What is mobile computing for home beginner users?




Mobile computing is computing from anywhere with a portable computer like a laptop, tablets, personal digital assistants, and smart phones. Another name for mobile computing is portable computing or portable computer a computer which is portable, and easy to carry around. Police cars, office workers, postal workers, army, computer technicians, and people who work out doors, and away from the office are already actively using laptops, smartphones, PDAs, and other mobile computers for their jobs. Mobile computers like smartphones, tablets, and laptops are now affordable, and small enough for most students, and home users to use to go on websites, do office work, play games, watch video, listen to songs, take photos, record video, and do a bunch of other tasks which they would typically do on a big heavy desktop computer which they can't take out of the house to use like portable mobile computers. Mobile computing lets you do tasks like browse the internet, edit a document, share a photo, record video, and draw on portable programs called apps which are like desktop software like web browsers, office suites, and photo editors, but designed for a smaller screen like on a tablet, or smart phone. However, if you use a laptop, or Windows tablet computer, you would use the same programs which you would install on a normal desktop computer running Windows because Windows Tablet use virtually the same version of Windows for desktops on it’s Tablet computers.

The main advantage of using a mobile computer is your not limited to computing in one spot like a regular desktop since a mobile computer like a laptop, tablet, and smart phone uses battery power to power your device, so you can very easily use your mobile computer in places without a power outlet. Built-in Wireless internet adapters on Mobile computers like laptops, and smart phones let you easily bring the internet with you where ever you go since you can subscribe to cellular internet service which uses your smartphone cell phone signal to go online, or a USB or Wireless wifi modem which uses cell phone signals from your cellular service provider to access the internet. Most Smart phones also allow you to connect your wireless devices like Laptops, and tablets to your cell phone via cellular horspot technology or an app on your phone.

If you can’t afford to use subscription based  internet service, you can use free wireless internet which is available from many public places like schools, libraries, restaurants, shopping malls, and other public places. All you need is a built-in to most newer laptops, netbooks, smart phones, and tablets or a USB Wireless internet adapter for your older Laptop, and netbooks without a built-in wireless adapter or its broken. Using free wireless internet in public places which offer it means you don’t even need to subscribe to an internet service provider to use the internet because you can use the internet for free at places like your local library or college which offer free wireless internet service to the public. Alternatively, you can copy all your most used files like mp3, pictures, videos, documents, movies, and other file types on your desktop to your Tablet via a USB cable, or Micro SD memory card, so you’ll have files which you can playback with a media player, or open with a office suite program on your tablet, smartphone, or laptop when you have no internet, so you can continue using your mobile computer when you are not online.

Most newer mobile computers like tablets, smart phones like the iPhone 4 also come with a touchscreens and motion sensing capabilities. This allows you to easily use the touchscreen to draw, write on, or to use to open programs, files, websites by pressing on an icon on your screen instead of using a mouse, touchpad, joystick or buttons. The motion sensing features of some tablets like the iPad, and smart phones like the iPhone let you easily view your screen horizontally for a longer screen width, or vertically for a taller screen height by just holding your Tablet or smart phone vertically or horizontally with your hands. Game and application makers for smartphones and tablets are also taking advantage of the motion sensing and touchscreen on smartphones and tablets to make more fun, innovative,  easy to play games on a smaller screen with touch and motion capabilities. More website owners are also starting to make their website owners fit better, and load faster on smaller touch screen devices, so mobile users can still go on their favourite websites on their smartphones, tablets, and personal digital assistants/PDA.

By using a laptop, netbook, tablet, PDA, and mobile computer for doing your work, you are also saving electricity, and the environment since mobile computers are designed to use less electricity then a desktop computer since mobile computers need to save energy to use less electricity. Also, mobile computers use less materials like metal, wires, circuit boards, plastic, etc, so they are easier to recycle, and use less material which is better for the earth, and save you money on your electricity bill. Mobile computing is the best form of green computing for most home users since every part like the screen, CPU, RAM, and circuit board on a mobile computer is usually optimized to use the least amount of power possible to give you the longest battery life when not being charged from the wall power outlet.

A mobile computer like a smartphone or tablet lets you take video, record video, record sound, do work, go online, and other tasks from anywhere, so you are not always stuck in the office or at home doing simple tasks like e-mail, checking the weather online, and reading news which you can easily do on a smartphone or tablet device with a wireless internet connection. You also no longer need to carry around digital point and shoot cameras, video recorders, and voice recorders since most modern Tablets, and smartphones can take pictures, record video, record voice, and even upload them directly to YouTube, Flkr, or other sites for sharing or backing up online.



A Smartphone like Google Android phones, iPhone, or Blackberries are great for students, business workers, and people who need to make phone calls and text, but also need to go online to check e-mail, watch videos, blog, and take pictures and video with their smartphones camera. Smartphones are also good for recording short voice recordings to remind yourself to do a task, or stay organize with its calendar program. Newer Smartphones are like a tablet, but in a more portable size, so you can carry it around in your pocket. Smartphones are like a mini computer in your pocket which makes it possible for you to do work while you are away from home without the need to carry around a laptop, tablet, digital camera, video camcorder, or other devices since many smartphones have enough performance, and features like webcams, and text, and voice input which allows you to keep all your devices at home, and still can do work from your smart phone. It probably is best to buy a Smartphone by brand like Apple, Samsung, HTC, BlackBerry, Nokia, and Motorola makes pretty good smart phones, so it is best to try them out at your local cell phone store before you buy one to see which phone you like most, and which one you can afford. Google Android phones are typically cheaper then Blackberry, Apple, and Windows phone 7 phone, but there are many versions of Google Android like Froyo, Honeycomb, Ice Cream sandwich which makes picking the right smart phone for Android harder. A lot of people online says Google Android Honeycomb phones are pretty good. In the future, your smartphone will also be your debit or credit card because companies like Google, Paypal, Square, and Pro Pay already have apps and hardware for Smartphone which let you use your smartphone to pay for parking by texting or messaging a parking meter, or tapping it against a receiver to pay for your goods at the cashier. At the rate new smart phone applications are being made, you probably won't need to carry your ID cards, wallet, car keys, house keys, garage door opener, remote controls, graphing calculator, notebook, cooking timers, stop watches, cameras, voice recorders, or any other devices or personal documentation since they all be built-in to your smartphone, or there would be or already is an App for doing regular everyday tasks.



A tablet computer is good for people who already own a smartphone, or a regular cell phone for calling people, and texting. A Tablet is like a smartphone like the iPhone, Blackberry, Google Android phone, but it can’t make cell phone calls or type text messages in most cases unless your tablet accepts a SIM cell phone card like more expensive models of the iPad 2. Some more expensive tablets like the iPad has motion sensing, a touchscreen, webcam, microphone, USB ports, SD card slot for more storage space.  Less expensive tablets like the Amazon Kindle Fire are more for media consumption since it does not have a webcam for taking photos, or other feautures for doing work. However, you can still use it for inputing text, drawing, and playing games. In the future, Tablets would possibly as fast or faster then current 2011-2012 laptops and netbooks on the market today, be thiinner, lighter, flexible, and have very long battery life as technology advances.When buying a tablet, it is best to buy a Tablet with at least a 1 GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 16 GB of storage space for Google Android, Apple, and Blackberry Tablets. But, for Windows 7 tablets, you should buy a tablet with a 2GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 100GB hard drive since Windows 7 is a more system resource intensive operating system compared to Android, iOS, and the Blackberry operating system.

Both tablets and smartphones typically start up faster then a Windows based computer or laptop which can take minutes compared to a smartphone or tablet computer which only take seconds to turn on.



A laptop or netbook which is a smaller laptop which screen is 7-10 inches is a great computer for someone who plans on working from more then one location since most Laptops and some high end netbooks has the performance of most midend desktop computers, but it is portable, so you can take it around town to do your work or go online with its wireless wi-fi adapter. You can also install all the software which you typically use on your home computer onto your laptop as long as your laptop has the performance to run the software. More expensive highend laptops can run games faster then midend and lowend desktops in many cases. For an average laptop user, it is best to buy a laptop with a 2GHz or faster dual core CPU made by intel, or AMD, 3GB or more of RAM, 300GB or larger hard drive, Windows 7 Home Premium and a battery with long battery life, so you have the same speed as a typical Windows 7 desktop, but longer battery life because of a more powerful battery. For Netbooks, you should buy a Netbook with at least a 1.6GHz Intel Atom or faster CPU, 2GB of RAM, 100GB or larger hard drive, and Windows 7 Home Premium since Windows 7 Starter has fewer features. Laptops, and Netbooks are a better choice for you if you prefer to type with a keyboard, and use a mouse or touchpad instead of a touchscreen device and virtual onscreen keyboard on all tablets and smartphones. However, if you want a keyboard or mouse for a tablet, you can usually buy a bluetooth or USB keyboard which is compatible with your tablet. Some smartphones made by Blackberry, or HTC also has a real built-in keyboard.



Personal Digital Assistants/PDA are discontinued these days, but if you still have one you can use them for simple tasks like listening to music, watching videos, browsing the web, etc. But, a tablet, or smartphone would be a better choice for your portable computer needs since smart phones and tablets are still supported by the operating system and hardware company like Apple, Samsung, Google, Motorola and HTC. Most current cell phones which are not smart phones can do most of the task or more tasks a typical PDA from the 1990s can do like e-mail, mp3 playback, reading, video playback, and writing short notes.


E-book readers like the Kindle Touch, Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display - includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers are great mobile computers for just reading black and white books because the screen is not very bright, so you won't get eye strain from reading too long. Using a black and white non-color display without a backlight also means your battery life is very long. E-book readers are mostly for reading E-books you buy from the Amazon E-books store, or online marketplaces. E-book readers are also cheaper then a tablet, PDA, and laptop, so it is a good option for someone who just wants to read. Newer E-book readers also have wireless internet, so you can visit websites, or download more E-books to read when you are out of books, magazines, or newspapers to read on your e-book reader. E-book readers are also incredibly light since they do not require very fasy parts to work. E-book readers can also read books for you, or you can load MP3 audio book files on to your E-book readers to listen to. With 4GB of space on your E-book reader, you can store over 3000 books.You can also transfer your own books you bought from other E-book stores online by connecting it to your computers USB port to transfer the books over.In the US, and other countries, you can bring your E-book reader to some libaries to check out books for free. E-book readers are great for people who just want to spend 100 dollars or less on a mobile device to read the news, websites, and books without worrying about the battery power being low, or eye strain from viewing a bright screen for too long, or someone who just needs a E-book reader for listening to audio books while they read. Some E-books are also free, or cost less then regular books, so they are more affordable to more people.

Mobile computing is the main computing form factor to compete with the traditional heavy and big desktop computers of today because mobile computing lets you take your files for work, school, and entertainment, and view them easily with the built-in or 3rd party apps installed on a laptop, smartphone, or tablet in any location as long as the battery is charge to provide power, or you have access to a power outlet, extra battery,or powered USB port to charge and run your device when it is low on power. You also suffer less from sudden power outages like desktop computers which turn off automatically when there is a power outage while a mobile computer will stay powered even after a power outage since its main source of power comes from its battery, and not your house power grid. With mobile computing, you can choose to work from home, or put your computer in your pocket or bag, and work on your mobile computer at another location or while you are travelling on another location like a plane which is not possible with a desktop.

Plus, you have the "choice" to use local programs like Microsoft Office instead of a internet based program like Zoho office which is all web based which can be unreliable if your internet is slow, or internet program providers connection disconnects you. Plus, many people don't trust online applications also called cloud computing programs because they are afraid of hackers changingor deleting their files, stealing their data, and feel safer leaving files on their own drives on smart phones, tablets, and laptops, and backing up their mobile devices files like documents onto USB drives and desktop computer drives rather then relying on their online program provider staff. However, if you trust web based programs, you also have the option to use Dropbox, Google Docs, and many other web based programs on a mobile computer like a tablet, smartphone, or laptop when you are on the internet.