T 3.4

            Today it is hard for anyone to go anywhere without seeing someone using a smart phone or a tablet. These hardware devices can access the Internet from nearly anywhere. This particular part of the chapter really interested me. Smartphones fall into the category of telecommunications hardware, which are hardware devices that require a network connection. People are raging about smartphones now because they combined a mobile phone, camera, web browser, e-mail, MP3 player, and other software and hardware devices into one device.

            What I found most interesting is that different smartphones use different operating systems. For instance Apple’s iPhone using the iOS. Having an iPhone I wanted to do extended research on it’s operating system. iOS is the operating system Apple uses for the iPhone, the iPad, and Apple TV. The iOS is only liscensed for Apple products, therefore no other systems can use it. Microsoft Windows and Google’s Andriod allow other hardware products to use their systems. iOS has developed more than 650,000 applications found in Apple’s App Store.

            iOS has a user interface which uses multi-touch gestures. All iPhone, iPad, and iTouch users are familiar with the sliders, switches, and buttons on the devices that provide immediate smooth responses. Apple’s devices also have internal accelerometers that allow some applications to respond to movement. By shaking or rotating the device different outcomes will occur.

            iOS has four abstraction layers: the Core OS layer, the Core Services layer, the Media layer, and the Cocoa Touch layer. The most recent iOS update brought new features drastically improving technology with over 200 additions. These include new mapping software using TomTom instead of Google maps. Another important addition is Siri Support which is an application that provides voice information. Facebook and Twitter integration which allows users to directly post to the social networking sites along with syncing users contacts and calendar information. Other additions include photo stream, passbook, Face Time over the cellular network, changes in mail app, iCloud Tabs in Safari, New Accessibility Features, Remodeled Stores (iTunes, App Store, and iBooks), and more.

            The last thing I found interesting when studying the iOS is that since it has been released, it has been subjected to hacking that is not allowed by Apple. Jail breaking is done on hardware devices in order to install third-party applications. As new iOS updates come out more and more protection against jail breaking. With the release of Apple’s App Store the motivation for jail breaking has changed. Now hackers break into the iOS in order to install custom device themes, modify Spring Boards, gaining file systems access, and even installing other operating systems.