Clearing up the terminology that sometimes interferes with understanding the wireless world.
Bluetooth: A wireless
personal area network specification using low-cost, low-power radio
transmission. Bluetooth transmits in the 2.4GHz band at 720kbps within a 30-foot
range. Bluetooth was designed to eliminate cables between mobile phones, PC
cards, headsets and desktop devices.
GPS: Global
Positioning System. A system of 24 satellites for identifying earth locations,
launched by the Department of Defense.
HDML: Handheld Device
Markup Language. A specialized version of HTML designed to enable wireless
handheld devices to obtain information from Web pages. HDML was developed by
Phone.com before the WAP specification was standardized.
i-mode: Packet-based
information service for mobile phones from NTT DoCoMo (Japan). First to provide
Web browsing capability from a cell phone.
Microbrowser: A Web
browser specialized for a smart phone or PDA.
PDA: Personal Digital
Assistant. A handheld computer that serves as an organizer for personal
information. It generally includes at least a name and address database, to-do
list and note taker.
SMS: Short Messaging
Service. Global System for Mobile Communications coined the phrase, but similar
text messaging is used in most digital cell phone systems.
Smart phone: A digital
cellular phone that has text messaging, Web access and other data services in
addition to voice.
UP.Browser:
Phone.com’s microbrowser. Versions for HDML and WML are available.
WAP: Wireless
Application Protocol. A standard for providing phones, pagers and other
handhelds with secure access to e-mail and text-based Web pages. WAP provides an
environment for wireless applications that includes a wireless counterpart of
TCP/IP. WAP features the Wireless Markup Language (WML), derived from
Phone.com’s HDML, and a streamlined version of HTML for small screen displays.
It also uses WMLScript, a compact JavaScript-like language.
Web clipping:
Extracting relevant information from a Web page for display on a smart phone or
PDA.
WML: Wireless Markup
Language. A tag-based language used in WAP. WML is an XML document type allowing
standard XML and HTML tools to be used to develop WML applications.
XML: Extensible Markup
Language. An open standard from the World Wide Web Consortium for describing
data. It is used for defining data elements on a Web page. It uses a similar tag
structure as HTML but while HTML defines how elements are displayed, XML defines
what those elements contain.
802.11: An IEEE
standard for wireless local area networks.
