Whether you are a tech, enthusiast, computer science student, Cyber security, if you are starting out in the world of technology you might you want to dig a little deeper than just using a mobile device and what makes a mobile device, well, a mobile device. The whole bunch of usefulness of mobile devices lie lot on their hardware features. We are going to take a look into the basics of them and not going to go hardware engineering to the core.
Screen technology
Screen technology plays the biggest part of these modern mobile devices and they come in various types. Almost all of the tablets out there use LCD panel like the portable devices and desktop monitors. Tablets on the lower-end uses twisted nemantic (TN) technology and the higher-end tablets like Apple iPad uses In-plane switching (IPS) panel which provide richer colour and way better viewing angles.#
There are some smaller devices, better ones, uses one of these related technologies known as organic light-emitting diode (OLED) which lights up the screen with organic compound. Applying proper amount of electric current to the desired spot, causes the organic layer to glow. There are some devices use the Active Matrix OLED (AMOLED). This adds a TFT layer which gives out more control over the screen. OLEDs and AMOLEDs do not rely on backlights. They are able to display true black , lighter and use much less electricity than LCDs.
Cameras
Majority of these modern devices come in with front and back facing cameras. They make it easy to chat online with cameras on, youtubing, Instagram selfies and so on. Camera featured mobile devices can transmit data over cellular or IP based networks, Internet.
The recent smartphones out there features camera so good that they directly confront and challenges those point-and-shoot cameras out there. These camera high quality features like high dynamic range (HDR), light compensation and other functions which allow the user to have greater fine tuning control over the shot. In addition, lot of these cameras offer exclusive features like slow motion video, burst of shots, AI technology and so on. Also there are hundreds of apps out, which can be used to further edit and bring the aesthetic you want. With the newer AI technology like Dall.e, an insane game changer is on the way!
Microphones
Every mobile devices come in with a built-in microphone, at least one. Smartphone would certainly not be much of a smarty pant if it did not have a microphone in the first place. With the flexibility of carrying them around, most of the user uses the built-in microphone for different reason as well. For instance, recording speech, class lecture, picking up sound for audio production and even taking a voice take for cheap audio production. Mobile devices often have more than one microphone which serves different purpose for instance cancelling out the noise.
Digitizers
Generally in engineering digitizers are known as taking a raw, analogy signal and turning it into a digital signal. But digitizer on mobile devices refer to something else. It refers to the component in the screen which provides the “touch” facility, which makes up the touch screen. The way it works, when you touch the screen, the digitizer’s finest grid of sensors right under the glass detects your finger movement and signals the operating system the coordination. With modern track pads you are able to use more fingers to do more stuff.
Global Positioning System (GPS)
One of the major feature that is common with every mobile devices is the GPS system. This enable the devices to track the device’s location through GPS, cellular, WiFi connection. Users generally rely on location services which shows them anything they are looking for near them. For instance, You Uber driver finds you on GPS, restaurants and any destination you want to head to. There are lot more incredible use case of GPS to mention here.
Standalone GPS devices
There are also purpose built GPS devices out there. The most common one that you already maybe using is the one attached to the dashboard or anywhere else inside your vehicle. The usage of this standalone device could be in a situation where the device did not come in built-in with the product. For instance, on a boat, bicycle, motorbike, aeroplane etc. There are magnificent customized version of these devices are available.
Location Tracking and privacy
This is an expensive feature that come in so handy only when you want it to track you. By default, Mobile operating system tracks you and in some cases record your location for an extended period of time. This is called geotracking and generally not liked by everyone. If you do not like this feature you can turn it off. But you may lose some of the services that provides you rich information based on the geotracking. You are to decide this trade-off.