Mobile and more

2005/06/19 Rementeria Argote, Nagore - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Elektronika
• Komunikazioak
• Irudiak/Soinuak
• Telekomunikazioak

Currently, nine out of ten Basques have a mobile phone.

Advances in the world of mobile phones are constant. And it's no wonder, because if companies want to continue selling phones, they have no choice but to offer increasingly useful tools, or perhaps more tempting.

We only have to go back about five years to realize the change caused by the mobile. At that time, few had such a phone and, for us to accept, talking to the mobile phone on the street or anywhere else was a bit embarrassing. However, currently about nine out of ten Basques have mobile phones, and most have lost the shame of talking on the phone anywhere.

In addition, mobile phones are not just for making and receiving calls. Mobile phones with cameras have been very successful, for example. Unfortunately, for the moment, they take pictures of quite low quality — although the photographer is good, they are not usually to move to the paper normally. But in this field there is also progress, and there are already high-end mobiles that collect quality images from a digital camera.

Music on the phone

Hybrid phones are becoming more and more common, as in addition to the phone has GPS.

It is the high-end mobiles that have the most advanced means. For example, this year is the turn of devices that offer the possibility of listening to music. Sony-Ericsson launches its Walkman phone this year. Little has to do with the old walkmans: 150 songs are offered in MP3 format. And it's about taking advantage of the success of these small MP3 readers who are now in vogue.

This year has also presented another phone that offers the possibility to bring and listen to your most beloved songs. Nokia will release it at the end of the year, in collaboration with the Apple company, and will have a much higher capacity than the previous ones: you can save three thousand songs.

If the music is low, this new hybrid phone will have all the other advances: a photo camera, Internet connection, email, Bluetooth system (no need for cables to share information with another phone, computer, etc. ). And for all these uses, a 4 gigabyte hard drive. It is a small computer.

Want to have a coffee with your friends? The phone will tell you which ones are near you.

And that is how the mobile phones of the future will come along. The goal is for all everyday tools to be integrated into the phone. The phone will be a small pocket computer. You will have an agenda, possibility to speak by videoconference, camera and a simple program of photographic treatment (play with the photos and give some touches). Listen to the radio and watch TV. And browse the Internet, know where we go with GPS...

And the tool with all this, in addition, should be very simple. But before we have to solve another problem, that of security. We are already studying how to combat viruses and other attacks. There is the possibility of using biometrics to meet the owner: the phone will recognize the pupil, voice or fingerprints.

What news?

Many of these advances are underway. For example, a system of adapting Internet pages to the phone screen (UMTS) seems to be quite advanced, although the so-called WAP is not very successful.

On new mobile phones style is as important as apps.

In Britain, movies and series are being adapted to watch on mobile. Previously they have tried to offer traditional films, but because they are not accessible on small screens, Vodafone and Century Fox have been specially produced for mobile in collaboration.

Video game fans are also at ease. Tools like Nokia's n-Gage have the possibility to have a game console on your phone or a phone in the game console. It is undoubtedly one of the pioneers of mobile phones that will be common in the future, since it has nothing to do with the electronic agenda, the possibility of listening to radio and music...

On the other hand, there are programs that try to facilitate everyday life, such as success in some U.S. Dodgeball cities. Imagine you want to get out of work and have a coffee, you have to call a friend, but who? Who knows where they are and how to know if a friend is a little close? You can consult him on the phone and he will tell you the people who are within a kilometer.

It seems that the key is to choose the mobile phone and the programs that suit you. And in this we must also take into account the size of the pocket, not because not between the phone, but because when making the payment it is not convenient to walk with gravity.

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