What is a smart phone?
You’ll probably hear the term "smart phone"
tossed around a lot.
But if you've ever wondered exactly
what a smart phone is, you will not
alone. How is a smart phone different than a cell phone, and what makes
it so smart?
In a nutshell, a smart phone is a device that
lets you make telephone calls, but also adds in features that, in the past, you
would have found only on a personal digital assistant or a computer--such as
the ability to send and receive e-mail and edit Office documents, for example.
But, to really understand what a smart phone
is (and is not), we should start with a history lesson. In the beginning, there
were cell phones and personal digital assistants (or PDAs). Cell phones were
used for making calls--and not much else--while PDAs, like the Palm Pilot, were
used as personal, portable organizers. A PDA could store your contact info and
a to-do list, and could sync with your computer.
Eventually, PDAs gained wireless connectivity
and were able to send and receive e-mail. Cell phones, meanwhile, gained
messaging capabilities, too. PDAs then added cellular phone features, while
cell phones added more PDA-like (and even computer-like) features. The result was the smart phone.
Key Smartphone Features
While there is no standard definition of the
term "smart phone" across the industry, we thought it would be
helpful to point out what we here at About.com define as a smart phone, and
what we consider a cell phone. Here are the features we look at:
Operating System: In general, a smart phone will be based on an operating system
that allows it to run applications. Apple's i-Phone runs IOS, and BlackBerry smart
phones run the BlackBerry
OS. Other devices run Google's
Android OS, and Microsoft's Windows Phone.
Apps: While almost all cell
phones include some sort of software (even the most basic models these days
include an address book or some sort of contact manager, for example), a smart phone will
have the ability to do more.
It may allow you to create and edit Microsoft Office documents--or at least view the files. It may allow you to download apps, such as
personal and business finance managers, handy personal assistants, or, well,
almost anything.
Web Access: More smart phones can
access the Web at higher speeds, thanks to the growth of 4G and 3G
data networks, as well as the addition of Wi-Fi support to many
handsets. Still, while not all smart phones offer high-speed Web access, they
all offer some sort of access. You can use your smart phone to browse your
favorite sites.
QWERTY Keyboard: By our definition, a smart phone includes a
QWERTY keyboard. This means that the keys are laid out in the same manner they
would be on your computer keyboard--not in alphabetical order on top of a
numeric keypad, where you have to tap the number 1 to enter an A, B, or C. The
keyboard can be hardware (physical keys that you type on) or software (on a
touch screen, like you'll find on the i-Phone).
Messaging: All cell phones can send and receive text messages, but what
sets a smart phone apart is its handling of e-mail. A smart phone can sync with
your personal and, most likely, your professional e-mail account. Some smart phones
can support multiple e-mail accounts. Others include access to the popular
instant messaging services, like AOL's AIM and Yahoo! Messenger.
These are just some of the features that make
a smart phone smart. The technology surrounding smart phones and cell phones is
constantly changing, though. What constitutes a smart phone today may change by
next week, next month, or next year.
Details :
1.
You’ll
probably hear the term "smart phone" tossed
around a lot, in the bold sentence we can see that If we are not so certain about the
future, we use 'will' with expressions such as 'probably', 'possibly', 'I
think', 'I hope'.
2.
if you've ever wondered exactly what a smart phone is, you will not alone, it is the type of the if
conditional and In these sentences, the
time is the present and the situation is real. It is refer to a possible condition and its probable result.
3. The result was the smart phone. Using past tense
because in the previous sentences, we can see that the situation tells about
the past.
4.
These are just some of the
features that make a smart phone smart. Use
"these" for more than one object (plural) which are here (near to us) or in the other
hand, the word “these” is closely meaning of the features what smart phone
have.
