0G [1946; e.g., Advanced Mobile Telephone System (AMTS) and Mobile Telephone System (MTS)]: The year in parentheses is the year of the first commercial launch of that network generation. The G means mobile telecommunications generation. This generation is also known as mobile radio telephone system. It is a pre-cellular system. Only few people could use the system at the same time and the transmitting range was tens of kilometers. Several technologies are used to implement the 0G mobile telecommunications, e.g., Advanced Mobile Telephone System (AMTS) and Mobile Telephone System (MTS).

1G [1979; e.g., Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) and Advance Mobile Phone Service (AMPS)]: The year in parentheses is the year of the first commercial launch of that network generation. It is analog cellular phone standards, which divide an area into small cells and each cell has a base station with a transceiver and an antenna. The cells are used to relay users’ signals while they are on the move. More users could be accommodated by using this approach compared to the 0G because same frequency can be reused many times. Its speed is about tens of kilobits per second. Common technologies for 1G include Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) and Advance Mobile Phone Service (AMPS).

2G [1991; e.g., GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and CDMAOne]: The year in parentheses is the year of the first commercial launch of that network generation. The major difference between 1G and 2G is the former using an analog cellular technology and the latter using a digital cellular one. Digital cellular technology is more efficient on the spectrum management and allows more phone calls compared to analog cellular one. The 2G standards are divided into TDMA-based and CDMA-based standards based on the type of multiplexing used.

3G: It is an ITU (International Telecommunication Union) specification of mobile communications technology. One of the reasons of the 3G creation is for Internet access, which requires fast and large-amount data transmission.

4G: 4G is an IP-based network. LTE (Long Term Evolution) and WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) are two of the top 4G standards. As multimedia such as video and audio prevailing on the Internet, 4G networks provide mobile ultra-broadband Internet access.

5G: It denotes the next generation of mobile telecommunications standards beyond the 4G standards. Other than providing faster speeds, the 5G networks will also provide extra features such as meeting the needs of new use-cases, broadcast-like services, and lifeline communications.

Android: It is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware, and key applications such as contacts. It is a project proposed by the Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies including Google, Inc.

Android Studio: Since 2014, Android Studio became the primary IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for native Android application development. It is free software under the Apache License 2.0 developed by Google. It includes the following features:

• intelligent code editor,
• code templates and GitHub integration,
• multi-screen app development,
• virtual devices for all shapes and sizes, and
• Android builds evolved, with Gradle.

Apps: A mobile app (or application) is a kind of software designed to run on mobile handheld devices such as smartphones. Examples of apps are calendars, video games, and short message services (SMS).

Approximate String Matching: The approximate string matching problem, given strings P and X, reveals all substrings in X that are close to P under some measure of closeness. The most common measure of closeness is known as the edit distance, the number of operations required to transform one into the other. It is to determine whether X contains a substring P’ that resembles P in at most a certain edit distance from P to P’.

Association Rule Mining: It is a computational process for discovering frequent patterns (associations) from large data sets such as relational databases. The patterns (associations) could be used to predict an event about to take place based on other events happened before in the transaction. For example, if a grocery-store customer buys milk, then most likely he/she will buy bread too.

Augmented Reality (AR): It is a view of a real world scene where components are augmented by computer-generated objects like images and audio clips. One example is complementing the Google Maps Street Views by markers like store names.

Big Data: Big data is complex, unstructured or semi-structured data of which the size is huge. Conventional methods can no longer be applied to it because of its vast size and high complication and volatile.

Big Data Analytics: It is to examine big data and uncover its hidden information. Examples of using the uncovered information include weather forecasts and economic indicators. Tools for big data analytics include NoSQL databases, Hadoop, and MapReduce.

Bluetooth: It is a wireless networking protocol that is mainly used to connect to printers, computers, cell phones, and other devices. Bluetooth can transmit wireless signals over a range of about dozens of meters with a data transfer rate of several megabits per second.

Client-Side Architecture: It is a computing model including servers (the resource or service providers) and clients (the service requesters), where the server hosts, manages, and delivers the resources and services to be used by the client. For example, the electronic commerce systems are usually implemented by using a three-tier client-server architecture, where the server is the e-commerce provider (computing facilities) and the client is the end users (browsers).

Client-Side Handheld Computing: This refers to the use of handheld devices to perform handheld operations that do not need the support of a server. Examples of these applications include: (a) address books, (b) standalone video games, (c) note pads, and (d) photo editing.

Client-Side Handheld Programming: It is design and development of handheld/mobile software such as Android programs that reside on the handheld/mobile devices.

Cloud Computing: It is the remote use or access of the storage or software on the Internet from a computer to perform various operations. The storage and software could be a shared pool of configurable computing resources such as networks, servers, storage, applications, and services. By using cloud computing, the resources can be improved and updated fast and conveniently and the end-user operations would not be disrupted by the change. One of the cloud-computing examples is to file tax via TurboTax on the Internet. The TurboTax software and your tax data are all stored and accessed remotely via the Internet.

Cognitive Radio (CR): Cognitive radio is an intelligent technology that can automatically detect available channels in a wireless spectrum and change transmission parameters to allow more concurrent wireless communications.

Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs): Cognitive radio networks are a kind of smart networks that is able to identify not used spectrum and to tune to that frequency to transmit and/or receive signals.

Computer Networks: They are telecommunications networks that are used by computers to exchange data among them.

Computer Vision: Computer vision is to process images in order to produce a representation of objects in the world.

Data Mining: Data mining is to discover patterns in large data sets and transform the patterns into a comprehensible structure for further applications.

Dummy/Fake Locations: Users send their true location data along with several dummy/false location data to the service providers. User location privacy is preserved because service providers cannot distinguish the true location data from the dummies.

Eclipse IDE (Integrated Development Environment): Eclipse is a multi-language software development environment, which is used to facilitate application development in various languages (such as C++ and Java) by installing appropriate plug-ins.

Electronic Commerce or E-Commerce: Electronic commerce describes the manner in which transactions take place over networks, primarily the Internet, and consists of the process of electronically buying and selling goods, services, and information.

Embedded Databases: Embeddable databases are embedded within devices or application processes. They include the following features making them fast and ideal for devices: (i) removing the overhead associated with a client-server configuration, (ii) light weight in the sense that they require little memory during run time, and (iii) written in compact code.

Feature Phone: A feature phone is a mobile phone but lacks the advanced features such as navigation and media streaming that are provided by a full-function smartphone like iPhone or Android phone.

Finite Automaton: It is an abstract machine that consists of a finite number of states, transitions between those states, and actions. The operation of a finite automaton begins from a start state, goes through transitions based on various input, and may end in an accept state.

Flash Memory: It is non-volatile memory that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It can be either non-removable, like a built-in flash drive in a device, or removable, such as a USB flash drive for portable data. Its capacity could be up to dozens of gigabytes.

Fuel Cells: A fuel cell is a device that turns fuel such as hydrogen into electricity via a chemical reaction without necessarily using fossil fuels, generating combustion, and emitting any pollutants. Refueling a fuel cell is to replace its fuel cartridges just like refueling the gas tank of a car.

Geographical Databases: They are databases storing a huge amount of geographical data such as information about restaurants and hotels. Service providers usually do not store and maintain all the information requested by users. Instead, geographical data and location information data are usually supplied by a third-party provider like a maintaining authority (e.g., mapping agencies) or business and industry partners (e.g., yellow pages).

GPS (Global Positioning System): It is a satellite navigation system which provides location and time information. The GPS consists of 24 satellites placed into orbit by the U.S. Department of Defense. Smartphone users can subscribe a GPS service coming with maps.

Graph Stores: They are a kind of databases and are one kind of data stores used by the NoSQL databases. They are best for storing network (such as social networks) information.

Green Computing: It is the practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems for reducing the use of hazardous materials, maximizing energy efficiency, and promoting the recyclability or biodegradability of products.

Grid Computing: It is the use of a combination of multiple computer resources such as databases and CPUs to perform a common task.

GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications): GSM is a standard set which describes the protocols for 2G digital cellular networks used by mobile phones. Its successors include GPRS, EDGE, UMTS (3G) , and LTE Advanced (4G).

Handheld/Mobile Computing: It is to use handheld devices such as smartphones to perform wireless, mobile, handheld operations such as managing personal data, playing video games, and browsing the Internet.

Handheld/Mobile/Smartphone Data: It is the data stored in mobile handheld devices. The data is usually stored in non-volatile memory like flash memory and is changed from time to time. Typical mobile data includes contacts, schedules, audio/image/video files, etc.

ICT (information and communication technology): ICT is an umbrella term that covers the study and business of developing and using technologies to process information and facilitate communications.

Image processing: Image processing is the use of computer algorithms to analyze and manipulate a digitized image.

Incremental Data Mining: It is to incrementally maintain the ongoing discovered patterns in large dynamic data sets.

Incremental Searches: They are a progressive search, which finds matched text as the search string is entered character by character. It begins the searching as soon as the first character of the search string is entered. Character-by-character, one or more possible matches for the string are found and immediately presented. This immediate feedback allows the searching to take appropriate actions such as selecting specific matches or terminating the searching.

Indoor Positioning System (IPS): An IPS is a network of devices used to locate and track objects in buildings.

Information Technology (IT): It is to use computing equipment such as computers and smartphones to store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data or information.

Infrared Ports: An infrared port is the component on a handheld device that is used to transmit and receive data between compatible infrared equipped devices such as PCs via infrared signals.

Intermittently Connected Mobile Network (ICMN): It is a kind of wireless networks where a complete path from the source to the destination is not found most of the time because of mobility of nodes and lack of connectivity.

iOS (previously iPhone OS): It is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for its mobile/handheld devices such as iPhone and iPad. iOS is derived from OS X (used for Apple's computers such as iMac and MacBook) and both are based on the Unix. It includes four abstraction layers: (i) the Core OS layer, (ii) the Core Services layer, (iii) the Media layer, and (iv) the Cocoa Touch layer. iOS includes a user interface interacted with multi-touch gestures such as swipe, tap, and pinch, all of which have specific definitions in iOS.

Java ME (Java Micro Edition): Java ME is a programming environment for applications running on consumer devices, such as mobile phones, PDAs, and TV set-top boxes, as well as on a broad range of embedded devices. Like its counterparts for the enterprise (J2EE), desktop (J2SE) and smart card (Java Card) environments, Java ME includes Java virtual machines and a set of standard Java APIs.

Key-Value Stores: They are a kind of databases and are one kind of data stores used by the NoSQL databases. They are the simplest NoSQL databases, where each item includes a pair, key and value, like associative arrays.

Least squares: The method of least squares is a standard approach in regression analysis, a set of statistical processes for estimating the relationships among variables. The method finds the overall solution minimizing the sum of the squares of the residuals from every single equation in a set of equations, where there are more equations than unknowns.

Lithium-Ion Batteries: Replaceable, rechargeable Lithium-Ion batteries are the batteries most commonly used by handheld devices these days. They generate electricity via electrochemical reactions.

Local Area Network (LAN) (e.g., Ethernet and Wi-Fi): LAN is used to carry data within a small area (up to a kilometer long for Ethernet) and is with a high data-transfer speed (up to 100 gigabits per second for Ethernet). Normally, LAN has two critical components, hub and router, where a hub is common connection point for devices in a network and a router is a device that forwards data packets along networks.

Location: It consists of latitude and longitude of a Cartesian coordinate grid, where (i) latitude gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the equator and (ii) longitude is given as an angular measurement ranging from 0° at the prime meridian, which passes through the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in England.

Location-Aware Data Mining: It is the data mining method that takes the locations of data into consideration when discovers knowledge.

Location-Based Advertising (LBA): It is to promote or sell a product by sending relevant audio or visual information or data to mobile users based on their locations.

Location-Based Services (LBSs): A location-based service is a service based on the geographical position of a mobile handheld device. One of the LBS examples is to find a nearby ethnic restaurant by using a smartphone.

Location Obfuscation: It is a method used to hide the users’ true locations in a location-based service by lightly obscuring their locations. Several techniques could be used for this method. For example, one of the techniques is spatial cloaking, which obscures a user’s true location into a cloaked area, so there is low possibility of associating users to locations.

LTE (Long Term Evolution): LTE is a 4G wireless communications standard to provide high-speed datatransmission for mobile devices.

Map Tiles: A map is usually rendered from a number of map tiles, which in turn consist of more detailed tiles. By using map tiles, a map can be panned and zoomed more easily and quickly. For panning, some of the map tiles instead of the whole map are replaced. For zooming, more detailed or undetailed tiles can be retrieved more easily and quickly because lengthy tile searches can be avoided if map tiles are used.

Macropayments: This kind of payments is commonly used by traditional electronic commerce and involves significant amounts of money, for example more than US $10.00. Payments by credit cards are the most common method for macropayments.

Medium Access Control (MAC): MAC data communication protocol is a sublayer of the data link layer of the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking. It allows several network nodes to communicate within a multiple access network that incorporates a shared medium such as Ethernet.

Metropolitan area network (MAN) [e.g., ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)]: It is a computer network designed to carry data over an area larger than LAN, but smaller than WAN, such as an entire city and its surrounding area. It can be used to connect computers and other networks like LANs.

Microbrowsers: Microbrowsers are Web browers for Internet-enabled handheld devices. They are miniaturized versions of desktop browsers like Internet Explorer. Due to the limited resources of handheld devices, microbrowsers differ from traditional desktop browsers in the following ways: (i) smaller windows, (ii) smaller footprints, and (iii) fewer functions and multimedia features.

Micropayments: These usually involve small amounts of below about US $10.00, which are too small to be economically processed by credit cards. The amounts are usually charged to users’ phone bills or accounts.

Micro PCs: They are mini versions of PCs that differ from handheld devices because they apply a different technology. For example, Windows OSs are for PCs and micro PCs but not for handheld devices, whereas Windows Mobile OSs are for handheld devices but not for PCs and micro PCs.

Mobile Cloud Computing: It is the remote use or access of the storage or software on the Internet from a handheld device to perform various operations. One of the mobile cloud-computing examples is to send or read emails via Gmail on the Internet through a mobile handheld device. The mail software and data are all stored and accessed remotely via the Internet through a mobile handheld device.

Mobile Commerce or M-Commerce: It is the exchange or buying and selling of commodities, services, or information or the transfer of funds on the Internet (wired or wireless) through the use of Internet-enabled mobile handheld devices.

Mobile Big Data: Mobile big data is a kind of big data transmitted between mobile devices and mobile devices/servers via a mobile service.

Mobile Data: Mobile data is a kind of data transmitted between mobile devices and mobile devices/servers via a mobile service.

Mobile Handheld Devices: They are small, general-purpose, programmable, battery-powered computers that are capable of handling the front end of mobile applications such as mobile Internet browsing and can be operated comfortably while being held in one hand and enables mobile users to interact directly with mobile applications.

Mobile Health (mHealth or m-Health): Mobile health is the practice of medicine and public health supported by mobile handheld devices, e.g., delivery of healthcare information anytime and anywhere, and real-time monitoring patients’ vital signs.

Mobile Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): Handheld/mobile/smartphone HCI is the study of how users interact with mobile handheld devices.

Mobile Security: Mobile security is the protection of mobile data, mobile devices, and the networks and servers they connect to, from threats and vulnerabilities. One example is to protect the mobile data by using data encryption and decryption.

Mobile User Privacy: It is the ability of mobile uers to conceal information about themselves like IDs and locations. The information will be revealed only with their permission.

Mobile Web Services: A web service is a software system designed to provide data and services to other mobile applications over a wireless network.

Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks (MWSNs): A mobile wireless sensor network (MWSN) has mobile, instead of static, sensor nodes of a wireless sensor network (WSN), which performs the following two steps: (i) spatially distributed autonomous sensor nodes are used to collect to physical conditions, such as temperature and humidity, and (ii) the collected data is passed through the network to a server. Often, a mobile sensor node consists of a radio transceiver, a microcontroller, and some sensors for detecting physical stimuli like motion, light, sound, temperature, etc.

Mobile/Cellular Networks [e.g., GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)]: It is one of wireless networks. A mobile network normally consists of a set of cells, each of which includes at least one cell tower via which many mobile handheld devices can communicate with each other. A collection of cells can cover a wide area.

Modelling: Computer modelling is to use computer software to represent a real-world problem with a view to better understand the problem.

MySQL Databases: They are open source relational database management systems (RDBMS) that use Structured Query Language (SQL), the most popular language for adding, accessing, and processing data in a database.

MySQL Workbench: MySQL Workbench, a unified visual tool, allows database architects, developers, and DBAs to perform various database management functions including data modeling, SQL development, user administration, and backup.

Navigators: A navigator usually consists of two concentric buttons on devices. Pressing the edges of a five-way navigator normally moves the cursor up, down, right, or left, and the center button selects items.

NFC (Near Field Communication): NFC, based on wireless RFID technology, is a set of standards for establishing communication among devices by using interacting electromagnetic radio fields, which require to bring the devices together or into close proximity. It is mainly planned for mobile payment.

NoSQL Databases: Much of current data processing requires horizontal scaling, faster speed, and processing different kinds of data. A NoSQL database is to meet the requirements by providing a simple and efficient mechanism for data storage and retrieval. The approach it uses is different from the one used by a relational database. An RDBMS (relational database management system) is a general-purpose data store, whereas a NoSQL database is normally a key–value store for simple insertion and retrieval operations.

Persistent Storage: Persistent (non-volatile) storage, such as flash memory and hard disks, is a storage medium whose contents are preserved even when the power is off.

Pervasive/Ubiquitous Computing: It means information processing is fully integrated into everyday objects and activities, e.g., the computing performed by the CPU embedded in a washing machine.

Private Information Retrieval (PIR): It allows a location-dependent query to retrieve an item from a database located at a server without it knowing which item is retrieved. For example, one simple way to achieve this is for the server to send an entire copy of the database to the user.

Public Wireless Local Area Network (PWLAN): It commonly refers to a Wi-Fi hotspot or public wireless Internet access point.

Quality of Service (QoS): It is the overall performance, including error rates, bandwidth, throughput, transmission delay, and availability, of a telephony or computer network.

QWERTY: It is the standard layout of English letter keys on computer keyboards. QWERTY is named after the first six letter keys on the top row of a keyboard.

RAM (Random Access Memory): It is a kind of computer storage that dynamically stores digital information temporarily and in which each byte of data may be directly accessed in any order.

Recycling: It is to process used materials into new products in order to reduce or prevent materials or energy wasted.

Reusing: Reusing is to use a product more than once for the same function or a different function.

RFID (Radio-Frequency IDentification): The RFID device, consisting of a small chip and an antenna, serves the same purpose as a bar code. Other than providing a unique identifier for that object, it is able to carry more data, 2,000 bytes, than a bar code or magnetic strip does.

Scheduling: Scheduling is to distribute the system resources such as CPU time and memory to processes effectively in order to make the maximum out of the resources. Examples of scheduling algorithms include first-come first-serve (FCFS), round robin, and shortest job first.

Secure Digital Cards (SD Cards): An SD card is a flash memory card providing high-capacity memory, up to tens of Gbytes, in a small size.

Sequential Pattern Mining: It is a computational process for discovering frequent sequences of relevant events in large data sets. The sequences could be used to predict an event about to take place after other events happened before in the transaction. For example, if a student takes a pre-calculus course, then most likely he/she will take a calculus course next.

Server-Side Handheld Computing: Here, handheld devices are used to perform wireless, mobile, handheld operations that require the support of a server. Examples of such applications include: (a) online video games, (b) the mobile Web, (c) short message services, and (d) wireless telephony.

Server-Side Handheld Programming: This includes the design and development of handheld software such as PHP programs that reside on servers.

Short Message Service (SMS): It is a text messaging service component of a mobile handheld device or Web that enables its users to send and receive text messages.

Tablet Computing: It is the use of table PCs like iPads to perform wireless, mobile operations such as browsing the Web and reading emails on the go.

Tablet PCs: A tablet PC is a miniaturized PC. It has three major features that come between a PC/notebook and a handheld device: (i) size, (ii) mobility, and (iii) convenience of content production.

USB (Universal Serial Bus): It is a standardized communications protocol that enables data exchange between electronic devices such as handheld devices and computers. USB supports data transfer rates of up to several hundreds of megabytes per second.

Wearable Computers: They are computer-powered equipment that can be worn by a user such as smart-watches and smart-glasses. They are able to provide the functions like checking the pulses and heart rate while jogging, which are inconvenient or impossible by using other kinds of computers.

Wearable Computing: It is to use wearable computers such as smart-glasses to perform wireless, mobile operations such as reading the text messages, making phone calls, and checking the weather.

Web Content Adaptation for Handheld Devices: It is to convey the meaning of Web pages by using minimum space on handheld devices.

Web Services: A Web service is a software system designed to provide data and services to other applications over a network, so the data and services could be used widely and conveniently. Web services allow an application to be converted into a Web application, so the application can be published, found, and used through the Web.

Wide Area Network (WAN) (e.g., The Internet): WAN is a computer network able to cover a large area such as a state or even a continent. Optical fibers are normally used to transfer data and leased from telecommunication companies such as AT&T.

Wide-Column Stores: They are a kind of databases and are one kind of data stores used by the NoSQL databases. They store columns (instead of rows) of data (the size of the data is usually higher than the size of the relational databases’ row data).

WiFi (Wireless Fidelity): WiFi is a kind of wireless local area network (WLAN) products that are based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. The term WiFi can be treated as WLAN because most WLANs are based on IEEE 802.11.

Windows Phone: Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft and is aimed at the consumer market. It is derived from Windows Mobile platform, which focuses on the enterprise market instead. Windows Phone includes a new user interface of flat, colored live tiles and a laterally scrolling canvas for accommodating more tiles.

Wireless Networks: A wireless network uses radio waves instead of wires to communicate among computers. Examples of wireless networks include wireless LAN (local area networks) and mobile/cellular networks.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs): WSNs perform the following two steps: (i) spatially distributed autonomous sensor nodes are used to collect to physical conditions, such as temperature and humidity, and (ii) the collected data is passed through the network to a server.