Several weeks ago I posted a brief article about 4G, what it means and why all national wireless carriers are shouting this term from the top of their collective lungs.  But surprisingly, or not surprisingly, most people I ask have no idea what 4G means. My mom is the quintessential example, she commented, “I have no idea what I am watching.” when describing the T-Mobile 4G commercial on TV. In fact, there is market research that confirms that most consumers don’t know what 4G is.

Tech blog Engadget recently wrote a wireless primer which covers what a “G” means, and describes the history of 1 – 4G. It is an excellent article which gives a good overview on the wireless technology behind mobile devices.

[Engadget]

The first to the show was Sprint/Clear(wire) with their WiMAX network, which was first only available to data devices (Internet USB cards, Clear modems, etc.), but is now making it’s way to phones (e.g. Sprint EVO).

T-Mobile had been quietly rolling out it’s HSPA+ network, but recently made a big publicity stunt out of it with it’s 4G commercials comparing itself to AT&T’s network ala Apple’s Mac vs. PC ad campaign. T-Mobile is currently offering several devices – a USB modem, MyTouch 4G, and the G2. HSPA+ isn’t technically a 4G technology, but is capable of delivering speeds comparable to other 4G networks, so T-Mobile jumped on the bandwagon and rebranded as “The nations largest 4G network.”

Verizon will be rolling out it’s much anticipated 4G LTE network, which, according to recent tests, is incredibly fast, up to 10x the speed of it’s current 3G network. Verizon will initially be offering 2 USB modems.

AT&T will be late to the party, rolling out an HSPA+ network, and then later in 2011 has plans to roll out their LTE network.

Gigaom has a great comparison of the currently or soon to be available 4G networks and available devices.

Of course with all of these new wonderfully fast 4G networks, you have to remember, they call it a “roll out” for a reason. You won’t get 4G coverage everywhere, but of course, over time the coverage will get better as the carriers expand their respective networks. For example, when T-Mobile first rolled out their 3G HSPA network, you could only get solid coverage in the Honolulu corridor, and outside of that you would fall back to EDGE. The same will go for the other providers as their 4G networks roll out. If you primarily do your voice/data transmitting in a major metropolitan area, then as an early adopter you will receive adequate coverage. But if you live in the suburbs or out in the country you will probably need to wait until coverage reaches you.

Lifehacker just did an in depth look at 4G, including cost, speed and coverage comparisons.

I won’t go into the specific details of the differences of the phones, because I want to finish this article sometime this year. This is more about clearing up the difference between a phone, a device (hardware) and a phone operating system (software).

For the purposes of this article, we will define a phone operating system (or OS for short) as the software which is the sum of the functions of the phone. E.g. calling, texting, emailing, apps, etc.; and the graphical appearance (i.e. how it looks).

We will define a device as the hardware that the OS runs on. The hardware is comprised of a screen, keyboard, antenna, battery, built-in camera etc.

Finally we will define a phone as a combination of a device and an OS.

Are you still with me?

Ok, now we will go through some details, it may get a little confusing, but I think at the end things will look a little clearer.

OS (Software)

There are several different OS manufacturers which provide the functions to make a phone a phone. And as I list them below, I am using the current or upcoming OS instead of listing all of them just to keep things simple.

• Apple – iOS 4
• Google – Android
• Microsoft – Windows Phone 7
• Palm – WebOS (actually now part of HP)
• Nokia – Symbian^3
• RIM (BlackBerry) – BlackBerry 6

After reading the above list, a friend of mine would already point out that it is too complicated for your average person to understand, and he might be right. However, I think it is important to at least expose everyone to the somewhat technical side at least a little. And I think it is particularly important when trying to clear up the incorrectly used terms, which is why I am bothering to write this at all. More commonly you will hear people referring to the above as below.

• iPhone
• [a] Droid
• Windows Phone (actually I have no idea how people refer to this, no one has purchased a Microsoft phone since 2006)
• Palm
• Nokia
• BlackBerry

Ok, so this list looks familiar and might not be so bad right? Mmm, not quite, when using the above terms, you are actually using a mix of terms which don’t refer to the same thing. Let’s continue on to devices (hardware) to understand why the above terms are slightly incorrect in use.

Device (Hardware)

Like the OS, there are many different device (hardware) manufacturers, here are some of the major ones.

• Apple
• HTC
• Motorola
• RIM (BlackBerry)
• Sony / Ericsson
• Nokia
• LG
• Samsung
• Sanyo

So now you can see that some companies actually make both the OS and the hardware, e.g. Apple. And some companies only make hardware, e.g. HTC. Some devices can only run one type of OS, like the iPhone, and some devices can run all types of OS like many HTC devices running Android or Windows.

Phones

This leads us into phones, which are a combination of an OS and a device. Here is where a lot of the confusion happens. I will pick and choose some phones to define, and hopefully by example this will clear up the confusion.

Droid - “Droid” is a trademarked name by Verizon used for its line of Android powered devices. The Droid line consists of several versions of Verizon customized Android OS installed on devices from HTC and Motorola. The original Droid consisted of Android 2.0 on a Motorola device. Verizon now offers several different “Droids”, the Droid 2, Droid X, Droid Incredible, each with its own combination of HTC or Motorola hardware and Android OS.

If you go to, say, T-Mobile and ask for a “Droid” they will say, “oh well we have this nice T-Mobile G2.” at which point you will be confused because you thought you were asking for a “Droid”. T-Mobile (and other providers) have Android powered devices, but they will each have their own unique names. Again, the term “Droid” refers to Verizon’s Android line of phones. Unfortunately for the rest of us their brilliant marketing scheme brain washed us all into thinking that “Droid” was the term to be used for everything Android. It is not.

iPhone - this one is actually more straight forward. Like everything else in the Apple world, they manufacture both the device and the OS. So, you can only run iOS on an iPhone device.

BlackBerry - RIM (Research in Motion) is the company which makes the BlackBerry. This is another company that makes both the device and the OS. There are several iterations of the BlackBerry OS, but in general regardless of who your cell phone provider is, if you ask for a BlackBerry you are going to get a BlackBerry.

Windows Mobile /Windows Phone 7 - Microsoft has been more or less out of the phone game since the iPhone and Android phones launched. Most notably because the iPhone really changed the way that people interact with their phone. Comparing Windows Mobile and an iPhone, you can quickly see that whomever designed Windows Mobile had a desktop computer in mind when organizing the functions. And, after using an iPhone, one quickly realizes how cumbersome Windows Mobile is. Microsoft also recognized that Windows Mobile was a lost cause, and basically abandoned development. Then for a couple of years all was quiet in the Microsoft camp until earlier this year Micorsoft had announced a new, built-from-the-ground-up phone OS called Windows Phone 7 Series. Microsoft again changed the way that people interact with their phones, with a new interface that transitions away from Apple’s and Google’s icon based user interface to a truncated/overflowing panoramic interface. Ok, that got a little too technical, basically within the next month or so you will start to hear people talk about “Windows Phone 7″, and this is what they are referring to.

What was the point of all that?

Simply to clear up some commonly confused terms that I hear so often. Hopefully this answers some questions and clears up some confusion for those who ask, “I’m on Sprint, can I get a Droid?” and I respond, “Sure, but you need to go to Verizon.” Maybe instead now someone will ask, “I’m on Sprint, are there any Android phones available?” And I will smile and say, “Yes.”

The steps are very simple.

1. Download and install Dropbox on the computer that your printer is connected to.
2. Install Dropbox on your mobile device.
3. Download and run a small VBS script which is available at Amit Agarwal’s website Digital Inspiration.
4. Upload the document you want to print to the PrintQueue folder in your Dropbox folder.

For detailed instructions and the VBS script visit Digital Inspiration.

[Digital Inspiration via Lifehacker]

The two most common complaints that Android phone users have are performance (perceived speed) and battery life. The general consensus, at least up until recently, has been to employ a Task Killer to forcefully shutdown unnecessary apps. The idea behind this was to free up RAM, and therefore increase performance. Unfortunately this idea was based on the preconception of how standard computers operate, but this is not necessarily how a phone (Android) operates.

This has actually been a hotly debated topic among Android users. Some advocates that task killers don’t work have written compelling arguments. Even the Android developers have tried to explain to us common users the intricacies of Android and how it handles apps. Unfortunately this knowledge has not reached the grunts on the front line of phone sales. Many of our clients who have purchased new Android phones from Verizon or AT&T have come straight from the store with Advanced Task Killer already loaded. The salesperson at the store insisted that this was a necessary application to have.

Lifehacker has written an excellent article arguing the merits of not using task killers. They have also offered alternative techniques to increase performance and extend battery life.

Rather that blab on about information that is so readily available (go and google Windows Phone 7 Series), I’ll just provide some links to good articles here.

Gizmodo – Windows Phone 7 Series: Everything is Different Now

Engadget – Windows Phone 7 Series is official

Gizmodo – Windows Phone 7 Series: Hands-On Pics and Video

Channel9 – 22 minute Windows Phone 7 Series Hands-On demo

Gizmodo – Xbox Live in Windows Phone 7