I love old games. They’re a part of my history and there are a ton that really do hold up years later. I’m playing through X-COM and Chrono Trigger right now, and regularly test my skills at Kung Fu, Mega Man 2, and Ninja Gaiden. Friends, co-workers, and strangers, when they catch me in the act, are always seized by a strange mix of revulsion and admiration. They then usually have some game they’d like to play, and subsequently squeal in childlike joy as the title screen comes up. Little do they know it’s extremely easy to get on almost any computer, but the world of emulation can be daunting at first. Let’s go over what an emulator is, then check out some of the many that are available.

An emulator is essentially your computer pretending to be another kind of computer. The hardware is not necessary and can be mimicked by your computer, the drives being “virtual” drives into which you put the disks or cartridges called ROMs. These Read Only Memory files are basically just all the data from the physical disk saved to a file on your computer. So you start the virtual Atari, let’s say, insert the virtual disk into the virtual disk drive, and you get to play the real game you played when you were a kid. It’s all in good fun, except that it’s kind of illegal. We’ll get to that later.

The more complicated the machine, the harder it is to emulate, and the faster computer you’ll need. Emulation has more or less been perfected up to the Playstation and N64 generation, at that point it gets kind of shaky. Let’s look at some of the best emulators for the more popular systems; we’ll work our way up from the 2600 to the PS2.

One more thing: before you get started downloading, I recommend creating a folder for all your emulators, as they have weird names and you’ll forget where they are and what they do. If you have questions about setup, we’ll settle those later. Moving on:

Old computers:
Atari 2600:
The best option is probably Stella, which is multi-platform and has been around for ages.
I don’t know too much about these PCs, but if you had one you’ll probably know how to configure it.
Amiga: WinUAE
C64: VICE
MSX: BlueMSX
Amstrad CPC: CPCE
DOS: DOSBOX, I’ll have a whole column for this one later. So much fun.

Nintendo Entertainment System:
NES emulation has come really far. The original, Nesticle, was playable more than a decade ago but now the emulators are much better. NEStopia is your best move, though close on its heels is the formidable FCEU Ultra. On OSX, the Nestopia port is the winner by miles.

Sega Master System/Genesis/32X/etc:
KEGA Fusion is a multi-system Sega emulator (scroll down on that page to download). Whether it’s Sonic 2 or Virtua Fighter, I think Kega’s your program, though for Genesis I’ve also had good luck with Gens. Mac users should use Genesis Plus.

Super Nintendo:
The big daddy of emulation. There was a war for years between two rival emulators, Snes9x and ZSNES, with a sort of arms race of compatibility, hackability, and beauty. These days I use ZSNES, but if you don’t like its interface, Snes9x has a more native-looking one. Snes9x is also the best one for OSX.

NEO-GEO:
Some NEO-GEO games will run in MAME, but Finalburn Alpha works great for me. Kawaks is also a good option if you don’t like the way FBA looks. If your computer can handle it, they both run the Metal Slug games very well.

Sega Saturn:
I’ve never gotten Saturn emulators to work right. However, options are available if you speak French or Japanese. A working Saturn emulator is a holy grail for some because of lost treasures on the system like Radiant Silvergun and Sonic R.

Playstation:
ePSXe has always been the king of the hill, and I got most of the way through Chrono Cross using it. Incredibly, the ePSXe team are going to put out another release soon and updated their site just earlier this month after five years‘ absence. If you’re interested in PSX emulation, wait a bit and you’ll get a sweet update.

Nintendo 64:
There used to be a huge amount of competition between the various N64 emulators. Corn ran Mario 64 brilliantly, Nemu64 did Harvest Moon, and everyone stood in awe of UltraHLE, which ran Ocarina of Time from its first release and was subsequently abandoned. Those all fell by the wayside however as 1964 and Project 64 took to the fore. I definitely had some good times in P64, when there were about 10 plugins each for video, audio, and input. Read the readmes and follow the instructions! It can be complicated.

Gameboy Advance:
VisualBoyAdvance is the best for both Windows and OSX, if I remember correctly. I highly recommend Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

Playstation 2:
You need a hefty rig to make it happen, but PCSX2 is actually doing the PS2 emulation thing right. Believe me, it looks nice. There’s a great compatibility list here, but don’t even think about diving into this unless you’re interested in configuring plugins and stuff.

Gamecube:
I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like Dolphin is the best emulator. I’ll have to give it a shot.

Arcade:
Without a doubt, MAME is what you’re looking for. Runs an unbelievable amount of games. Work is ongoing, I got into MAME back in 0.29 or so, they’re up to 0.124 now. I use MAME32FX, one of many GUIs for MAME; I’m used to it but there are more if you want a different look and feel.

Once you’ve gotten your emulator, you’ll need ROMs for it. This is a kind of legal grey area, as they are essentially copies of the games, many of which are still for sale. And now with XBLA and Wii’s Virtual Console on the scene, emulation of old games is more controversial than ever. It goes without saying that you shouldn’t pirate games, but nobody is going to kneecap you for downloading a couple 2600 games you used to play when you were a kid. There are places all over the net to find ROMs but I won’t link to any here for any legal reasons. However, I’ve heard there is a certain asylum where many emus and ROMs reside. Perhaps if you googled for some kind of “emulator asylum” it would be the first result.

That’s pretty much the end of my expertise on the various species of emulator. In a short while we’ll have part two up, where you can learn some of the great things you can do with emulators, how to set them up right, and other useful tips for getting some of the trickier things like DOS emulation working correctly. That’s right, time to get your Scorched Earth on.

http://www.crunchgear.com/?p=25035

So what makes an OLED an OLED? Well, think of it like a sandwich. The top layer consists of a cathode followed by an emissive layer then a conductive layer, an anode and then a substrate. Both the emissive and conductive layers are organic in some respect. Each film consists of a hole-injection layer, hole-transparent layer, and an emissive layer that is then followed by an electron-transport layer. When a bit of juice is applied to the OLED, the positive and negative charges come together in the emissive layer and create light. To further elaborate on this I’ll try and break it down as best I can from the brain cells that are still around from college and retained some of this knowledge. The flow of electricity goes from the cathode to the anode via the layers in between. The positive electrons are pulled from the cathode through the emissive layer, which is then extracted by the anode through the conductive layer. When this happens all the positive balls of energy cluster together and bam. We now have light. Of course, it’s entirely way more detailed than that, but I think you get the drift.

What are the advantages of OLED? They’re a heck of a lot brighter than LEDs. They’re also lighter and more flexible than LCDs and LEDs. They don’t require any backlighting like LCDs. They can be made as large or as small as someone wants since substrates are easy to come by and these tend to be plastic and/or flexible, opening the door to a whole world of possibilities. The viewing angle is much better than on LCDs and the response time is way faster as well.

The advantages certainly outnumber the disadvantages, but the disadvantages are a huge deal as to why OLEDs aren’t more readily available in devices today. They’re crazy expensive to produce. An 11-inch TV that costs $2,500?! Exactly. That’s a red flag. Lifetime on the OLEDs isn’t that great, either. It’ll last roughly 5 years if it’s left on for 8 hours a day. But it’s a work in progress. I hate to say it, but my favorite element is a real killer here. Any amount of water will destroy or severely damage the organic materials involved rendering your investment worthless.

In the coming years, we’ll see all sorts of variations of OLEDs in various devices. It seems like a lot of mobile phone screens are getting the AMOLED treatment and the main difference is that an AMOLED has a layer of TFT underneath the Anode that forms a matrix. Because of this combination, certain pixels get turned on while others don’t. The possibilities here look to be endless. Anything with a screen can be replaced with OLEDs. That reduces the amount of power being used and gives us better picture quality. Don’t you just love the future of technology?

Images from How Stuff Works.

Keeping with our Linux theme for the week, I present this week’s Orientation on, well, Linux. Despite a market share of less than 1 percent for the Linux OS compared to 92 percent for Windows and a smidge over 7 percent for Apple’s Mac OS, the seldom used (by the general public) OS is the epitome of open source dev and free software. I mostly dabbled with Linux in college and haven’t really used it much since. I’m a Mac user now but Darwin is different from the Linux kernel. It’s all based on Unix, but different nonetheless.

So for the uninitiated, here’s Linux in a nutshell.

Per the usual, let’s start with the basics. Linux is derived from the Linux kernel, which was started by Linus Torvalds in 1991. What’s a kernel? Well, it’s the central component of an OS. It essentially manages the communication between hardware and software. The Linux kernel is as wide open as Britney Spears’ legs when she gets out of a car. Everyone has a shot at it. But I digress. While in college Torvalds was enamored with Minix, but he wanted to make it better and that’s when Linux was born. When the Linux kernel was released, Torvalds called upon other programmers to build upon the kernel so long as they agreed to make it accessible to all.

Many have feared Linux for years because they thought it was too hard to navigate or that it wasn’t consumer friendly enough. It is, after all, based on Unix and that’s enough to scare anyone. But that’s not necessarily the case today. It’s gaining more of a foothold as proven by Dell’s inclusion of Ubuntu. It’s actually a pretty easy OS to learn thanks to the thousands of developers who’ve dumbed it down a bit for the common man. Developers like Mozilla and OpenOffice are two big ones that come to mind.

It all starts with a desktop management system that appears friendly and welcoming. GNOME and KDE are probably the most commonly used systems today. An X window manager is also a useful GUI that allocates separates windows for separate programs thus making your desktop clutter free and more manageable. Kind of like Spaces for Macs. From there you can program away in whatever language you prefer and optimize the OS to suit your needs. However, this can be somewhat of disadvantage for Linux.

You see, there are various distributions floating around and that can cause some confusion among the sheep. Each distribution of Linux has the same kernel, but the attached software, GUI, and even install process differ. However, I think that’s where Ubuntu fits in since a major manufacturer is distributing it. It won’t penetrate the market and gobble up significant market share from Windows or OS X, but it’s a step in the right direction. It’s a more unified approach that appeals to the masses.

Linux isn’t just a desktop OS anymore, either. It’s slowly creeping its way into phones and gaming systems. The Nokia N810 Internet tablet is a prime example and even Virgin America’s RED entertainment system is a flavor of Linux. Sony’s PS2 and PS3 consoles run Linux and previous gen iPods have been hacked to run Linux as well. Open source is the key here. A prime example of what is possible with a Linux OS is what Bug Labs is doing with open source hardware. It’s fully customizable to suit your needs and wants.

So, you see, Linux isn’t just an OS for nerds anymore. It’s infiltrating the general public ever so slightly. You may not know it, but it’s there like a lolcat in your cheeseburger that’s undercooked.

If you’re brave enough to try Linux then give Knoppix a whirl. It’s completely free and boots off a CD. So you don’t have to replace your existing OS.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/03/17/the-orientation-electronic-paper/

I won’t say that the technology is simple, but it’s easy to understand with the above description. But why is it important? Well, for starters, it consumes very little power and only needs a bit of juice to flip the spheres and can be used in larger applications that are flexible. Its implementation into watches, e-books and even cell phones is just the start. Color electronic paper is already in the works and LG.Philips has a 14.3-inch model with a resolution of 1280×800.

Where else would you like to see e-paper implemented?

Welcome, friends, to another edition of The Orientation. This week we’re going to be looking at digital TV. The switch is coming soon. Ok, not really. It’s still a year away, but let’s take a look at what it’s all about. What’s the difference between analog and digital? Should you care? Does it really matter? The answer to the last two are a resounding, yes. If anything, you can forward this story on to your parents or grandparents.

To begin, let’s take a look at analog TV and why everyone is switching to digital TV. It’s really not that complicated to figure out. Analog signals are a thing of the past and don’t deliver high quality content. Analog television systems are encoded using NTSC, PAL, or SECAM, which is then converted onto a VHF or UHF carrier. It’s all very archaic if you haven’t already figured that out. If it hasn’t quite set in then let me put it this way. Video is pixilated in rows and each pixel is designated a certain color and intensity. When the rows are combined with synchronization signals (horizontal and vertical) that’s called a composite video signal, which is broadcast over a specific frequency. In the US they happen to be VHF channels 2 through 13 and UHF channels 14 to 83. Video is transmitted via an AM signal while audio is sent via an FM signal. Basically what happens with this signal is that each frame gets painted on the screen.

But analog is going the way of the dodo. HD content is in and digital signals are the future (they have been since the 90s). Why do you think video over HDMI looks and sounds so great? Even digital cable kicks mucho butt. Everything is higher resolution and if you’ve purchased a TV in the last year or so then you should be fine. Just to be sure, check your TV or any accompanying material for terms like, “Integrated Digital Tuner,” “Digital Tuner Built-In,” “Digital Receiver,” or “Digital Tuner,” “DTV,” “ATSC,” or “HDTV.” OTA digital channels are cool, too. Just change the settings to ensure you can watch them. My parents recently purchased a 56-inch Samsung plasma and it rocks. Even I was impressed with the OTA channels.

However, if your TV is labeled: “Digital Monitor”, “HDTV Monitor”, “Digital Ready” or “HDTV Ready” then you’re SOL. Kind of. You’ll more than likely need a set-top box with a built-in digital tuner. But you’re old TV won’t become obsolete. Your cable box already does the digital converting for you so you won’t have to abandon ship. If you don’t subscribe to cable then you’ll need an external converter box to keep getting OTA channels.

If you’re upgrading your TV or already have then you may want to consider upgrading your DVD player as well. It doesn’t have to be a Blu-ray or HD DVD player, but it just won’t look as pretty since the TVs can only show the max resolution which is standard def and that blows. A decent upconverting player should be fine like a Toshiba HD DVD player. They’re cheap.

Digital TV signals are sent out over three formats: 480i/p, 720p or 1080i/p. The “i” and “p” stand for “interlaced” and “progressive”. The difference is that interlaced signals — which are what are broadcast now — draw every other line once a second. That accounts for the “flickr” you see when you watch TV. Progressive displays draw every line every second and looks far better. The 480i format is SD and that’s what everyone is used to as well as what DVDs playback at. 480p is the lowest HD resolution, and what progressive scan DVD players put out.

I like to think of 720p as fake HD. Don’t get me wrong, it still looks great and you probably won’t be able to tell the difference, but I’ve been spoiled so I notice. 1080p is where it’s at, but if you can avoid 1080i, do; interlacing just doesn’t look as good as progressive scan.

What makes digital TV special is the throughput rate of content. Broadcasters can send out 19.39Mbps, but without proper compression it’s going to look like poo. To transmit the content broadcasters use MPEG-2 because it allows them to pick screen the bit rate and screen size when encoding. The higher the bit rate the better the quality. It’s just like music in that respect. I try not download any mp3s (legally) that are less than 320Kbps.

So what exactly will happen when the switch is turned on or off depending on the way you look at it. As is, broadcasters beam both signals, but that takes up a substantial amount of bandwidth. Analog is a hog, you see, and broadcaster’s bandwidth is better utilized over digital signals. So just remember the advice I gave earlier and purchase a new TV or get yourself a converter (if you don’t subscribe to cable) because you won’t see jack-squat when the day of reckoning is upon us.

So, I hope you all learned something today. It may be things you already knew, but I’m sure you know enough folks who aren’t that savvy and have no idea their TVs will soon be outdated. February 17, 2009 is the switch-off for Analog TV. Mark your calendars.

Resistive touchscreens are mechanical sensors that consist of two layers of materials, which are separated by air or spacers. The bottom layer is usually made from glass, which is then covered with a conductive and resistive metallic layer. Pressure from your finger on the top layer makes contact with the bottom layer where the voltage at the contact point is measured and location computed along the X-Y axis. There seems to be a debate over which type is most durable. While some argue that a resistive touchscreen’s top layer can be stretched out or deformed over time you may want to consider it’s affordability and they’re not as affected by severe scratches the way capacitive touchscreens are. On another note, it only permits 75 percent of light from the monitor, which sucks when compared to a capacitive system allows up to 90 percent. The argument could last all day, really, but I’ll leave that up to you folks. You’ll find this type on just about every touchscreen surface you encounter on a daily basis. Think grocery stores kiosks.

A capacitive system is covered with a layer that stores an electrical charge and when you apply pressure with your finger or stylus the reference state is altered and the position of the change is registered based on the number of circuits between each corner of the panel. Because this type is based on electrical charges, you don’t necessarily have to apply that much pressure because it picks up even the slightest change as if you were hovering or gliding your finger across the plane. This type is most evident on the iPhone.

I realize there isn’t a whole lot of in-depth detail here and some of it might sound vague, but most of my sources for this week’s column essentially said the same thing with varied word vomit. This is meant to be a brief overview of some of the common types available to the masses today. As the technology grows, which it’s bound to do, we’ll delve further into it. But chances of us getting another go around on these types is highly unlikely. Multi-touch is the wave of the future and I’m not talking about the iPhone’s variation of it. Multi-touch has been around for almost three decades and was popularized, and I use that term loosely, by FingerWorks in the 90s with their Gesture Pads, which Apple subsequently bought out. Do I think touchscreens are fads? No. Do I like them in their current form? Absolutely not. Let’s see where the next couple generations of multi-touch go.

Thanks to Synaptics for some background info

DLP projector images are produced by the DMD chip that’s made up of hinged, microscopic electromechanical mirrors where each mirror represents a single pixel from the displayed image. Common DMD sizes include 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×720 and 1920×1080. All of these mirrors can be repositioned at the drop of a hat to reflect light through the lens or onto a heatsink, which is commonly known as light dumping. Think of DLP as a super high-end, fancy light switch. Switching the mirrors back and forth to the light source creates a grayscale, which in turn presents a light or dark pixel on the projection surface. The DLP site might make this part of it a tiny bit easier to understand.

“The bit-streamed image code entering the semiconductor directs each mirror to switch on and off up to several thousand times per second. When a mirror is switched on more frequently than off, it reflects a light gray pixel; a mirror that’s switched off more frequently reflects a darker gray pixel.”

Now that we’ve covered the grayscale, how do we get the colors? DLP is delivered in either one- or three-chip models. For the one chip-model, white light from the projector lamp travels through a color wheel that passes through red, green and then blue. From there it passes through one last stage that’s clear and basically cleans everything up and decreases any saturation that might occur before it hits the DMD chip. From there the DMD chip displays a full color image that isn’t dominated by one single color. How does that work out? Remember the color wheel I told you about? So the DMD chip is synchronized with the color wheel so that the red component is visible on the DMD and so forth. A single-chip DLP system is capable of displaying 16.7 million colors.

A three-chip DLP system is commonly found in cinemas or large venues because it creates a super high quality image or a super bright image, which is what you need in either application. The same thing basically happens on a three-chip system except red, green and blue have their own dedicated chip. It’s then combined and projected through the lamp. Three-chip systems can generate 35 trillion colors.

DLP isn’t perfect, though. One-chip systems suffer from the Rainbow Effect, which entails flashes of what you might think are shades of red/green/blue when viewing a bright/white object on a dark image. Think of the ending credits. But it’s not seen by everyone so it probably isn’t something you should worry about unless you’re weird and watch the ending credits all the way through. It does yield brighter and sharper images, but the bulbs have to be replaced every 1,000 to 6,000 hours. Picture quality might be sharper, but it doesn’t exactly produce the blackest of blacks.

DLP is making its way into more mainstream devices and CES was basically a launching pad for TI to showcase what DLP is capable of. I, for one, can’t wait to get my hands on a DLP HDTV over plasma and LCD. I hope this helped some of you and if others want to chime in and correct me or add anything then please feel free to do so in comments.

It’s been a while since my last Orientation, but we’ve all been traveling around for various events and such over the last month so it’s been a little hectic. To get things back on track, we’re going to talk about High-Definition Multimedia Interface, better known as HDMI. The Super Bowl is coming up as well as March Madness and some of you just got a brand new HDTV for the holidays so let’s try and get the best out of the whole deal. Sound good?

The HDMI interface was designed in ‘02 and produced in ‘03 by the HDMI Founders that include big shots like Hitachi, Philips, Sony, Toshiba, RCA, Silicon Image, and Panasonic. It didn’t really start to pick up a full head of steam until ‘06 when CE products started to integrate the interface. This year’s CES made it pretty clear how big this interface is going to be in the coming months. Most of the CES show floor was based around HDTVs, or, at least, that’s the impression I got. Prices on HDTVs are going to go down this year simply because they’re getting easier and cheaper to manufacture. I think there will be quite a bit of competition from Chinese OEMs who are bringing cheaper HD sets to the market, which seem to be fairly decent. We also haven’t gotten to the point where things are going to be 100 percent wireless yet, but having HDMI-equipped gear is a step in the right direction. If anything it clears out most of the clutter.

Images courtesy of this guy.

So what exactly is HDMI? In a nutshell, it’s a single interface that transfers both digital audio and video that’s uncompressed from, let’s say, your set top box to your HDTV or game console to HDTV. To get simpler, it’s 19 separate cables wrapped into one with a bandwidth of 10.2Gbps. What that translates to is crisp and clear audio and video on a HDTV. Component cables suck and just make everything dirty because so much data is lost when going from analog to digital. Of course, HDMI supports video that’s not HD, too. It also supports up to eight digital audio channels, which certainly clears up the tangle of wires for you burgeoning theater buffs.

The current spec is 1.3 and what that entails is full, uncompressed 1080p content flowing through without a hitch. It supports 10-bit, 12-bit and 16-bit color depths, which just means you’ll see more colors the way they’re meant to be seen. The connector is also smaller than previous versions. The Samsung HMX10 I’ve been toting around the last month has an HDMI slot so I can hook it right up to the TV in my living room and watch all that 720p content I’ve been shooting over the last month. On the audio side of it, 1.3 supports lossless compressed digital audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio as well as Dolby Digital and DTS.

The only problem with HDMI at the moment falls on the shoulder of the manufacturers. A lot of CE products out on the market right now come with one HDMI port and that’s obviously not enough. So you’ll want to pick up a switcher of some sort like XtremeMac’s XtremeHD switcher. If you’re stuck with DVI then you can pick up a converter for that, too.

I think most everyone is aware of the capabilities of HDMI, but, like many, you’re probably more concerned with the price. Luckily for me, my Elite, even though it’s v1.2, came with an HDMI cable saving me a 100 bucks. But here’s the thing, if you’ve already thrown down the dough for an HDTV and home audio system, why wouldn’t you spend another couple hundred bucks on an HDMI cable? Yes, there are cheap HDMI cables readily available, but sometimes those are hit or miss. You’re not going to get anything else right now that’s going to give you the best visual/audio experience. You could wait a few months to see if prices go down, but you’ll only be torturing yourself. The easiest way to see a difference is to stop by your local Best Buy or electronics shop and ask for a demo. You’ll instantly see the difference and you won’t want to go back to your setup that’s using component cables. The Super Bowl is this weekend and chances are you have an HD set top box and, at the very least, a 720p TV. Don’t you want to see the Giants go down with crystal clear picture and audio?

It’s come to my attention that not everyone understands the subtle yet significant differences between GSM and CDMA. We’ve received random e-mails from folks asking how they can get XY phone from AT&T to work on Sprint’s network and it makes me scratch my head. My first instinct is to curse and hit the Spam button, but I slowly realize this individual just doesn’t know the difference. It’s not their fault. In our line of work we don’t always remember that everyone is as savvy or immersed in tech on a daily basis. For this we apologize. To make up for our indiscretions here is your Orientation for the week.

A few people I spoke with knew that the main difference had something to do with a SIM card, which is the Subscriber Identity Module card. Said SIM cards are used in the US by T-Mobile and AT&T. I’m hoping most of you know this already. Here in lies one of the positives for subscribers with GSM carriers. You’re not tied down to a single handset that’s attached to one network like you are with CDMA carriers/phones ie Sprint and Verizon. It’s quite evident with the mayhem surrounding the iPhone. That’s the bare bones difference.

To be exact, GSM stands for Global System for Mobile Communications, which is based on an older standard called TDMA, which we won’t get into. CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access. Neither of those terms is very easy to digest at all, now is it? Without getting into the nitty gritty of it, simply because you needn’t worry about it, I’ve broken it down as best I can for you (and me) to understand. If you must know the technical specs then I have one morsel for you to chew on: they share bandwidth differently. GSM allocates a bit of bandwidth for each user on a local network and they can do as they please, whereas with CDMA each device gets a chunk of bandwidth only when they need it.

Some say that CDMA is a superior technology for the following reasons: It allows for more users across a given frequency because it’s only being used when needed, and because battery life on CDMA phones is far superior to that of any GSM device because it’s not transmitting anything when sitting by idle.

Those are the two main factors and I could talk about the cancer causing aspect of mobile phones, but we’re beyond that and everything causes cancer these days.

However, GSM’s constant contact means that acquiring a signal isn’t as tricky. When a CDMA phone connects to the network, it must negotiate with the local tower what phone it is, what service, what number, etc. This is that pause between when you hit “send” and it starts ringing. The more interference there is, the longer this takes. With GSM, that’s taken care of when you roam into a tower’s area, the phone is “registered” with the tower already and starts transmitting much faster. Also, the already-connected state means that GMS can work in areas (such as elevators, underground) where CDMA generally can not.

The only downside to CDMA at this point in time is it’s lack of mobility across continents. GSM networks are used in more countries (roughly 3/4 of the world market) than CDMA so roaming is hardly ever an issue thanks to that SIM card.

In terms of data transmission, GSM has the upper hand with HSDPA as it is capable of transferring up to 7.2 Mbps while EV-DO Rev. A can only muster 3.1 Mbps. A GSM signal can also be shoddy at times depending on where you are. For instance, in Manhattan AT&T doesn’t get the best coverage while Verizon and Sprint are rock solid. In my experience T-Mobile works perfect in the city, but not very well out on Long Island. It also depends on where you live in the country because in the Bay Area, AT&T is a champ while T-Mobile eats it. In general, CDMA carriers are more reliable nationwide because of the larger tower footprints.

The overall point that you should take away from this is that you need to assess your current needs if you’re in the market for a new phone. Will you be traveling or staying home? Of course, CDMA providers like Verizon are releasing dual-band phones like the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition that allow for a SIM card when you travel overseas, so it may one day be a moot point. Be sure to check the network coverage in your area as it differs from region to region. Voice/data plans and hardware themselves are going to be the biggest factors in your decision. Do you want better coverage (Verizon), better phones (AT&T), cheap plans (T-Mo) or faster data (Sprint)?

Welcome to the first installment of CrunchGear’s The Orientation. This is a new weekly column where we take some of the gadgets, technologies, and concepts of the tech world and make it easily digestible to those who might find some of it to be over their heads.

Most of us surf the Web over Wi-Fi on a DSL network or cable modem, and if you’re really unlucky then you’re still on a dial-up network, but I highly doubt you read CG if you’re in the latter group. Your 9-5 probably has a T1 or T3 connection. I’m usually always in an area where I can pick up a signal on my laptop or BlackBerry. But what if I’m not? What if you want to watch YouTube on your iFones? If you’re in a rural area and don’t have access to broadband then I feel very sorry for you. You have the right to rot your brain by surfing the Interwebs for hours on end only to find porn and LOL cats. This is where WiMAX comes in, and while it’s been in the works for a number of years, it’s been available in Korea since 2006. We’re getting very close to its launch in the US next spring via Sprint, and some operators are already offering WiMAX service, such as Clearwire. In a nutshell, it’s point to multipoint broadband wireless transmission. But what the heck does that mean and how does it work? Well, here’s your orientation so you’re prepared for all its glory, so sit back and relax.

Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access aka WiMAX is a telecommunications technology that facilitates the delivery of wireless broadband across extended distances and telecom business folk are looking at it for a last mile solution, which I’ll touch on later. The Koreans have a similar service called WiBro, which stands for wireless broadband (and is much easier to remember than what WiMAX stands for), but it’s not as fast, topping out at 50 Mbps, whereas WiMAX will do up to 70 Mbps. The WiMAX Forum came up with the name and it is comprised of 522 operators, component and equipment companies that certify and promote the compatibility and interoperability of the IEEE 802.16 standard, otherwise known as HiperMAN or WirelessMAN. I’m not trying to confuse you, but I want keep you in the loop in case someone mentions it and you have no idea what they’re talking about.

There are two components to the WiMAX system: tower and receiver. A WiMAX tower, which has a wired connection, is a lot like a cell tower, but a single tower can provide coverage up to 3,000 square miles. Of course, said wired WiMAX tower can link up to another tower via a line-of-sight microwave link thus providing service in areas where operators once could not. The receiver is not a lot different than the Wi-Fi card in your laptop or handheld device.

There are two variants of WiMAX: fixed and mobile. Fixed WiMAX is based on the 802.16-2004 standard and is appealing to operators because it’s cheaper and the already mentioned the benefits above. The reason it’s cheap is because operators don’t have to worry about the last mile, which is the network of wires or cables that brings us the Internets from the network to your home or office, and is the most expensive component for operators. This cost benefit should trickle down to us, which would make our bill much cheaper than what it is now. Fixed WiMAX is more reliable and provides for the transmission of higher frequencies and more data.

Mobile WiMAX is based on the 802.16-2005 standard and basically just adds onto 802.16-2004 by adding support for mobile devices. It’s essentially what Wi-Fi is today, but with greater coverage and data transfer rates, but is limited to a range of two to six miles. That’s it? Heh.

All of this will trickle down to our handsets eventually and thusly eliminate Wi-Fi altogether. Wi-Fi usually transmits up to 54 Mbps, but WiMAX jumps to 70 Mbps. We’ll be able to make phone calls wherever we please and not have to worry about whether or not we’re near a cell tower. We can download music, video or any other content to our handset in the blink of an eye. While in Korea I witnessed a demo of WiBro and I was blown away. A laptop with a WiBro card was blazing through Google Earth seamlessly with no interruptions. Two mobile phones were tested side-by-side for video playback with one having a 3G connection and the other on WiBro. Picture quality on the mobile running on WiBro was smooth, sharp and never had to buffer. I also witnessed demos of IPTVs and a few other things. But those running anywhere from 30 to 50 Mbps. Can you imagine what WiMAX is going to be like? We’ll see what happens when Sprint rolls out Xohm in the spring, which we first told you about a couple months ago.