When Xiao Fei, a chemical engineering student at Fudan University first subscribed to the fourth generation telecom network service, commonly known as 4G, he was blown away. “It was just amazing,” he exclaimed. “I could play my favourite game, Aliens Isolation, on my phone against my friends, just like I used to do at home on my Xbox 360. The images and sound quality are as good as anything on a game console and being able to have real-time online interactions with my mates is so cool,” he added enthusiastically.

Background Information:

Aliens Isolation

     Aliens Isolation is a survival horror game which may be played on smart phones as well as PC consoles such as PlayStation and the Xbox.

Key Words:

Subscribe: To pay money regularly in order to receive a service

Blown away: very impressed or excited by something

Xiao Fei is not alone in his enthusiasm. Today in China over 10% of mobile phone subscribers have signed up to 4G and people are using their phones for all sorts of purposes, including mobile gaming which is now an enormous 15 billion yuan market, having grown by 250% over the last year.

Key Word:

Sign up: To agree to join something

But when and how did the almost ubiquitous smart phone come to dominate the minds and time of so many people in China and throughout the world? The first generation of mobile phones only took off in the early 1990s when communications technology developed to allow phones to shrink in size to fit easily into a pocket. Previously mobile phones had been enormous heavy objects, the size of a hardback book, because of the size of the battery required to power the devices. These early phones were known variously as cell phones, mobile phones or hand phones depending on which country you were living in. They were essentially just that — telephones allowing people to make voice calls when on the move.

Key Words:

Ubiquitous: Present everywhere

Shrink: To become smaller in size

Variously: In different ways, by different people or at different times

The second generation of phones enabled people not only to make voice calls but also to send text messages, often known as SMS for Short Messaging Service, and a limited range of multimedia messages at low data speeds. The third generation of telecom services which began in the early 2000s offered relatively faster data services as well as voice calls and texting, and typical phones added functions such as high-definition digital cameras and access to email and the Internet.

   Smart phones, usually defined as a mobile phone that is able to perform many of the functions of a computer, having a relatively large screen and the ability to run a variety of general-purpose applications, became popular after 2008 with the launch of Apple’s game-changing iPhone 3G. The iPhone’s beautiful design, easy-to-use touch-screen technology and access to thousands of applications (commonly called “apps”) for information and entertainment drew high praise from critics and was bought in millions by eager consumers. Other phone makers quickly followed suit and by 2014 over 70% of the phones sold in the world were smart phones. In China alone over 100 million smart phones were sold in 2014. Companies that failed to catch up with the new trend, such as the previously dominant Nokia, fell by the wayside.                                   

Background Information：

1. Apple Inc.

 Apple Inc. is a US company which designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software and personal computers. It was co-founded by Steve Jobs in 1976 and is now the world’s second largest information technology company.

2. iPhone 3G

The iPhone 3G is a smart phone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It was introduced in 2008. It is largely regarded as having started the trend for people to move from mobile phones to smart phones.

3. Nokia

Nokia is a Finnish information technology company that was the world’s largest vendor of mobile phones from 1998 to 2012 until losing out to manufacturers of touch-screen smart phones.

Key Word:

Fall by the wayside: Fall by the wayside: to stop being successful

4G telecom services allow smart phones to come into their own. The network speeds are so fast, up to 100 megabits per second, that people can download a film or TV show in just a few minutes while simultaneously watching a movie or playing a game. Many people now prefer to watch videos on their smart phone rather than on TV screens, so that video is now available to them anytime, anywhere. This development is propelled by the trend for people to purchase phones with larger screens, the so-called “phablet”, which is a hybrid of a phone and a tablet, giving people a more comfortable viewing experience. 

Key Words:

Simultaneously: Happening or being done at the same time

Propel: To cause something to happen

In addition to video, the new faster smart phones, are becoming “life hubs” for people — connecting people to people and people to content. People are using their smart phones to make payments and purchases, to connect with fitness monitors, smart TVs and smart watches.

For many people the last thing they use their smart phone for is making phone calls. Instead they take photos (often of themselves and friends posing in front of famous places, such snaps being known as “selfies”), send messages through (almost free) Internet-based instant messaging applications, play arcade games to pass the time on the subway or while waiting for friends to show up, listen to music, keep up to date with the activities of celebrities on social media sites, answer emails and browse websites, check their appointments, the weather, and the stock market and even use the touch screens as mirrors to redo make-up!

Key Word:

Pass the time: To do something that makes a period of time seem shorter and end more quickly

However, while obviously convenient and useful information, entertainment and communication tools, the prevalence of these mobile handheld electronic devices has been criticized by some social commentators who suggest that using your phone has become a substitute for using your brain and that young people are unable to think for themselves, and have poorer memories than their parents. These commentators also point out that people tend not to communicate face-to-face but rather prefer to do so in a virtual world. People sit round a dinner table in a restaurant prodding their phones and staring at screens with no one speaking to the people around them. This, they say, will lead to social isolation and loneliness.

Reliability is a further concern; if people get much of their information through smart phones what exactly is the source of this information? How true or real is this information? Is much of it malicious gossip and rumour? Commentators point out that websites are often sponsored by commercial companies and that some organizations have used targeted advertising to reach specific groups of people through their smart phones. Other issues of concern include the possibility of government or other agencies monitoring mobile phone communication and of criminals gaining access to personal information and then using this data to steal money from bank accounts. Finally, there have been tragic cases of bullying by text messaging which has led to suicides in some instances.

Key Words:

Prevalence: Something that is very common among a particular group

Face-to-face: Involving two people who are together in the same place

Prod: To push quickly with your finger

Monitor: To watch people in order to find out what they are doing

All of these concerns appear not to worry the people who queue up to buy the latest models of smart phones. Certainly Xiao Fei is not bothered. “I want to be able to play complicated, exciting and fun games whenever and wherever I want and I keep my smart phone turned on and with me day and night,” says the student. “I admit I am addicted to my phone. I couldn’t live without it.” What about you?

Key Word:

Queue up: To wait for something in a line

当肖飞，这位来自复旦大学化学工程专业的学生第一次连上第四代电信网络服务，即为我们所熟知的4G时，他被彻底震撼到了。“这实在是太神奇了！”他惊呼道：“我可以在手机上跟我的朋友们联机玩我最喜欢的游戏——《异形：隔离》，跟我在家用Xbox 360玩这个没什么区别。图像和音质跟游戏机上的一样棒，而且还能和我的小伙伴们进行线上实时互动，这真是太酷了！”他兴奋地补充道。

兴奋的可不止肖飞一个。现在，中国10%以上的移动电话用户都已经用上了4G，而且人们用手机来做各种各样的事情，包括玩手游——这一市场在去年实现了250%的增长，如今其市场价值已高达150亿元人民币。

可是，这几乎无所不在的智能手机究竟是什么时候开始左右起中国乃至全世界这么多人的身心和时间的呢？20世纪90年代早期，通信技术的发展得以让手机缩小到易于放入口袋的尺寸，第一代移动电话也正是在那个时候开始发展起来的。在此之前，移动电话非常沉、跟精装书差不多大小，因为给设备供电的电池就不小。在不同国家，这些早期电话机的叫法也不同，比如蜂窝电话、移动电话或手持电话等。这种设备基本上就是一种能让人们在移动时进行语音通话的电话机而已。

  第二代电话不仅能让人们进行语音通话，还能发送文本信息，也就是短消息服务，简称短信，以及基于低速线路发送有限种类的多媒体信息。在21世纪初期发展起来的第三代电信服务能够提供相对快速的数据服务、语音呼叫和文本收发功能，此外，具有代表性的手机还添置了诸如高清摄像头、邮件和互联网端口等配置。

智能手机，通常被定义为拥有许多跟电脑一样的功能、屏幕相对较大、能够运行多种通用应用程序的移动电话，其流行始于2008年苹果公司发布里程碑式的3G版iPhone。iPhone界面美观，触摸屏技术简单易用，还能下载安装数以千计的应用程序(常被称作“apps”)用以获取信息或消遣娱乐，这些都让它赢得了评论家们的高度赞赏，在急不可耐的顾客们的推动下其销量则以百万计。其他手机制造商很快如法炮制，到2014年为止，世界上所售出的70%以上的手机均为智能手机。2014年，智能手机光是在中国市场就售出了1亿多台。一些没能跟上新潮流的公司，比如曾经的领军者诺基亚，惨遭淘汰，败落道旁。

4G电信服务让智能手机的价值突显了出来。网速是如此之快，高达每秒100兆，人们不仅能在短短几分钟之内下载好一部电影或是电视节目，还能同时看电影或玩游戏。与电视屏幕比起来，现在很多人都更喜欢在智能手机上看视频，因为后者可以让他们随时随地、想看就看。现在人们爱买大屏手机，即所谓的平板手机，这种平板电脑和手机的结合体能够给予人们一种更舒适的观看体验，也就推动了用智能手机看视频这一趋势的发展。

除了用来看视频，速度更快的新款智能手机已渐渐成为人们的“生活中心”——它将人与人联系起来，又将人与内容联系起来。现在人们用智能手机来缴费、来购物、连接体能检测 器、连接智能电视和智能手表等。

对很多人来说，打电话反而成了智能手机最不常用的功能了。相反，他们用智能手机来拍照(往往是给自己和朋友们在著名景点前的摆拍，这种拍法被称为“自拍”)，用(近乎免费的)基于因特网的即时消息通信应用程序发送信息，坐地铁或是等朋友出现时玩电子游戏打发时间，听音乐，刷社交媒体网站来跟进名人动向，回复邮件，浏览网页，查预约，查天气，查股市行情，甚至把触摸屏当作镜子照着补妆！

智能手机显然非常好用，能为我们提供很多有用的信息、娱乐和通讯工具，尽管如此，这些手持移动电子设备的流行还是受到了一些社会评论家的批评，他们认为，用了手机以后人们就不愿意动脑，这就使得现在的年轻人没办法独立思考，记忆力也不如他们的父辈。这些评论家同时也指出，比起面对面交流，人们更喜欢在虚拟世界里交流。在餐厅吃饭时大家围坐一桌，可谁都不跟周围人说话，而是盯着屏幕、不停用指尖戳着手机屏幕。评论家们说这会造成社交孤独，让孤独感滋生。

可靠性是另一个需要担心的问题；如果说人们的很多信息都是通过智能手机得来的，那么信息源究竟是什么呢？这些信息到底有多准确、多真实呢？还是说大部分都是充满恶意的八卦和谣言？评论家们指出，网站通常都受到商业公司的赞助，有些组织还通过智能手机向特定人群推送针对性广告。还有其他一些问题，比如政府或其他机构有可能监控着移动电话通讯，犯罪分子获取了个人信息以后会利用这些数据窃取银行账户资金等等。更糟的是，有人通过短信威胁恐吓别人，甚至引发了自杀事件。

那些排队买最新款智能机的人好像完全不担心这些问题。肖飞当然也不例外。“我希望随时随地都能玩复杂的、刺激的、有意思的游戏，我让我的智能机保持开机状态，日夜都把它带在身边。”这个学生说：“我承认我对我的手机上瘾了。我离不开它。”那你呢？