Camera Phones Plaza

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Actually, if you want to find out how to convert an MP3 to ringtone, you should know that this is not a conversion process, but rather a setting you need to do in your cell phone in order to play a specific MP3 file when there’s an incoming call or message. Still, you have the option to create a polyphonic ringtone from an MP3 file, to be compatible with an older phone model that doesn’t support the MP3 format. Taking into account both possibilities, in the following lines I plan to explain to you how to set an MP3 song as a ringtone and how to convert the MP3 in a polyphonic tone.

First you have to look in the cell phone model specifications list and see what audio file types your handset supports. For example, Nokia 1100, which is a great model for making and receiving phone calls, with a long battery life, supports only monophonic ringtones. This type of melody is a combination of music notes played one after another, like those Chinese pencil boxes with colored pianos that worked with watch batteries, which didn’t allow you to mix more notes simultaneously, but one at a time.

Polyphonic ringtones like the ones used by Panasonic SC3 are combinations of multiple notes played simultaneously, and sound better than monophonic ringtones. Because an SC3 can play 16 notes at a time, it is called a 16-channel polyphonic phone. The most common polyphonic ringtone type is MIDI.

A few years ago cell phone manufacturers enabled the MP3 file format on their cell phone models, which is a great achievement that allowed users to bring the music they used to play only on their computers onto the handsets. This way we can carry with and play our favorite playlists wherever we go.

The next step is to set these MP3 songs downloaded from the Internet or transferred from the computer via USB, into ringtones, for each of the contacts or groups of contacts in the phonebook. To do this you need to check if the phone model allows you to set MP3 ringtones without copyright protection, and to find out you have to look in the user’s guide. If it allows this, then you are free to use the phone’s software on your PC and transfer music files onto the phone, after which you can set them as ringtones for your phonebook entries and incoming messages by adding them first into the Ringtone-dedicated folder.
An example of cell phone model with such an issue is the iPhone. It allows you to set ringtones only from those MP3s downloaded from the Apple iTunes store.

The other subject we will discuss now is how to convert an MP3 to ringtone in the polyphonic format, also known as MIDI.
You probably have an older cell phone that doesn’t support MP3s or you just can’t stand real tones playing when someone’s calling. Well, in this case you have a bunch of friendly applications available for download, which are developed to help you with the conversion on the computer. After that, you need to connect the cell phone via USB and transfer the new MIDI files into the Ringtone-dedicated folder.



How do these programs work? –Simple, you select the source file that can be an MP3, WAV or CD track and then press the Convert button located somewhere on the application’s window. Converted files are stored in a dedicated folder where you have installed the program. From there you can send them to your phone’s Ringtone folder and choose which one will play when you’ll receive a new call or message.
Here is a list of programs you can test and convert MP3 to ringtone, in the free trial period, after which you’ll need to spend around $25 on the one that best suits your needs: Audio To MIDI, Mobile Music Polyphonic, MP3 To Ringtone Gold, IntelliScore Polyphonic, or Music Recognition Pro, and these are just a few...

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When we think of the link between TV and cell phones first things that come up on our minds are the live TV feature introduced recently worldwide after having been popular in Japan, and of the TV out port which we use to connect the handset to a television panel for watching stored content on a larger display together with all the family members.

With the TV out things are simple. We encounter this feature in different gadgets today, from computer systems to small handsets like the cell phone in our pocket. The connectivity process is simple and you can follow step by step guides in the manuals in order to link the composite video cable that usually comes with the handset in the same package, from the phone to your TV panel.

While Samsung uses the ATC cable models, Nokia has its Video-Out Cable CA-75U, both connecting via the 3 colored jacks for video and left-right audio signals.
Nokia N95 is an example of multimedia phone that features TV out, allowing you to play cool 3D games on your TV using keys on the keypad, or just watch some funny clips recorded on the go with your friends. This feature is compatible with all TV types if you set the correct signal handling such as PAL or NTSC, which depends on the country you are located in. It works even on High Definition TVs, but the resolution is standard.
The SDTV provides horizontal resolutions of 720 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio and with around 30 frames per second.

Live TV has been available in Asia since 2005 and it was introduced recently in Europe and United States as well. It enables compatible high-end phones to receive digital TV broadcasts and is known also as mobile TV. This technology is available as Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcasting and Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting.

Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld is the format for Terrestrial Digital Video Broadcasting found in US and Europe, with the Digital Multimedia Broadcasting as the main competitor for receiving TV content adapted to the mobile viewing.
The technology is enabled by the telecommunication carrier you are subscribed at and provides several types of video content: video-on-demand, traditional/linear and live TV, while the TV podcasts consist of on-demand content after subscription, when the videos are stored on the phone so you to view them at a later time. It is even possible to schedule the delivery times depending on the day hours avoiding intensive traffic.

The best method for using this service is via the high-speed 3G connectivity, and handsets meeting special requirements are those with large memory, long battery life, high-resolution display, advanced user interface and high processing power.
Such smartphone is the new Nokia N96, a highly wanted multimedia computer with lots of features including TV out and Live TV. It has 16GB internal storage capacity, support for up to 24GB external storage, 128MB RAM, 256MB system memory, a 2.8-inch TFT LCD with 16 million colors and 240 x 320 resolution, the S60 user interface with multimedia menu, accelerometer sensor for the landscape mode, high-speed 3.6Mbps transfer, DVB-H based mobile TV with internal antenna, powerful integrated speakers, and up to 4 hours of TV playback time via DVB-H.



In addition to offering the TV out connectivity for playing games and watching videos on a TV display, Nokia N96 allows podcasting with direct wireless access to directory, feed updates, downloads, as well as to watch program guides with automatic updates and channel discovery, replay TV programs instantly, record TV shows, set the reminder for the program guide, use interactive services, and subscribe to multiple TV content types such as previews, free-to-air and pay-per-view, using multiple payment methods.

To be able to use all these cool mobile TV features, each telecommunication carrier offers users different subscription packages at affordable costs. One example is T-Mobile TV in UK with Made for Mobile channels including short episode highlights, full episodes and pre-recorded shows, as well as live TV channels, at 1 British Pound for 24 hours, 3.50 British Pounds for a month, or 5 British Pounds per month if you subscribe to Sky Mobile TV with a set of channels for sports, music or entertainment categories. These include CNN, MTV, Cartoon Network and SKY News.

Possibilities are almost endless, but we are still waiting for a larger TV channels collection that might include Discovery Channel, HBO, and, why not, local TV channels for each country.

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Cell phone tracking, also known as GPS tracking, is the process through which a functioning cell phone is detected and localized on the globe, using an advanced technology that measures the power levels and antenna patterns of the handset communicating with the base stations it passes nearby, which is then converted into geographical location.
First, the system detects the closest cell phone tower to the phone, estimating the distance between them, and after that it interpolates signals between adjacent antenna towers to make a more exact approximation.

In cities, the technology can achieve a more precise localization of down to 50 meters, compared to rural areas, because the wireless traffic is higher, as well as the number of cell phone towers.
These days, people use the built-in GPS tracking module in their cell phones to detect friends’ position on streets or in vehicles, record location history and watch it on a map online.
Cell phone tracking can be done either using a special software installed on your mobile phone, or using an external device that connects to the handset, providing this optional functionality.

All telecommunication carriers offer this service on advanced cell phones including smartphones, and the subscribers need to pay a monthly fee in addition the data plan. One example is TeleNav Track on AT&T, available at a starting price of $12.99 including GPS Tracking, Location Reports, GPS Timesheet, Geofence Alerts, Speeding and Stop Alerts, 2-way messaging, Text Directions and Mileage. Such services are used mostly by companies that need to keep track of employees’ activity at any time and in real-time.
At $15, Sprint provides the Mobile Locator service with the same tools.

Neosistec developed the Carfinder and Motofinder downloadable applications used by Vodafone customers who own BlackBerries for tracking parked cars or motorbikes.

If you’re subscribed to a contract at your telecommunications carrier, then adding one of the available services for GPS tracking is the best solution when you want to be up to date with your close ones’ location. In case you are not subscribed then a GPS device optimized for navigation and tracking is the tool you need. GPS devices are built only for this purpose and features included are much many in addition to the tracking capability.

If you don’t plan to get a GPS device because it is complex and takes some time to understand it and learn how to use its interface, and you also don’t like to track people on the small screen of your cell phone, then what you need is probably an online solutions like free cell phone tracking.
There are free cell phone tracking applications that can be downloaded on your phone, with the only condition to have a built-in or external Bluetooth GPS receiver.
Now I want to detail a bit two online free cell phone tracking services – one focused on locating moving objects and the second for people detection.

Mologogo free cell phone tracking solution for the handset or the web not only shows where your friends and you are but it can also send alerts when your friends are close, find points of interest, and display traffic and weather updates. It allows you to chat with people in close proximity as well as manage your online account by adding a profile photo, new friends, bookmarks or import your location data on your own blog.
To enable it you need to be a subscriber of Nextel, Sprint, or Boost Mobile, because Mologogo is free but you’ll have to pay for the data consumed from the phone’s plan. Another condition is to have Java and GPS support on the phone.
If you don’t use a compatible phone, Mologogo has the option to purchase an affordable pre-paid tracking phone kit available at a price of $ 79.99. Having all these checked next you’ll have to download the application on your phone and run it.

Another free cell phone tracking service available online is LocateA.net. With it you can track people carrying a specific mobile phone you have registered with the service. It can track moving objects like vehicles and cell phones.
This can help you locate your child carrying your cell phone or a courier heading to leave a package. All you need to do is setup your account online, download the software on the cell phone and make some additional settings to your account.
On the website you can also create a Master Account and administer up to 20 subaccounts of people you register, and locate them in real-time whenever you need. They can be drivers who work for you and be displayed on a public map, on the company’s non-public map, or on both.

You could try also Baeeo, another free cell phone tracking service, but this one doesn’t require you to have a GPS receiver, which is a good aspect. The bad aspect is that the number of supported cell phone models is limited, while the localization is not as accurate as Global Position Satellites, because Baeeo uses cell tower data like the ID and signal strength to translate them into latitude and longitude coordinates for displaying on Google Maps, so the cell sizes vary between 300 yards and 2.5 miles.



With Baeeo you can localize friends, family members or colleagues, tag locations and connect with old friends using Windows Mobile smartphones.
You can setup an unlimited number of phones with Baeoo, create customized reports in Excel and Google Map formats, and display your location on twitter.

Other online services providing cell phone tracking have different affordable fees and are much more trustworthy.

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Are cell phones harmful? Do cell phones cause cancer? These are questions we ask ourselves each time we hear the latest research results in the news, but we are still not sure if the answer is “Yes” or “No”. We’ve seen several documentaries about people suffering from brain tumors, saying that the main source of their illness is the large amount of time they have been exposed to cell phones radiation. The ones affected by this type of tumor used to talk on the phone maybe over 80% of the day time, as they were very busy people with high soliciting jobs, requiring many hours spent on talking and making important decisions from distance.

According to the American Cancer Society, the cell phone usage has spread worldwide since just 10 years, which is too short to be able to determine long-term health effects. During the last years, researchers have analyzed the differences between people affected by brain tumors that have been using cell phones, and those that are healthy and use the device. Results are unconcludent yet, but they seem to reveal the non-harmful side of the mobile phone use. Patients with brain cancer didn’t use the cell phones more often than the healthy ones, and intensive cell phone users do not show signs of this illness as it should if the radiation would be a cause for it. Also, these studies couldn’t link the side of the head with brain tumor with the side on which the mobile phone was used.

According to Wikipedia, until today there were several studies published including the following:



2004-The Danish study that took into consideration 10 years of cell phones use and found no sign revealing that humans can be affected by this type of radiation;
2005-The Swedish study showing that "the data do not support the hypothesis that mobile phone use is related to an increased risk of glioma or meningioma.";
2005-The British study concluding that "The study suggests that there is no substantial risk of acoustic neuroma in the first decade after starting mobile phone use. However, an increase in risk after longer term use or after a longer lag period could not be ruled out."
2006-The German study stating that "no overall increased risk of glioma or meningioma was observed among these cellular phone users; however, for long-term cellular phone users, results need to be confirmed before firm conclusions can be drawn.";
The INTERPHONE study conducted by Japan researchers who looked for brain tumor risks influenced by cell phones use. It tried to determine the SAR level inside tumors by calculating the RF level absorption in glioma, meninigioma, and pituitary adenoma. They didn’t find any proof to sustain the idea of cell phones use influencing tumor development.
Other studies, like Dr. Vini Khurana’s, showed that using cell phones more than 10 years doubles the risk of brain cancer, but it was highly criticized as there was no clear evidence.

Now if we take a look at the evolution of wireless safety standards, we’d realize that they have become stricter over time, which might suggest a possible concern over cell phone usage effects:
-1966: The ANSI C95.1 standard adopted the standard of 10mW/cm2 (10,000 μW/cm2) based on thermal effects.
-1982: The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers recommended further lowering this limit to 1mW/cm2 (1,000 μW/cm2) for certain frequencies in 1982, which became a standard ten years later in 1992 (see below).
-1986: The National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements recommended the exposure limit of 580 μW/cm2.
-1992: The ANSI/IEEE C95.1-1992 standard based on thermal effects used the 1mW/cm2 (1,000 μW/cm2) safety limit. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called this revised standard "seriously flawed", partly for failing to consider non-thermal effects, and called for the FCC to adopt the 1986 NCRP standard which was five times stricter.
-1996: The FCC updated to the standard of 580 μW/cm2 over any 30-minute period for the 869 MHz, while still using 1mW/cm2 (1,000 μW/cm2) for PCS frequencies (1850-1990 MHz).[59]
-1998: The ICNIRP standard uses the limit of 450 μW/cm2.
Not all cell phone models on the market spread the same amount of radiation. To find out about each model radiation level you should have to look for the Specific Absorption Rate level in the cell phone’s specifications, which shows the rate at which RF energy is absorbed by your body when exposed to the RF electromagnetic field.



Let’s clarify how this happens!
When you make a call the handset tries to contact the base station, also called cell phone tower, and this one responds with the same type of signals known as radio waves, so the enviroment is exposed to these waves circulating over the air. The antennas from the base stations have high power levels but the radio waves intensity is very low at the ground level , where you try to make the call.
To protect people from the RF radiation, the agencies responsible with public protection have set some standards: the exposure limit has to be in the range of 0.41-0.45 milliwatts per square centimeter, the power density inside buildings on top of which base stations are mounted is up to 100 times lower than the level outside because of special construction materials used, and as the power density behind the antennas is up to thousands of times lower than in front, the antenna are mounted on a side of the building.

But what about the cell phone towers?
When the cell phone communicates with the cell phone towers through radio waves, the energy consisting of photons sent in packages and measured in electron Volts doesn’t exceed one millionth of an eV, which is too small to be able to affect body molecules.
To cause cancer the radiation has to affect the body cells. Radio waves length is of 1 foot in the air and 2 inches in body tissue, which can’t be concentrated on small parts of tissue. Body cells are even smaller.
Another aspect is the magnitude of exposure, and tests showed that people are exposed at RF radiation related to cell phones at the same level as other sources like radios and television broadcast stations.
Also, not all of you are aware of the fact that when the cell phone has a high signal strength the power output is 1000 times lower than when the signal is poor.



Back to the SAR. The Specific Absorption Rate is calculated on 1 gram or 10 grams of tissue, and measures the exposure in fields between 100kHz and 10 GHz.
Governments that took measures against this possible problem set clear SAR limits, such as the United States that requires the SAR to be below 1.6 W/Kg in 1 gram of tissue, or the European Union that asks for maximum 2 W/Kg at 10 grams of tissue, with 0.08 W/Kg average exposure over the whole body.
These are the methods you can reduce your exposure to the radiation when using cell phones: call only when you need, make only short calls, send text messages as often as possible, don’t use your cell phone when the signal strength is low, use the phone outside or close to a window, switch off the phone when not in use.

To give you a few examples of the latest cell phone models’ SAR levels, Nokia E51 has 1.47 W/kg, Nokia N95 has 0.50 W/kg, Samsung Instinct has 1.16 W/kg for the head and 1.220 W/kg for the body, Sony Ericsson C902 has 1.32 W/Kg, and Motorola MOTO W755 has 0.8 W/Kg.

(Sources: Mobile Phones UK; Wikipedia; American Cancer Society)

What is a Mobile Phone?
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Everybody knows what a cell phone is so I’ll be short. A mobile phone, as its name suggests, is a portable device with wireless transmission, which anyone can use while on the go. You can use one for making phone calls, receive phone calls, which is its main function, but you can also transfer and receive files with music, videos, images and, of course, text.

Cellular Phone Parts

After making a mobile phone research, I am inviting you inside the cell phone to see its components.

First take a look at your own model. What do you see? It has a Liquid Crystal Display, a keypad like the one on your TV remote, while inside it has an antenna (which can be external and visible at some models), a removable battery, a microphone, a speaker, and another thing that you can’t see if you don’t disassembly the handset is the circuit board, in charge with processing the commands you type.



On the circuit board, a specialist can identify easily the conversion chips that translate the analog audio signal emitted when you are in a phone call, into digital signal, and the digital signal that comes to your handset over the air, back into analog. The smart piece that handles the digital signal is called the Digital Signal Processor, which uses complex algorithms to make calculations in order to transform the analog and digital signals in real time.



Same as personal computers, cell phones have also a microprocessor that handles the commands from the keyboard making them displayable on the LCD.
The operating system and directories are kept in the Random Access Memory and Flash memory chips, while the power issues are controlled by the Radio Frequency and the power area.
Cell phone speakers are incredibly small, as well as microphones, but with the latest technologies they have powerful capabilities.

Cell Phone Manufacturing

The manufacturing process involves 40% metals, 40% plastics and 20% ceramics and trace materials, while the circuit board uses copper, lead, nickel, gold, zinc, beryllium, tantalum, coltan and others. Some of the raw materials are processed before the cell phone manufacturing, like the crude oil used for plastics, which has to be mixed with natural gas and chemicals in a special plant. The copper, for example, has to be mined, ground, heated and treated with chemical substances and electricity, in order to isolate the pure metal used also in batteries.
Cell Phone Screens with LCDs have liquid crystalline substances like mercury, and are sandwiched between glass and plastic layers. The batteries have the two electrodes made of metals.

This is a cell phone diagram for your curiosity:



How Does a Mobile Phone Work?

How does a cell phone work? This is simple. If a standard radio uses a simplex communication system so that you can hear the moderator talking, without having the possibility to reply, a cell phone is a duplex device permitting you to talk to the person who started the call. It sends and receives radio signals using cell sites located on specially built towers, poles or buildings, all being connected to a large cabled network with a switching system. The smart thing is that cell phones send data to the nearest cell sites located at maximum 13 Km away, this after they are turned On, moment when it registers with the switch, using a unique identifier.



When you are on the go, carrying your phone with, it is permanently detecting the strongest signals from the base stations, so if a signal weakens, the handset care is passed to the nearest cell site.
Your cell phone receives the phone call from a friend and this digital signal is transformed into analog signal, processed by the Digital Signal Processor, and finally amplified via the built-in speaker. When you talk, the voice is detected by the small microphone as analog, processed, and in the end transformed into digital signal to be sent over the air.

The SIM card is a microchip called a Subscriber Identity Module, and the phone is dependent on it to work. It is in charge with storing information like the calling plan and other phone’s details, while having a unique numerical identifier used to lock the device permanently after the first activation.

History of the Cell Phone

Who Invented the Cell Phone? If you want to know who was the first who got the idea of creating a cellular phone the answer is the American Telephone & Telegraph which is no other than AT&T from the United States, which was the world's largest telephone company and the world's largest cable television operator, with $300 billion dollars revenue. It was purchased by Baby Bell SBC Communications in 2005.

In April 1973, Dr Martin Cooper, former general manager for the systems division at Motorola, invented the mobile phone prototype and made the first call to Joel Engel, his rival, head of research at Bell Labs.



Copper was a project manager at Motorola and the world’s first mobile phone was Motorola Dyna-Tac, a 2.5 pounds handset measuring 9 x 5 x 1.75 inches, featuring 30 circuit boards, 35 minutes talk time, 10 hours recharge time, and having just three functionalities: dial, talk and listen. He, together with his colleagues, published the patent for the world’s first portable duplex radio telephone system.



AT&T’s concept couldn’t pass by the monopoly on the wired service in the US in 1915, so someone else had to finalize this, and the answer for your next question - When was the first mobile phone invented? - is the year 1978 and the place Japan. There, the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, known as the most popular cell phone operator in the country, NTT DoCoMo, created the world’s first commercial cell phone.

There are different types of mobile phones. Nokia Communicator launched in 1996 was the world’s first cell phone with Internet connectivity and email functionality. The same company created the world’s first Smartphone.
NTT DoCoMo launched i-Mode, the first mobile Internet service, in 1999 in Japan.
The first http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service Short Message Service message was sent in 1992 in the United Kingdom, but from a computer to a cell phone, and the first text message sent from a phone to another phone was in 1993 in Finland.

How many people own cell phones at this moment? We can’t be sure about the number, but at the end of last year there were 3.3 billion subscribers worldwide, meaning half of the population on the globe, and if you take into account the fact that maybe 50% of them own more than one cell phone, you could imagine a higher number, of almost 4.5 billion. The cellular phone technology is the most widely spread and the most popular gadget in the world.