Smart Phones

What are Smart Phones?

A smartphone is a device which is built to combine the functions of a standard mobile phone with those of a handheld computer.
Smartphones are also called PDA’s, they have an operating system and contain local data storage. More and more features were added into smartphones over the past few years, and today’s smartphones would generally have at least 1 built-in camera, and they allow the users to access the internet, send and receive emails, schedule meetings, and of course, call contacts. With smartphones, the users can install third party software on that phone, just like they would do with a normal computer.
Because they contain an operating system, smartphones are more dynamic and user-friendly than standard mobile phones, because the user can modify the functionality of the smartphone, which would also mean that these devices are more susceptible to viruses and malware.

Common problems

  • Separate voice and data plans
  • Mobile network operators have designed separate data plans and require smartphone users to subscribe to them (for example: iPhone, BlackBerry and Android phones). In simple terms, a smartphone user will need to subscribe to a standard “voice plan” to be able to make and receive calls using their smartphone, and they will need to subscribe to an additional “data plan” if they need to connect to the internet, browse e-mails, etc. However, Nokia phones do not have this problem.
  • Battery life issues
    The more features added to a smartphone, the shorter the battery life will be. A standard mobile phone’s battery would generally last a couple of days on a single battery charge, whereas a smartphone would sometimes only last for a couple of hours. When a user buys a smartphone, they would generally receive a charging kit containing a car adapter, a USB connector to allow the phone to recharge from the USB-port of a personal computer or a laptop computer, as well as the standard power pack. Solar power chargers are becoming increasingly popular, because they would allow the users to recharge their phones using solar energy.


BLACKBERRIES

A BlackBerry is a portable device used for mobile communications; it generally has a built-in QWERTY keypad which is the same keypad layout used on most personal computers and laptop computers’ keyboards.
A BlackBerry is considered to be a combination of a smartphone and a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), because it contains an address book, an alarm clock, a calendar and day planner, and it also allows the user to connect to the internet and browse the web, send and receive emails. A BlackBerry also acts as a normal mobile phone, allowing the user to send and receive text messaging and make and receive phone calls.

Blackberries come in different models, and have become increasingly popular in the business world and the retail consumer world alike. Some BlackBerry models include one or more of the following extras: WiFi connection, Bluetooth connectivity, a trackball, GPS, speakers and built-in digital camera.

Many organisations are supplying some employees with a BlackBerry, because the BlackBerry allows employees that are out of the office to stay in contact with the company. For example, if an employee, a manager or an executive is travelling out-of-state to conduct some business duties, the company’s IT department can configure a BlackBerry device for them to allow them to keep in contact with the company while they are away. This includes the ability to send and receive electronic documents, as well as have constant access to their work e-mails, on top of the standard mobile phone functionalities which BlackBerry devices offer.

Common problems
When an organisation decides to supply BlackBerry devices to some (or all) of its employees, their IT department should receive appropriate training to be able to correctly troubleshoot and fix BlackBerry problems. Most of the times, the problems might occur when the BlackBerry user is not in the office, and this can be quite frustrating for non-technical users. The most common fix to most BlackBerry device issues is the “Battery Pull”. Whether the user is experiencing synchronisation issues, unable to send and receive emails, the device screen is frozen, or any other issue, the first thing they need to do is to remove the battery from the device. It is recommended that the user removes the battery with the device powered ON, leave the battery out for about a minute, and then replace the battery and allow the BlackBerry device to boot.

If the “Battery Pull” trick doesn’t fix the issue, the user can perform a soft reset on the BlackBerry device by holding down the “Alt + right shift + del” key combinations for a few seconds.

If none of this solves the problem, it is recommended that the user reports the issues to their IT department who should be able to fix it for them.

Some of the most common BlackBerry problems are explained below:

Unable to send and receive emails using the BlackBerry
If the user is unable to send or receive e-mails using the BlackBerry device, this would be most likely due to the lack of GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) service which is used by the device in order to access data. The first thing the user should attempt is a soft reset (this is performed by holding down the “Alt + right shift + del” key combinations for a few seconds). If the soft reset doesn’t fix the problem, the user should attempt to hard reset the device (this is performed by pressing the “reset” button located on the back of the BlackBerry device using a pin). If the user is still not able to send and receive emails using the BlackBerry device, they should check the strength of the wireless antenna signal and make sure that the antenna shows “GPRS”. The user should then attempt to make a phone call and browse the internet, to make sure that the GSM service is still available. At this stage, it is best to escalate the issue to the BlackBerry provider, because the network might be experiencing some downtime and this means that the GPRS service will not be available.

The BlackBerry stopped responding
If the BlackBerry stopped responding, the user will report that the screen of the device is frozen and they are not able to click on anything on the screen and unable to scroll up and down. This problem is very common and happens to most computer-related devices. To fix this problem, the user can perform a soft reset (by holding down the “Alt + right shift + del” key combinations for a few seconds). If the device is still frozen after performing the soft reset, the user can perform a hard reset (by pressing the “reset” button located on the back of the BlackBerry device using a pin). It is important to note that a soft reset and a hard reset would not result in any loss of data.

Unable to synchronise the BlackBerry
There are a number of causes as to why a BlackBerry device would stop synchronising its data with the server. It is recommended that the user escalates this issue to the IT department in their company, or that they visit the BlackBerry website to search for the relevant fix for the problem they are experiencing.

Problems with backlight and screen delays
Another common problem with BlackBerry devices relates to the screen’s backlight. The problems would generally range from the screen delay flashing off too early up to not being able to see the backlight on the screen at all. To fix these problems, the user will need to go to the “Preferences” or “Options” menu and select the Screen / Keyboard and adjust the settings of the device’s backlight.

[21/05/2012 15:44:02]