Why Do You Want a Smartphone?

Lots of people use the word "smartphone", but notsoftware. Even the most basic and simple of models
everyone knows what it means. There are manywill include an address book or a contact manager at
differences between a smartphone and a regular cellthe very least. Usually a smartphone will be able to do
phone.more. Smartphones allow you to create and edit
A smartphone is like a phone, in that you can makedocuments in Microsoft Office. At the very least, you
telephone calls. You can also add in features thatare able to view the documents. Many smartphones
make it much more, such as those bells and whistleswill allow you to download applications like personal
that are found on a personal digital assistant (PDA) orand business finance managers. You can also edit
even a computer. Many smartphones allow you tophotos, play games, find out where you are thanks to
send and receive e-mail, edit Office documents, or surfGPS, and create a playlist of your favorite songs.
the Internet and much more.Web Access: Surfing the Internet is one of the
How did smartphones get their start? Whensmartphones more popular abilities. The speed at
technology started to change how we thought aboutwhich they can access online information is faster than
communication, people had cell phones to make callsever because the phones have 3G data networks
and PDAs, like the Palm Pilot, to use as personaland Wi-Fi support on handsets. Even if your
organizers or day planners that you could carry aroundsmartphone doesn't have high-speed Internet access,
with you. You could sync a PDA with your computeryou can still get online and use your smartphone to visit
and store your contact info, calendars, and a to-do list.favorite websites while on the go.
Eventually, PDAs evolved and could do more. TheyQWERTY Keyboard: If you're device has a
gained wireless connectivity and you could use themQWERTY keyboard, it's a smartphone. A QWERTY
to send and receive e-mail. Cell phones, meanwhile,kepboard has the keys laid out like they are on your
evolved as well. From your cell, you could takecomputer. They aren't in alphabetical order on top of a
advantage of messaging capabilities, too. PDAs thennumeric keypad so you can't see that tapping the
adopted cellular phone features and cell phones addednumber 1 is the same as entering an A, B, or C. Also, it
features similar to those found in PDAs anddoesn't matter if the keyboard is hardware (physical
computers. The smartphone was born.keys that you type on) or software (a touch screen,
What are a smartphone's features?like an iPhone).
There is no standard definition of the termMessaging: All cell phones allow you to send and
"smartphone" and what is smart for one consumerreceive text messages. A smartphone is set apart
might be obsolete and outdated for another. There are,because of the way it handles e-mail. A smartphone
however, certain features that align with smartphonescan sync with your personal and/or professional e-mail
and those that are more associated with cell phones.accounts. Some smartphones can support several of
Operating System: A phone that has an operatingeach type. Others include access to the popular instant
system that allows it to run productivity applications ismessaging services, like AIM at AOL and Yahoo!
clearly more than just a cell phone. Depending on theMessenger, and allow you to connect with others that
manufacturer, you can have many different types ofway, too.
apps. BlackBerry smartphones run the BlackBerry OS,These are just a few of the features that make your
while other smartphones use Palm OS or Windowssmartphone so smart. Technology is adding more fun
Mobile. Many operating systems are really justfeatures and apps to smartphones every day and
pared-down versions of desktop Linux and arethey can do more now than they could six months
available on smartphones as well.ago.
Software: All cell phones contain some type of