Then:
Much advancement in the field of mobile communication was to be had during World War II. Of the several breakthroughs made during that time, radar was the most publicized discovery. Radar may have been important back then and still is today, but the discovery that was arguably more impactful was that of portable FM two-way radio communication. More commonly known at the time as the “walkie-talkie backpack radio” or “walkie-talkie” for short, it was first designed by Dan Noble, an employee of Motorola. After World War II, it was theorized that not only could the average civilian have access to this technology under the name “civil radio”, but also that the frequencies on which these civil radios would operate could be reused in several thousand areas across the nation. Known as the “principle of frequency reuse”, we happen to use the same method to save space on the air waves; if two users of the same frequency are separated geographically so they cannot ever intersect, then what reason is there to lump them together? In the year of 1947, it was also theorized that cellular technology would require small geographical areas called cells, traffic controlled in each cell by a central switch, and a low-powered transmitter in each cell in order to function (Gershon 2003). |
| This contraption makes the infamous brick cell phones look like smartphones by comparison! |
Springing backwards a year, the first United States commercial mobile radio-telephone service was created on June 17, 1946, in Saint Louis, Missouri. The so-called “Mobile Telephone Service”, or MTS for short, was the child of both AT&T and Southwestern Bell. MTS technology began with six channels interspaced with 60 kHz spaces, yet that number was cut down to three as users experienced and complained about cross-channel interference. The system also offered compatibility with cars, yet this too unearthed problems: when the vehicles were in motion, they could not reliably send consistent signals back to the area’s antennae. The means of communicating in and of itself were also flawed in that one person was required to push a button to speak and then let go of the button to listen. It was very similar to the “push-to-talk” feature that one can find now, yet very primitive due to not allowing the user to listen while pushing the button or speak while not pushing the button; it was either one or the other. Even when taking all these issues into account, the system still had its merits: co-channel interference and echo were problems that took years to solve, yet this limited “push-to-talk” method served as a temporary fix to both (Gershon 2003). Such limitations would be unacceptable today, yet back then it was that way or the highway.
Now:
Today the words “mobile device” apply to a wider range of
products than just cell phones. A list of such mobile devices include laptops,
notebook computers, tablets, and smartphones. Laptops and notebook computers
sport monitors that can be flipped closed over their keyboards, whereas tablets
and smartphones generally lack both that hinge action and physical keyboards.
Instead of your average keyboard consisting of plastic buttons, tablets and
smartphones feature touchscreen keyboards, and such keyboards have their
advantages and disadvantages (Luterbach et al., 2015). By using the monitor
both as a display and a means of input, the product takes up much less space,
but this also leads to the monitor being smudged by anything the user happens
to have on their fingers. Please keep in mind that touchscreens are not solely
exclusive to tablets and smartphones, though. Some laptops feature the same
touchscreen technology, which is incorporated into their monitors to be used as
a supplement to their physical keyboards. The angle at which the keyboard is
usually positioned along with the presence of the physical keyboard generally
makes the touchscreen keyboard redundant, yet it is convenient for certain
actions like scrolling through pages or moving windows around without having to
reach for one’s mouse.
 |
| An example of a laptop that features a touchscreen. Slightly redundant, but it has its uses. |
Back on the topic of mobile devices in general, long gone
are the days of such devices being capable of long-distance communication and
nothing else. For years now, software developers have worked to make a range of
application software, or apps, for mobile devices; such apps are most commonly
seen on smartphones, where “app stores” serve to distribute the hard work of
these software developers to consumers for a fee in some cases and for
absolutely nothing at all in others. These apps come in a rainbow of uses with
some being sources of entertainment, such as game and music apps, and others
being sources of information gathering, such as recording and measuring apps,
but Luterbach focuses on the learning potential of these apps. According to
him, thousands of apps existed as of 2015 to teach everyone young, old, and in
between on a variety of tasks and subjects; even something as multi-purpose as
the Internet can be considered an educational app due to the countless sources
of instructional material that it houses. There is so much potential, in fact,
that it has given rise to a practice called mobile learning, or m-learning for
short (Luterbach et al., 2015). Some schools have gone through the effort of
instituting this m-learning into their curriculum, though whether or not this
is a good course of action remains to be determined.
Later:
Before we can look into the future of mobile devices, it
is key to first take a look at the basics of what makes a mobile device a
mobile device. First off, every mobile device must have some means of
displaying information to the user. The usual goal is to provide the same
refresh rate, color capabilities, and resolution as a desktop computer but all
within a screen that is under an inch in thickness. Color liquid crystal is
currently the most popular choice for this, yet it is not the perfect one due
to consuming around half of the entire device’s power. Going hand in hand with
output, every mobile device must have a means of inputting data into the
device. This requirement sadly puts a limit on how small the device can be, for
the means of input must be large enough to conveniently operate. This can be avoided
by relying entirely on a method like voice recognition, but no doubt having the
safety net that is a touchscreen keyboard is one that few are willing to
abandon. An obvious requirement of any mobile device is the means to store
data, namely in hard drives or other storage devices. Thanks to Moore’s Law,
these drives have become smaller and denser over time, gaining the ability to
store more data in less space. Something that must be considered, however, is
being able to store the data without consuming too much power or space. Last,
but not least, we have integrated circuits, or the CPU. Being what is
responsible for how fast the mobile device operates, there is a constant
mission to create faster and faster CPUs, yet power use is still a major problem
to build around (Media computing 2003).
 |
| One must wonder how much longer it will be until our cellphones are nothing but images floating in the air. |
As for the future, speculation is limited by these four
basic features of mobile devices. It will most likely be difficult to find a
replacement for color liquid crystal displays that offer the same, if not better,
quality while using up less power. There are other reliable means of inputting
data into a device aside from touchscreen keyboards, but all of them still
hamper our ability to make the devices smaller. In recent years, we have
started hitting the limits of how far Moore’s Law can take us, but advances in
light technology may break that plateau effect. Integrated circuits suffer from
a similar issue and could benefit from a similar solution, yet one must wonder
if the solution will be superior in terms of power consumption. Generally, many
of these features are held back by power consumption, and could be at least
slightly relieved if a better power source were to be developed. I very
strongly doubt that we will be carrying portable nuclear reactors with us
everywhere we go in the future, though.
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