBSD also has "Project Evil", which provides the ability to use Windows x86 NDIS drivers on x86-based FreeBSD systems as NdisWrapper does on Linux, and Windows amd64 NDIS drivers on amd64-based systems. ndisgen.
* NetBSD, OpenBSD, and DragonFly BSD have Wi-Fi support similar to FreeBSD. Code for some of the drivers, as well as the kernel framework to support them, is mostly shared among the 4 BSDs.
* Haiku has no Wi-Fi support at all as of April 2007.
Wi-Fi Technical Information
Evolution of Wi-Fi standards
The IEEE standard that governs Wi-Fi technology is IEEE 802.11; that standard has gone through several generations since its inception in 1997.
802.11. The original version of the standard, released in 1997, specifies two raw data rates of 1 and 2 megabits per second (Mbit/s) to be transmitted via infrared (IR) signals or by either frequency hopping or direct-sequence spread spectrum in the Industrial Scientific Medical frequency band at 2.4 GHz. IR remains a part of the standard but has no actual implementations.
802.11a. The 802.11a amendment to the original standard was ratified in 1999. The 802.11a standard uses the same core protocol as the original standard and yields realistic throughput in the mid-20 Mbit/s. Since the 2.4 GHz band is heavily used, using the 5 GHz band gives 802.11a the advantage of less interference. However, this high carrier frequency also brings disadvantages. It restricts the use of 802.11a to almost line of sight, necessitating the use of more access points.
802.11b. The 802.11b amendment to the original standard was ratified in 1999. 802.11b has a maximum raw data rate of 11 Mbit/s and uses the same CSMA/CA media access method defined in the original standard. The dramatic increase in throughput of 802.11b (compared to the original standard) along with substantial price reductions led to the rapid acceptance of 802.11b as the definitive wireless LAN technology.
802.11g. In June 2003, a third standard was ratified: 802.11g. This works in the 2.4 GHz band (like 802.11b) but operates at a maximum raw data rate of 54 Mbit/s, or about 24.7 Mbit/s net throughputs (like 802.11a). Despite its major acceptance, 802.11g suffers from the same interference as 802.11b in the already crowded 2.4 GHz range. Devices operating in this range include microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices, and cordless telephones.
802.11n. 802.11n builds upon previous standards by adding MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output). MIMO uses multiple transmitter and receiver antennas to allow for increased data throughput through spatial multiplexing and increased range by exploiting the spatial diversity, through coding. On January 19, 2007, the IEEE 802.11 Working Group unanimously approved 802.11n to issue a new Draft 2.0 of the proposed standard.
Wi-Fi: How it Works
Wi-Fi networks use radio technologies called IEEE 802.11 to provide secure, reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A typical Wi-Fi setup contains one or more Access Points (APs) and one or more clients. An AP broadcasts its SSID (Service Set Identifier, "Network name") via packets that are called beacons, which are usually broadcast every 100 ms. The beacons are transmitted at 1 Mbit/s, and are of relatively short duration and therefore do not have a significant effect on performance. Since 1 Mbit/s is the lowest rate of Wi-Fi it assures that the client that receives the beacon can communicate at at least 1 Mbit/s. Based on the settings (e.g. the SSID), the client may decide whether to connect to an AP. If two APs of the same SSID are in range of the client, the client firmware might use signal strength to decide with which of the two APs to make a connection.
The Wi-Fi standard leaves connection criteria and roaming totally open to the client. This is a strength of Wi-Fi, but also means that one wireless adapter may perform substantially better than another. Since Wi-Fi transmits in the air, it has the same properties as a non-switched wired Ethernet network, and therefore collisions can occur. Unlike a wired Ethernet, and like most packet radios, Wi-Fi cannot do collision detection, and instead uses an acknowledgment packet for every data packet sent. If no acknowledgement is received within a certain time a retransmission occurs. Also, a medium reservation protocol can be used when excessive collisions are experienced or expected (RequestToSend/ClearToSend used for Collision Avoidance or CA) in an attempt to try to avoid collisions.
A Wi-Fi network can be used to connect computers to each other to the internet and to wired networks (which use IEEE 802.3 or Ethernet). Wi-Fi networks operate in the unlicensed 2.4 (802.11b/g) and 5 GHz (802.11a/h) radio bands, with an 11 Mbit/s (802.11b) or 54 Mbit/s (802.11a or g) data rate or with products that contain both bands (dual band). They can provide real world performance similar to the basic 10BaseT wired Ethernet networks.
The IEEE standard that governs Wi-Fi technology is IEEE 802.11; that standard has gone through several generations since its inception in 1997.
802.11. The original version of the standard, released in 1997, specifies two raw data rates of 1 and 2 megabits per second (Mbit/s) to be transmitted via infrared (IR) signals or by either frequency hopping or direct-sequence spread spectrum in the Industrial Scientific Medical frequency band at 2.4 GHz. IR remains a part of the standard but has no actual implementations.
802.11a. The 802.11a amendment to the original standard was ratified in 1999. The 802.11a standard uses the same core protocol as the original standard and yields realistic throughput in the mid-20 Mbit/s. Since the 2.4 GHz band is heavily used, using the 5 GHz band gives 802.11a the advantage of less interference. However, this high carrier frequency also brings disadvantages. It restricts the use of 802.11a to almost line of sight, necessitating the use of more access points.
802.11b. The 802.11b amendment to the original standard was ratified in 1999. 802.11b has a maximum raw data rate of 11 Mbit/s and uses the same CSMA/CA media access method defined in the original standard. The dramatic increase in throughput of 802.11b (compared to the original standard) along with substantial price reductions led to the rapid acceptance of 802.11b as the definitive wireless LAN technology.
802.11g. In June 2003, a third standard was ratified: 802.11g. This works in the 2.4 GHz band (like 802.11b) but operates at a maximum raw data rate of 54 Mbit/s, or about 24.7 Mbit/s net throughputs (like 802.11a). Despite its major acceptance, 802.11g suffers from the same interference as 802.11b in the already crowded 2.4 GHz range. Devices operating in this range include microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices, and cordless telephones.
802.11n. 802.11n builds upon previous standards by adding MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output). MIMO uses multiple transmitter and receiver antennas to allow for increased data throughput through spatial multiplexing and increased range by exploiting the spatial diversity, through coding. On January 19, 2007, the IEEE 802.11 Working Group unanimously approved 802.11n to issue a new Draft 2.0 of the proposed standard.
Wi-Fi: How it Works
Wi-Fi networks use radio technologies called IEEE 802.11 to provide secure, reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A typical Wi-Fi setup contains one or more Access Points (APs) and one or more clients. An AP broadcasts its SSID (Service Set Identifier, "Network name") via packets that are called beacons, which are usually broadcast every 100 ms. The beacons are transmitted at 1 Mbit/s, and are of relatively short duration and therefore do not have a significant effect on performance. Since 1 Mbit/s is the lowest rate of Wi-Fi it assures that the client that receives the beacon can communicate at at least 1 Mbit/s. Based on the settings (e.g. the SSID), the client may decide whether to connect to an AP. If two APs of the same SSID are in range of the client, the client firmware might use signal strength to decide with which of the two APs to make a connection.
The Wi-Fi standard leaves connection criteria and roaming totally open to the client. This is a strength of Wi-Fi, but also means that one wireless adapter may perform substantially better than another. Since Wi-Fi transmits in the air, it has the same properties as a non-switched wired Ethernet network, and therefore collisions can occur. Unlike a wired Ethernet, and like most packet radios, Wi-Fi cannot do collision detection, and instead uses an acknowledgment packet for every data packet sent. If no acknowledgement is received within a certain time a retransmission occurs. Also, a medium reservation protocol can be used when excessive collisions are experienced or expected (RequestToSend/ClearToSend used for Collision Avoidance or CA) in an attempt to try to avoid collisions.
A Wi-Fi network can be used to connect computers to each other to the internet and to wired networks (which use IEEE 802.3 or Ethernet). Wi-Fi networks operate in the unlicensed 2.4 (802.11b/g) and 5 GHz (802.11a/h) radio bands, with an 11 Mbit/s (802.11b) or 54 Mbit/s (802.11a or g) data rate or with products that contain both bands (dual band). They can provide real world performance similar to the basic 10BaseT wired Ethernet networks.
Wireless
Wi-Fi, also unofficially known as Wireless Fidelity, is a wireless technology brand owned by the Wi-Fi Alliance intended to improve the interoperability of wireless local area network products based on the IEEE 802.11 standards.
Common applications for Wi-Fi include Internet and VoIP phone access, gaming, and network connectivity for consumer electronics such as televisions, DVD players, and digital cameras.
Wi-Fi Alliance is a consortium of separate and independent companies agreeing to a set of common interoperable products based on the family of IEEE 802.11 standards. Wi-Fi certifies products via a set of established test procedures to establish interoperability. Those manufacturers that are members of Wi-Fi Alliance whose products pass these interoperability tests can mark their products and product packaging with the Wi-Fi logo.
According to the brand style guide of the Wi-Fi Alliance (the owner of the Wi-Fi brand):
Products which successfully pass the Wi-Fi Alliance testing may use the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED brand. The Alliance tests and certifies the interoperability of wireless LAN products based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. Studies show that 88% of consumers prefer products that have been tested by an independent organization.
Wi-Fi technologies have gone through several generations since their inception in 1997. Wi-Fi is supported to different extents under Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh and open source Unix and Linux operating systems. Contrary to popular belief, Wi-Fi is not an abbreviation for "Wireless Fidelity" .
Uses
A Wi-Fi enabled device such as a PC, game console, cell phone, MP3 player or PDA can connect to the Internet when within range of a wireless network connected to the Internet. The area covered by one or more interconnected access points is called a hotspot. Hotspots can cover as little as a single room with wireless-opaque walls or as much as many square miles covered by overlapping access points. Wi-Fi can also be used to create a mesh network. Both architectures are used in community networks.[citation needed]
Wi-Fi also allows connectivity in peer-to-peer (wireless ad-hoc network) mode, which enables devices to connect directly with each other. This connectivity mode is useful in consumer electronics and gaming applications.
When the technology was first commercialized there were many problems because consumers could not be sure that products from different vendors would work together. The Wi-Fi Alliance began as a community to solve this issue so as to address the needs of the end user and allow the technology to mature. The Alliance created the branding Wi-Fi CERTIFIED to show consumers that products are interoperable with other products displaying the same branding.
Many consumer devices use Wi-Fi. Amongst others, personal computers can network to each other and connect to the Internet, mobile computers can connect to the Internet from any Wi-Fi hotspot, and digital cameras can transfer images wirelessly.
Routers which incorporate a DSL or cable modem and a Wi-Fi access point are often used in homes and other premises, and provide Internet access and internetworking to all devices connected wirelessly or by cable into them. Devices supporting Wi-Fi can also be connected in ad-hoc mode for client-to-client connections without a router.
Business and industrial Wi-Fi is widespread as of 2007. In business environments, increasing the number of Wi-Fi access points provides redundancy, support for fast roaming and increased overall network capacity by using more channels or creating smaller cells. Wi-Fi enables wireless voice applications (VoWLAN or WVOIP). Over the years, Wi-Fi implementations have moved toward 'thin' access points, with more of the network intelligence housed in a centralized network appliance, relegating individual Access Points to be simply 'dumb' radios. Outdoor applications may utilize true mesh topologies. As of 2007 Wi-Fi installations can provide a secure computer networking gateway, firewall, DHCP server, intrusion detection system, and other functions.
In addition to restricted use in homes and offices, Wi-Fi is publicly available at Wi-Fi hotspots provided either free of charge or to subscribers to various providers. Free hotspots are often provided by businesses such as hotels, restaurants, and airports who offer the service to attract or assist clients. Sometimes free Wi-Fi is provided by enthusiasts, or by organizations or authorities who wish to promote business in their area. Metropolitan-wide WiFi (Mu-Fi) already has more than 300 projects in process.
Common applications for Wi-Fi include Internet and VoIP phone access, gaming, and network connectivity for consumer electronics such as televisions, DVD players, and digital cameras.
Wi-Fi Alliance is a consortium of separate and independent companies agreeing to a set of common interoperable products based on the family of IEEE 802.11 standards. Wi-Fi certifies products via a set of established test procedures to establish interoperability. Those manufacturers that are members of Wi-Fi Alliance whose products pass these interoperability tests can mark their products and product packaging with the Wi-Fi logo.
According to the brand style guide of the Wi-Fi Alliance (the owner of the Wi-Fi brand):
Products which successfully pass the Wi-Fi Alliance testing may use the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED brand. The Alliance tests and certifies the interoperability of wireless LAN products based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. Studies show that 88% of consumers prefer products that have been tested by an independent organization.
Wi-Fi technologies have gone through several generations since their inception in 1997. Wi-Fi is supported to different extents under Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh and open source Unix and Linux operating systems. Contrary to popular belief, Wi-Fi is not an abbreviation for "Wireless Fidelity" .
Uses
A Wi-Fi enabled device such as a PC, game console, cell phone, MP3 player or PDA can connect to the Internet when within range of a wireless network connected to the Internet. The area covered by one or more interconnected access points is called a hotspot. Hotspots can cover as little as a single room with wireless-opaque walls or as much as many square miles covered by overlapping access points. Wi-Fi can also be used to create a mesh network. Both architectures are used in community networks.[citation needed]
Wi-Fi also allows connectivity in peer-to-peer (wireless ad-hoc network) mode, which enables devices to connect directly with each other. This connectivity mode is useful in consumer electronics and gaming applications.
When the technology was first commercialized there were many problems because consumers could not be sure that products from different vendors would work together. The Wi-Fi Alliance began as a community to solve this issue so as to address the needs of the end user and allow the technology to mature. The Alliance created the branding Wi-Fi CERTIFIED to show consumers that products are interoperable with other products displaying the same branding.
Many consumer devices use Wi-Fi. Amongst others, personal computers can network to each other and connect to the Internet, mobile computers can connect to the Internet from any Wi-Fi hotspot, and digital cameras can transfer images wirelessly.
Routers which incorporate a DSL or cable modem and a Wi-Fi access point are often used in homes and other premises, and provide Internet access and internetworking to all devices connected wirelessly or by cable into them. Devices supporting Wi-Fi can also be connected in ad-hoc mode for client-to-client connections without a router.
Business and industrial Wi-Fi is widespread as of 2007. In business environments, increasing the number of Wi-Fi access points provides redundancy, support for fast roaming and increased overall network capacity by using more channels or creating smaller cells. Wi-Fi enables wireless voice applications (VoWLAN or WVOIP). Over the years, Wi-Fi implementations have moved toward 'thin' access points, with more of the network intelligence housed in a centralized network appliance, relegating individual Access Points to be simply 'dumb' radios. Outdoor applications may utilize true mesh topologies. As of 2007 Wi-Fi installations can provide a secure computer networking gateway, firewall, DHCP server, intrusion detection system, and other functions.
In addition to restricted use in homes and offices, Wi-Fi is publicly available at Wi-Fi hotspots provided either free of charge or to subscribers to various providers. Free hotspots are often provided by businesses such as hotels, restaurants, and airports who offer the service to attract or assist clients. Sometimes free Wi-Fi is provided by enthusiasts, or by organizations or authorities who wish to promote business in their area. Metropolitan-wide WiFi (Mu-Fi) already has more than 300 projects in process.
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