Friday, 30 November 2012
Wednesday, 7 November 2012
Mobile Internet Usage & History of the Mobile Phone
Mobile Phones
A mobile phone used to be a device that was capable of sending and receiving calls, also sending and receiving SMS. Nowadays this is not apparent and this is due to the birth of the smart-phone. The smart-phone changed the generations of phones because it meant easy access to the Internet on a handheld device that nowadays almost every person you see has a smart-phone. I myself have a HTC so I am one of the many who have a smart-phone. Truthfully I don't use my smart-phone only for calls and texts but to surf the Internet and for the majority of the time I also go on Facebook...the worlds leading social networking site. As a result of phones are so small it means that they are easily transportable to everywhere you go which means almost 100% of the time people have instant access to the Internet from wherever they are.
There are good things about having Internet on your smart-phone and that is that you can stay in touch with friends and family that live quite a distance from where you are but also more importantly for people who run businesses it means they can send and receive emails as and when they need to. Mobile phones nowadays do fulfil their intended purpose however I believe that it is correct to say that they are no longer just mobile phones but miniature computers.
This little table shows us how many people actually uses the Internet on their phones. It seem like the figures have come out as I had predicted them to be. This is that the younger the age group in the table the higher the percentage of people in that age group that use the Internet on their phone for whatever reason. This again is obviously the digital divide for the people in the UK that cannot afford Internet on a phone or more worrying the fact that they might not be able to afford a phone. But the reason why usage gets lower as the age group increases because the older generations of people will not be into technology as much as the younger generations. Statistics taken from: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/datasets-and-tables/index.html?pageSize=50&sortBy=none&sortDirection=none&newquery=mobile+internet
History of the Mobile Phone
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| http://www.dialaphone.co.uk/blog/2012/02/13/the-phone-that-burns-twice-as-smart/ |
Mobile phones are something of the past unfortunately, this was a result of the birth of the smartphone. Long gone are the days when a mobile phone seemed like the biggest leap in technology, going from something like a massive computer in the 1980's compacted down into something the size of a brick. The years have passed and technology has become more and more complex due to two factors; innovative ideas and breakthroughs by phone developers and second to that, the demand from the public because of the desperate attitude to try new technology.
Mobile phones were first invented to enable people to ring a text each other while moving around to increase the convenience of contacting in important situations, even back then mobile phones were so expensive that only wealthy people had a mobile phone for personal use. Smartphones can be used for much more than what mobile phones were actually made for. As well as calling and texting people under circumstances I also use my smartphone for a lot more, the term 'smart' usually an object has Internet capabilities. This is the fundamental part because as soon as you introduce Internet capabilities to an object it opens so many doors, for example with my Internet allowance it enables me to; buy and download applications and games on my phone, use social networking sites on my phone to keep up to date with the latest happenings going on amongst my friends, Google search anything that I want just like doing it on a computer, send and receive emails on my phone so I don't miss anything if someone emails me and last but not least play online games with my friends. All of the listed above can be performed just by having an Internet enabled phone, so you can really see how one factor can trigger a colossal amount of outcomes.
Advantages
The beauty of it all being able to be done on my HTC is that I can do it anytime I want and when I choose to do it. Before the mobile phone was introduced you either had to find a phone box or phone people from the house phone, whereas now everything can be done from my current location conveniently. Major benefits of using a mobile phone is that you can easily contact people as and when you need to without any aggravation. If you need to speak with them urgently then you can call them quickly but for less urgent questions then you can just text them and they will reply when they are free and able to. With smartphones it enables you to keep in touch of distant relatives that you are unable to contact through calling and texting. Also if you need to refer to an email that you have received from a company and need to present it to them to get a discount for example, then you can just open the email there and then to show them rather than having to print it out. If there is a requirement for you to check the weather or news to discover the most recent happenings in the area around you then you can easily surf the Internet and go onto the BBC website or other various sites as well. I believe my phone does fulfil it's purpose because the original use of a mobile phone was that it could call and text people to maximise convenience when contacting someone, I use my phone regularly for this purpose and so i happily say that yes my phone does fulfil it's purpose.
Disadvantages
As with all advantages of having new technology there is always disadvantages that come with it. the main disadvantage being the fact that all smartphones are annoyingly prone to smash the first time you drop it and so if they break then it becomes a monumental problem because then you have to ether get it fixed or replace it with a new phone if the damage is that bad. More commonly nowadays along with texting there is a new kind of language called text language, in my opinion this is the most pointless invention ever and it displays nothing but laziness and because of this it there is talk that young children that get phones will use this text language more than speaking proper English and therefore will affect the quality of English that they speak and write.
Communication
SMS - Short Message Service
Short messaging service has become more and more popular as we have come further into the 21st century. this is due the colossal amount of technological breakthroughs conquered in the later parts of the 20th century. the way in which the different generations of people through the years.In 2004 there was more than 40 million mobile phones in the UK and over 30,000 base stations. Communicating via SMS is good in some senses because it allows you to communicate to your dearest family and friends whenever you want and nowadays it is not even that expensive to pay for texts providing you have a contract. However with every good situation there is always a bad side to it, with this example it would be that when you text people you are not developing your people skills and this is very important for youngsters to learn to get them ready for their life ahead.
I use email when I need to contact someone and I have no other way of making contact with them. Also it is a quick cheap and easy way to send documents pictures and different file format documents. I mainly use email at school to contact teachers and also to allow me to sign up to different websites's accounts so they can contact me as and when they need to. The problems you may face when sending and receiving emails are discussed when I first made my blog. Also when giving you email to companies and service that you are not sure about are also not good and the problems that you could encounter are also discussed in one of my first posts. I believe email definitely fulfils its intended purposes because it was first set up 'generically for any electronic document transmission.' Quote taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email so in this sense it is still used today for what it was intentionally made for.
Short messaging service has become more and more popular as we have come further into the 21st century. this is due the colossal amount of technological breakthroughs conquered in the later parts of the 20th century. the way in which the different generations of people through the years.In 2004 there was more than 40 million mobile phones in the UK and over 30,000 base stations. Communicating via SMS is good in some senses because it allows you to communicate to your dearest family and friends whenever you want and nowadays it is not even that expensive to pay for texts providing you have a contract. However with every good situation there is always a bad side to it, with this example it would be that when you text people you are not developing your people skills and this is very important for youngsters to learn to get them ready for their life ahead.
E-Mail - Electronic Mail
It is the same story with sending Electronic Mail (email). sure it is quick and easy to do but sometimes it is important that you manage to talk to people around you to enable for you to develop your people skills. I find that when you have to sort out an event that is going to happen or has already happened out, it always tends to be resolved quicker when you actually speak to someone face to face. nowadays electronic mail gets used a lot in different organisations such as schools and other.
I use email when I need to contact someone and I have no other way of making contact with them. Also it is a quick cheap and easy way to send documents pictures and different file format documents. I mainly use email at school to contact teachers and also to allow me to sign up to different websites's accounts so they can contact me as and when they need to. The problems you may face when sending and receiving emails are discussed when I first made my blog. Also when giving you email to companies and service that you are not sure about are also not good and the problems that you could encounter are also discussed in one of my first posts. I believe email definitely fulfils its intended purposes because it was first set up 'generically for any electronic document transmission.' Quote taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email so in this sense it is still used today for what it was intentionally made for.
Saturday, 3 November 2012
Social Networking
Social networking website have grown massively over the last 5-10 years. A social networking website is a social structure made up of a set of actors and there are links either by family or friends. The social network perspective provides a
clear way of analysing the structure of whole social groups. There are dozens of different social networking sites, i am only going to talk a little about 3 of the most popular social networking sites.
Facebook is the most popular and it was launched in 2004 by a man called Mark Zuckerberg. He was a student when he was designing the site. Now 8 years on Facebook has 1billion users that frequently socialise on Facebook. This social network is also available on smart-phone handsets.
Twitter is the second most popular social networking site with over 500 million active users as of 2012. It was launched in 2006 by Jack Dorsey. He is now the current executive chairman of twitter. this social networking website is also available for use on any smart-phone.
Linkedin is the third largest social networking site with 175 million registered users in more than 200 countries. The company was founded by Reid Hoffman but the current CEO is Jeff Weiner. This social networking website was originally launched for people in professional occupations. This is also available on any smart-phone.
The biggest online social networking drawback is that it makes identity theft easier. This is really bad because it presents local authorities with possible paedophiles which is just a general threat. Scammers use social networking sites to trick people into downloading malicious software, this is a big one. This software will seriously attack your computer and will potentially destroy your computer from the inside. Social networking can be both overwhelming and addictive at the same time. If you join every social network and add hundreds of people as friends, you'll receive updates constantly. This could be a bad thing because then you will become a slave to the social network.
Facebook is the most popular and it was launched in 2004 by a man called Mark Zuckerberg. He was a student when he was designing the site. Now 8 years on Facebook has 1billion users that frequently socialise on Facebook. This social network is also available on smart-phone handsets.
Twitter is the second most popular social networking site with over 500 million active users as of 2012. It was launched in 2006 by Jack Dorsey. He is now the current executive chairman of twitter. this social networking website is also available for use on any smart-phone.
Linkedin is the third largest social networking site with 175 million registered users in more than 200 countries. The company was founded by Reid Hoffman but the current CEO is Jeff Weiner. This social networking website was originally launched for people in professional occupations. This is also available on any smart-phone.
The biggest online social networking drawback is that it makes identity theft easier. This is really bad because it presents local authorities with possible paedophiles which is just a general threat. Scammers use social networking sites to trick people into downloading malicious software, this is a big one. This software will seriously attack your computer and will potentially destroy your computer from the inside. Social networking can be both overwhelming and addictive at the same time. If you join every social network and add hundreds of people as friends, you'll receive updates constantly. This could be a bad thing because then you will become a slave to the social network.
4th Generation Internet Coverage
4G is the fourth generation of internet service provided by different internet providers. It is a replacement of the third generation Internet coverage or also known as 3G. A 4G system provides mobile broadband to run a very high speed Internet. It provides access for many devices, both portable and stationary.
This estimation diagram shows us how much of the world actually still uses 2G and it still remains that still only under half of the world population has 2G and 3G. This means when 4G finally comes out it should make 3G more readily available to the world's population. But with these figures it seems silly for 4G to be put into use considering the Internet providing companies cant even cater 3G to half the worlds population. This 4G is meant to be 5 times faster than 3G which is understandable to put it out on the market for use but it does require a lot more power for it to be used, this will mean when you use it on a smart-phone then you should not use it for long otherwise it will drain your battery quickly. I wonder if it would be 5 times faster than 3G?!
The Digital Divide
The digital divide is where people in the UK don't have what most of the population take for granted is not actually affordable to some people. This happens on a global and local scale. either that or some people don't really understand how a computer or the Internet actually work so they tend not to even go near it. This stops a portion of the UK's population from being able to use the website and having the right to air their opinion that everyone else so easily does. The government tries to adhere to this problem by using different methods depending on the County's council. Some counties give special access to computers in their towns library or it has been known that some councils have actually given these people computers to use. Nowadays computers are a standard thing, even something as simple as applying for a job is impossible because most of the time the application form is on the business' website. This goes onto not helping the current economic downturn and unemployment being so high.
On a local scale above is a map showing the Internet usage in England in 2011. From the diagram you can see that in any one region in England is likely to have around 80% Internet usage. This means 80% of the people in that region has regular access to the Internet and uses a lot. For a well developed country around 20% per region is quite high for people not having access to a computer. This means that people in England still cannot afford to have a computer with access to the Internet. This means if businesses and activities of most organisations in the world are transferring themselves over to the Internet, then that 20% of people per region will not be able to use that organisations services even if they wanted to. Evidently the south of England generally has more access to the Internet then the people in the north, this is due to the lack of employment and wealth in the north of England.
From the diagram above you can see that all of the expected countries have the highest brackets for having computers and Internet usage. There are still some areas in the world that don even have a single computer owned by anyone. Obviously and evidently the undeveloped countries don't have as many computers and as much Internet usage than other countries that are well developed like the USA and UK.
International Telecommunications Union - http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/connect/
'The overall objective of the Connect CIS is to mobilise the human, financial and technical resources required to support a rapid, region-wide transition to digital infrastructure and services. Also connect the unconnected by the year 2015 '. This is a quote I took from this website. It says it has to sort the financial problems first before it can improve, it also says in the website that it will need financial help if it wants to make advances in the economic struggle. They believe that the digital divide is due to grow due to the fact that 4G Internet has immured. The reason this is likely to cause the digital divide to grow is because as the people able to pay for 4G the others that don't even have access to Internet. This means the advance will mean the divide of Internet will become quicker so even if the people who don't have it manage to pay for it, there is still a huge divide between 2G and 4G.
Local Scale
On a local scale above is a map showing the Internet usage in England in 2011. From the diagram you can see that in any one region in England is likely to have around 80% Internet usage. This means 80% of the people in that region has regular access to the Internet and uses a lot. For a well developed country around 20% per region is quite high for people not having access to a computer. This means that people in England still cannot afford to have a computer with access to the Internet. This means if businesses and activities of most organisations in the world are transferring themselves over to the Internet, then that 20% of people per region will not be able to use that organisations services even if they wanted to. Evidently the south of England generally has more access to the Internet then the people in the north, this is due to the lack of employment and wealth in the north of England.
Global Scale
From the diagram above you can see that all of the expected countries have the highest brackets for having computers and Internet usage. There are still some areas in the world that don even have a single computer owned by anyone. Obviously and evidently the undeveloped countries don't have as many computers and as much Internet usage than other countries that are well developed like the USA and UK.
International Telecommunications Union - http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/connect/
'The overall objective of the Connect CIS is to mobilise the human, financial and technical resources required to support a rapid, region-wide transition to digital infrastructure and services. Also connect the unconnected by the year 2015 '. This is a quote I took from this website. It says it has to sort the financial problems first before it can improve, it also says in the website that it will need financial help if it wants to make advances in the economic struggle. They believe that the digital divide is due to grow due to the fact that 4G Internet has immured. The reason this is likely to cause the digital divide to grow is because as the people able to pay for 4G the others that don't even have access to Internet. This means the advance will mean the divide of Internet will become quicker so even if the people who don't have it manage to pay for it, there is still a huge divide between 2G and 4G.
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