Glossary Holding

Glossary of terms

Find yourself confused with mobile phones and all their jargon and technical terms. Our easy to use and friendly mobile phone glossary aims to clear up the myths from the facts and give you the jump on finding the right mobile phone. We update this list on a regular basis to stay up to date with the fast paced mobile phone industry and the new gadgets, gizmos, hardware and apps that come loaded on our mobile phones. Get the most out of your mobile phone and the inside track with this helpful glossary.

• 2.5G
• 2.5mm
• 2G
• 3.5G
• 3.5mm
• 3G
• 4G
• A-GPS
• A2DP
• AAC
• Accelerometer
• Active Matrix
• Active Standby
• Address Book
• Airplane Mode
• Alphanumeric
• AMOLED
• Analogue
• Android
• Antenna
• Applications
• Attachments
• Audio
• Audio Output Jack
• Autofocus
• Automatic Answer
• Automatic Backlight
• Automatic Redial
• Autotext
• Backup
• Bandwidth

What is 2.5G?

2.5G is a term used for networks that have had some enhancements made in the form of greater data capacity, but are not fully fledged third generation, a kind of halfway house between the two. Typically 2.5G networks allow greater capacity for data transfer, utilising technology such as GPRS, HSCED and EDGE. This helped improve the overall performance of the early internet enabled mobile phones, and greatly improved the perception of WAP enabled handsets. By increasing the speed capabilities and widening the data load potential, it allowed for next generation services like email, web browsing and faxing to become more common.

What is 2.5mm and does it mean?

2.5mm is the size a non standard audio jack, found on mobile phones. The size advantage is negated by the need to use an adaptor to use standard headphones

What is 2G?

2G stands for Second Generation, a term used to describe the new digital networks that came in to replace the original analogue setup for mobile phone networks. 2G digital networks offered greater capacity for calls, as well as better security, and the option for some data transfer as well as enabling roaming, so users could use their mobiles on foreign networks.

What is 3.5G?

3.5G is used to recognise digital 3G networks that have implemented technology designed to even further increase network capacity and data transfer speeds. This is mainly achieved by utilising HSPA technology, which can transfer packets of data across the digital networks at a much improved rate than has previously been available.

What is 3.5mm

3.5mm is the industry standard size for headphone plugs on audio equipment. It is being employed more commonly across mobile phones.

What is 3G?

3G (Third Generation) is a general term used within the mobile industry to refer to the latest standard of mobile digital networks currently in use. Third generation networks are capable of a significantly improved data transfer speed and offer a larger bandwidth, giving support for full internet access as well as the option to download large amounts of data in a short amount of time, allowing the supply of data intensive multimedia applications.

What is 4G?

Strictly speaking 4G is not yet indicative of any mobile network set up, but will most likely come into use to cover forthcoming Wimax and LTE based mobile networks.

What is A-GPS?

Assisted GPS otherwise know as AGPS is a network function that calculates your location by triangulating your position. This is achieved by taking a reading of your distance from the three nearest cell towers to establish where you are. In urban areas this technology can be accurate up to a distance of 20 metres, whereas in more rural areas the accuracy drops to around 100 metres.

What does A2DP mean?

Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) allows you to stream stereo audio from your mobile phone to a compatible wireless headset, enabling you to listen to music stored on your device without needing to be physically connected to the phone with a cable.

What does AAC mean?

Advanced Audio Coding otherwise known as AAC is a standard of audio compression that has less sound loss than MP3 files, offering better sound quality with a smaller digital file size to listen to your music with.

What does Accelerometer mean?

An accelerometer is a device that measures acceleration within a particular product; for mobile phones this determines movement within the device, which then automatically rotates the display from landscape to portrait view and vice versa, as well as enabling certain features such as pick up to silent and flip to silent.

What is Active Matrix?

Active Matrix displays, also known as TFT (Thin Film Transistor) are mass produced LCD displays which offer a much improved refresh rate over older passive matrix based displays. The improvement is made by adding an individual switch to every pixel, meaning voltage can be supplied to an individual pixel. The end result is an enhanced refresh rate, which better supports full motion video.

What is Active Standby?

Active Standby is a term used for standby displays on mobile phones that are populated with shortcut icons offering quick and easy access to most commonly used applications, as well as delivering real time alerts and updates which are delivered straight to the homescreen, such as incoming email alerts, sports results and social networking updates.

What is a mobile phone Address Book?

The Address book on your device is where you will find stored all the contact information of the numbers stored on your phone. Modern mobile devices store much more than just numbers in the internal phone memory, with most handsets now capable of storing multiple numbers for one name for home, mobile, work, etc, as well as email addresses, home address, work details, birthday, and general notes.

What is Airplane Mode?

Many handsets offer multiple entertainment features, but with mobile phones not allowed to be used on airplanes it means for long journeys the device cannot be used. Airplane mode handles this by closing down all radio connectivity on the handset but allowing the handset to remain fully functional in all other ways.

What does Alphanumeric mean?

Most standard mobile phones are described as having an alphanumeric keypad, which refers to the main 12 keys on the device, numbered 0 – 9 with a * and # key flanking the zero. Keys 2 – 9 have letters on them and are used for entering data onto a mobile device, either numbers for calling or letters for composing text messages and emails.

What does AMOLED mean?

Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode is a low power consumption technology used to create displays, found on some modern, mid to high range smartphone devices. AMOLED’s do not need a backlight which helps save battery power and need less power to operate, overall increasing the battery life of devices. AMOLED technology is preferred for smartphones where battery life is a major issue.

What does Analogue mean?

Also known as 1G, analogue is the technology used to power the first mobile phone networks. Analogue networks offered poor call quality, poor reception and low security, all issues which were improved with the move to digital technology.

What is Android?

Android is an open source operating system for mobile devices, majority owned by Google. Other manufacturers and companies have an interest in Android via the Open Handset Alliance, a setup that allows individual members to take the core Android code and present it with their own user interface producing Android mobile phones to release to the mobile phone market.

What is an Antenna?

An antenna is designed to transmit or receive radio waves, one of the most basic requirements for any radio communications device to work. Originally most mobile phones had extendable antenna, which evolved into short stubby antenna, and finally became internal to the mobile phone as the technology developed.

What is an Application?

An Application otherwise known as mobile phone apps, is user software that is added to a mobile device, which can offer enhanced functionality to the device. Generally linked with smartphones, applications in java format can be installed on a wide variety of handsets. Apple for example has one of the biggest appstores to install a variety of add on software to further enhance their iPhone handsets giving users greater options on their phones for their needs.

What are Attachments?

Attachments are files that are fixed to an email message, generally Office documents, which can often be opened and viewed directly on the mobile device. If the handset has a document editor, then files can be edited on the device and sent back via email, removing the need to download first to a PC.

What is Audio?

In mobile phone terms, audio support generally refers to the various digital formats supported on the device, for playback at a future time. Popular formats for audio include MP3, AAC and WAV.

What is an Audio Output Jack?

The Audio Output Jack is the connector point on a mobile phone that allows you to insert a set of headphones. The Audio jack can also be used to transmit via cable to a compatible stereo unit, such as in car, and on some devices is also the same connector where the TV Out cable will connect.

What is Auto Focus?

Auto focus refers to the automatic focussing of a camera lens, which calculates the distance between the position the image is being taken from, and the subject of the captured image. On most mobile phones the working distance of auto focus tends to be around one metre.

What is Automatic Answer?

Automatic answer is a phone feature that allows a recipient to answer a call without the need to press any keys. Once the phone has started to ring the conversation can be started immediately without any further user interaction.

What is an Automatic Backlight?

Automatic backlighting means that touching any key will illuminate the display and keypad for ease of viewing. The backlight will turn itself off automatically after a preset period, so avoiding excessive drain on the battery. The automatic backlight on a mobile phone will illuminate the display when the ambient light falls below a certain level.

What is Automatic Redial?

Automatic redial is a feature designed to make it easier to dial numbers that are engaged. After the dialed number is found to be engaged, the phone will either repeatedly redial the number automatically, or it can be set to redial by pressing the appropriate key. This feature saves the user from dialing the number many times until a ringing tone can be obtained.

Automatic redial will usually operate for a set number of redials before giving up, to avoid the negative consequences of battery drain, blocking the phone, and causing unnecessary network traffic.

What is Autotext?

Auto text is a software application built into some mobile devices that will automatically correct common typos, changing common spelling mistakes, and can also be set to present information by typing in a set word. For example, on a BlackBerry device, typing mypin will automatically show your BlackBerry PIN number.

What does Backup mean?

Backing up refers to an action where information stored on your mobile device is moved or copied to an alternative storage device, thus helping to ensure the preservation of data.

What does Bandwidth mean?

Bandwidth applies to the amount of capacity available to transfer data from your device across the mobile network. The larger the bandwidth available the faster the data transmission speeds possible.