Glossary K - O

LCD screen

Stands for Liquid Crystal Display. The type of display screen on many handheld devices. See also TFT

Megapixel

A measure of resolution that reflects the ability of a digital camera to record detail. The more megapixels a camera has, the more detail its images can contain and the more they can be enlarged without losing clarity.

Microsoft Origami

Microsoft’s new portable media player with PDA and games functionality.

MMS

Multimedia Messaging Service. A system which allows images, graphics and audio files to be sent with text messages. MMS can be sent to another MMS enabled phone or to an email so non-MMS phone users can collect messages.

Mobile Blog

A moblog, or a mobile blog, is an online record of anything you feel like sharing with the world, whether they want it or not. The difference between moblogging and regular blogging is that you use your phone or Pocket PC to post text or pictures.

MP3 sound file

MP3 is a form of compression. In short is stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer III, which was developed by the Moving Picture Experts’ Group (MPEG).

MP3 music files are CD quality compressed recordings that occupy approximately one tenth to one twelfth less file space than the equivalent CD format WAV/AIFF file, which is achieved by filtering out all noise that is not detectable to the human ear.

When sound is compressed into an MP3 file, an attempt is made to get rid of the frequencies that can't be heard.

MP3 player

A digital audio player. More commonly referred to as an MP3 player.  It can store, organise and play music files, not just MP3 file formats but potentially Windows Media Audio, or  Advanced Audio Codec. Some MP3 players can record voice in WAV file format.

Operating system (OS)

The program that is store in the Read Only Memory (ROM) and controls a handheld's main features. Operating systems include Palm, Windows Mobile or Windows Pocket PC, Linux and Symbian.

 

 

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Other sections

In Practice

Examples and ideas showing practical ways to use the different devices in the classroom and out and about

Choose the Right Device

What to look for when buying the devices, reviews and suggestions

FAQs for Organisations

Issues and questions that organisations experience

Technical Tips

Troubleshooting, software and hardware solutions

Making it Accessible

Ways to use the technology accessibly

The Future

The changing world of handheld devices