The main purpose of this study was to examine the use of mobile phones by Generation Y students in the city of Johannesburg in order to increase understanding of this segment's consumer behaviour. Generation Y is an important market segment in that it is making more independent purchase-related decisions and has a large amount of disposable income. The primary data for this study is based on focus group interviews and a quantitative study of a sample of 200 Generation Y tertiary students. Some of the findings are as follows: * Generation Y's use of mobile phones: Generation Y respondents have owned a mobile phone for between three to five years; the majority own Nokia mobile phones, are on prepaid packages and are not big spenders on airtime; furthermore, SMS is seen as the most cost-effective way to communicate. * Competition in the mobile phone market: The perceptions of this segment are that Vodacom is the "cool" operator, MTN is the most "expensive" network operator and Cell C is "cheap and youthful". * Mobile phone brand awareness: Nokia was the most cited brand of mobile phone and was found to be the first choice of many of the respondents. Samsung was reported as the second most cited brand with Motorola, Siemens and Sony Ericsson following. The results have implications for network providers, handset manufacturers and marketers alike as they will ultimately improve these stakeholder's chances of marketing effectively to this dynamic youth market. / Business Management / M. Comm. (Business Management)

The Ericsson R380 is a so-called smartphone, combining an advanced mobile phone with a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). To evaluate the usability of the Ericsson R380 and benchmark it against the Nokia 9110 Communicator and the Motorola A6188 Accompli, a repeated measurements experiment was performed. 18 subjects (10 men and 8 women) with no previous experience of any of the interfaces participated. Half of the subjects had extensive experience from using Ericsson mobile phones and half of the subjects had extensive experience from using Nokia mobile phones. A set of 9 tasks to be solved on each interface was presented to the subjects. The order in which the subjects used the interfaces was balanced with a Latin square design while the tasks were presented in consecutive order and were identical for all interfaces. Level of completeness, completion time and number of actions were assessed for each task and interface. Subjects also rated the perceived usability and aesthetics of the interfaces. Overall, subjects were most successful using the Motorola A6188 Accompli, using fewer keystrokes and less time as well as needing fewer hints compared to the Ericsson R380 and Nokia 9110 Communicator. However, the Ericsson R380 was rated significantly higher than the other interfaces on perceived usability. Previous experience with Ericsson or Nokia mobile phones did not have a major impact on how well subjects succeeded with using the interfaces in the test. Certain mistakes made by each group of subjects could be explained in terms of mental models, Einstellung effects and the use of so- called Function-Object interaction style where Object-Function interaction was appropriate. Contrary to earlier findings, aesthetics and perceived usability did not correspond to a great extent. Finally, the results are discussed and some suggestions for improvements are put forward.

Användandet av internet i mobiltelefonen har ökat drastiskt de senaste åren och detta fenomen innebär att människor har tillgång till internet i större utsträckning än förut. De svenska bankerna har tagit tillvara på denna trend genom att utveckla mobila bankapplikationer där de erbjuder sina kunder möjligheten att utföra bankärenden med hjälp av mobiltelefonen. Även om fördelarna med denna tillgång är många, finns det ändå vissa nackdelar. Den mest omtalade nackdelen gällande bankers mobilapplikationer är bristande säkerhet som kan medföra integritetsrisker. Utifrån personliga erfarenheter uppstod funderingar kring området användbarhet och säkerhet för bankers mobilapplikationer och dessa funderingar ligger till grund för vårt arbete. Syftet är att undersöka användbarhet och säkerhet för identifikationsmetoder samt användbarhet för hantering av transaktioner i internetbankers mobilapplikationer ur ett användarperspektiv. För att undersöka dessa områden går vi igenom och tar hjälp av teorier och tidigare forskning och dessutom tillämpar vi ett antal metoder. I slutsatsen har vi utifrån resultaten från vår studie sammanställt riktlinjer för hur en banks mobilapplikation bör utformas för att uppfylla användarnas behov och önskemål. / The use of mobile Internet has increased dramatically in recent years and this phenomenon means that people have access to the Internet to a greater extent than before. Swedish banks have been taking advantage of this trend by developing mobile banking applications where they offer their customers the ability to perform banking transactions using their mobile phone. Although the benefits of this increased access are many, there are still some drawbacks. The most talked about drawback regarding banks’ mobile applications is the lack of security that could lead to privacy risks. Based on personal experience, we had concerns about the area usability and security for mobile banking applications and these thoughts are the basis of our work. Our aim is to examine usability and security of identification methods and the usability of processing transactions in the mobile bank application from a user perspective. To explore these areas we will review and get support from theories and previous research and in addition, we apply a number of methods. In conclusion, we’ve compiled guidelines based on the results of our study of how a bank’s mobile application should be designed to meet user needs and preferences.

Nucleic acids are fundamental molecules of living organisms functioning essentially as the molecular information carriers of life. From how an organism is built to how it responds to external conditions, all of it, can be found in the form of nucleic acid sequences inside every single cell of every life form on earth. Therefore, accessing these sequences provides key information regarding the molecular identity and functional state of any living organism, this is very useful for areas like biomedicine, where accessing and understanding these molecular signatures is the key to develop strategies to understand, treat and diagnose diseases. Decades of research and technological advancements have led to the development of a number of molecular tools and engineering technologies that allow accessing the information contained in the nucleic acids. This thesis provides a general overview of the tools and technologies available for nucleic acid analysis, and proposes an illustrative concept on how molecular tools and emergent technologies can be combined in a modular fashion to design methods for addressing different biomedical questions. The studies included in this thesis, are focused on the particular use of the molecular tools named: padlock and selector probes, rolling circle amplification, and fluorescence detection of single molecules in combination with microfluidics and portable microscopy. By using this combination, it became possible to design and demonstrate novel approaches for integrated nucleic acid analysis, inexpensive digital quantification, mobile-phone based diagnostics and the description of viral infections. These studies represent a step forward towards the adoption of the selected group of tools and technologies, for the design and building of methods that can be used as powerful alternatives to conventional tools used in molecular diagnostics and virology. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript.</p>

Distance and the associated parameters can be measured by specific sensors mobile device. Introduction The work focuses on the description of the sensors and the effects on their accuracy. To measure the distance, there is a number of good practices, which were described and demonstrated the application implemented source code for the Android platform. The project works with a total of three sensors, namely accelerometer, magnetometer and camera. The main objective of this work is the definition and application of methods for measuring distance using the appropriate sensors.

The subject of this thesis is communication process between a mobile device and a server. The work is concerned with development of application in Windows Mobile in the light of technical limitation. The thesis also deals with the development of application for universal mobile database connector which then enables transparent working with information, obtained from database placed on server, on the mobile device.

The work deals with verification of the metadata of audio recordings in an environment of mobile phones running Android. The text work is divided into three main parts. The first part is focused more on theoretical basis, where the main emphasis on the description of Android, application structure, description of the audio MP3 file and theoretical basis of Fourier transform in signal processing. The second part is devoted to solution design, analysis and implementation. The third part deals with testing.

Präsenzbewertung im Kommunikationsraum der Telefonie ist ein zunehmend wichtiges Gebiet der Forschung. Ziel der Dissertation ist es, sich dem natürlichen Kommunikationsraum der verbalen und nonverbalen Kommunikation anzunähern. Im Kommunikationsraum Telefonie existieren noch keine Verfahren, die unterschiedliche Dringlichkeiten von Anrufen wiedergeben. Momentan ist die Signalart ausschließlich davon abhängig, wie der Angerufene sein Mobiltelefon eingestellt hat. In der Arbeit wurde ein Verfahren entwickelt, das unmittelbar vor der Signalisierung eines Anrufes die Signalart abhängig vom Kontext des Angerufenen individuell ermittelt und automatisch einstellt. Dabei werden Algorithmen aus dem Bereich der KI verwendet. Mit Hilfe von Lernalgorithmen werden die Ergebnisse der Präsenzbewertung kontinuierlich verbessert. Im Rahmen eines Experimentes konnten Präzisionen bei sechs verschiedenen Signalarten von bis zu 73 % erreicht werden. Dieses Verfahren ermöglicht eine deutliche Annäherung an den natürlichen Kommunikationsraum.

This master thesis is dedicated to comparison of classical book and electronic book reader and it examines the advantages and disadvantages of both formats for recipients. In this work the importance of the printing press for society will be described and also the reactions which were induced by its invention. Following chapters will be dedicated to the book itself. Most importatntly what "makes the book being the book" and what are its strength and weeknesses and why it is still popular. As a contrast to this phenomenon the massive increase in popularity of electronic book - especially e-readers in pocket readers, on the internet and in the smartphones which become potential competition for books. The goal of this work is to compare the printed version which is represented by paper book and electronic version which is represented by e- books. Comparison will be based on the description of the specifics of both information tools from technological aspect as well as from the different text perception and the enjoyment from the reading itself. At the end there is an attempt to predicate the possible development in the future - is book culture facing a crisis or will it hold its position in following years?

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