Module 13: Understanding Mobile

Devices
 Overview
Overview
• In this chapter, you will learn how to:
– Explain the features and capabilities of mobile
devices
– Describe the three major mobile operating
systems
– Describe how to configure mobile devices
 Introduction
• It’s not easy to find a definition of mobile
device that everyone agrees on.
– Lightweight, usually less than two pounds
– Small, designed to move with you (in your hand or
pocket)
– Touch or stylus interface; no keyboard or mouse
– Sealed unit lacking any user-replaceable parts
– Non-desktop OS; mobile devices that use special
mobile operating systems
 Mobile Computing Devices
• Device variants
– Most modern mobile devices fall into one of a few
categories:
• Smartphones
• Tablets
• Phablets
• Wearable technology
– Other mobile devices are purpose-built to be
better at some task such as an e-reader.
 Smartphones
• One of the earliest types of mobile device was
the personal digital assistant (PDA).
• Smartphone
– Multi-touch interface
– Well-standardized application programming
interface (API)
– Consolidation of cellular data to the device,
enabling data exchange over the Internet
– Synchronization and distribution tools that enable
users to install new apps and synchronize or back
up data
 Smartphones (continued)
• Most smartphones run one of the big three
operating systems:
– Apple iOS, Google Android, or Microsoft Windows
Phone/10 Mobile
• Smartphones typically have no user-
replaceable or field-replaceable components.
– Must be taken to a specialized (and in some cases,
authorized) service center for repair
 Smartphones (continued)

Figure 13.3 Examples of the big three smartphone OSs:

Android (left), iOS (center), and Windows Phone (right)
 Tablets
• Tablets are very similar to smartphones; they
run the same OSs and apps, and use the same
multi-touch screens.
– Generally lack cellular connection

Figure 13.4 Typical tablet

 Phablets
• Phablets straddle the line between tablets
and smartphones.
– They provide all the features of a smartphone
with the expansive vistas of a huge screen.
– Screen sizes range from 5.5 to 6.5 inches.
 Purpose-Built Mobile Devices
• E-readers
– An e-reader is a device
designed for reading
electronic books.
– An e-reader uses a low-
power gray-scale screen
technology called e-paper,
and a simple interface.

Figure 13.6 Kindle Paperwhite

e-reader
 Purpose-Built Mobile Devices
(continued)
• Wearable technology devices
– Very small; almost always well under a pound,
usually a few ounces
– Small interfaces; screens less than 2 inches, often
much less
– Light OSs used to perform a small subset of
functions of a typical mobile device OS
– Limited hardware, although accelerometers are
very common (for step counting)
– Pairs with a host device (often a smartphone)
 Purpose-Built Mobile Devices
(continued)
• Smart watches
– A smart watch minimizes the effort of frequent
smartphone tasks.
• Controlling music playback or checking e-mail, texts,
notifications, time, and weather
• Fitness monitors
– A growing number of fitness monitors or trackers
aim to help you meet your fitness goals.
– The Global Positioning System (GPS) network
tracks your exercise.
 Purpose-Built Mobile Devices
(continued)
• Glasses/headsets
– Wearable glasses and headsets haven’t made it to
the mainstream yet.
– Google Glass presents privacy issues.
– Microsoft HoloLens is a compact Windows 10
computer in a single set of glasses.
• From a technician’s perspective, there are
typically no user-replaceable parts in
wearable devices.
– Must send these devices to an authorized service
center to be repaired or replaced
 Mobile Hardware Features
• Screen technologies
– Most tablets use some type of LCD panel, just like
portable devices and desktop monitors.
• Twisted nematic (TN)
• In-Plane Switching (IPS)
– Some smaller devices, like the better
smartphones, use a related technology—organic
light-emitting diode (OLED)—that lights the screen
with an organic compound.
 Mobile Hardware Features
(continued)
• Cameras
– Many mobile devices have distinct front-facing
and rear-facing cameras.
– Modern smartphone camera features include high
dynamic range (HDR), light compensation, and
other functions that enable the user to finely tune
a photo or video.
– Smart cameras are best thought of as bringing
together the interface, operating system (typically
Android), networking, and apps of a smartphone
with a dedicated digital camera.
 Mobile Hardware Features
(continued)
• Microphones
– Mobile devices commonly have more than one
microphone to enable noise-cancelling routines to
work their magic.
• Digitizers
– A digitizer refers to the component that provides
the “touch” part of a touchscreen.
• Transforms analog signals into digital ones
 Mobile Hardware Features
(continued)
• Global Positioning System (GPS)
– Users rely on location services to conveniently
find things near them, such as stores and
restaurants.
– Many purpose-built GPS devices exist.
• Example: GPS-enabled navigational aids for vehicles
– Geotracking enables mobile OSs to track and in
many cases to record your location for an
extended amount of time.
• This feature can be turned off.
 Meet the Big Three Mobile OSs
• Development models
– Closed source is another way to refer to the
traditional practice of making and selling a
product without telling anyone how you made it.
• The terms proprietary or vendor-specific apply to a
closed-source product or technology – something that
doesn’t use common, open standards.
– A product that is open source means the
manufacturer releases instructions for making it.
– A manufacturer can put an open-source operating
system on an otherwise closed-source device.
 Apple iOS
• Apple’s closed-source mobile operating
system, iOS, runs on the iPhone, iPad, and
iPod Touch.
• iOS apps are almost exclusively purchased,
installed, and updated through Apple’s App
Store.
 Google Android
• Android is an open-source platform, based on
yet another open platform, Linux, and is
owned by Google.
– There are differences among the implementations
from various vendors.
• Android apps are available to purchase and
download through various app stores, such as
Google Play and the Amazon Appstore.
 Microsoft Windows Phone
• Windows Phone is a closed-source operating
system, but Microsoft licenses it to device
manufacturers for use on their devices.
• Microsoft asserts the most control over the
OS portion of its platform.
– Microsoft maintains its own app store (Windows
Phone Store) with its own developer
requirements.
 Mobile OS Features
• User interfaces
– All mobile OSs have a graphical user interface
(GUI).
– Mobile OSs support touch gestures, such as
swiping or pinching.
– Launchers enable users to customize their
Android device extensively.
 Mobile OS Features (continued)
• Most mobile devices include:
– An accelerometer to measure movement in space
– A gyroscope to maintain proper orientation of up
and down
• These instruments change the screen
orientation when you rotate a device.
 Mobile OS Features (continued)
• Screen calibration
– The most obvious screen calibration involves
refining the screen’s color output.
• Mobile device screens are calibrated before they leave
the factory.
– It should be sufficient to know that calibration
(and miscalibration!) of these features is possible
(especially on older devices).
• Check device and OS documentation to see if this
applies to your device.
 Mobile OS Features (continued)
• Wi-Fi calling
– The capability to make both audio and video calls
over Wi-Fi networks
– Using applications such as Skype, for example, on
a tablet that does not have cellular capability, as
long as it can make a good Wi-Fi connection
 Mobile OS Features (continued)
• Virtual assistants on the latest smartphones
and tablets enable quick, vocal interaction to
accomplish common goals.
– A virtual assistant is also useful if you must use
your smartphone while driving.
• Siri
• Cortana
• Google Now
 Mobile OS Features (continued)
• Software development kits
– Most mobile operating systems come with some
sort of software development kit (SDK) that you
can use to create custom apps or add features to
existing apps on the device.
 Mobile OS Features (continued)
• Emergency capabilities
– The emergency notification feature enables
smartphones to receive broadcasts from national
emergency broadcast systems.
• Example: the Emergency Alert System (EAS) in the
United States.
– The Enhanced 911 (E911) system uses GPS and
cellular networks to triangulate the location of a
phone by:
• Its distance from cell towers
• Its transmission delay time
• Other factors
 Mobile OS Features (continued)
• Mobile payment service
– An app connects to your bank information and
automatically transfers the funds from your bank
to the merchant.
– Smartphone manufacturers have started to
produce their own payment systems, such as
Apple Pay.
 Mobile OS Features (continued)
• Airplane mode
– This switch (either an actual hardware switch or a
software switch that can be located in the
device’s configuration settings) turns off all
cellular and wireless services, including Bluetooth.
 Mobile OS Features (continued)
• Radio firmware
– PRL, PRI, and Baseband Updates
• When a mobile device connects to different carriers’
networks, we say it is roaming.
• Your phone’s firmware will receive occasional
automatic updates to its Preferred Roaming List (PRL)
from the carrier.
• CDMA devices may also receive product release
instruction (PRI) updates.
 Mobile OS Features (continued)
• IMEI, ICCID, and IMSI
– The International Mobile Equipment Identity
(IMEI) number is a 15-digit number that uniquely
identifies a mobile device.
– IMEI numbers are unique to devices using the
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)
family of technologies.
– The ICCID number (Integrated Circuit Card
Identifier) uniquely identifies a subscriber identity
module (SIM).
 Mobile OS Features (continued)
• The International Mobile Subscriber Identity
(IMSI) number represents the actual user
associated with the SIM.
– Used with mobile device management (MDM)
software
Mobile OS Features (continued)

Figure 13.19 IMEI settings Figure 13.20 IMEI and

on an Android phone ICCID numbers
 Mobile OS Features (continued)
• VPN
– VPNs establish secure connections between a
remote client and the corporate infrastructure, or
between two different sites.
– The most popular ways to create a VPN are to use
either a combination of the Layer 2 Tunneling
Protocol (L2TP) and IPsec, or Secure Sockets Layer
(SSL).
Mobile OS Features (continued)

Figure 13.21 Configuring a VPN

 Configuring a Mobile Device
• Mobile devices require some setup and
configuration to function seamlessly in your
life.
– Devices come preconfigured with everything but
your user account and network credentials.
– A user still needs to configure corporate e-mail
accounts, device add-ons, apps, synchronization
settings, and other advanced features.
 Enhancing Hardware
• A mobile device has the same basic
components and does the same basic things
as a computer.
– System on a chip (SoC) combines a CPU, GPU, and
sundry other support logic onto a single silicon
die.
– Mobile devices use storage, commonly a solid-
state drive (SSD) or microSD card.
– Mobile devices do not offer any user-replaceable
parts.
– You can’t upgrade mobile devices at all.
 Enhancing Hardware (continued)
• Apple expansion options
– Apple devices offer the least expansion capability
of all mobile devices.
– Limited to proprietary cables and devices.

Figure 13.23 USB charger connected to proprietary port

 Enhancing Hardware (continued)
• Android expansion options
– Many offer microSD slots, and a few feature Micro
USB or even full-sized USB ports.
– Many tablets sport a connector for attaching the
device to an external monitor, such as a big screen
or projector.

Figure 13.28 Micro-HDMI

port and connector
 Enhancing Hardware (continued)
• Bluetooth
– The last way that mobile devices expand their
physical capabilities is wirelessly, most often using
the Bluetooth standard.
– Traditionally, extending a mobile device with
Bluetooth has meant adding a headset, mouse
(though not with Apple iOS products), or
keyboard.
 Adding Apps
• iOS apps
– Apple maintains strict control over what apps can
be installed onto iOS devices.
• You can only get an app for your iPhone or iPad from
the Apple App Store.
– To add an app, select the App Store icon from the
home screen.
– iCloud Key Chain builds on the Key Chain feature
in Mac OS X to synchronize user information,
passwords, payment information, and other
credentials with all of your Apple devices.
 Adding Apps (continued)
• Android apps
– Despite the shared core OS, Android users familiar
with devices from one manufacturer may get
tripped up by the different interface on Android
devices from a different maker.
– Android devices can usually get apps from more
than one source – Android’s default app store,
Google Play, is most common.
– Many manufacturers offer a store with apps
developed or customized to work with Android
devices.
 Adding Apps (continued)
• Windows phone apps
– Microsoft closely mirrors Apple’s control of app
development and distribution.
– In terms of control and developer requirements,
Microsoft’s app marketplace falls somewhere
between that of Apple and Google.
 Network Connectivity
• Mobile devices connect to the outside world
through the cellular networks or through
various 802.11 Wi-Fi standards.
– When you want to connect to a Wi-Fi network,
enable Wi-Fi on your device and then actively
connect to a network.
– The Settings app enables you to do the vast
majority of configuration necessary.
• All mobile devices store network access information
automatically, creating a profile for the network based
on its SSID.
 Data
• Many mobile devices can use cellular data
services.
• By default, mobile devices that use cellular
networks for Internet connectivity use data
roaming—they jump from cell tower to cell
tower and from your provider to another
provider without obvious notice.
– This can get expensive, especially outside your
own country; turn data roaming off if you don’t
need it.
 E-mail
• Every mobile device uses an e-mail service set
up specifically from the mobile OS developer.
– The 902 exam describes these options with the
phrase: integrated commercial provider email
configuration.
• Mobile devices enable you to set up standard
corporate and ISP e-mail configurations as
well.
 E-mail (continued)
• TCP port numbers for various email protocols
– POP3 uses TCP port 110.
– IMAP4 uses TCP port 143.
– SMTP uses TCP port 25.
• Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
(S/MIME) standard
– Used to configure digital signature settings for
e-mail, and contacts from the corporate address
book
 Synchronization
• Smartphones and tablets can synchronize, or
sync, with local machines or with cloud-based
servers over the Internet.
• Various mobile devices sync differently.
– Depends upon the device vendor and software
required.
 Synchronization (continued)
• Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) is a Microsoft
protocol used to synchronize Microsoft
Exchange e-mail, contacts, and calendars.
– Widely used across a range of mobile OS
platforms and hardware vendors
 Synchronization (continued)
• Synchronization methods
– Each phone vendor has its own cloud technology
that can tie to your user account and store
personal data from your mobile device.
• Apple has iCloud; Microsoft has OneDrive; and Google
has Google Drive.
– Independent cloud providers enable you to store
your personal data, and even share it with others.
– Single sign-on (SSO) is the process for using your
active authenticated session with one of these
common services to sign you into other services.
 Synchronization (continued)
• Synchronization issues
– The most common synchronization issue is a
connectivity, device, or remote infrastructure
problem that leaves data partially synced.
– There are other problems that prevent
synchronization, including authentication issues,
OS version issues, or incorrect configuration
settings.
 Synchronization (continued)
• iTunes and iCloud
– Apple iPhones and iPads can sync through Apple
iTunes installed on a Mac or PC.
– This single source for backup makes it easy to
recover if something catastrophic happens to your
Apple device.
– With iCloud, you can have all your iPhone or iPad
data backed up online and thus accessible
anywhere.
 Synchronization (continued)
• Android and Gmail
– Android-based mobile devices don’t have a
central desktop application accomplishing what
iTunes does for Apple devices.
• Sync over the Internet
 Mobile Device Communication and
Ports
• Micro-USB/mini-USB
– Micro-USB or mini-USB connectors are standard
on most Android and Windows devices.
– We’re seeing fewer proprietary connectors as
most device manufacturers are on the micro- and
mini-USB bandwagon.
• Lightning connector
– With the iPhone 5, Apple introduced its most
recent proprietary connector, known as the
Lightning connector.
• Lightning is an 8-pin connector, not “keyed”.
Mobile Device Communication and
Ports (continued)

Figure 13.40 Lightning connector

 Mobile Device Communication and
Ports (continued)
• USB Type-C
– Newest USB connector
– Not keyed, allowing it to be inserted right-side up
or upside down
– Supports up to 10 Gbps transfer rates
• Bluetooth
– Always remember to test the connectivity
between a mobile device and a newly added
Bluetooth accessory.
Mobile Device Communication and
Ports (continued)

Figure 13.41 USB Type-C connector

Mobile Device Communication and
Ports (continued)

Figure 13.42 Prompting for PIN

 Mobile Device Communication and
Ports (continued)
• NFC
– Near Field Communication (NFC) uses chips
embedded in mobile devices that create
electromagnetic fields when devices are close to
each other.
 Mobile Device Communication and
Ports (continued)
• Infrared
– Infrared (IR) was previously used to transfer data
between mobile devices.
– IrDA requires line of sight, meaning that devices
have to be directly facing each other, requires
very short distances between devices, and has
very slow data rates.
 Mobile Device Communication and
Ports (continued)
• Hotspots and tethering
– A mobile hotspot is a small device that shares
access to cellular technologies such as 3G, 4G, and
4G LTE via Wi-Fi.
– Depending upon the carrier, many cellular
phones, as well as tablets, can act as portable
hotspots, referred to as tethering.
• To configure a device as a hotspot, enable its cellular
data connection, and turn on an additional hotspot
setting that causes the device to broadcast a Wi-Fi
network.
Mobile Device Communication and
Ports (continued)

Figure 13.43 An Android phone

acting as a portable hotspot
 Mobile Device Communication and
Ports (continued)
• Accessories
– Bluetooth headsets and high-quality external
speakers
– Gamepads
– Removable external storage, such as miniSD or
microSD memory cards
– Extra battery packs
– Device chargers
– Docking stations
– Credit card readers
– Cover