DVB-H

DVB-H is the European standard for digital broadcast television for mobile devices. It stands for Digital Video Broadcast - Handheld, and is a variant of the DVB-T ("Terrestrial) standard that was defined for non-mobile devices. As of 2007 there were live DVB-H trials running in many European countries as well as a number of countries elsewhere in the world. Also known as: "Digital Video Broadcast - Handheld"

CTIA

The CTIA is an non-profit organization that supports the wireless industry in the United States. They loby the government on behalf of the industry as well as put on industry shows like the CTIA Wireless show in the spring and the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment show that takes place in the fall. CTIA officially stands for Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, but the group refrains from using the long form of its name these days.

carrier

Carrier is a term commonly used in the United States and Canada to refer to a company that provides voice or data services. Carriers can be companies that operate wirelessly or over traditional wired land lines. Examples of such are T-Mobile, Verizon, Comcast, and Time Warner. Also known as: "network carrier", "wireless carrier"

Bluetooth Special Interest Group

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, or SIG, is the governing body that controls the official specifications of the Bluetooth wireless technology. This not-for-profit entity is comprised of over 7000 member companies. The SIG itself does not manufacture any Bluetooth devices, it is merely the entity that defines the specification. Also known as: "Bluetooth SIG"

BenQ

BenQ is a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer that creates products ranging from DVD burners to monitors and digital cameras. The company also manufactures mobile phones for the Asian market, and had plans for expansion into the world market with its acquisition of Siemens Mobile, allowing it to form BenQ Siemens. The Munich based BenQ Siemens Mobile venture failed to become successful, filing for bankruptcy in 2006. BenQ has once again pulled back into serving primarily its home Asian market.

AVRCP

The Audio/Video Remote Control Profile is a Bluetooth profile that allows Bluetooth devices to control media playback on remote devices. It is typically used with A2DP devices for next/previous track selection and pause/play functions. Also known as: "Audio/Video Remote Control Profile"

Bandwidth

The amount of data that can be sent over a given network connection. Used to describe the "speed" of a connection between two devices.

AWS

AWS, which stands for Advanced Wireless Services, generally refers to the 1700/2100MHz frequency band pairing in the U.S. that will be used for T-Mobile USA's 3G UMTS network. Unlike typical spectrum licenses sold by the U.S. government, such as the 1900MHz PCS spectrum bands, the AWS bands use different frequency ranges for cell towers than they do for handsets. The U.S. government has indicated that it intends to offer other paired AWS bands in the future, but none are currently in use. Also known as: "Advanced Wireless Services"

Active Matrix

Active matrix LCD displays are known for their superior performance when compared with passive matrix LCD technologies. From the user's perspective, an active matrix display has higher contrast and better color saturation than do the cheaper passive matrix displays. Most active matrix LCDs are of the TFT type.

4G (Fourth Generation)

4G is the term used to refer to the next wave of as yet unknown mobile technologies that will be used to replace current 3G networks. It is expected that WiMAX will be one of the favored 4G technologies.

AMOLED

AMOLED, which stands for Active Matrix OLED, is a hybrid display technology that pairs the active matrix backplane from a traditional TFT display with an OLED display. As a result of their active matrix natures, AMOLED displays have faster pixel switching response times than do traditional OLED displays, which are prone to ghosting when displaying fast moving animations.

PalmSource

PalmSource is the operating system division of Palm that was spun off in 2002. Palm then renamed itself palmOne, but has since renamed itself once again back to Palm. In 2004 PalmSource acquired China MobileSoft, a Chinese company that was developing a version of the Linux OS for mobile devices. PalmSource then announced that the next version of the Palm OS would run on top of Linux, and that the upcoming Palm OS 6 (aka Cobalt) OS would be killed off. PalmSource was since purchased by ACCESS in 2005, and in late 2007 dropped Palm from its name completely, now calling itself ACCESS, like its parent. In January 2007 ACCESS announced that it was dropping the Palm OS name for its OS offering and would instead call it the Garnet OS. Garnet was the codename for Palm OS v5.

2G (Second Generation)

2G is short for Second Generation, the name usually given to original GSM, CDMA, and TDMAnetworks. 1G, a term rarely used, would refer to the original analog (AMPS) type mobile networks first used in the early 1980s.