Before the smart phone era, one might not have imagined any other function of a phone other than a phone call.
[C4.] Microchip Advance Announced Texas Instruments is set to announce that it has integrated most computing functions of a mobile phone onto a single microchip.
Think of the iPhone, which fulfills the functions of a watch, phone, camera, clock, DVD and CD player, barometer, and so on.
One of these chips supports the functions of a cell phone handset (baseband et al)., and one is an applications processor to support other features (MP3, web browsing, email, camera and, of course, GPS).
They combine the functions of a mobile phone and PDA (Portable Digital Assistant), in addition to enabling Internet access and imaging and video functionality.
Meanwhile, data such as a phone's location, as well as personal information accessed through "leaky" apps, are sent to cell towers as part of a phone's normal functioning.
The trend is throwing a spotlight onto phone processors, which basically function as the engine of a phone.
It has the usual friendly green and red call buttons; the former doubles up as a menu button for many of the basic functions of the phone such as texting; plus a back button that if held down launches the phone's voice activation menu.
Or perhaps SRD could be used to add a second screen to a smartphone or its case that lets you use certain functions of your phone, such as reading (an idea that has been tried before with eInk technology).
The system can disable certain functions of the phone, like calling or texting, when it is in a moving automobile.
