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How Mobile Phones Work Behind the Scenes

Posted by timothy on from the they-all-suck-to-different-degrees dept.

adamengst writes "We seldom think about how our mobile phones actually work, but in this TidBITS article, Rich Mogull pulls back the covers and peels away the jargon to explain why text messages work when voice calls are dropped, why your battery lasts longer in some places than in others, why you're not allowed to use phones on airplanes, why you can be notified of a voicemail message when your phone never rang, and more."

8 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. One thing didn't get explained at this moment... by sam0737 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    why it get slashdotted.

    Oh I know now, it's because it get slashdotted...

  2. Server error! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    The server encountered an internal error and was unable to complete your request.

    Error message:
    couldn't create child process: 35: index.cgi

    If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.
    Error 500

  3. Re:Shortlist of answers: by .sig · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    It's the magic smoke inside the cell phones that do it, it's ionized such that it can it maintains polarity with the magic cell towers. That's why if you break one, letting the magic smoke out, it won't work anymore.

    --
    -Space for rent
  4. why the redundant "story" in all the tags?? by CodeMunch · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    tags are sucking worse than usual this week. Why is "story" in every damn ARTICLE posting? who runs this place?

    Why is whatcouldpossiblygowrong laser and sharks not a permanent tag on every article?

    1. Re:why the redundant "story" in all the tags?? by KookyMan · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      New tag system apparently. Mouse over the various tags and you'll see there are three tag types--Top, System, and Type. I'm presuming that since there are more stories submitted than anything, the Story tag will be on almost every entry.

  5. /.ed by ray13eezy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    damn you slashdot. look what you're doing to these poor web pages. they may never be able to recover from this kind of shock. and i really wanted to know how cell phones work! (although i probably wouldn't have if i hadn't read it on here first)

    --
    Rumble in the Jungle
  6. Well... by kamikaze2112 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    looks like the web server is in a dead zone...

  7. The same way... by thewils · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    as they work in front of the scenes I should imagine.

    --
    Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.