Cell phones are a rapidly evolving technology.
Cell phones are a rapidly evolving technological platform. Initially, they were larger than cordless phones and required a device the size of a small briefcase to connect to a cell network. But the process of miniaturization has brought about phones hardly larger than a hand-held calculator, with large, colorful and animated screens, lots of storage space and powerful processors.
Current State
As of 2009, a cell phone can act as an MP3 player, video player, gaming platform, GPS (Global Positioning System) device, portable storage device and camera. Apple's iPhone is one such example. In addition to performing all these functions, the iPhone has an "App Store," providing tens of thousands of free or inexpensive "apps" that perform specialized functions, turning the iPhone into a kind of digital Swiss Army knife. You can add a recipe database, sports highlights, stock market tracking, electronic books ("ebooks"), constellation mapping and a variety of virtual musical instruments.
Google Android
Alternatively, you can purchase a phone based on Google's "Android" platform. It has many of the same features as the iPhone, but is based on Linux instead of Max OS X. Creating apps for this platform can be much easier, because the approval process is not as strict. An Android-based phone can also act as a GPS map device, including turn-by-turn instructions.
Comparisons
However, Android-based phones do not currently have multi-touch technology. You can buy Android-based phones that have touch screens, but they only detect a single point of contact. With multi-touch, you can use "pinch" or "expand" gestures to zoom in and out of a photo. Like the iPhone, however, Android has its own application store, called the Android Market.
Memory Cards
Another growing trend is in removable media. As cell phones become increasingly popular media for videos, music and photos, storage space fills up quickly. The built-in storage space included when you bought your phone a year or two ago may now not be enough for the higher-quality video and the larger library of games and other applications that you can download to your phone.
Without removable media, you have to delete things if you may want to make room for more. Or you can figure out a way to transfer files to your computer, although some cell phones do not make this easy. If you have a memory card slot, however, you can simply swap a full card with an empty card, or buy a card that has more storage space. Memory card technology progresses rapidly enough that you can buy a higher-capacity model in the time that it takes to fill up your current card.
Under the Hood
These advanced cell phones are overwhelmingly based on the ARM CPU (Central Processing Unit) and have been slow to move away from the ARM11. Future trends include the ARM Cortex and other CPUs with multiple processing cores, making them powerful enough to run a laptop or low-power desktop, in addition to cell phones.
Tags: storage space, Android-based phones, cell phones, cell phones, Cell phones rapidly, Google Android
