Initially written Feb 2011, Some updates March 2017

Video of a presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLZvECvfQ8s

See also Smart phones and Using Smart Phones

The purpose of the Mobile Phone Workshop is to enable senior people to get the best possible usage out of their Mobile Phone.

These workshops are to help you understand the technology that is in your phone. This is NOT a technology course.

The methodology of the workshops is for each participant to bring along their own mobile phone and the phones manual. You will be responsible for your own equipment. After receiving a brief description of the concepts of mobile phones what will be presented will be up to each participant.

It should be appreciated because of idiosyncrasies of each different model of phone and different features that each phone has, that what applies to one person may not apply to others and that some, one on one, time may be required. Because of this the workshops will be limited to 4 participants.

To enable the workshop tutor to get ready for the workshop please email them your name and the make and model of the phone you will be bringing to the workshop so that they can possibly download the manual of you phone from the internet and read it beforehand.

Email address of Geoff Greig geoffreykgreig@gmail.com

The best way to learn how to use your phone is to experiment. Fortunately modern phones make experimentation very easy however it can become expensive to make many phone calls or use some of the phones features like SMS's or data services. It is essential that you know the cost of using your phone before you do any experimentation . See Phone deals

The most difficult part of learning how to use a mobile phone is simply coming to grips with the terminology and what each of the functions of your phone do. Hopefully these notes and this course will overcome these difficulties. Under the heading Functions of Mobile Phones is a list of the things that most common mobile phones can do. To the right of each item may may be a link that explains what the function does (how to do it). Below most of the explanations will be exercises that you can perform which will further help in your understanding of the function.

The exercises are an important part of learning how to use your phone. It may be well worth repeating them several times, especially if you do not understand what the function is meant to be doing

This material will often refer you to your phones manual.

Some phone come with a printed manual, but the modern trend is not to supply a manual with the phone at all or to only supply it on a computer disk or on the internet or with smart phones to have the manual built in to the phone itself.

In practice most people do NOT read the manuals and as a consequence the manual authors tend to have extremely brief descriptions on how to use various functions of phones. The authors of phone manuals tend to be technical people and write for a audience of their peers, such that the average senior person can not understand the manual. In some cases because the manuals are written so badly that even very technically literate people have trouble reading them. The design of the user functionality of the phones them selves can also be a problem in seniors people learning to use mobile phones.

One of the major problems with reading a phone manual is simply finding the part of the manual that has the description of what you are trying to learn. If you phone manual had a alphabetic index at the back this can be very handy, however many do not have such an index. The table of contents at the beginning of the manual, if it is logically layed out, can be useful. One of the best ways to use a manual is to have it electronically on a computer and use the computers find function to find what you are looking for in the manual. Often manuals can be downloaded from the internet if they are not supplied on a computer disk.

If you have trouble understanding the phones manual often it can be because the manual is using terminology you are not familiar with. That is what theses course notes are all about. Hopefully after reading these notes before reading your manual the technical jargon will be sufficiently explained so that it will be easier for you to understand the manual.

I have discovered that the reason people have trouble using the manuals is because they are not in the correct mode within their phone to do what they want to do, such that the manual instructions make no sense. Often this can be the manuals fault because it does not explain which mode you need to be in, before it describes the function . Even if a manual does describe that you need to be within a certain mode before performing a function often the manual will refer you to another page for this, so making things more confusing.

Often the acquiring of understanding will make it easier for you to understand your phones manual. After you have successfully learnt how to perform a function, on you phone, then read or re-read that part of your manual as it is likely to make more sense and your new found understanding may make reading other parts of the manual easier.

According to this article http://www.cellular-news.com/story/30809.php on the cellular News web site of 28th Apr 2008 there were more mobile phones Services in operation at 30 June 2007 than there were people in Australia.

World Wide: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use

And in this article http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/gartner-forecasts-phones-overtaking-pcs-as-most-common-web-brows/ it has been predicted by a reputable research organisation that by 2015 mobile phones will overtake PCs as most common web browsing device.

To get some perspective of the influence mobile have had on the world watch this utube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D55ZK89S34

Considering the above, it is well worthwhile coming to grips with what your mobile phone can do and what the later and future models will be able to do.

A good background to what has and is happening with mobile phone, complements of the ABC can be found here:

http://www.abc.net.au/technology/techexplained/

Or if it is no longer at that location, try here:

http://www.greig.net.au/geoff/MobilePhoneMovie/mobile.mp4

Below is a very short and simple explanation. For more detailed information click on the links at the end of this section

Mobile phones are an extension of the normal phone network, so how do normal house (land line) phones work?

When you pick a land line phone it goes off hock and you are connected to the exchange and you get a dial tone. When you key in the number you want to call the equipment at the telephone exchange makes the appropriate connection via other exchanges to the person you want to call. When you speak your voice is picked up by a microphone and converted into electrical pulses that travel along, usually copper wires, to the receivers phone where those electrical pulses go into a speaker such that you are able to hear the sound of the person speaking. In modern land line calls it is also very likely that part of the journey of the electrical pulses may be converted to digital signals.

For a more detailed explination see here http://communication.howstuffworks.com/telephone.htm

With mobile phones the calls are still routed through land lines. Unless you are calling a person, also with a mobile phone, that is very close to you, so in the same cell area (explained later) the conversation will partly go through the same land lines that are used for land line calls. See this diagram:

Unlike land line calls their is no off-hook with a mobile phone. Before you can make a call on a mobile phone you have to be within radio range of a mobile phone tower. This is usually indicated on the phone's display as a series of five bars, the more bars that are shown the stronger the signal strength. Mobile phone or Cell Phones as the Americans call then, use low powered radio to communicate between the phone and the mobile phone tower. The reason they are low powered radios is so the radio signal only radiates a relatively small distance (a cell) so that the same radio frequency can be used in non adjacent cells as shown in this diagram: As their is no dial tone on mobile phones you enter the number you wish to call without being connected to a telephone exchange or the tower and then indicate that you wish to be connected. Via some computer functions within the mobile phone and the mobile phone tower the call is connected to the recipients phone. This is done on a separate channel different to the channels that are used when conversations take place so allowing dialling/connecting to be achieved independently from the conversations.

With digital mobile phones the phone itself converts your voice, picked up via the microphone, into a digital signal that is sent via radio to the mobile phone tower where it is routed via digital phone lines (usually cables) to the recipients phone or to the mobile tower closest to the recipients, if they are on a mobile phone. If that phone is a mobile phone, radio will be used between the the tower and the recipients phone and the signal will be digital the entire connection. If the recipients phone is a land line, at some point, the digital signal will be converted to a analogue sound.

Digital signals have the benefit over analogue signals in that they can be compressed (take up less space) so allowing multiple conversations to take place on the one wire or radio frequency.

Via the computer software in the phones and the mobile phone network as you and your phone move you are automatically switched from one mobile phone tower (cell) to another including the changing of radio frequency.

For a more detailed explanation see http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone.htm or do a Google search on Mobile Phones and Cell Phones.

UPDATE: March 2017

Since the below material was first written the way mobile phone deals are marketed has changed quite a lot. Now most of the phone deals provide unlimited calls and texting (SMS's) But they still do not provide is unlimited data. The price breaks in phone deals now usually provide for more data the more you pay and sometime included calls to some overseas countries. Now it is less important how many calls or SMS's you make and more important how much mobile data you use on your phone and how much it will cost if you exceed the monthly data quota.

Here is a recording of a presentation I did on Mobile Phone Deals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EulxaDkwZO0

It is virtually impossible to list all the deals that are available for mobile phones or to establish which one is best for a particular persons requirements. Their are some websites that compare deals side by side from some of the major telecommunication companies, but to do so you need to indicate the pattern of your current or anticipated mobile phone usage. Unfortunately most people only know what they pay each month and not how many calls they make and when they make them. However most companies do have available for post paid (see later) deals the facility to view on a web site all the calls that you have made and this information can be accumulated on a computer over a period of time. Use of this accumulated information is the best way to establish which is the best deal to be on.

Although the functionality exists in some phones to show you the total of your bill at any time most service providers do not provide for this functionality. Mobile phone service providers know that a large number of people would not use their phone as much if they new the total value of their bill after each call. If you have a smart phone with internet access it is possible with some service providers via a long login procedure to see your total bill at that point in time. However the difficulty in doing this means that few people use it.

Without reading the fine print of every phone service providers contract it is difficult to know what you can and will be charged for. Often those that sell phone deals and the phone service providers call centre staff also do not know this information or provide incorrect information. Phone service provides deliberately make their deals complex, than it otherwise could be, so that you as a consumer can not make a complete informed decision.

Their are generally 2 ways to purchase a mobile phone, outright or as part of some subscription service. Generally the advantage of purchasing a mobile phone outright is that you are then free to change from one phone service provider to another at any time without any financial penalty. However the best time to change would be at the end of a billing cycle to get the value out of what you have paid for. Another advantage of purchasing a phone outright is that generally the monthly base charge is less than otherwise because you are not actually paying off the phone and applicable interest, which is not usually disclosed. If purchasing a phone outright you should insure that the phone is not SIM locked.

SIM locking is a software feature of mobile phones such that phone can only be used with a particular phone service providers SIM cards. It is typically set with pre paid purchased mobile phones but can sometimes apply to phones purchased outright or post paid deals. Usually phone service provides will for a fee or after a period of time, for no fee, remove SIM locks on mobile phones. It is also possible via the internet or via downloading software from the internet to unlock SIM locked phones. Some smaller mobile phone retails will also SIM unlock phones for a fee that is typically far less than that charges by the phone service provider.

Weather you purchase your phone outright or as part of a subscription service you can pay for the service you uses before you use it, pre paid, or after you use it Post paid. The big disadvantage of post paid deals is that you usually do not know what your monthly bill is going to be until you get the bill. Many parents have been very surprised to get a very high bill for a post paid phone they have allowed their children to use. With pre paid you can purchase, via various means, a certain amount of $ credits that is applied to your account. As you use services the cost of those services is taken off you credit until it gets to zero in which case you will no longer be able to use those services until you, top up your credit. However for a period of time (varies with phone service providers) you will be able to receive calls.

The two major disadvantages of pre paid deals is that you may not know if you are going to run out of credits and thus not be able to make a important call and because you typically do not get a monthly bill, you have may no record of the services you have used and when you used them.

In post paid deals, because the phone service provider may have given you some incentive to use them, and because they want you to stay with then as a customer, they may get you to enter a contract that has a defined time limit, say 12 or 24 months. If you wish to exit that contract before that time limit, most service providers have exit fees. This typically is the monthly charge times the remaining months in the contract. It is important you know up front if you will be required to pay exit fees should you wish to end the contract as it can make a significant difference to what decisions you may be able to make in the future. Typically mobile phone deals over time have provide possible savings compared to those of the past.

Services you are likely to be charged for are:

• Monthly fee
• Call connection charge (Flag fall)
• Timed call charge
• Specific charges for types of numbers called
• Roaming charges
• SMS charges
• Overseas SMS charges
• Premium SMS charges
• Voice mail deposit and retrieval charges
• Data Charges

All Providers for Post paid deals charge a monthly fee. Usually the higher the fee the more included not separately charged (included) calls and some times other services are provided. Also where a phone is supplied as part of the post paid deal the higher the monthly fee a more expensive phone is provided

Most providers charge a fee for connecting the call which is charged once per call regardless of the duration of the call. Also know as a flag fall this is a hangover from the times when people, telephone switchboard operators, would connect a call for you. Although the connection system is now completely automatic and always has been for mobile phone calls, most providers still charge this fee. Mainly because they can. To put it into some perspective it would be like Internet Service Providers (ISP's) charging a fee every time you change to a different web page. Of course they do not yet the technology used to connect using mobile phone calls is much the same as that of changing web pages.

Many overseas phone service providers do not charge a connection fee but at the time this was written (March 2011) only one Australian provider did not charge a connection fee.

Currently all mobile phone service providers charge based on the duration of the call. However the method and rates can vary substitutional between providers. Whilst some charge per second, others charge per 30 seconds and at least one charges per minute. Regardless of the rate charged this method of charging can have a substitutional effect on a total monthly bill when comparing providers. Very few providers have reduced the rate they charge per time increment since mobiles first where available even though, mainly because of technology changes, their cost have reduced dramatically over time. Rather than reducing their rates most phone providers have provided more, supposed “free” features to their deals so making it extremely difficult to compare providers.

Even though the rate may be the same to call your neighbour next door as it does someone on the other side of the country, certain numbers may be charged at different rates or, may or may not be included in the included calls. These numbers have different prefixes than normal numbers such as 1 300, 1800 and 1 900.

In the mobile phone world, roaming basically means that instead of using your own phone provider you use a different providers network but it is charged back to you. Because the other provider is typically in opposition with your provider or is in another country, their roaming charges are typically much higher than non roaming charges. In Australia practically all providers can be used in most capital cities so it is unlikely that you will get roaming charges. However if you use your Australian mobile phone provider while overseas you will be charged at roaming rates.

If you use your Australian provider whilst overseas, in addition to the being charged at roaming rates for the calls made, you will also be charged the international leg of any call you receive. This is because, unlike land line phones, when you ring a mobile phone you do not usually know where in the world the phone you are calling is. So to save the caller to a mobile phone being charged at overseas rates, international agreements where made between the worlds phone provides that the cost of the international leg of overseas calls is born by the receiver.

Typically it will cost you less to use your mobile phone overseas if you set up a prepaid phone deal in the country you are in and so change the SIM card to that country's provider or arrange to have people in Australia ring you on an overseas land line. An ever better alternative, if you have the equipment, is to use Voice over IP (VOIP) facilities on a computer such as Skype.

Mobile phone service providers love people using SMS messages because they put very little strain on their networks (one SMS would be equivalent to less than on second of talk time on a 3G network), yet they provide them a great revenue stream. This is because the providers charge one SMS charge for each SMS sent and they define that one SMS to be limited to 160 characters or less. Even though most modern mobile phone allow you to enter SMS messages of longer than 160 characters the providers charge you an SMS charge per 160 character or part their of.

To put this into some perspective, it is also now possible with the later phones, to send and receive emails. Yet emails messages are charged at data rates rather then SMS rates. Some plans have included data in the monthly charge. Assuming you can get such, one Gigabyte can cost $30. At $0.25 per 160 characters for SMS's, this is equivalent to over $1.6 million per Gigabyte.

Again the rates that service providers charge for SMS's has not changed since SMS's first became available yet the technology that allows them to be sent has resulted in dramatic cost saving as can be seem above.

If you send a SMS message to a mobile phone overseas or whilst overseas send a SMS message to a Australia mobile phone you will be charged an overseas SMS charge in addition to the normal SMS charge.

These are charges for information and entertainment services that deliver various forms of content to your mobile phone. They can be purchased by making a phone call, sending a text message, or requesting them via the internet or data connection from your mobile phone. They typically cost multiple dollars per each service. Because they can be requested via the internet it is possible for the requester to enter any mobile number such that you may have these charges appear on your bill without you requesting it. As it is difficult to get premium SMS charges reversed from your mobile bill if you have no intention of ever using such services you can have them bared from your phone.

Most service providers do not have premium SMS services bared from you phone, so that you specifically need to bar them or request that they be bared

Even though most service providers provide a free voice mail service such that you can have a message played to people when your phone is off, out of range or you are on a call, there can be charges for when someone leaves you a message (deposit) and/or when you listen to messages left for you (retrieve). The rates for these vary by service provider.

Most service providers when you first get your mobile service have voice mail switched on. If you do not wish to use it you have to switch it off, arrange to have the number of rings before it goes to a not available message increased and have the not available message removed. That is change 3 separate functions, most of which require you to contact your service provider. This give you some indication of the how much revenue service providers make from voice mail.

This is the charge for sending and receiving data to and from you phone. Typically their is a included amount of data as part of your monthly charge and then an excess usage charge when the included data is exceeded. Theses excess rates tend to be quite high compared to using the same data on computer Internet services.

Unlike wired computer broadband where their is not excess usages charges, rather the internet connection speed is just slowed down, currently all the current phone providers charge excess usage fees.

It is currently cheaper to purchase data from phone providers to be used as mobile broadband on typically a notebook computer than for mobile phones. Yet is possible to successfully use the same SIM cards applicable to computer mobile broadband in modern 3G mobile phones for data use and with some providers also make phone calls.

What makes it extremely difficult to be able to compare the deals that different phone provides have is all the extras they often include in the monthly charge in the case of post paid or the extras included when recharging with prepaid deals. To make it even more difficult more often than not their is the fine print associated with these extras that you may not even understand the consequences of until you get an extremely large bill.

Some of the extras can be:

• No cost calls up to a certain value
• No cost call for a certain duration at certain times
• No cost calls to certain numbers you have to specify
• Lower cost calls at certain times
• A certain value or number of no cost SMS messages
• A certain quantity of no cost data
• Extra value of top up
• Extending the time to use unused credits if topped up before some expiry date

What is becoming more commonplace is what are being called “capped” plans. That is where for paying a monthly charge you get more than that charge in the value of services. However if you do go over that value you are charged for those extra service. So where is the cap? Their is none.

It is very surprising that no one have take issue with this and made a complaint to the Australian Competitive and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for false advertising.

If all the above was not confusing enough some providers provide bundled deals. That is they bundle together the cost of your land line phone, mobile phone and Internet access into one monthly charge. However again their will inclusions and exclusions in the fine print. Some providers state that a benefit of bundling is that everything appears on one bill. However it can end up costing more for a bundled deal compared to having multiple providers. A careful analysis needs to be performed before changing to a bundled deal.

It is not of much use having a very inexpensive mobile phone deal if you are not able to make calls or get decent mobile reception, or other network dependent functions, when and where you want it. Their are big differences between the coverage (physical areas when a phone can be used) of mobile service providers. Some only provide coverage in major capital cities whilst others have major regional centres as well. All should be able to show you coverage maps. Some providers say they have coverage of XX% of the Australian population. This can be a rather deceptive statement when you consider the mast majority of the Australia population live in capital cities. None of the mobile phone providers have 100% coverage of the Australian Continent. If you want this you need to use a Satellite phone. They don't work inside most buildings.

Also their is a big difference between providers when it comes to data availability on mobile phones. This difference is both, if data is available at all and the speed of the data service. 3G mobile data services are substantially faster than the 2G ones. Again the providers should be able to show you maps of the coverage of 3G and 2G data services.

Over time mobile phones have changed. Compared to the first ones that where big and bulky they then got a lot smaller and compact. More recently as the smart phones have been used more for other than traditional phone functions they have tended to get bigger so that people can read what is on the screen.

Used to dial numbers and enter information and navigate through the phones functions. Most phones only have keys from 0 through to 9 and a few other keys so that to type in text you may have to press a key a number of times. See Use a phone keyboard to type alphabetic letters. In the photo above the shown navigation keys allow the pressing of left, right, up and down arrows. Some phones come with keyboards similar to the layout of computer keyboards and then some have a slide out keyboard.

This is used to convey information in multiple formats to you. The new touch phones also use the screen to operate the phone via entering text via touching the parts of an image that represents a keyboard.

This is used so that you can hear the other party during a call, hear the phone ring, hear sounds when some keys are pressed, heard sounds association with applications, and here audio associated with media players.

Some phone have two speakers, one for calls where you have to put the phone to your ear and another to hear without having to putting the phone to your ear. Some phone do both these functions with the one speaker. Typically because the phones are quite small these speakers are quite small but regardless are still quite effective.

It is used to allow you to speak during a call, to control the phone via your voice and to record sound and video recording. The microphones although very small on modern phones are very effective, often able to pick up sounds quite some distance away.

Other than then keyboard some phone have extra buttons for things like switching the phone on or off, switching on or off silent mode, adjusting speaker volume navigating through the phones functions. These extra buttons can be on any part of the phone such as the top or sides.

Most modern phones have a removable back to allow you to access the battery and SIM card. Some also have a memory card under the removable back.

This is used to power the phone and usually is under the back cover. These batteries are rechargeable and are recharged whilst in the phone. The life of the battery between recharges is dependent on how long you use your phone, especially in calls, and what other functions you use on your phone. eg Using Wifi on a phone will quickly discharge the battery as will any functions that force the display to stay on.

Subscriber Identity Module or Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards are used to identify your phone to the mobile network as well as storing some of your contact information and SMS messages. Your mobile phone number is associated to the SIM serial number so that it is possible to change mobile phone numbers by changing the SIM card in your phone. Some phones have duel SIM card slots allowing you to change numbers without changing the SIM card and some allow both SIM's to operate at the same time. Typically the SIM card slot is under the battery behind the removable back of the phone. This forces you to have the phone off, because the battery is removed, when changing SIM cards

These are usually micro SD cards. That is like the SD memory cards that are used in digital Cameras only a smaller format, smaller than your small finger nail. They are used to store information usually applicable to the the application that operate on smart phones.

The point to which you plug in the phone charger to recharge the phones battery. Most phone can be used whilst they are recharging. Some of the newer phones use a USB (interface plug) to charge the phone and can be interfacing with a computer at the same time as recharging

Is used to interface the phone with other equipment, typically a computer. With some of the modern smart phone the phone becomes a external disk drive to the computer so that files containing items such as photos, videos, music and phone applications can be copied or moved to and from the phone.

Is where you can plug in headphones or speakers and or microphones to be used in hand free phone calls or listening to audio from the phone. It can also be used to play sound from the phone to a stereo amplifier.

Please also see Purchase Method Also be aware that unless you are purchasing a phone outright that you are most likely paying undisclosed interest on the value of the phone. The capital cost of a phone is likely to be small as opposed to the total cost of a locked in contract.

The decision as which phone you should purchase is very much dependent on what you intend to use a phone for.

If you only wish to make and receive calls only in Australia then a simple phone would be sufficient. If you also wish to use your phone overseas particularly in the US then a multi band phone that allowed you to use both the Australian and US frequencies could be needed. In Europe and the UK they use the same frequencies as we do in Australia.

If you wish to use higher speed data services like the internet and email on your phone, then a 3G (third Generation) phone is required.

If you wish to be able to use your phone like a computer to add applications then you are going to need a smart phone.

Within all the above their are a mired of shapes sizes and models of mobile phones.

Some of the distinguishing features are:

1. Normal or clam shape. The clam ones have the keyboard on the inside and need to be opened to use the keyboard
2. Separate full keyboard to the normal phone keyboard.
3. Has a keyboard or uses a touch screen
4. Has a camera or 2 cameras and position of cameras (a camera on the back is needed to have effective video calls or use video data calls)
5. Its physical size
6. Mega pixel size of the camera (generally the higher the better the resultant images)
7. If a flash is provided for the camera
8. Optical zoom
9. Size of screen
10. Type of Screen
11. Has a built in GPS
12. Has a joystick input
13. Ability to modify the software/firmware

The term smart phone is used to describe the latest generation of mobile phones. Although their is no exact definition of a smart phone some of their distinguishing features are: The ability to add more functionality to the phone via downloading applications from a online market place, touch screen operation, a full touch screen or separate keyboard and a medium or larger screen.

The most common known smart phone is the Apple IPhone, but others exist such as Androd phone and Knokia smart phones.

To find out about some of my experiences of using a smart phone see My Experiance of using My Android Phone

A completely separate factor to consideration is the operating system (main software used to operate the phone). Mobile phones are computers and different companies provide different phone operating systems and so restrict what you can and can not do on your phone. Often this is done in conjunction with the mobile phone service providers to force you to spend more money with them, than you would otherwise, if those restrictions did not exist.

Some the modern phone operating systems are:

1. Android
2. BlackBerry OS
3. IOS (Apple)
4. Nokia OS
5. Symbian

For a more complete list of Mobile phone operating systems see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mobile_phone_operating_systems

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_%28operating_system%29

This is a mobile phone operating system owned and developed by Google. Google and other members of the Open Handset Alliance collaborated on Android's development and release. The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) is tasked with the maintenance and further development of Android.

Android is not restricted to operating on one manufacturers handset (the physical phone)so that you are able to chose the handset features that suit your personal preferences.

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_OS

BlackBerry OS is a proprietary mobile operating system, developed by Research In Motion for its BlackBerry line of smartphone handheld devices. Being proprietary currently it can not be used on non BlackBerry phones.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_%28Apple%29

iOS (known as iPhone OS prior to June 2010) is Apple's mobile operating system. Originally developed for the iPhone, it has since been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPod touch, iPad and Apple TV. Apple does not license iOS for installation on third-party hardware meaning you can not operate it on non apple devices.

Apple although innovative have a reputation for building technological restrictions in to their phones operating system to benefit themselves and their business partners. Examples are disallowing certain applications from being installed, ability for Apple to remotely disable or delete apps at will and not allowing communication via less expensive methods such as Voice over IP.

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_OS

Nokia OS (NOS) is an informal name for the operating system in many Nokia mobile phones. These are informal names, there is no such product or trademark. In the past the Nokia operating systems had a reputation of being easier to use compared to other phone manufacturers.

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbian_OS

Symbian is an open source operating system (OS) and software platform designed for smartphones and currently maintained by Nokia. In the number of “smart mobile device” sales, Symbian devices are the market leaders. Statistics published for 2010 showed that Symbian devices comprised a 37.6% share of smart mobile devices sold, with Android having 22.7%, RIM having 16%, and Apple having 15.7% (through iPhone OS) However the dominance of Symbian is to diminish in the future even though the number of Sybian phone being sold is currently increasing.

On February 11, 2011, Nokia announced a partnership with Microsoft that would see it adopt Windows Phone 7 for smartphones, reducing the number of devices running Symbian over the coming two years.

Often overlooked but one of the most important consideration in deciding which phone to purchase is the phones ease of use. Even if a phone has all the features and functionality you want it is not going to be of any use to you if you find it difficult or impossible to us that phone functionality.

Because mobile phones use computer technology a more expensive or brand name phone is not necessary going to be better than a cheaper lesser known phone.

Just because a function is listed here does not mean that your phone can perform this function. Functionality is phone dependant and often phone manufacturers provide more or less functionality, in different models, simply to provide market segmentation, so they can sell some phones a higher prices. More expensive phones do not necessarily provide more functionality

1. - Insert and remove the battery How to do it
2. - Switch on and off the phone How to do it
3. - Insert and remove the SIM card How to do it
4. - Lock and unlock the keyboard How to do it
5. - Obtain the Phones IMEI No (dial *#06#) How to do it
6. - Operate Menus How to do it
7. - Show the phones status How to do it
8. - Answer or rejecting phone calls How to do it
9. - Make and ending a phone call How to do it
10. - Making a call using contacts How to do it
11. - Creating changing and removing contacts How to do it
12. - Set and use speed dialing How to do it
13. - Compose send and Read SMS messages How to do it
14. - Setting up and using voicemail How to do it
15. - Functions within a call How to do it
16. - Managing multiple calls How to do it
17. - Setting and changing ring tones How to do it
18. - Clock, Alarms and count down timers How to do it
19. - FM Radio How to do it
20. - Blue tooth How to do it
21. - Setting How to do it
22. - Silent Mode How to do it
23. - Airplane Mode How to do it
24. - Calculator How to do it

1. - Calendar How to do it
2. - Camera How to do it
3. - Media Gallery How to do it
4. - Music
5. - Advanced Settings

1. - Insert and remove memory cards How to do it
2. - Touch Screen Usage How to do it
3. - Use a screen keyboard How to do it
4. - Email How to do it
5. - Web Browser How to do it
6. - Maps How to do it
7. - News and Weather How to do it
8. - Satellite Navigation How to do it
9. - Finding Applications How to do it
10. - Installing Applications How to do it
11. - Smart phone specific settings How to do it
12. - WiFi How to do it
13. - Locate places near you current location to purchase items you want How to do it
14. - Know where certain people are How to do it

Most phones have the battery under their back cover so that the cover must be removed first. Because of the small size of phones removing the back cover can be difficult. Their is usually some form of plastic tab that has to to be sprung lose to remove the cover. This should be described in the phones manual. However often because of the poor diagrams in the manuals if can be difficult to see where the tabs are to release the back cover or in which direction it should be moved to remove it.

After removing the back cover the battery should be visible. Note which way the battery is inserted so that later it can be re-inserted the same way. It can usually be removed by lifting it at on end. Care should be taken in storing the battery. See the manual for how to do this.

The battery is usually replaced following the reverse order of removal making sure that it goes in the same way it came out. Care should be taken in replacing the back cover because if you break off any of the fixing tabs the cover will not stay on and that weight of the battery will force the back cover off making the phone virtually unusable.

Because some phones continue to operate when switched off, eg setting off an alarm, if a phone malfunctions often switching it off and on again may not fix the problem. In this situation it may be necessary to remove and re-install the battery to get the phone to work correctly.

Although phone manufactures say you should only use the genuine battery it is possible to use after market batteries which are often cheaper than the genuine ones. However you should insure that any after market battery have the same battery capacity in mAh's as otherwise it will not last as long.

1. Check how to remove and insert the battery in the manual
2. Remove the battery
3. Re-insert the battery

Turning on the phone usually done via a separate button, which can be anywhere on the phone, but is often on the top or by one of the phones keyboard keys. Check you manual for how to do it. The button concerned has to be held down for a few seconds. This is so to lessen the chance of the phone being inadvertently being switched on by mistakenly bumping the key. If the phone has been switched on correctly their will be something displayed on the screen usually associated with some form of sound. If the phone does not come on it may mean that the battery is flat. With some phones when the battery is flat it has to be charged for a few minutes even though the phone is being mains powered, before the phone will start.

Turing the phone off can be achieved via pressing a certain button or a menu function of the phone. If via a button again this button has to be held down for a period of time so that it can not be inadvertently being switched of by mistakenly bumping that button or key. Usually a indication will be made via something on the screen and via a sound, that the phone has been switched off.

Some phones will continue to operate in a lower powered mode when switched off so that some functionality such as alarms and reminders still work even when the phone is switched off. As a consequence of this if the operation of the phone does not work correctly you may have to remove the battery to do a complete restart of the phone rather than just switching it off and on again. See removing the battery

1. Look up you manual see how to switch on and off your phone
2. If your phone is off switch it on, or if it is on switch it off. What happened on the screen and what sounds did the phone make?

The Sim Subscriber Identity Module or Subscriber Identification Module card contains certain information to allow the mobile phone network to identify you and associate your phone to a mobile phone number. By changing sim cards you are effectively changing phone numbers. It is therefore important that if you have a active sim card that is not in you phone that you keep it is a safe place. Otherwise it could be put into virtually any phone and have the calls charged to you. See also Sim Cards and Call Charges

Most phones have the sim card under the battery forcing the phone to be off, because the battery has to be removed first, before the sim card can be removed. See your manual for how to remove and re-insert your sim card.

Some phones allow you to make emergency calls to 000 without a sim card installed

The reason you may wish to change sim cards is to change to a different provider where your normal one does not have coverage or to use a overseas provider if you are travelling overseas See Roaming charges under Call and other charges

Sim cards usually are a small rectangular piece of plastic that have the service providers logo on one side, a gold area on the other side with numbers beside it and a cut away on one corner. It is important that you note the way it is inserted in the phone relative to where the cut away corner is as inserting the sim the wrong way will result in you not being able to make calls. If you have more than one sim card with the same provider it is also advisable to note the numbers on the sim card and what phone number it is applicable to.

Care should also be taken in handling the sim card as if it becomes damaged you will not be able to use the phone to make calls. Most service providers will provide a new sim card at not cost should yours become faulty, however it requires the service provider to de-register your old sim card and register your new one.

1. Read your manual on how to remove and re-insert your sim card
2. Note what is on your phones screen
3. Switch off your phone and remove the sim card.
4. Switch on you phone and note what is on the screen. How is this different from when it did have a sim card in? What functions can you use and not use on the phone?
5. Switch off your phone and re-insert the sim card
6. Switch you phone back on. Why would you want to change sim cards?

Mobile phones, because they are so small, can be kept in a variety of places such as in your pocket. It is therefore very easy for the keys on the phone to be mistakenly pressed and so activating functions inadvertently, like making a call. To overcome this problem most mobile phones have a feature to lock and unlock the keyboard. The unlocking often is achieved my pressing a key and then another key within say one second or in the case of touch screens pressing a button and swiping the screen in some way. Likewise to lock the keyboard is a key is pressed and another key with say one second or in the case of a touch screen the pressing a certain key. Most phone have an automatic timed keyboard locking function that will automatically lock the keyboard if no keys have been pressed for a certain period of time. Via a menu function this length of time can be changed.

Whilst your phone keyboard is locked most functions of the phone can not be used. Some exceptions to this are, answering a call, responding to an alarm and unlocking the keyboard. Check your manual for how to lock and unlock your keyboard

1. Read your manual for how to lock and unlock your keyboard.
2. Note what is displayed on the screen
3. Do what is required to unlock the keyboard. How is the display now different
4. Without doing anything on the phone wait a few minutes to see if the keyboard lockes automatically. If it did, approximately how long was it before the keyboard locked?
5. If the keyboard is locked unlock it again
6. Do what is required to lock the keyboard. Is their anything on the screen indicating if the keyboard is locked?

The International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number is virtually the serial number of your phone and is can be used my the mobile phone network to identify a particular phone. If you phone is stolen of misplaced if you report the IMEI number to your service provider they can make it so the phone can not be use regardless of what sim card in in the phone. The IMEI number is usally written on the inside of the phone under the battery and is also usally written somewhere on the packaging the phone was provided in. Another way of finding out the IMEI number is to enter *#06# into the phone. With some phone you may have to then press the call button.

1. Note what is currenty being displayed on the screen
2. Make sure the phone in unlocked, if it is not unlock it
3. Enter *#06# on the keyboard. What happened? If the IMEI number (a long string of numbers) is not shown press the call key.
4. Make a note of the IMEI number and put it in a safe place

Most of the functionality of your phone is accessed via menus (a list of things you can chose to do) just like you would chose from a menu at a restaurant. Menus on mobile phone can appear in a variety of forms and can be activated via a variety of methods depending on the type of phone you have. The older phones tend to have a text only menu where you select items by highlighting (make the text stand out) the item via pressing certain keys and then active the function by pressing a different key. Later phones tended to have icons (pictures representing functions) rather then text and the later phones again have touch screens where you touch a picture or text of the function you wish to perform.

Whatever the method practically all phone have sub menus from the menus and then sub menus from the sub menus, and so on. Their can be many levels of menus. If you want to be able to use all or even only some of your phones functionality it is important that know and understand how to operate the menus on your phone. You phones manual should have a description of how to operate the menus. Initially it may not be necessary to know or understand what a particular function does. Often you may be able to use what you want to do on your phone without learning all of its functionality but like all things in life if you dont know if something exists you may be missing out on it.

1. - Switch on you phone if it is not already on
2. - Read you phone manual on how to us menus
3. - Sequentially step through each menu item noting what it sais
4. - For each menu item that you do not understand make a written note of it
5. - Try and determine how it is show which menus have sub menus enter those sub menus
6. - Do what is necessary to exit menus and sub menus
7. - Exit the menu

All Mobile phones will have some way of showing the status they are in on their display screen. The way they do so and what they show will be differ for each type of phone.

The status information is usually displayed on the top of the screen. Most phones will have an indicator to show how charged the battery is, usually a rectangular icon (small picture) of a battery with the amount charged indicated by the extent that the rectangle is filled. Practically all phones will have a icon, usually in the form of 5 progressively larger vertical bars to indicate the radio signal strength of between the phone and the mobile phone tower. If your phone can send and receive data it may also have a separate signal strength indicator for data. Often the name of the Service provider is also shown. Some phones, if allowed via a menu setting, show the name of the mobile phone tower that the phone is receiving a radio signal from. A icon, sometimes together with text on the screen, may show to indicate if you have missed a call or have received a SMS message or an email. If you have set a diary event, alarm or a count down time that has expired usually something will indicate this has happened.

The newer smart phones usually have some way to indicate that an application is operating or that an application wishes to notify you of something.

The manual for your phone should show you each status indicator and what it means.

1. Read you phone manual as to what the status indicators are and when they menu
2. If your phone is not on switch it on
3. Look at the display on your phone and note what status indicators are shown and what state they are in.
4. Move you phone to a different location and note if any of the status indicators change.
5. Try operating various menu functions to see if they change or activate and of the status indicators.
6. Get someone to ring your phone for one ring only and hang up . What indicator is show and what does it mean.

Mobile phones, just like land line phones, indicate that someone is ringing you by usually emitting some form of sound called a ring tone. However unlike the traditional land line phones mobile phones can also or only indicate an incoming call by vibrating and flashing some lights and or display something on its screen. Via using the silent function it is possible to have a mobile phone not make a sound when an incoming call arrives.

When the phone is ringing or indicating you are receiving a call, the way you answer will depend on the setting of the phone. Some phones allow you to answer by pressing any key other then the hang up key, if such a setting has been set, whilst other phones can only be answered by pressing only a call/answer key. Check your manual for how it is achieved on you phone.

Most mobile phones will show you the number of the incoming call or if that number is stored in the contacts of the phone the name of the person ringing. It is possible to reject the incoming call usually by pressing the hang up key. See you manual for how to do this.

1. Check your phone manual for how to answer or reject phone calls
2. Get someone else to ring you mobile phone number
3. Notice what is displayed on your phones screen when a call is coming in.
4. Reject the in coming call. What is displayed on the screen when the call was rejected

Before making a call on a mobile phone you need to first have the phone keyboard unlocked See Unlocking the keyboard, then you need to be in the phone mode or on a screen that allows you to make a call. See the manual for how to do this.

To enter the number press the numbers on the keypad. As you enter each digit of the number it should appear on the phones screen. You can take as long as you like to enter the number as the phone is not off hook, like a land line phone See How Mobile Phones work. If you wish to make an overseas call you can start the number with a + symbol rather than having to enter the international dialling prefix (0011 in Australia, but different in other countries but the + means use the appropriate international dialling prefix for the country you are currently in). The + symbol is usually below the 7 key and is also the * symbol, so to use the + symbol you will may have to press its key multiple times, or if you have a smart phone you may have to select a different keyboard that shows the + symbol separately.

If you make a mistake whilst entering the number you can correct it in a number of ways. If the mistake is the last digit you entered you can press a key, usually indicated on the display as the clear or backspace correcting key. This will remove the last digit you entered. If the number you entered is quite long and the incorrect digit is near the beginning on the number or you have left out a digit, you may be able to press the left navigation key to move to the right of the incorrect digit or if using a smart phone touch to the right of the incorrect digit. Then use the same procedure as above to remove the incorrect digit. Whilst still in the current position of the number pressing any number on the keyboard will insert that number at that position.

After insuring that the number you have entered is correct also look on the display to see that you are receiving a signal from a mobile phone tower, usually shown by a number of vertical bars on the screen. See Phone Status. You can now indicate that you wish to dial the entered number by pressing the call button. Look in your manual for which is the call button.

Provided that you sufficient mobile reception, after a short delay, you may hear a calling tone. Or you may get a message indicating that the person you are trying to call is out or mobile range or has their phone switched off or you may get get a voice mail message.

If you are able to talk to the person, depending on your phone and your phones settings, some information may appear on your phone screen. This may only be the number or name of the person you are calling, but could also include how long you have been on the call.

Unlike land line calls, a call can be ended by either party such that other call can then be made. If you wish to end the call this is achieved by pressing the call end button. See your phones manual to see which key this is.

1. Read you manual on how to make a call and enter numbers and which key is the call, hang up, correction key and left navigation key.
2. Make sure your keyboard in unlocked
3. Read you manual to see how to get into to mode or screen that allows you to make calls and enter that mode or screen
4. Enter the number 123456. What happened as you enter each digit of the number?
5. Press the Clear or backspace key. What happened? The digit 6 should have disappeared
6. Press the left navigation key until the insertion bar (flashing vertical bar) is to the right of the digit 3
7. Press the Clear or backspace key. What happened? The digit 3 should have disappeared
8. Press the 7 key. What happened? The 7 digit should have appeared between the 3 and the 4
9. Press the 8 ley followed by the 9 key. What happened? The 8 and the 9 digit should have appeared between the 7 and the 4
10. Press the call button. What happened? You should have got a recording saying something to the effect that the call could not be connected.
11. Press the hang up button button. What happened? The recording should have stopped and the call was ended.
12. Press the + key a sufficient number of times so that the + symbol appears. What does the + symbol mean in a dialled number
13. Enter the number 123456 and then press the call button. What happened? You should have got a recording saying something to the effect that the call could not be connected.
14. What is being displayed on the phones screen?
15. Press the hang up button button. What happened? The recording should have stopped and the call was ended.

Mobile phones allow you to store the number of the people you call often, against a entered name in what is called contacts. Depending on the phone these contacts can be stored in the phones memory, in a SIM card or in both the memory and the SIM card. The benefit of storing contacts on a SIM card is that if that SIM card is put in another phone those contacts can be used in that phone. The main disadvantage of storing contacts in a SIM card is that SIM cards typically have less capacity for storing contacts than do phone memories. Some phones have the ability to copy contacts back and forth between the SIM cars and the phones memory.

Most phones have a menu function that allows you to access contacts but also have quick or short cut key that allows you to access contacts without having to go through the menus. You can determine if your phone has such a function by looking for it in the manual.

Most phones when showing you a alphabetical list of contacts have a way of quickly getting to the contact you wish to use without having to use the up or down navigation keys to move through your list of contacts. On a non smart phone this is usually achieved by pressing the key that that represents the letter that the contacts name starts with. However because most keys on a non smart phone have multiple letters on them you may have to press a key the number of times to get to that letter. For example, because the letter S is the 4th letter on the 7 key you will have to press the 7 key 4 times to show contacts that start with the letter S. The first contact starting with the letter you enter will be shown. After positioning on the appropriate letter you can use the up and down navigation keys move through the contacts in alphabetical order. However if you have large number of contacts that start with a specific letter, rather then moving through them one by one, you can use the same technique described above to move to the next letter in the contacts name. For example if you had many people in your contact list that stated with the letter S after entering S you could then enter say M to move to contacts that start with SM. This technique can be continued with as many letter as you wish to enter.

Some smart phones like the Iphone have a alphabetical list down the right of the screen and you touch the letter of the contact you wish to show and them slide the list up or down the screen. Other smart phones like Android phones will show you the letters of the alphabet as you slide to the right of a contact list so that when you stop on a letter it will position from the contact starting with that letter. You can then slide the list up and down.

Most phone allow you to have multiple phone numbers for each contact. Eg's, home number, work number and mobile number. If you do have multiple numbers against a name the phone will show you each of the numbers so that you can choose the one you wish to ring. To ring the number for the contact you have to press the call key. Your manual will show you which is the call key.

1. Read the manual of your phone on how to access the contact list and also how to access the contact list via a short cut, if you phone has such a feature
2. If your phone has a shortcut to contacts do what is required to activate it otherwise access the contacts via your phones menu
3. Press the J key. What happened and why? If you have a contact that starts with the letter J that contact is shown because you pressed the J key
4. Press the Cancel or Backspace key. What happened and why. You should be at the beginning of you contact list because by pressing the cancel key you have cancelled moving the contact list to the letter J.
5. Press the S key followed by the M key. What happened and why? If you have a contact that starts with SM that contact is shown because you pressed the S and then M keys
6. Press the Cancel or Backspace key. What happened and why. You should be at the beginning of the S's in your contact list because by pressing the cancel key you have cancelled moving the contact list to the letter SM's so moving back to S's only.
7. Press the Cancel or Backspace key again. What happened and why
8. Press the E key. What happened and why
9. Press the call key. What happened and why. Immediately press the hang up key so that the call does not go through.

The way contacts are created changed and removed for a phone will depend on the type of phone you have. If it is not a smart phone your contact will be stored only in the phone and or the SIM card. If you do have a smart phone most likely the contacts will only be stored in the phones memory but may also also stored on a internet web server such as Google. Because the method of entering, changing or removing contacts will be different for different model phones you should refer to your phone manual for specific instructions.

Because of the possibility of making a mistake when entering phone numbers, especially mobile numbers, as contacts, the best way is to have the number entered into the phone for you. Most mobile phones will record the phone number for all calls you receive and that number in the call log can be used as a contact so only requiring you to enter a name against the number. This is usually achieved by selecting a menu function, something to the effect of “Save as Contact” within the call log. Check out your manual for this facility.

If you receive a SMS message for someone, that SMS message will be stored in your phone. At the end of the SMS message will be the phone number of the person that sent you the SMS. Most mobile phones have the ability to use the number part of the SMS message in contacts. See your manual for how to do this.

If your phone has bluetooth connectivity, you can send or receive one, some, or all of your contacts to or from another mobile phone that also has bluetooth connectivity and is within bluetooth range. Bluetooth, depending on which class is involved, has a range from 1 to 100 metres.

Most phones have the ability to copy contacts to and from SIM cards. It is therefore possible to get the contacts that are in another phone by copying the contacts from the phones memory to a SIM card, remove that SIM card from that phone and place it in your phone and then copy the contacts from the SIM card to the phones memory and the replace the original SIM card. See your phone manual for how to copy or move contacts between the phone memory and SIM cards and inserting and removing SIM cards.

Most mobile phones can be connected to a computer in some way, it which case a disk may be proved with the phone that allows you to install software on a computer so that you can maintain contact details on a computer and then transfer them to your phone. It is easier to enter contact details on a computer keyboard than a phones keyboard.

Some phone service providers have a SIM card backup facility such that if you loose your phone or phones SIM card or the phone SIM card becomes faulty the information on the SIM card can be restored to a new SIM card.

If you have a smart phone that has internet connectivity and you use an internet service such as Google all your contact details are automatically also stored on the internet and also automatically synchronised between the phone and the internet.

If you do not want to use any of the above methods you can enter a phone number and a name directly into the phone. This can usually be done before you make a call or as you are making a call. See your manual for details.

Changing and removing contact details usually can only be preformed within the contacts menu of your phone

1. Read you phones manual on how to create change and remove contacts
2. Do what is required to enter a contact for Test Person with a phone number of 123456789
3. Do what is required to change the contact, Test Person to Test Changed Person and remove the digit 4 from the phone number
4. Do what is required to remove the contact Test Changed Person
5. Get in to the phones mode or screen where you can make a call. Enter a phone number of 5551224. Without calling this number do what is required to save it as a contact giving it the name Test while calling.
6. Read your manual, how to view your call log and view your call log. Move to a number that has no name against it. Do what is required to save this as a contact with the name of Test Fm Log
7. Read your manual on how to view received SMS messages. View any SMS message. Do what is required to save this as a contact with the name of Test SMS.
8. Read in your manual on how to copy contacts to and from your SIM card.
9. Copy any one contact from your SIM card to your phones memory
10. Copy any one contact from your phones memory to your SIM card
11. Remove and of the contacts you do not wish to keep that you have created via these exercises

Speed dialling on non smart phones is usually the ability to dial a phone number by pressing only one key. Usually speed dialing is set up as a sub function of contacts. A contact or phone number can be assigned to the 1 through to 9 keys and then later used by holding down the appropriate key.

On smart phones the equivalent to speed dialling is usually set up by creating a shortcut on the main screen that will dial the persons number when that shortcut icon is touched. The icon for the person may also contain there photo.

1. Read you manual on how to set up speed dialling
2. Assign a number or contact to the 2 key
3. Hold do the 2 key. What happened? The number assigned to the 2 key should have been dialled
4. Hang up so the number does not connect
5. If you do not want to have this number in speed dial 2 remove it.

Short Message Service (SMS) is a function of the mobile phone network that allows all modern mobile phones to send short (a maximum of 160 characters) messages to other mobile phones as well as some fixed line phones. In the USA in 2008, people where sending more SMS messages than they where making mobile calls. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS for more on the concepts and background of SMS

When you receive a SMS the phone will indicate in some way that a SMS has been received. Some phones allow you read that received message by pressing a key whist the indicator on the screen that a SMS has been received is being displayed. If you phone does not do this or you wish to read a previously received SMS you need to be navigate to the messaging part of your phones menu. See Operate Menus Then you may need to navigate to the inbox. The inbox is where all the messages you have received are stored. The Inbox will show you a list of messages usually as the name or number of the person that sent it to you. By using the navigation key you can move through the messages. Via some form of options, you may be able to do various things with the message such as: reply to it, delete it, call the sender, use parts of the message, like the number, forward the message to someone else, change the content of the message to be used in another message, move the message to other folders, copy the message to be used as a template for other messages, create a new message, mark or tag the message to do something else with it or mark or tag all messages.

In addition to the Inbox most phones have folders (grouping of messages) for Draft messages, where you can save messages that you do not yet want to send, Outbox, that stores all the messages you have attempted to send but have not yet been sent, Sent Items, stores all messages you have sent and Saved Items, stores messages you have saved. Each of options described above can be performed on each of the messages in the described folders. Some folders have or allow you to create sub folders (folders within folders) Some phones allow you to have messages if the formats other than text, such as photos, videos and sound.

To compose a SMS you need to be navigate to the messaging part of your phones menu. See Operate Menus Then you may need to select, to create message and indicate that it is a phones SMS message, as opposed to other types of messages, like email, flash and audio messages. Depending on the phone, you may have to indicate who you are sending the message to before you compose the message. Other than entering the phone number of the person you want to send the SMS to, you can usually also select to person via your phones contacts in a method similar to making a call using contacts

If your phone only has a phone keyboard you will have to Use a Phone keyboard to type alphabetic letters. However if you have a full keyboard or a smart phone, all or most of the typing can be achieved by pressing each key only once.

Even though most modern mobile phones allow you to type relatively long messages, the phone service providers may charge you a SMS charge for each 153 characters or part their of. As an example, if you send a message that is 400 characters in length you will be charged for sending 3 SMS messages, one for the first 153 characters a second for the second 153 characters and a third for the last 94 characters. 153+153+94 = 400. When multipart or segmented SMS are sent the number of characters per segment is only 153, as opposed to the normal 160, because segment information is included in the message. Every key you enter, including spaces, number and other symbols is included in the character count. Some phones will show you a count of the characters as you enter them, but many do not.

After you have composed the message their will usually be some method of sending it. Before you do so you should insure that you have mobile reception. See Show the phones status, as you can will not be able to successfully sent a message if you do not have mobile reception. After you send the message you will either have something on the phone show or indicate to you that the message has been successfully sent or that it has been not sent. An indication the the message has been successfully send does not mean that the receiver has received it, it only means that the mobile phone network has received it. Their are many reasons that the receiver may not receive the message.

If you have a phone that can send email you should consider using this to send messages as it always much cheaper to send email from a phone than to send SMS messages. At $0.25 per 160 characters for SMS's, this is equivalent to over $7 million per Gigabyte.

1. In these exercises we will not send a message as that would cost you to do so. However to send a message after composing it their would be a option to send it. Watch out for that option whilst you are working through these exercises.
2. Read your manual on how to compose a message
3. Enter the mode that allows you to compose a text message
4. If your phone asks you who the message is going to enter 123. What appeared as you entered 123? You phone may have displayed a semi-colon “;” after the 123. If so this is to allow you to send the message to more than one person
5. You may have to press the navigation key to move to the point where you can enter the text of the message. If so do so.
6. Enter the message “Test Message to 123” See use Phone keyboard to type alphabetic letters
7. If your phone has a key that is indicated on the display as Options press that key. What happened? A list of options appeared that you can choice from
8. Use the navigation keys to move to the option to save the message and press the key indicated on the display as the select key. What happened? Either the message would have been saved or you may have been asked which folder to same the message to. If the latter select a folder.
9. Press the key use to hang up a call. What happened? You should have exited the message functions. You have not sent this message, just saved it
10. Enter the mode that allows you to see message folders. If necessary use the navigation keys to select the folder that you saved the message in above
11. Use the navigation keys to move the message for 123. What else is shown other then 123. This will depend on the phone but may be the first part of the message
12. If their is a button show on the screen as Edit press it, otherwise you may have to select Edit from an option menu. What is now displayed? The text of the message.
13. Change the text of the message to “Changed test Message to 123”

- If your phone has a key that is indicated on the display as Options press that key. What happened? A list of options appeared that you can choice from

1. Again use the navigation keys to move to the option to save the message and press the key indicated on the display as the select key. What happened? You may be asked if you want to replace the original, in which case do so. Te message would have been saved or you may have been asked which folder to same the message to. If the latter select a folder.
2. Press the key use to hang up a call. What happened? You should have exited the message functions. You have not sent this message, just changed it and saved it.
3. Read your manual on how to enter the Templates folder.
4. Do what is required to enter the templates folder. What is shown? if you phone come with pre-set templates you should see the first part of these messages
5. If you have and Option press the option key and select View. What happened. You should be able to see the entire message.
6. Press the key shown on the screen as the back key. What happened? You should have gone back to the list of template messages
7. Use what you have learnt above to look at all the template messages.
8. What do you think you would do to use the text of a template message in a message? Press the key shown on the screen as Use
9. Exit the menu function by pressing the key that you use to hang up from calls.
10. Read your manual on how to enter the inbox folder.
11. Use what you have learnt above to read the messages in you inbox.
12. Whilst reading a message press the key shown on the display as the Options button and use the navigation keys to select Use Detail. What happened? A further menu may have appeared for you to indicate what part of the detail you wish to use.
13. Use the navigation keys to select number. What happened? The phone number part of the message should have been displayed and you may be asked if you wish to save it. This is how you can save phone numbers from messages as contacts. See Contacts
14. Press the key shown on the screen as the back button a sufficient number of times so that you get back to the list of messages in the inbox
15. Press the key shown on the screen as the options key. Now select Reply. What happened? The name and or number of the person that sent you the message is show in the screen that where you compose messages. This is so you can reply to a message without having to enter the number.
16. Move with the navigation keys to where you would type the text of the message and then press the key shown on the screen as the Back key. You should be back at the options menu.
17. Select the Forward option. What happened? The text of the message will be shown in the compose a message screen but with a blank To.
18. What is the difference between replying to a message and forwarding a message. Replying allows you to compose a new message to the person who sent you the message where as forward allows you to send the message to someone other than the person that sent it to you.
19. Exit the menu function by pressing the key that you use to hang up from calls.
20. See if you can create a voice message
21. See if you can use part of the text of one message in another message

Most non smart phone keyboards look like this. Notice that each of the number keys from 2 through to 9 also have 3 or 4 letters associated with them. Whenever you are required to type text on your phone you press the key that has the letter you wish to type. However if the letter you wish to type is not the first letter on the key then you will have to press that key the number of times corresponding to the position of that letter on the key. For example, if you wanted to type the letter A you only need to press the 2 key once, but if you wanted to type the letter S you would have to press the 7 key 4 times as S is the 4th letter on the 7 key.

As a consequence of the above if you wish to repeat a letter you should pause about a second before pressing the same key again. For example if you where to press the 2 key twice quickly the letter B would be displayed, but if you press 2 the letter A will appear then wait for a second and then press 2 again a second A will appear. The consequence of having multiple letters on keys is that delays have to be made in typing.

Generally the zero key will insert a space and the 1 key produces a full stop. After typing a full stop often you are automatically changed to first letter of current word capital mode.

If you wish to enter numbers whilst typing text you can do so by holding down that numbers key until the number appears

If you wish to change from small to capital letters this can usually be achieved by pressing the # key once or multiple times. On doing so the phone screen may indicate that you are in capitals mode, small letters mode or first letter of current word capital mode.

If you wish to type symbols that are not shown on any key, this can usually be achieved achieved by pressing the * key. A list of symbols will be displayed and you can use the navigation keys to position on the key you want to use and then press a key indicated by the display as being the “use” key.

If you make a mistake whilst typing you can remove the last letter you typed be pressing the key indicate on the display as being the clear key. If the mistake is not the last letter you typed you can use the navigation keys, usually left or up, to position to the right of the incorrect letter(s) and remove it/them by pressing the clear key. If you wish to insert letters between already typed text you can do so by positioning to the left of the point where you wish to insert with the navigation keys and type as described above.

Most phones allow you to save what you have typed as a draft message and then later use that draft. Some phones also have pre-set messages that can be used or copied in to messages that you are composing. Some phone also allow you to mark/select text for cutting coping and pasting.

NOTE: The Below exercise are written for Nokia phone that use the 0(zero) key to enter a space. Some other phones may use another key to enter a space. Please refer to your phones manual

1. Read your manual on how to type or enter text
2. Read your manual on how to create a message
3. Read your manual to see where the directional navigation keys are. ie left, right, up and down
4. As you are doing the following exercise because of the battery saving function of you phone the screen may go blank, in which case press one of the directional navigation keys.
5. If you are asked to type in something in quotation marks ie “ ” then do not type the quotation marks
6. Do what is required to create a message and enter the mode/screen where you can type the text of the message
7. Press the 2 key. What appeared and why? The letter A should have appeared because it is the first letter on the 2 key
8. Press the Zero key. What happened and why? A insertion bar, flashing vertical bar, move one space to the right because a space was entered to the right of the letter A
9. What do you think will happen if you press the 8 key? Try it. The letter t appeared because it is the first letter on the 8 key. Why is the t a small t when the A was a capital A? Because the A was the beginning of the message and sentences start with capital letters
10. Press the 3 key 2 times quickly (within a second). What appeared and why? The letter e appeared because it is the second key on the 3 key.
11. Using what you have learnt now type an s followed by a t. ie press the 7 key 4 times to get the s, then the 8 key to get the t.
12. Press the 1 key. What appeared and why? A full stop appeared because it is associated with the 1 key
13. Use what you have learnt above to now type a space. ie the 0 key.
14. For the rest of this exercise, unless otherwise stated, you will be told to type letters and you will have to work out which key to press and how many times you have to press it
15. Type a M. Why did it automatically appear as a capital M? Because it was the first letter enter after a full stop and new sentences start with capital letters.
16. Press the key indicated on the screen as being the clear key. What happened and why? the M was cleared because you pressed the clear key.
17. Now type A. What appeared? Notice that even though you had cleared the M that the A is still a capital letter because it is still the first letter after the full stop.
18. Type “nother” so that all the text shows as “A Test. Another”
19. Press the left navigation key. What happened and why? The flashing insertion bar move one position to the left, to between the e and the r because the left navigation key was pressed.
20. Press the left navigation key a sufficient number of times so that the insertion bar is to the left of the A in the word “Another”
21. What do you think will happen it you type more characters now and why? They will be inserted before the word “Another” because the insertion bar is to the left of the word “Another”
22. Type in “Yet” followed by a space. Why did the Y show as a capital letter? Because it was inserted after a full stop so was the beginning of a sentence and the start of sentence have capital letters. The full text should now show as “A Test. Yet Another”
23. Notice the word “Another” still has a capital A even though it is now not the beginning of a sentence. Your phone is not smart enought to work that out.
24. See if you can change the Capital A in “Another” to a small a. Use the navigational arrow keys to position the insertion bar to the right of the A and the press the clear key. The A should have been removed. Now type an a. Notice because the a is now not after a full stop that it is a small a
25. Use the the navigational arrow keys to position the insertion bar to the right of the end of the text.
26. Type a space
27. Whilst looking at the display press the # key. Did you notice anything change of the screen? If you did not press the # key a number of times. If your phone has this functionality you should see something on the screen to indicate that letters will be in first letter of word capital, all capital or small letters. Press the # key until the display indicates first letter of word capital.
28. Type “Caps”. Notice that even though this was not typed at the beginning of a sentence that because first letter of word capital is set that the C is a capital C.
29. Press the # key until the display indicates all capitals. Type “ALL CAPITALS”. All the letters are capital because the all capitals is on.
30. Press the # key until the display indicates all small letters. Type “small”. All the letters are small because the small is on.
31. Type a space
32. How do you think you would type “123”? While looking at the screen press and hold down the 1 key for more than one second. What happened? Initially an a appeared but was then replaced by a 1. This was because you held down the 1 key. The initial press showed the a and because the key was not released within a certain time this indicate to the phone that you wanted to use the 1, hence it was displayed.
33. Try the same with the 2 and then the 3 keys.
34. How do you think you would type a question mark? ie “?”. Press the * key. What appeared and why? A list of symbols appeared because you pressed the * key.
35. Use the navigation keys to position on the ?. Now press the key that the display is showing as the Use key. What happened? The question mark was placed in the text you are typing. You can use a similar procedure for typing other symbols that are not show in the keyboard.
36. Press the key used to hang up from a call. Depending on your phone this may save the message in a Drafts folder

Voice Mail is a facility offered by your mobile phone service provider where by, under certain conditions, people that call you get to record a message that at a later point in time you are able to hear. It is a bit like an answering machine except without the machine. With voice mail the recorded messages are stored on a computer belonging to your phones service provider and you dial that number to access those messages. The voice mail messages are not normally every stored on your phone. However voice mail is set up and operated by using your mobile phone. The main benefit of using voice mail is that it allows people to leave a message for you if you phone is switched off, is out of mobile phone range or you are already on a call. Voice mail does not provide any significant benefit if all calls your receive go to your voice mail as it defeats the purpose of having a mobile phone, that of being contactable where ever you are.

Most mobile phone service providers charge for depositing and or retrieving voice mail messages. See Call and other charges, the voice mail section

For additional charges some mobile phone service providers have premium voice mail service than can convert message sent to you to text and then deliver that text as a SMS message or converted to a MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) message (in this case a voice file) and sent to your phone.

Although the concept of voice mail can be quite good most people leaving messages do not say why they are calling you, instead only leave a message saying please call me back so that you end up paying for them wanting to speak to you plus the cost of the voice mail. As this situation occurs often mobile phone service providers have voice mail set to on, because it provides more income to them. You have to go through the process of getting voice mail switched off.

Setting up voice mail requires 2 broad steps. Creating a greeting message and setting under what conditions incoming calls will be diverted to voice mail. To set up a greeting message you dial the number to your voice mail service and follow the interactive voice response (IVR) voice prompts. Typically such systems tell you a list of function you can perform which you respond to by pressing a number on your phones key pad. One of those options will be to record a greeting message where when activated you speak the greeting message to you phone.

With modern mobile phones their are two ways of setting the conditions under which incoming call are diverted to your voice mail. The first is via your phones menus. Typically this is under setting/call/diversion menus. The second is by typing a combination of symbols and numbers into your phone. For example to divert calls to voice mail If you are on another call or if you phone isn't answered or is switched off or hasn't any coverage you would key in **004*321#. To get a full list of these symbol number options you need to contact your mobile phone service provider or find then on their web site.

When you are talking to someone on your mobile phone, depending on the phone and your mobile service provider their are a number of features you may be able to use.

Most phones allow you to use most of the normal functions of the phone such as looking at contacts and most other menu functions. However be careful not to press the hang up button as this could end the call.

Some phones have a loud speaker function that can be used within a call so that you can use the phone without holding up to you ear. This is also useful if you wish to have other near to you to be able to hear and speak to the person you are speaking to. To activate the load speaker function within a call it may be by pressing the button shown as speaker on the screen of via a option menu.

Another feature that some phone allow when within a call is to record the conversation. This is usually activated by pressing a key shown on the screen as Options and then selecting the record function. You may also be able to start stop or pause the recording.

A handy function that some phones have is the ability to Mute the call. That is set it so that the person you are speaking to can not hear you but you can still hear them. This can be an advantage when you wish to talk to someone near you without the person on the phone hearing the conversation. Modern mobile phones have very sensitive microphones that may pick up sounds of people near to you even if you cover the phone with your hand. Because they are so small it is often difficult to even find the microphone (part that picks up your voice) on a mobile phone to cover it. To mute the call press the key show on the screen as Options and then select the Mute option. You can usually un-mute the call by pressing a key shown on the screen as unmute.

A variation on the mute feature is the hold feature. This does much the same as the mute but nether part to the call can hear each other. To hold the call press the key show on the screen as Options and then select the Hold option. You can usually un-hold the call by pressing a key shown on the screen as unhold.

Depending if your mobile service provide allows it, you may be able to have conference calls on your phone. That is where multiple people can talk and listen to multiple other people. See Managing Multiple Calls

1. Read your manual on what function you can perform whilst within a call and how to perform those functions
2. Determine a number you can call that plays a recorded message and that does not cost you to make the call. You could try “123”
3. Dial the number in point 2 above.
4. If the call hangs up you may have to repeat the above step to complete these exercises.
5. Whilst in the call see if you can use other functions like reading contacts
6. Whilst in the call see if their is a key shown on the screen a Load Speaker or something to that effect. Press the key. What happened? The sound of the call should be load enough so that you can hear it without putting the phone to your ear.
7. See if you can switch the load function off. It is usually done by pressing the same key that you used to turn it on
8. Whilst in the call see if their a key shown on the screen as Options. Press that key. If their is a option to record the call then use it. See if you work out how to replay the recording. It may be is Gallery/Recordings or in a message for recordings
9. Whilst in the call, via the options, see if you can mute a call and then un-mute it and then put the call on hold and them take it off hold.

Mobile phones as well as land line phones allow you to have multiple people talking and listening at the same time. It is called conference calls It is a function of the phone network rather than of the phones them selves. However modern mobile phones have functionality built into them that makes it easier to use conference calls. You need to make sure that your phone service provider allows you to handle multiple calls and how many people can be in the one conversation at the one time. There may me a charge by your phone provider for making conference calls in addition to the normal call rates.

The benefit of conference calls is that multiple people in different locations can join in on a group discussion at the same time. This can save the need to ring individual people and repeat the same information. In addition to the conference call by using the load speaker function others near the phone can be a party to a conversation.

Provided you have not set up to divert when busy, it may be possible to have a conference call by answering a call whilst in another call. If you are in a call in this situation, and someone else ring you you will hear a tone to indicate this. Then you may be able to via an options menu, to put the current caller on hold and answer the calling number. Then again by using the options you may be able to select a option called “conference” such that all callers are then on the call together.

Other than the above you can initiate a conference call in the following way. Ring the first person you wish to speak to. Asks them to wait and via the options menu put them on hold. Then dial the number of another person. When they answer ask them to wait and via the options menu select “conference”. All three people will be on the call at the same time. Depending on your phone provider you may be able to add more people to the call in the same way. You may have via your options menu the ability to remove people from the call. As you are the initiator of the call if you hang up all the others will also be disconnected.

1. Read your manual on what function you can perform whilst within a call and how to perform those functions
2. Determine a number you can call that plays a recorded message and that does not cost you to make the call. You could try “123”
3. Dial the number in point 2 above.
4. Press the button shown on the screen as Options and then select the “Hold” menu item. What happened? You will not be able to hear the call
5. Dial the number in point 2 above
6. Press the button shown on the screen as Options and then select the “Conference” menu item. What happened? You will now be able to hear both call messages. As it is the same number you used in point 2
7. Press the button to hang up the call. What happened? You were disconnected from all the calls

Ring are the sounds that mobile phones make to indicate to you to that someone is ringing you. Modern mobile phones allow you to use virtually any sound as a ring tone. The phones usually have a number of built in ring tones but via various methods you can add additional ring tones to your phone. Additionally as most phones have to ability to record sound you can create you own ring tones.

Most modern mobile phones also allow you to allocate a different ring tone to each person or group of people in your contacts so that when that person rings you a specific ring tone will be used so that you could identify who is ringing you just by the ring tone. By using the recording ability of your phone you could record the voice of a person so as to be there ring tone.

There are services you can subscribe to on you phone that download (transfer to you phone) ring tones to your computer. However the cost of these services is usually not proportionate to the value of the commodity (ring tones) that the supply when you realise how easy it is to produce ring tones.

As mentioned earlier and recorded sound can be used as a ring tone. Often people will us a piece of music or a portion of a piece of music. Most modern mobile phones have the ability to store music as, what is called MP3 files. In which case you may be able to use a track of your favourite piece of music as a ring tone. Using a computer you could use a portion of a music track as a ring tone or combine multiple parts of music or any other sounds to make a ring tone.

To set a ring tone usually requires you to be in the Settings/Tones menu. Their may be a setting for incoming call alert, which could be set to ringing, meaning the conventional way a phone rings, ascending, the sound start quiet and progressively get louder, ring once, meaning the ring tone only gets played once, beep once, meaning that a beep sound is played once only or off meaning no sound at all is made. Ther will be a setting for ringing tone. At this point you may be able to set any of the ring tones that come with you phone or open a sound gallery that has sounds you have added to you phone or recorded your self. You may also be able to download ring tones. Other than setting ring tones for incoming calls you usually can also set then for arriving SMS messages, emails and alerts. Alerts are where you are notified of something by the phone, such as a alarm time expiring.

To set a different ring tone for each contact or group of contacts usually requires you to be within the contacts or contact groups menu and then set that contact or contact group to a specific ring tone.

To record you own ring tone usually requires you to be in a medial menu and the recorder function. A button is presses that starts the recording and that same button is usually pressed to stop recording. The phone often provides the name of the recording that you can then refer to when setting ring tones, or you may be able to rename it to a name of your choice.

1. Read your phone manual on how to set and change ring tones
2. Enter that part of your phones menus that allows you to select the ring tines that come with the phone
3. Use the navigation keys to move to a different ring tone. What happened? Usually the sound of the ring tone will be heard
4. Go through all the ring tones that come with your phone to decide which one you wish to use.
5. Do what it instruct you to do in the manual to set the ring tone
6. Get someone else to ring you phone to make sure that the correct ring tone is set
7. Read your phone manual on how to record sounds
8. Enter that part of your phones menus that allows you to record sounds
9. Decide who in your contacts you would like to record a ring tone for
10. Press the button that records sound and immediately speak, the name of the person in the previous step followed by “Ringing” eg. “Sue ringing”
11. Press the button that stops the recording.
12. If their is an option to play the recording, do so.
13. If their is an option to rename the recording do so using the persons name
14. Read your phone manual on how to set ring tones to contacts or contact groups
15. Enter that menu function that allows you to set a ring tone to a contact or contact group and position on the appropriate contact
16. Do what is required to set the appropriate persons ring tone
17. If possible get that person to ring you to make sure the make sure the appropriate ring tone is being used

Modern mobile phones, like most modern electronic devices and have a built in clock, so can be used as a time piece. Because many people have their phone with them all the time, some people use their phone as a replacement for a watch.

In addition to having a clock built in, most modern mobile phone also have multiple, usually unlimited in number, alarms and count down timers, so making them more versatile than watches. Associated with the alarms and count down times can be text and other information again making then more versatile than watches. Count down timers set off an alarm after a pre determined time has elapsed. They are the similar in concept to an egg timer only much more accurate.

Most modern phone also have a calendar function so that a large amount of information can be recorded against each calendar event with alarms able to be associated with each event. See

Because of the above it is important that you have you phone set to the correct time and date. This is usually done via the Setting/Date and Time Menu. Both the date and time are set in the format that is specified in the Date and Time form setting. That is you can usually have time in 12 or 24 hour mode and the date in a variety of setting such as Day, Month, Year as number or number and words or month, day, year.

After setting the date and time some phone ask what world time zone you are in either by named area or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) plus or minus certain hours. Australia is GMT + 10 hours. Some also ask it daylight saving is applicable so that they adjust automatically where appropiate.

The more modern phones allow you to have the date and time set automatically by the phone. The phones that do this do so by taking the time from the mobile phone network or from the internet. This way you are likely to have a much more accurate time than the most expensive of watches.

Very accurate stop watch functionality can be available on some mobile phones.

1. Read you phones manual on how to set the date and time and date and time formats
2. Enter the mode that allows you to set the date format. How many different formats are there?
3. Decide on the date format you want to use and set your phone to that format
4. Enter the mode that allows you to set the time format. How many formats are there? Usually only 2, 12 and 24 hour.
5. Decide on the time format you want to use and set your phone to that format.
6. Enter the mode that allows you to set the date and time
7. Set the phone to the correct date and time.

Some phones have a built in FM (stereo) radio. However to use the FM radio you need to plug in earphones, not so much to hear the radio, as it may be able to be played through the phones speaker, but to act as an aerial. As a consequence phones that do have built in FM radio will ask you to plug in head set (earphones) before you can use the FM radio functionality. When the head set is plugged in the functionality will be similar to that of modern car radios. That is you will be able to scan for the strongest radio stations and have then set as pre-set stations, go up and down through the pre-set stations or to find stations and to listen to stations.

Some phones may also allow you to record what you are listening to via the phones recording functionality

1. Read your phones manual on how to use the FM Radio functions
2. Plug a set of earphones into the phone. See Headset plug
3. Enter that part of the phones menu that allows you to use the FM Radio
4. If the Radio function has a options menu select the options. What is displayed?
5. If their is a Search all Stations menu select it. What is happening? The phone should be searching for radio stations.
6. If the phone has found stations try using the navigation keys to change stations and increase and decrease the volume
7. See what other options are available within the FM Radio function and try each of them
8. Switch off the FM Radio function

Blue tooth allow you phone to communicate carelessly (with out cables) with other devices like Blue tooth headsets, car kits, built in car phone functionality, other phones and computers.

Blue tooth is a wireless technology that extends over relatively short distances, usually less than 10 metres. Once connected via Blue tooth you can either use other devices such as Blue tooth headsets, and cars phone functionality to make and receive calls or transfer information,like contacts, pictures and videos, to and from other devices such as other phones and computers.

Compared with other forms of transferring information such as Wifi mobile internet, Blue tooth is relatively slow.

Before you can use Blue tooth you have to switch it on, make it visible to other devices and Pair it to other devices.

The functionality of Blue tooth is usually under a connectivity menu which is part of the Settings menu.

Within the Blue tooth functionality will usually be options to switch Blue tooth on and off and make you phone visible or not visible. When visible the name of your phone, that you set within a Blue tooth setting, can be seen on any other Blue tooth devises that are with in Blue tooth range.

After setting Blue tooth on and making your phone visible you can Pair to another Blue tooth device that also has Blue tooth switched on and is visible via options in the Blue tooth Pairing menu. The process is usually achieved by selecting the device and selecting the device from a list and entering a passcode. The passcode is a code you enter that then also has to be entered on the other devise. The idea being that others can not access your phone without knowing the entered passcode. If the passcode is entered correctly on both devises they are considered to be paired and can be used in conjunction with one another or the transfer information between them.

1. Read your phones manual on how to use the blue tooth functionality
2. To perform this exercise you will need another phone that also has Blue tooth functionality
3. On both phones enter the Blue tooth functionality and switch Blue tooth on and make both phones visible
4. On one phone only select the Pairing options, select the other phone and select Pair.
5. The phone will ask you for a passcode. Enter 123. What appeared as you entered it? The numbers will be with asterisks “*” so that other people can not see the passcode as you entered it.
6. What appeared on the other phone? It will ask if you want to pair with the other phone. Indicate yes. This phone will now ask if you to enter the passcode. Enter 123 ie the same as was entered on the other phone. What appeared on the screen a you entered it. The same as on the other phone.
7. If the phones where Paired correctly a message to this effect will be displayed
8. Read your manual on how to send a contact to another phone via Blue tooth.
9. Do what is required to send a contact to another phone via Blue tooth
10. Read your manual on how to send a photo to another phone via Blue tooth.
11. Do what is required to send a photo to another phone via Blue tooth
12. On both phones enter the Blue tooth functionality and switch Blue tooth off and make both phones non visible

Settings allow you to set your phone to up in a way that suits your particular requirements. Their is usually a setting menu (see operate menus that typically has the following sub menus.

Profiles: Where you can save and quickly change to a combination of settings Themes: When the way various screen are presented to you can be quickly changed Tones: When various sounds you phone makes can be saves created aor used Display: Where some items that are displayed can be set Date and Time: Where the date, time and date and time formats can be set Shortcuts: Where certain functionality can be associated to the navigation keys of the main screen Connectivity: Where the way the phone connects to other devices can be set Call: Where the way the phone makes and receives calls can be set Phone: Where the way the phone operated other than to do with call can be set Enhancements: Where devices associated with the phone, such as headsets and headphones can be set Configuration: Where what setting are able to operate in what functionality are set Security: Where you can bar certain types of calls and put make it so a password type of code has to be entered to use certain functionality Restore Factory Settings: Where you can set the phone to the way it was when it first left the factory

This is where the phone makes no sound at all. It is designed so that you can leave your phone on in places that where you would normally have it off such as in a cinema, in a meeting or when attending a church service, but still be able to know that someone is ringing you but the phone vibrating and something being displayed on the screen.

Some phones have a fixed silent mode that could be selected by quickly pressing the phones on/off button. Some other phones have a silent mode as one of the profiles in the settings menu. Some phones allow the silent mode to be set only up to a specific time. If your phone does not have this then it is important that you remember to switch the silent mode off, otherwise you could end up missing incoming calls.

1. Read you phone manual on how to switch on and off silent mode
2. Do what is required to switch on silent mode. Is their anything different on the screen. Their will normally be something on the screen to show you are in silent mode
3. Get someone else to ring your phone. What happened? If silent mode is correctly set the phone may vibrate and show something on the screen to indicate that someone is wringing you.
4. Do not answer the call. ie press the hang up button.
5. Do what is required to switch off silent mode. Is their anything different on the screen. What had been showing on the screen to show you are in silent mode should now no longer be displayed.
6. Get someone else to ring your phone. What happened? If silent mode is now off the phone will now ring in the normal way.

Generally the use of mobile phones are banned in aircraft whilst the aircraft is flying. The two reasons for this are the possibility of the signals from the mobile phone interfering with aircraft navigational equipment and that mobiles phones at aircraft heights are liable to interfere with the mobile phone network because a phone could contact multiple phone towers at the same time. For more information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_on_aircraft

However mobile phones can be used for a large number of functions other than phone calls. Consequently the more modern phones have what is termed Airplane mode. In this mode the mobile call functionality of the phone is switched off but all the other functionality of the phone still operates. Practically all airlines allow the use of mobile phone in Airplane mode whilst in the cruse portion of a flight.

If you phone has a airplane mode this could be switched on or off via an option after quickly pressing the phone on/off button or via a menu function.

When in Airplane mode you will not be able to send or receive calls or text messages, so make sure you switch off Airplane mode when your flight has landed

1. Read you phones manual to determine if it has a Airplane mode and if so how to switch it on and off
2. Do what is required to switch Airplane mode on. What is different about the screen. Something on the screen should indicate you are in Airplane mode
3. Try to make a call. What happened? A message should have appeared on the screen to indicate you can not make a call because you are in Airplane mode.
4. Do what is required to switch Airplane mode off. What is different about the screen. The item on the screen should indicating you where in Airplane mode should no longer appear
5. Try making a call, but do not allow it to ring. What happened. If you have successfully switched off Airplane mode the calling function should be normal.

Most phones have a calculator function to allow you to perform the same functions that you would otherwise perform on a calculator. The calculator function of you phone may be under the Organiser menu. Some phones allow you to use normal, scientific and loan calculator functions. Typically theses functions are accessed via a option menu with the calculator function.

1. Read your phones manual on how to access the calculator function and use the calculator
2. Do what is required to enter the calculator function. What is show on the screen?
3. If the calculator has an options key press it. What happened. A list of options should have appeared
4. If their is an option for instructions use it and read the instructions. Exit the instructions.
5. Exit the options
6. Enter 1, use the + function, enter 1 and then use the = function. What happened? A 2 should be displayed.
7. Enter the X (multiply) function, enter 5 and enter the = function. What happened? A 10 should be displayed
8. Enter the divide function, enter 7 and then the the = function. What happened? A 10 1.42857143 should be displayed
9. Exit the calculator function

The Calendar function on a mobile phone is equivalent to writing something in a Diary with the exception that the the phone can set off an alarm warning you of something in the Calendar, the entries can remain for a long time and you do not have to purchase a new Diary each year.

Depending of the functionality built in to your phones Calendar some phone have the ability to synchronise the Calendar with one or multiple computer or internet calendars, so that with the appropriate security measures set, it is possible for other people to check and so schedule events in your calendar or for you do so on others calendars.

The Calendar function of your phone may either be a separate function or come under an Organise menu function. Depending on the phones calendar functionality, you may be able to view your calendar on a daily, weekly, monthly or agenda basis with the ability to move forward and backward in time by days, weeks, months or years.

Typically a month view will show month name and year as a heading with column heading for each day of the week, Monday to Sunday, with the day of the month number in the rows below the heading, often with the day number of the preceding and next month also shown. Some method of indicating that an event exists for a day, such a a dot or the day number in bold will be displayed.

A week view may show the month and year heading with column heading for the day of the week, Monday to Sunday, but with left most column showing the hours of the day. Entries where an event exists will typically be indicated by coloured blocks and the first few characters of the events description.

A day view may show the day of the week and date as a heading with the left most column as the hour of the day. An event could be indicated by coloured blocks and most of the text describing the event.

Some method will be provided to enter a new event, edit/change an existing event or delete/remove an event. When entering a new event the type of event can be set such as Reminder, Meeting or Birthday, a description of the event, the start and end date and time of the event, where the event is to take place, if it is to to include guests, if it is to be repeated on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis and if a reminder is to be associated with it, may be allowed to be entered.

If your calendar had an Agenda view this typically shows only dates for which events have been entered

The calendar may indicate to you if you have a conflict or overlapping of events

If you have set alarms for the reminder against events, at the reminder time the alarm should make an appropriate sound and you may have the option to snooze the alarm, in which case the alarm will go of again based on the pre set snooze time or you can dismiss the event, in which case you will no longer be reminded of the event. Usually via a set up function you can chose an appropriate phone ring tone for calendar events. If you do not have your phone with you when an event alarm sounds it will only continue to make the sound for set period of time and them will no longer remind you of the event.

Provided you have your phone with you or where you can hear its reminders sounds, calendars are very useful for all forms of reminders such as, taking medication, future doctors or hospital appointments, that you should ring someone, deadlines of when something has to be completed, visits of other people or when something has to be removed from a freezer or oven.

Calendar events differ from Alarms and Count Down Timers, that are one day based, in that they can be set for any time and number of times in the future and that the record of them is retained.

The length of time that Calendar events remain in your phone will depend on the phone and possible also the size of the phones memory.

If your phone has the ability to synchronise (made the same as another) with a computer calendar or internet calendar this may be achieved automatically or may have to be initiated by you. If you do synchronise with, typically a internet calendar, you may have to ability to view and make entries into other peoples calendars in which case the “Guests” part of entering an event can be used to invite people to your events. This is done via the other persons email address so also requires you to have email functionality on your phone. If this is the case you may also find that other people have invited you to their events, such that their event automatically appears in your Calendar on your phone.

1. Read the manual of your phone on how to access and use the Calendar function
2. Enter your phones Calendar function. What is shown and why. Depending on the phone and what view the phones calendar was last used, either a month, week, day or agenda view, because you have entered the calendar function.
3. By refering to your phones manual do what is required to move to the other views, ie day, week, month, year, agenda and move forward and back through the dates a day, week, month and year at a time. NOTE: Your phone may not have all these features.
4. Do what is required to enter the mode of entering a new event or note.
5. It you are asked to enter the type or event/note make it a meeting.
6. For the subject/description enter “Test” See Use a phone keyboard to type Alphabetic letters
7. If you are asked to enter a location enter “Home”
8. In the from or start Date enter today's date by tying the numbers of the phones keyboard
9. In the from time enter a time 2 minutes from the current phones time
10. Leave the end date and time as they are. They should be after the start and end time.
11. If you are required to enter a Repeat, leave it at Never or whatever so that it does not repeat
12. If their is an function for determining if a reminder is set and how set it to do so with a sound/tone
13. If you have to set the alarm time do so 2 minutes from the current phone time.
14. Do what is required to save the event/note.
15. Exit the Calendar function. What happened at the event/note alarm time? The alarm ring tone should have sounded
16. Set the function to snooze the alarm. What happened after a few minutes? The alarm ring tone should have sounded again
17. Set the function to not set the snooze
18. Enter the Calendar function and show the “Test” event/note
19. Do what is required to edit/change the event/note. Change the alarm time to 2 minutes from the current phones time and save this change.
20. Exit the phone Calendar function and wait for 2 minutes. What happened? The alarm should have sounded.
21. Do what is required to not snooze the alarm
22. Enter the Calendar function and show the “Test” event/note
23. Do what is required to edit/change the event/note. Change the alarm time to 10 minutes from the current phones time and also set it to repeat every week and save this change.
24. Do what is required to view the Calendar in Month viewing mode. What is show against every this day of the week and why? Something to indicate that a event/note exists because you entered an event that repeats every week.
25. Move to the date one week from today and show the day view. What is the description of the event/note and why? “Test” because that was the description entered.
26. Look at a few more events of future week on this current day. Are they all the same? Yes
27. Go to date of the first “Test” event and do what is required to delete all future of the Test event
28. Exit the Calendar function

Most modern mobile phone have a built in camera that can be used to take both still photos and moving (video) images. Often what distinguishes the pricing of phones is the size in megapixals of the image that a phone can take.

All digital cameras, including those in phones,have a certain megapixel size. That is the number of pixels, explained later, in millions, that make up each photo. A pixel is a single dot in a photo. The sum of the number of pixels across by the number of pixels down divided by a million is the megapixel size. Generally the larger the megapixel of the camera the better the images will be. However increasing the number of megapixel beyond three will not be noticeable unless you printed pictures that are beyond the small normal 5 x 4 size. Unless you intend to print photos larger than 5 x 4 There is no benefit in having a higher megapixel camera.

Very few phones have a optical zoom camera and at the time of writing (June 2011) none have interchangeable lenses or lenses that are as good as the up market dedicated digital cameras. However many phone cameras can take a very good photo and some have the ability to record high definition video

Some phone cameras have built in flash so allowing photos to be taken in a dark or no light situations.

Because of the integration of other functions of mobile phones with their built in cameras it is possible to send and receive photos and video to and from other mobile phones, however if doing so the service providers charge a separate fee for every photo, video or certain length of video send. If you phone has email capabilities it would be significantly less cheaper to send photos and videos via email. Because of the cameras in phones it is also possibe to have live video conversations, but again this can be very expensive and it would work out much cheaper to use the data services of a phone with an application like Skype.

Smart phones, all of which have cameras, have the ability to integrate GPS functionality with the camera such that the exact location that pictures or videos are taken can be stored with the images. With the appropriate application on a smart phone it is possible to remotely control the camera within the phone via another phone or a computer to see what the camera is seeing and also know, via the GPS, where the phone and so images are coming from.

The ability the phone has to control its camera will vary considerable depending on the type of phone and the phones camera capabilities. However most phone cameras have the ability to: switch from still to video image mode, show still and video images that have been taken, digital zoom in and out, set white balance and set the size of the image taken. For a a greater explanation of what these functions are and how to use them see my Digital Camera Workshop notes

Typically phones have a separate menu function for camera functions and have a menu called Gallery for viewing images that are stored in the phone without having to use the camera menu.

Their are a number of way of getting photos stored in a camera to a computer or to print them. If your phone has a memory card, which are usually Micro SD cards, you can remove the Micro SD card from the phone (See Inserting and removing memory cards) place it in a SD adapter card and use that as you would in a computer or printer.

If you have a cable that connects your phone to a computer you can transfer images with the appropriate software installed on your computer, which is usually supplied on a disk that came with your phone.

Most phone now have blue tooth capability and the blue tooth functionality of a phone will allow you to transfer images to and from your phone to any other blue tooth enabled device which includes computers. (See Blue Tooth).

1. Read you camera on how to enter the camera picture taking mode and how to take a picture and record a video
2. Enter the mode of you phone that allow you to take a picture. What appears on the screen and why. What ever the camera in the phone is pointing at because you are in the camera mode.
3. Do what is required to take a picture. What happened. Usually their will be some indication that a photo has been taken via a sound or something on the screen.
4. Do what is required to switch to video mode. What is different on the display now? Usually something indicating you are in video mode
5. Do what is required to start recording a video. What is different on the display now? Usually something will be displayed indicating that a recording is being made such as the the flashing text “Rec” together with a indication of how long you have been recording.
6. Do what is required to stop recording the video. What is different on the display now? The message about the recording will no longer be displayed.
7. Read your manual on how to view a picture or video from within the camera menu. Do what is required to view a picture. You may only be able to see the last picture you took.
8. Do what is required to view a video. Do what is required to pause the playing of the video. Stop the playing of the video.
9. Read your manual on how to set the digital zoom function of taking a picture. Do what is required to set the digital zoom to different levels and take photos at different levels of zoom.
10. Read your manual on how to set the white balance. Do what is required to set the white balance to different settings and take photos at different white balance settings.
11. Read your manual on how to set the picture size. Do what is required to set the picture size to different settings and take photos at different picture sizes.
12. Exit the camera mode
13. Read your manual on how to enter the Gallery menu of your camera and view and zoom on pictures and view videos
14. Do what is required to view and picture, move forward and back through pictures and zoom in and out of pictures.
15. Do what is required to show a video, pause a video, move forward and back through a video and stop playing a video.
16. Exit the Gallery menu

NOTE Some of the items below have not been completed yet. This is an ongoing project

Media Gallery or sometimes just called Media is the functionality that shows and may present in different ways, all the photos, videos and sometimes music (collectively called media )that is stored in your phone. Typically you are presented with a list of folders that are used to store your media. These folders may be in the form of the text describing then such as Camera Pictures, camera Videos or a a combination of the first few photos in the folder and text. On selecting a folder often thumbnails (small photos) will be displayed representing all the photos and or videos in a folder. On selecting a photo or video either the photo will be displayed the full size of the screen or the video will start playing the full screen size.

Some way will usually be provided to move forward and backwards through the media items and in the case of photos they can be examined in more (zoomed in) or less (zoomed out) detail. Often you will have the option to set the media item as the wallpaper (be the image on the main screen on your phone or as the icon for a contact in you contacts list, or share the media item via blue-tooth, messaging, email or social media and of course delete the media item.

Some phones allow you to do some editing of the media item. In the case of photos this can include cropping the photo (showing a smaller part of it) rotating it and applying effects to it. If the photo has had positional information associated with it some phone allow where the photo was taken to be shown on a map.

Music

Most modern phones have the ability to play music or recorded sound. The standard format for storing music or sound on a phone is MP3. MP3 is a computer file format that allows recorded sound to be stores in about 10% of the space that would be used if that same sound was stored on a CD.

If you own CD's it is quite legal, under that latest Australian copyright legislation to convert your CD's to MP3 format and to even give those copies to direct family members, although it may say otherwise on the CD's and CD covers. The converting process is usually performed on a computer that has a CD/DVD drive with what is called a ripping program. Such a program that you can download and use for free is FreeRip. http://www.freerip.com/

Once you have your music or sound in a MP3 format their are a number of ways of getting it from your computer to you phone depending on what type of phone you have and its capabilities. If you phone has a removable memory card, see Memory Cards the memory card could be placed in SD card adaptor and that put in a computer that can accept this adaptor. The MP3 files are then copied to the SD card adaptor. With some phones you have to copy it to a specific folder. See your manual to see which folder to use.

Another way of getting music or sound to your phone is via blue tooth. See blue_tooth Blue tooth can be slow if you want to copy a large number of MP3 files. Blue tooth can be used to copy MP3 files for other blue tooth enabled devices such as other phones.

If you can connect a cable to your phone you may be able to copy MP3files from a computer to you phone via the cable. Check your phones manual to see if this can be done.

Some phones have the ability to transfer files to and from a computer via Wi-fi networking by installing a file management App that allows such functionality. If you copy MP3 files this way it will be much faster than using blue tooth.

Another way to transfer MP3 files from a computer to a phone is an attachment to an email. See Email. However this will use up part of your internet quota.

Yet another way of transferring MP3 files to your phone from another phone is via the mobile phone network messaging system. Basically this is attaching a file to a text message. These are called Multi Media Messages. This is the most expensive way to transfer MP3 files because your mobile phone provider will charge you a fixed amount for each MP3 files you send.

Lastly most smart phones have a sound recording function that allows any sounds near the phone to be recorded. It is therefore possible to record music, or anything else, and replay it on your phone. The quality of music recorded in this way would not be as good as other copying methods discovered above and the recording would not be in stereo.

In addition to using putting your own music or sound files on your phone with smart phones you can also purchase MP3 music files. This is usually done via an App specifically for this task. However their is a big distinction between purchased MP3 music files and ones that you copy to your phone. The purchased ones have digital rights management encoded in to the file. This basically means that the file can only be played on your phone and also may have other restrictions such as the ability to only play the file a certain number of times.

Playing Music/sound

If you have MP3 files on your phone and have a music App or a music playing function on the phone it will allow you to select a MP3 file or group of files to play. Generally their will be some way to pause and stop playing, jump to the next or previous track and jump to any part of a track. Generally the playing of music can be performed whilst using functions other than those that also require sound such as making a call. Some phone allow you to set up play lists so that you can hear music in the order of your choice or in a random order. Their can also be a function that allows you to continually repeat part of a track a full track or group of tracks.

Other than playing music it is possible to obtain other sound files such as audio books, audio training material and radio pod casts. These can be obtained from the internet or copied from a computer.

Most smart phones do not have a keyboard but allow you to operate by touching the screen in some way. Their are a number of ways to use the touch screen such as: Touch or tap, double tap, swipe, long touch pinch and touch a specific displayed area. The manual may show how to use this functionality and if you phone has these functions.

Touch , sometimes also called tapping, is placing a finger on an item being displayed and quickly removing your finger. Depending on the phone and what settings have been set the item you touch may be indicated in some way and or the phone may vibrate. Usually touching is used to start some function or select a menu item

Double taping is touching an item on the screen twice within a short period of time. It is often used to zoom in (make bigger) a map or a picture.

Swiping is placing your finger on a point on the screen and whilst leaving you finger on the screen sliding your finger to another position on the screen. The starting and ending point of the swiping can result in different functions. eg you can swipe left to right on the bottom middle or top of the screen, or right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top or even diagonally across the screen. Swiping can be used for a number of functions. Two examples are to unlock the phone or swipe in a particular pattern as a security code.

Long touch is placing your finger on a item on the screen and leaving your finger on that position for a certain period of time. It can be used for a variety of functions but most often allows more functionality than just touching an item. eg a long touch on a icon on a screen may allow it to be then moved to a different position on the screen by swiping.

Pinching is placing two fingers on the screen and sliding them together or apart. The main function this is used for is to zoom in and out on images.

Touching a specific area that is displayed on the screen is often used to go back, call up a menu or do a search. Icons, usually at the bottom of the screen indicate the area to be touched.

These exercises are only applicable if you have a touch screen phone

1. - Read your phones manual on how to use the touch screen
2. - Touch any icon on the screen. What happened? How did the item change in appearance?
3. - Do what is required to exit the function that was started in in the previous step. Usually this touching the back icon or button
4. - Do what is required to display a map. Double tap on the map. What happened? You should now see that part of the map that you double taped on in more detail. You have zoomed the map. Try zooming a number of times. Exit the map function.
5. - Set you phone so the screen is of and then switch it on again. Swipe the item to unlock the phone. Try repeating this but swiping in a different direction. What happened? It may not have done anything.
6. - At the main screen try swiping left to right and then right to left. What happened? You may have been presented with additional screens.
7. - At the main screen try swiping top to bottom and then bottom to top. What happened? You may have been presented with additional screens.
8. - At the main screen leave you finger on an icon. What happened? It will depend on your phone. It may have highlighted the icon or shown it a shaking. This means that you can do something else with the icon such as move it to a different place on the screen of delete it.
9. - If you have and Android phone select the phone log from the phone icon on the main screen. Touch one on the item in the list. What happened? Information about the call you made or received should be displayed. Press the back icon t go back to where you where. Now long press that same item, ie leave you finger pressed on it. What happened. Another menu was displayed. Do you see the difference between taping an item and log pressing it?
10. - Do what is required to display a picture. Place two fingers slightly apart on the picture and slowly slide your fingers together. What happened? That part of the picture will be in more detail. This is called zooming in. Place two fingers slightly apart on the picture and slowly slide your fingers Further apart. What happened? That part of the picture will be in less detail. This is called zooming out. NOTE: not all smart phones can perform this function.
11. - If their are other icons at the bottom of the screen experiment to see what they do

Most smart phones have what is called a virtual keyboard. That is when you are required to type something you are presented with part of the display that show a picture of a keyboard. Parts of the keyboard picture can be touched such that the character you touch is displayed where you are typing. Depending on the information you are required to enter a different keyboards may be displayed. eg. For entering phone numbers a phone keyboard will be displayed where as for typing messages or emails a typewriter type keyboard will be displayed.

With some phones it is possible to install via Apps additional keyboards

The advantage of these keyboards is that they have some intelligent features built in, such as the ability to start a new sentence with a capital letter, the ability to predict the word you are typing and to correct spelling mistakes.

To type letter when a typewriter keyboard is displayed tap the letter you want. If you want to type a capital letter tap the shift key (usually a upward pointing arrow). The display will change to show capital letters. After typing the capital letter the keyboard will change back to small (lower case) letters automatically. If you want to type numerous continuous capital letters tap the shift key twice. This locks the keyboard to capital letters. Taping the shift key when it is locked in capitals will return it to small (lower case) letters.

Most virtual keyboards do not have numbers on the typewriter keyboard. To type a number amongst letters you have to first press the 123 shift key that is usually on the bottom left of the keyboard. Doing so shows a new keyboard picture with the digits 1 to 9 and a 0 as the top row and the other special symbols on the other keys. If the symbol is not displayed taping the ALT key may bring up even further symbols. To return to the original keyboard you then have to tap the ALT or ABC key which will be where the 123 key was.

Some keys such as the full stop and comma allow you to long press on them to allow you to select additional symbols.

If you wish to delete the character you just typed you can press the delete key (usually and X in a rectangle pointing left)

To correct previous entered text you may have to touch to the right of where the mistake is and use the delete key to remove the incorrect letters and then type the correct letters. Some phones allow you to long press on text such that it is magnified so as to may it easier to more precisely get to the point to make corrections.

Some phones have a microphone key that when touched allows you to speak and your spoken words will appear as text. However this is not always 100% accurate

It is also possible to purchase external keyboards that can connect to you phone via Blue tooth.

Apps can be installed on a phone that allow you to type on a computer keyboard and the results appear on you phone via Wifi

These exercises are only applicable to smart phones that have a virtual keyboard, ie a keyboard that appears on the screen.

1. - As you are doing the following exercise because of the battery saving function of you phone the screen may go blank, in which case press the key you use to switch the screen back on and if necessary unlock the phone
2. - If you are asked to type in something in quotation marks ie ” ” then do not type the quotation marks
3. - Do what is required to allow you to enter text into a message an email or a note.
4. - Type “The Quick Brown Fox”. If make any mistakes correct them with the delete key.
5. - Touch the shift key twice. What appears different? The shape of the shift key should change to indicate that it is locked to upper case
6. - Type “JUMPED”. Notice that because the keyboard is locked in upper case that all the letters are upper case.
7. - Touch the shift key. Notice that it changes shape again to indicate that the lock to upper case is now off
8. - Type “over the lazy dog”
9. - Touch the 123 key. How is the display now different? It now shows numbers and other different symbols
10. - Type “25”
11. - Touch the 123 key. Notice the keyboard has changed back to letters. Type “times”
12. - Touch The 123 key. Note you should now be viewing the numeric keyboard. Touch the ALT key. How is the display now different? It now shows more symbols. Touch some on these symbols a see how they appear as part of the text. Touch the ABC key to change back to the normal keyboard.
13. - Long press the full stop key. What happened? Other symbols should have appeared. Slid to any one of those symbols and then lift you finger. What happened? That symbol should have been typed. See what happens when you long press on other keys.
14. - If our keyboard has a Microphone icon on it touch it. What happened? A prompt should tell you to talk now. Say “Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of the party”. What happened? What you said should have been typed.
15. - Long press on any of the text you have already typed. What happened. This will depend on the phone you have. Try some of the options that may be presented to you.
16. - Exit the function that is allowing you to type.

Email is the most popular computing application and when used on a smart phone has the advantage of being able to travel with you and in most cases is always switched on. Email is far less expensive to use than SMS messaging because you would be paying for it as part of a data plan rather than paying for each 160 character, or part there off, for SMS's. As an example if your data cost $5.00 for 500 Megabyte then 160 characters of an email would cost .15625 cents to send. Note that is a fraction of a cent compared to anything from 10 to 25 cents for a SMS message. And that email can be sent to anyone in the world. A disadvantage of emails is they cost you to receive, even thought the cost may be minor compared to SMS that in Australia do not cost anything to receive. Another disadvantage of emails is that because not all phones have email capability it is not possible to email to all phones. All modern mobile phones can receive SMS's.

Email requires to you have a data service on your smart phone. If you already have an email account or even multiple email accounts, you can send and receive email to/from all of them on a smart phone. Basically their a two ways to use email on a computer. With client email software or via a web browser. This also applies to using email on a smart phone. However because web browsers email is designed to operate on computer screens it can be a bit difficult to operate this type of email from a phone screen. Email Apps that come with smart phone are designed to be used with the phones screens so tend to be easy to use. Also when using Email Apps some of you emails can be stored on the phone so that you may be able to read previous received or sent messages even when outside of mobile phone coverage. You have to be within Mobile phone coverage to be able to send and receive emails.

Virtually anything that is stored on your smart phone can be attached to an email. Most applicable smart phone Apps have built in integration with email so that you can email information that you have captured or created within an App as an attachment to an email. Some examples are: contacts within your contact list, photos and videos you have taken, your current position on a map, tracks of where you you have been on a map or sound recording. The integration is often via a share icon that links to your email App.

Some email Apps allow you to synchronise your email messages and contact details, including phone numbers and photos of contacts, with your smart phone so that any email or contacts you have on your computers email account will also appear on your phone and vis versa. This is very useful if you get a new smart phone as it eliminates the need to re-enter contacts or copy them from a SIM card. If you use client email software on your computer that deletes the messages from the server after it copies the messages to your computer, you will not be able to then see those messages on your phone. However most email providers allow you to change the server setting, via a web interface, so as to keep messages on the server for a certain number of days in addition to coping them to your computer such that you will be able to see the messages for that many days on your phone.

All the same email functions that you may be used to on your computer are usually available on email Apps on your phone such that you can do what you would otherwise do on you computer on your phone.

To use email on your phone you have to enter the required setting into the email App. This can be as simple as your user name and password for Gmail on a Android phone or may require specific settings for other email providers. Check your phone manual and set up instructions on your email providers web site.

1. - If you do not already have email set up on your phone read your phones manual and email service providers web site on how to do so such that you have a working email service on your phone.
2. - Touch the icon on your phone to enter the email App. What appeared? This will depend on your email program and if you have any messages in your inbox. If you do have messages in your inbox a list of messages will appear.
3. - Read your manual on how to create a new message. Write a message to someone else in your class or to your self with the subject of test and the body of the message also being test. Do what is required to send the message. What happened? Some indicator that the message was sent should have been displayed.
4. - Read you manual on how to change to sent email. Do what is required to go to the sent email. What is the the subject of the first message and why. It should be test as that was the last message you sent.
5. - Read your manual on how to create a new message including a CC and BCC . Write a message to someone else in your class or to your self with the subject of test CCs and the body of the message also being test CCs. Do what is required to send the message
6. - Read you manual on how to change to your inbox. Do what is required to change to your inbox. What messages appear there? You should see messages for other people in the class or from your self.
7. - Read you manual on how to search for messages. Do what is requires to search for messages with the word test in the subject.
8. - Exit the email App.

Web Browsers allow you to view and use web pages on the World Wide Web. Other than being on a smaller screen they allow you to perform the same functions with web pages that you would otherwise do on a computer. To a certain extent phone web browsers overcome their small screen restriction by allowing you to zoom in our out (make it look smaller or bigger) a web page. See ?????

The biggest advantage of using a web browser (internet) on a phone compared to a computer or even a lap top computer is that the phone is with you most of the time and is usually switched on. You can therefore have access to any functionally of all that can be obtained on the internet anywhere you have mobile reception. With this you can check competitive prices and other peoples reviews of products whilst shopping, look up information you may have stored on your own web page, cloud page or your home computer whilst at practically any location, switch on/off and control house hold devices like air conditioners, TV recording devices, lock or unlock doors and view and control security cameras and operate other computers

Other than having a specific icon for the internet which will start your web browser most phones have a predominate icon on the main home page that allows you to access the internet.

At the top of the web browser should be a address bar that allows you to type in a web address to enable you to access a specific web page. Some phones also have a search function or a specific search key that allows you to use a search engine such a Google to search for what you are looking for on the internet. Alternative you can enter the web address of a search engine into the address bar of your web browser. eg www.google.com.au for google. Your web browser may be set, via its setting, to load a particular web page when it is first started (Home Page)

Within a web page the parts of the page that are hyper linked may be shown in a different colour. If you touch one of these hyper links you may be presented with that linked page. The back button on your phone should allow you to go back to any previous page you have have come from. Some browsers allow you to long press on a link and then via a menu option open the link in a new window and with other menu functions to change to any of the opened windows without having to use the back function.

Some method is usually provided to make the information on the web page bigger or smaller (zooming) as well as moving around within a web page (panning).

When viewing a web page it can be possible to bookmark the page so as to later go to that web page directly, open a new window without closing the existing web page, change to previously opened web pages, refresh the web pages to see any changes that may have happened to it since you first opened it, copy all or parts of the web page, save all parts of the web page or share the web page with others.

Most Smart Phones have some form of mapping application. Generally that later ones do NOT charge you for using the maps as some did in the past. However most of the mapping applications load the maps to the phone via the phones internet connection such that you will be using up your phones internet quota. To that extent you are paying for the use of the maps. Their are a few mapping applications that allow you to store maps in the phones memory such that you can use those stored maps without an internet connection and so not use your internet quota. Theses such applications have to be purchased and or the maps may have to be purchased.

As all smart phones have a built in Global Positioning System (GPS) this allow you to see your current position on a map on the phones screen as well as do many other location based functions such as, find a location, find a type of business close to you, get directions, know the location of other people, locate your phone, get a vast amount of information such as average speed, maximum and minimum speeds and altitudes and share your and other positional information with others

Generally internet maps are seamless, meaning that you can move the map to any point in the world by swiping the phone and zooming in and out on the map. Their will usually be some method of making the map show your current position. Some mapping applications have the ability to store your movements (tracks) and fixed positions (way-points) and share this information with other via a web site or email.

The most commonly used internet mapping application, Google Maps, also has the ability to link to other applications such as Google Map search to find streets, features and business on maps, Latitude, where you can share your location with other Latitude users of your choice as well as see there location, Google Maps Navigation that will speak driving directions like Satellite Navigations Systems (see Satellite Navigation)and Google Street view, that allows you to see 360 degree photos of specific many locations around the world.

NOTE: To complete these exercises you may have to be out doors or at lease somewhere that has a clear view of the sky as The GPS functionality of phones require the phone to receive information from Satellites and can not do so through metal roofing and thick concrete buildings.

1. Read the manual of your phone on how to use the mapping application
2. Do what is required to start the mapping application
3. Do what is required to show your position on the map. How is your position show on the map? Usually via some form or pointer indicator
4. Move to a different position. What happened? The map should move but the position indicator will stay in the same position on the screen so reflecting your new position.
5. Do what is required , usually swiping the map, to move the map (pan) to show a different location.
6. Do what is required to show more (zoom out) or less (zoom in) of the map.
7. Use a combination of panning and zooming to show the following locations on your map: Brisbane's Story Bridge, The Sydney Harbour bridge, New York USA's time Square, The Eiffel Tower in Paris, Port Moresby New Guinea. If you can not find these places see point after the next on.
8. Do what is required to again show your position on the map.
9. Do what is required to search for streets and places on the map. Find the place 2 points back. Find all restaurants and petrol stations nearest to you.
10. See what other functions you mapping application can do

Satellite Navigation is the equivalent to the separate Satellite Navigation devices that you purchase that give you voice prompts such that you are directed to a specific location. Considering the cost of theses separate Satellite Navigation devices and that you can purchase a smart phone for less than $200 I don't see any benefit it having a separate device. Typically the maps and information on these separate Satellite Navigation systems have to be updated over time and there can be a subscription cost associated with this. Because of this I would not be surprised to find that separate Satellite Navigation devices end up like CD players, disappearing from shops, because smart phones have replaced them at much lower costs with greater functionality.

Their are three broad types of smart phone Satellite Navigation. Those that use maps and routing information stored in the phone, those that get that information via the internet or a combination of the first two. If the application only gets its information from the internet then in means that it is using up part of your internet quota and you can only get directions when you have a internet connection. As the internet, when your are mobile, is usually supplied via the mobile phone network and it does not cover all areas, then navigation and maps may not be available in remote areas. If the application only gets its information stored in the phone, you may not be using your internet quota but if the area you are travelling in is not stored in the phone you will not be able to get directions and maps for that area. Presently no smart phones have a sufficiently large enough memory to store all the streets in the world. Although the combination method sounds the best it relies on you making sure that you have downloaded the area you wish to travel to before you travel. Although mapping and direction information via the internet is likely to be more recent than what may be stored in the phone, it does not mean that any information will as up to date to the moment you are travelling. As an example the petrol station closest to where live, that has been there for a number of years, is not shown on the Google Maps Navigation, although this may be because it is a independent rather than part of a large group.

Because Satellite Navigation applications use a fair amount of power you may find that it will flatten your phones battery quite quickly. As this type of navigation is usually performed whilst in a car it is well worthwhile having the phone being powered by a car phone charger. Likewise if navigating whilst walking you can get external battery packs that use ordinary AA batteries that can power smart phones via their USB connectors.

On smart phones Satellite Navigation may be started as a sub application of Mapping or as a separate application. In either case you usually start off by indicating where you want to travel from, with your current location being the default and then where you wish to travel to. This is often done by entering in street addresses to which the application may show you multiple instances of a street name, if they exist, and allow you to select one. Their will usually be an option to say if you wish to travel by car, walk or via public transport. A map may be displayed indicating the route that the Satellite Navigation application intends to take you. It is well worthwhile looking at the suggested route as sometimes these applications can suggest routes that can take you the long way around. Their may be an ability to modify the suggested route prior to commencing your journey.

After the route is displayed a voice prompt should tell you where to move to in the form of: continue along such and such street for x km and then turn, left or right at such and such street. These voice prompts will continue as you move and should be announced sufficient distance from the points where you need to make turns. If you do not turn the way the application tells you, it will re-adjust it route so that you still end up at your destination. My experience in using these applications is that the most difficult instructions to follow are at roundabouts. These prompts are usually in the form of take the third exit at the roundabout. At roundabouts it can be difficult negotiating the traffic let alone counting the exits.

The application pronouncing street names can be quite amusing. They can come out quite different to how we pronounce them. As the prompts include the relative directions of left, right, straight ahead and the like, the pronunciation of the streets names tend not to be important.

Many options can be used whilst using this type of navigation such as muting the voice prompts, zooming the map in and out, changing how the map appears, showing all the turns points and ending navigation.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

To do these exercises you will need to be moving is a car. However whilst learning you should be the passenger and not driving. Even after you have learn how to use Satellite Navigation you should not touch the phone or look at maps whilst moving, only listen to the voice prompts. Should you need to look at the phone or touch it, you should stop in a safe position to do so.

1. Read your manual on how to use your Satellite Navigation application
2. Do what is required to start you Satellite Navigation. What is displayed? Usually a prompt for you to enter where you want to go from your current location.
3. Enter the place you want to go to, eg your home address. What happened? You may be able to select previous enter locations or if you you entered a street name that exist in more that one suburb you may be asked which street you want to use. On selecting the appropriate street a voice prompt should give you initial directions
4. Drive according to the directions given. What is displayed on the screen? Usually a 3 dimensional map with an arrow indicating you current position.
5. What other information is show and what other functions are available? Somewhere on the screen may be a indicator showing which way your next turn will be as well as how far you are from it. Possible it will also show you the turn after the next turn. Their may be options to: Search for other locations, Show the route information, show a map or satellite map, Traffic, Parking, Petrol Stations, Mute the voice prompts, Exit the navigation, see a directions list or get help.
6. After driving beyond a few prompted turns, turn the opposite to the next prompt. What happened? The application should adjust its route and give you new prompts to get you to your destination.
7. Swipe and zoom out on the map so you can see where it is going to take you. What is shown? Usually way-points where you voice prompt will be given.
8. Do what is required to show you current position on the map.
9. DO what is required to show directions list. What is shown? The text of what the voice prompt will be at each way-point in the route. What other options do you have from this screen? In one application, Google Maps Navigation, the ability to see a Google street view (360 degree photo of the way point) of that way-point.
10. Do what is required to show you current position on the map.
11. Complete your journey to your destination. What happened when you got to your destination. Usually a voice prompt indication your have arrived at your destination and with Google Maps Navigation a 360 degree (streetview) photo of the destination.
12. Do what is required to exit the application.