Mobile Computing and Social Networks - Assignment Example

Mobile Computing and Social Networks Mobile Computing and Social Networks Today, mobile-based applications can capture geolocation data and customer data, and quickly upload them to a processing server without the help of a desktop system. Geolocation can be simply referred to the practice of identifying accurate geographical position of an object such as cell phone or internet-connected computer terminal. To define, “geolocation is defined as the determination of an absolute object position from relative position measurements.” (Semper, 2008). Geolocation technology is one of the most popular trends in social networking. It greatly assists people to know their actual geographical position and to locate popular restaurants or other important places near to their physical location. Today, most of the mobile phones have internet access and they support GPS. GPS-enabled mobile phones can easily capture geolocation data. In addition, internet connected mobile devices can be used to access applications like MapQuest or Google map and to obtain directions to the desired location. When an individual uses applications like MapQuest on his/her desktop, he/she needs to print the required data out. There is no need of such a hard copy while using a smartphone to access geolocation data because smartphones can detect the user’s exact position even when they are on move. It is identified that such mobile-based applications perform better in terms of efficiency and effectiveness because most of the mobile phones use touch-screen display today. Therefore users can easily navigate between various options and zoom in maps or other images. Since people depend more on mobile devices to capture geolocation data and customer data, today the software world gives particular focus to improving the performance of those mobile-based applications. Mobile-based geolocation technology may also assist users to obtain some vital information about the people they spend time with and an exact view of their social network. Evidently, development of mobile-based applications to capture geolocation data has made life more convenient. For instance, today people can use GPS-enabled smartphones to reach an unknown geographical location without external assistance. It seems that this technology greatly adds to the mobility of people. Earlier, people had to depend on others to travel to distant unknown places and to find different facilities over there. With the emergence of mobile-based geolocation application, today people can easily travel across the globe and find nearest hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, and book stores regardless of where they are. In addition to geolocation data, the mobile-based applications are capable of capturing a variety of customer data including transaction receipts, bank statements, and energy consumption records. This facility assists people very much to do money planning, time management, and budgetary control. In addition, improved access to customer data greatly aids users to promote effective utilization of available resources. The most efficient feature of those applications is that even low-cost mobile devices can support them today. In short, mobile-based applications that can capture geolocation data and customer data greatly benefit people to lead more convenient life in an economic way. Today, faster internet connections are also offered to mobile devices and therefore it is easy for users to quickly upload data to a processing server without having access to a desktop system. This facility has greater applications in the insurance sector. In order to file vehicle accident claims, users can take pictures at the accident spot and immediately upload them to the company’s server using modern mobile-based applications. In this way, people can avoid time delay involved in filing accident claims. 2. The ability to gain access to their own data via mobile applications is greatly beneficial for customers. The major advantage of this system is that it would assist consumers to save a considerable amount of their time and money. Today, almost all people own a mobile device and majority of them use one or other type of mobile applications. Hence, this system would make life easier and more comfortable. Under this system, consumers do not need to go to offices or companies to obtain their data. Instead, they can gain access to their personal data using mobile applications. This facility greatly benefits customers to download electronic receipts of purchases at home. This facility would remind them about guarantee expiry dates as well. Consumers can facilitate thoughtful money management by gaining access to their own data. To justify, customers can take advantages of analysis and advice services that in turn would benefit them to evaluate their spending in term of chosen categories. This helps them set sound budgets. This system would assist consumers to obtain their energy consumption data from respective energy providers. As a result, a consumer can exactly identify how much gas or electricity he/she is using at a particular point of time. In the same way, the customer can evaluate their phone usage too. Therefore, it can be argued that when consumers gain 24 hour access to their own data, they can frequently monitor their purchasing behavior and thereby cut down unnecessary spending habits if any. Thus, consumers can ensure optimum use of their money. Recently the UK government has identified the significance of allowing consumers to obtain access to their own data, and therefore proposed a plan called Midata project. The Midata project requires utilities and web based firms to provide consumers with machine readable records of transactions. As per BBC report dated Aug 22, 2012, the UK Consumer Minister Norman Lamb opines that allowing customers to access their own transaction data is advantageous for both consumers and UK businesses. Lamb adds that “Midata will allow consumers greater insight into their everyday consumption and lifestyle habits by using applications and intermediaries to analyze their actual behaviors and thereby empower them to make better spending choices and secure the best deals” (BBC News). Similarly, this facility is greatly helpful for banking customers as it aids them to obtain different services including bank statements with the help of mobile applications. When customers gain access to their banking data at home, they need not to miss important conferences or other meetings. Evidently, the frequent access to banking data would assist people to effectively plan their financial future. Furthermore, this type of periodical reviews may benefit consumers to mitigate security risks including credit card fraud to a great extent. In the field of healthcare, consumers obtain a range of benefits by gaining access to their own data. By accessing their own health care data, it is possible for consumers to cut down unnecessary health costs. For instance, health organizations like hospitals store patient medical information including blood group, scan reports, and other records. If the individual seeks healthcare assistance in another hospital after a few days or months, they do not have to spend additional money on blood group tests and scanning if they have access to their health care data. In addition, by gaining access to their medical data, clients can seek expert advices online. Likewise, this facility enables clients to use social networking sites to find people having similar medical concerns. Therefore, this system is a potential solution to address the concerns over growing healthcare costs. In sum, consumers can obtain more control over their life and keep personal data at a mouse-click distance by having access to their own data via mobile applications. 3. There are some potential challenges to developing applications that run on mobile devices because of the small screen size. It is obvious that mobile applications cannot offer as many features as applications that run on computer devices, because the screen real estate (it is amount of space available on a screen display for an application to give output) of mobile devices are limited. While developing mobile applications, it is very important for developers to identify major features that most of the prospective users would require (Accenture, 2012). For this, the developers must research what the users are actually trying to accomplish using that particular application. Such a research may assist developers to explore what features have to be integrated into the application. However, it is often difficult to identify the actual user needs because user tastes may vary from individual to individual. Another challenge is that the images that look great on a mobile screen can be of low-quality while it is displayed on a PC or printout. This issue may persuade users not to use mobile-based applications. Today, numerous types of cell phones are available in the market with different features, display screens, and screen resolutions. Therefore, it becomes extremely difficult for mobile application developers to define the ideal resolution a particular application should have (Smashing Magazine, 2012). In this context, if developers add too many features to mobile applications, the screen resolution problem will worsen the performance of those applications. Many applications including games do not run properly on small mobile screens because of resolution changes. In short, it can be argued that small screen size can result in clumsiness of mobile applications. Generally, cell phone fonts are very small in size, and hence it is very difficult to read with ease. Since cell phone screens are small in size, fonts in the applications developed also need to be small. For a developer, it is impossible to change the default font size of a mobile device. Evidently, different cell phone models have different font sizes and this situation raises many potential challenges to the task of developing mobile applications. Under such circumstances, there is no way for developers other than making the font size as large as possible. The small screen size also causes many problems to developers with regard to cursor functions. Today, most of the cell phones have touch screens and use any of the techniques such as stylus, trackball, or track pad to navigate between different options. Hence, drag and drop features on a tiny mobile screen are turning out to be a difficult problem for end users. Hence, developers are forced to avoid such features in mobile applications and they need to make everything on the screen clickable and enlargeable. While developing applications for mobile devices; developers need to fit all the desired features into a limited screen real estate. Experts indicate that “the much smaller page excerpts displayed on a handheld device screen interferes with page functionality and user comprehension. The result is that users have to spend an inordinate amount of time awkwardly scrolling up and down as well as left and right” ( Patton, 2006). Due to the restricted screen real estate, developers are also forced to limit the use of graphics and to minimize the page length and size while designing mobile applications. 4. A wide variety of methods can be employed to decide which mobile platform has to be opted. Undoubtedly, the chosen platform must actually fit the requirements of the user. While considering different mobile platforms, individuals must assess their product perceptions even in the case of most popular platforms. In addition, developers’ experience in developing a particular platform must also be evaluated. For this, the individual must perform a detailed research. It is recommendable for individuals to use Google search to find features and options provided by different mobile platforms. It is better for the individual to particularly evaluate online user forums to obtain a clear view of the actual user experiences. They must specify the features and functions of the platform they require. According to Colbert (2012), there are five questions an individual can ask themselves before choosing the right platform. They are; are you interested in Google environments already? :- Colbert says that if the individual uses Gmail, Google Docs, and other Google solutions in their day to day PC use, then Android may provide them with a more seamless experience. are you a Windows or Mac user? :- Windows users may find Android as the best choice because it allows the user to explore and to get into the depths of the device. In contrast, an Apple Macintosh owner may consider iPhone as a more comfortable and familiar platform to support. do most of your friends have iPhones and other iOS devices, or do they have Android smartphones? : - The author clearly insists individuals to consider platforms used by most of their friends. To illustrate, Colbert says that if an individual chooses a 4G LTE Android device and all his friends use Facetime, he/she is going to be left out. do you plan on using this device as a BYOD on your corporate network to access company email or other resources? :- If the individual plans to do so, they must certainly consult with his/her IT team and determine the exact platform to be supported. What is your experience with spam, viruses, and malware? :- If the individual is constantly affected by spam, viruses, and malware, it is better for them to use an iOS device. Even though it may limit the freedom of the user, this platform guarantees more level of security than its competitors. (Source: Colbert, 2012). Similarly, iPad is the best option for business people who need to give presentations to partners and staff. iPad has extensive features particularly designed for making presentations appealing. In addition, it can be simply used as a sales brochure. Using some advanced modern applications, desktop files can be accessed using iPad. This feature provides users with greater convenience. Another notable benefit is that iPad can be used as an external monitor to extend display area. Evidently, the identified features would greatly support business processes in the marketplace. Likewise, individuals must carefully analyze different features provided by Windows phone before choosing it as a platform. As compared to other platforms discussed, Windows phone is more user-friendly and its options are very common to all. 5. There is no doubt that mobile applications require high availability. Traditionally, two major techniques were used to provide availability. As described in the msdn website, the first method was based on the use of multiple CPUs. Under this system, several processors share the I/O subsystem and memory with the help of symmetric multiprocessor (SMP). This method is not effective because disk I/O and memory speed significantly restricted the memory throughput. The second approach was to “use a duplicate system with fully replicated components” (msdn). It has also several drawbacks including service transfer difficulty and increased maintenance costs. In order to eliminate such issues and hence to improve availability, today developers focus particularly on availability engineering. “Availability engineering is about doing your best to create reliable application components and infrastructure, accepting the reality that your application probably will have at least some failures, and designing in quick recovery technology to minimize (or even eliminate) downtime” (msdn). Recently, a number of approaches have been developed to provide high availability of mobile applications. Clustering is a suggestive method to support high availability applications. Using clustering method, a multiserver Web site can address hardware as well software failures on individual servers and continue working without any interruption in service. As described in the msdn site, the clustering technology works through connecting many physical servers, and hence if one server fails to run the application, it is swapped over to another and continues running. The major feature of this technique is that it facilitates running of two or more independent servers as a single system. In the event of a server failure, the workload is automatically swapped over to another server and in the meantime, the failed application service is also restarted. It must be noted that there is no apparent downtime during these processes. Although the user may experience a slight delay, the application service will be completed properly. In order to gain maximum advantages of the clustering technology, an application should keep “configuration and state information on shared-disk storage” (msdn). Another potential way to improve availability is the use of Network Load Balancing (NLB). Experts suggest that when a server fails, NLB can play a crucial role in redefining the cluster and directing traffic to other potential servers. NLB is particularly beneficial for promoting e-commerce applications. When client traffic increases, additional 32 servers can be added in a single cluster. Since NLB automatically detects server breakdowns and direct the traffic to other servers, uninterrupted services are provided to the user (msnd). Continuous application service is one of the major benefits of NLB and this feature assists providers to keep their Web site always online and thereby offer improved customer experience. Incremental server addition is another benefit of NLB. This feature avoids huge initial investments as cluster changes drive immediate and “automatic redistribution of the network load” (msdn). In addition, offline maintenance is possible while using NLB. More precisely, for maintenance purposes, servers can be kept offline without interrupting the performance of application services. Finally, Queuing is also a better technique to provide high availability for mobile applications. Under this technique, an application can keep connected with other applications through the interchange of asynchronous messages. The Queuing method facilitates guaranteed message delivery. Since it creates more routs for successful message delivery, an application enhances the possibility of successful and quicker message completion. In addition, “its store and forward, guaranteed delivery, and dynamic routing features” have the potential to increase the availability of applications (msdn). 6. As compared to non-mobile devices, mobile devices are more prone to threats like hacking. It is identified that mobile devices are more exposed to hacking practices like phishing because fake phished web pages are difficult to identify when they are displayed on a small sized mobile screen. However, the user can take some proactive steps to improve the security of mobile devices. Firstly, single use of mobile devices is recommendable. When a mobile device is used by more than one person, the device’s security level is low. In order to prevent unauthorized access to the device, it is advisable for the user to enable password protection. It would become difficult for outsiders to unlock a password protected mobile device. The user must also try to increase the security of his device by changing passwords frequently. It is strongly recommendable for the user to enable the SIM card based protection also. If an outsider tries to replace the SIM card, the device will ask for the password and this technique adds to the security of the device. Under any circumstance, users should not share their passwords with anyone. It is better not to use simple combination of numbers like 1234 or 5555 or birth date as password. In addition, it is advisable to clear the browsing history each time the browsing session is completed. It is particularly import for users to keep the Bluetooth connection switched off when it is not in use because the mobile device is highly exposed to the threat of malware attacks when the Bluetooth connection is running. Secondly, the user must note down and securely keep the IMED number of the mobile device. This information would help the owner to prevent the misuse of the device in case of theft or device loss. Today technology has advanced unimaginably. Today, a phone can be switched off by sending a preset message to it. Users can rely on this technique to ensure the confidentiality of their information once their device is lost. By downloading some free security applications to mobile devices, users can protect their data from theft and malware and spyware attacks to a large extent. Some applications have some improved features like phone location, remote access lock, privacy report, SMS and call filtering, and date wipe-out. Evidently, such applications may assist the user to regain his mobile device as fast as possible in case of theft or loss. Thirdly, smartphone users never trust unknown applications as they can be the potential sources of malware attacks. Therefore, users must ensure the reliability of an application before downloading it. In addition, it is specifically advisable for users to rely on secure connections and keep operating systems and different applications secure always. For this, it is better to run checks for updates periodically. This method is effective to detect new versions of viruses and spyware and hence to promote the security of the mobile device. It is also advisable for individuals to use remote wipe capabilities, which can remotely clean phone memory and external memory in the event of loss or theft of the device. This feature may benefit users to prevent unknown persons from accessing their data and thereby promote the confidentiality of their private information. By using proper firewalls, a user can regulate the accessibility of different kinds of data stored. If the mobile device has an encryption option, the users must enable it because this technique would ensure the encryption of sensitive data. A common security failure found with mobile devices is that majority of the users do not change their default voice mail passwords. The recent News International phone-hacking scandal in UK indicates how unchanged default voice mail passwords may compromise security. As Loftus (2011) reported in the Wall Street Journal, the News International unauthorizedly accessed the mobile phone voice mail boxes of many celebrities and other people in an effort to obtain some hot stories. Reportedly, most of the victims had been using the default voice mail passwords. Loftus says that a customized password could have prevented such attempts. Therefore, it is recommendable for users to change their default voice mail password and provide them to wireless providers concerned. References Accenture. (2012). ‘Mobile Application Development: Challenges and Best Practices’. Retrieved From http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture-Mobile-Application-Development-Challenges-Best-Practices.pdf BBC News (2012). ‘ Midata project plan for compulsory customer data’. Retrieved From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19331302 msdn. (2003). Designing for Availability. msdn. Retrieved From http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa291866(v=vs.71).aspx Loftus,T. (2011). How to Make Your Mobile Phone a Bit Safer. The Wall Street Journal, July, 11. Retrieved From http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/07/11/how-to-make-your-mobile-phone-a-bit-safer/ Patton , T. (2006). Consider these design issues when developing mobile applications. TechRepublic. Retrieved From http://www.techrepublic.com/article/consider-these-design-issues-when-developing-mobile-applications/6092201 Semper, S. R. (2008). Decentralized Geolocation and Optimal Path Planning Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. ProQuest. Smashing Magazine, (2012). Guidelines For Mobile Web Development. Retrieved From http://www.smashingmagazine.com/guidelines-for-mobile-web-development/   Read More