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Where's a good place to learn about cell phones?

s1rGr1nG0

Lurker
Ok, I know, the title is kinda vague and I know you're probably thinking, "Hell, S1rGr1nG0, you came to the right place to learn about cell phones right here!".
But, that's not exactly what I'm looking for. I'm 46 years old, I'm also an IT guy by trade. I've had cell phones for many years now but up until recently they were just a convenience I kept in my pocket.

At work we were recently given a choice on phone upgrade. iPhone 5 or a Galaxy S4. I went with the Galaxy since I had an iPhone 4 at the time and just wanted to switch things up. I've had an Android phone previously, Motorola Atrix 2, back when I was with AT&T.

Anyway, I recently dug my Atrix out of the junk drawer in the kitchen and started tinkering with it. I've since rooted it and put ICS on it but I'm not on a carrier since I have my work phone as my primary #. They don't want us rooting the phones since they are "company provided" and are on Verizon.

Now I have the "bug". I want to learn more about how these tiny little gizmos work. Things like GSM, CDMA,, and what they do, (and the differences), are what I'm after. Where's a good starting point to learn this stuff? Eventually I would like to get more into creating apps. I have Tasker, Zoom, and ADK but I'm such a n00b at this point I'm behind the curve.

Thanks!
 
Wikipedia. Seriously. It's generally good enough for starting anyway, and you'll end up with general ideas about stuff, plus you would find links to stuff you want to find out about that you didn't know you needed to know. Start with the cellphone article.
 
With careful choice of search terms, Google search will find just about anything you want to know. It's a rare day that I need to actually ask for any other help.
 
Seconding the Wikipedia and Google suggestions. There's so much knowledge out there just begging to be picked up!

More specifically, though, our FAQ section has a few good primers:
• http://androidforums.com/faqs/535180-general-android-phone-faq-updated-9th-october-2012-a.html
• http://androidforums.com/faqs/443072-adb-guide-updated-2013-05-21-a.html
• http://androidforums.com/faqs/443432-what-root-being-rooted-mean.html
• http://androidforums.com/faqs/443075-root-terminology.html

And AndroidCentral's Android 101 series is probably worth a look too - just be sure to come back here if you have any specific questions ;)
 
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