We use many different accessories to extend the functionality of our mobile devices. In this video, you’ll learn about headsets, speakers, docking stations, protective covers, and many other mobile device accessories.
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One mobile accessory I couldn’t live without would be my mobile headset. This allows me to listen to audio and communicate through a microphone, all hands free without having the phone up to my ear. This usually is something you’ll see in a wired connection using a TRRS connector. That stands for Tip-Ring-Ring-Sleeve. And they’re also wireless versions of headsets as well using Bluetooth that I can simply put it on my ear and not have any wires connecting to the phone. Here’s a close up of the wired TRRS connector. The tip, the ring, the ring, and the sleeve. This allows us to have a left and right channel where we can listen to audio, and a separate microphone connection going to the phone.
If you like listening to music on your mobile device, you might want to consider getting an external set of speakers. These are mobile devices that are usually powered with batteries and we’re able to communicate wirelessly to these through a Bluetooth connection. This allows us to have stereo audio without the tiny speakers that might be in our mobile devices, and it’s mobile enough that we can take it from place to place.
If you like playing games on your mobile device, but you don’t like using the flat display of your phone or your tablet, you might want to consider getting an external game pad. This gives you the same look and feel as using a console game pad, but allows us to use this on our mobile devices using Bluetooth.
Just like laptops have their own set of docking stations, you can also get docking stations for your mobile devices. So you wouldn’t have to plug-in any wires, you simply place your mobile device in the docking station and it’s connected. This also places the phone up right so you can see it. This may be a problem if you have a case wrapped around your phone, but this does provide you with another option for placing your phone where you can see it very easily. These docking stations not only allow you to charge your phone, but you can synchronize data through these docking stations as well.
One important resource on our mobile devices is power. We need to make sure we always have enough charge to be able to get through the rest of our day. Many mobile devices will allow you to swap out the internal battery. You can take the back of the case off and then have extra batteries that are already charged that you can simply replace inside of the mobile device. My mobile device doesn’t have an internal battery that I can swap out, so I need an external charger that I can connect through a USB connection, so that wherever I am, I can always charge my phone. Here’s an example of an external USB charger. The battery would be in this device, and I’m using the standard charging cable to be able to connect to my mobile device from this external battery.
There are also a number of protected covers we can get for our mobile devices. One common protective cover would go on the screen itself to help avoid any scratches. These can be difficult to install, but if you’re really good at the installation, you’ll never know that the protected cover is over your screen. Another type of protective cover might go around the entire device. This helps protect it if you happen to drop it or it happens to bump into something. But this can create problems if you have an external docking connection and you need to fit it into a very tight area.
If you own a business, you may want to be able to accept credit cards. One way to do this is through your mobile device using one of these mobile device credit card readers. This connects to the audio jack on your mobile device, and it uses the existing internet connection to get immediate approvals for that credit card transaction. These credit card readers also allow for some additional features, like being able to send somebody their receipt over email. And of course, it makes it very easy to sign for your product by using your finger on the mobile device screen.
Some mobile devices allow you to increase the storage space by adding an SD card or a micro SD card to the device. This is very common to see on Android devices, but is not currently a feature available on iOS devices. As our devices are getting smaller, we tend to use the micro SD because it is a smaller form factor. It’s almost too small. It’s very easy to lose these micro SD cards, but it is increasing the amount of space that we have on our mobile devices, and as you can see they’re much smaller than the larger SD cards that we used to use.