The term “unlocked” refers to GSM phones that have been universalized, or unlocked, so that they may be used on a variety of cellular phone companies that use GSM, as opposed to simply one. In areas like the United States where cellular carriers offer free or deeply discounted phones with cell plans, the phones are commonly locked so that they will not work with other carriers. Once unlocked, however, the phone should work with any GSM carrier once a SIM card has been inserted into phone.
Nov 03
Nov 03
GSM stands for Global Systems for Mobile Communication. GSM is the European standard, which has recently spread throughout the world. It is now the most popular system for mobile communication in the world. GSM technology also pioneered the SMS, or text message, which has changed the world of telecommunication as we know it.
For the average consumer, the key feature of GMS technology is its use of the SIM card. A detailed explanation of the SIM card is available in its own link on www.thebluedot.net; however, here is a brief explanation of the advantages of GSM Phones and SIM technology: The SIM card allows you to store your personal information and contact information on a removable card or “chip,” which can then be swapped from GSM phone to GSM phone. This meaning that you can transfer your account, your personal information, and all of your phone numbers to a different phone by simply removing your SIM card from one phone and placing it in another.
GSM uses a variation of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) and is the most widely used of the three digital wireless telephone technologies (TDMA, GSM, and CDMA). GSM digitizes and compresses data, then sends it down a channel with two other streams of user data, each in its own time slot. GSM networks operate in four different frequency ranges. Most GSM networks operate in the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz bands. Some countries in the Americas (including Canada and the United States) use the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands because the 900 and 1800 MHz frequency bands were already allocated.
GSM is the wireless telephone standard in Europe. GSM has over one billion users worldwide and is available in 190 countries. Since many GSM network operators have roaming agreements with foreign operators, users can often continue to use their mobile phones when they travel to other countries. Many of today’s GSM cell phones are “tri-band” or “world phones,” which means they can operate on three or more types of GSM frequency (i.e. American and European), allowing consumers to take advantage of this ability to use their own phone throughout many of the countries in the world.
Nov 03
A SIM card, or Subscriber Identity Module, is a portable memory chip for GSM cell phones. SIM cards are used to store personal information, phone numbers and addresses, as well as information like text messages. SIM card technology allows GSM customers to quickly transfer their entire account, address book and all, to a different GSM phone by simply switching the card. An example of what a SIM card looks like can be found below. SIM cards will vary in color and logo but are uniform in shape.
Nov 03
I just found a website called tx2ph that if you enjoy reading as much as I do, you’ll love. The cite works with pretty much any phone that can access the Internet, but it works best with smart phones with faster connectivity and larger display screens.
The site is a source to download electronic books (e-books) in order to read them on your cell phone. Now your first reaction might be that a cell phone is too small to read an entire novel on but when you think about it, especially if you have a phone with a large display like an iPhone or a Blackberry, reading a book on your phone is actually quite easy. Your phone has its own backlight, so you can easily read in bed, and tx2ph allows you to adjust the font settings of the novels to make the text as easy to read as possible. You can also choose to rotate the text 90 degrees so that that it displays the text long-ways (meaning you have to turn your phone sideways to read it.) The site has hundreds of books to download, ranging from classics to contemporary favorites, and the best part about the site is that it’s free to join!
Once you’ve signed up with the site, you don’t have to download or install any software. You simply download the pages that you are reading. The site allows you to choose how many pages you’d like to download at a time, so you use hardly any memory storing pages. Another cool function of the site is that they also have downloadable e-flashcards for learning other languages. You can choose to be shown words in your native language or you can choose to have the words shown in the language you are trying to learn, and the program will filter out the words as you learn them so you are not repeating unnecessary cards.
