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  Wireless technology's major benefit to users is the immediate access it offers to computing resources -- your office, other businesses, the Internet -- providing users with a higher degree of flexibility in work and entertainment choices. As a method of data transport, wireless technology is quite like wired technologies in that it comprises hardware devices, a method of transmission, and connections that transform data from the human-input type to a machine-transferable format, then back again. Each piece of this triptych is an important component of wireless technology, with its own topics of focus:

• Hardware devices. One focus of both hardware devices and methods of transmission is of software development. The parameters of wireless software can seem limiting because the software for devices often has to adhere to a limited-resource silhouette (memory, battery, storage, and so on).
• Transmission methods. Although most software development efforts these days rely on a rigorously distributed framework, the ability to design software that can be distributed and used over sometimes tenuous connections is even more important. Often the "hard" backbones of transmission are somewhat fixed (for instance, you can only put so many cellular towers in a living space), so transmission and application software design must make up for the gaps.
• Connections. Data translation, while important in any technological endeavor, is even more critical in a wireless environment because the range of access devices proliferates at an astounding pace. Even with standards in place, some data-format drift occurs (often to squeeze that last bit of optimization out of a limited-resource device); more manufacturers, more devices, means more drift.

  In the general sense, wireless technology works just like wired technology. The user inputs data on a device. Connection software on the device translates the data into a format for transmission. Transmission protocols determine the method and route the data will take. Again, connection software re-translates the data into a format that the new user (either a person or automated response) can perceive. The big difference is in the "shape" of the software applications: Its profile is quite different from software that resides on a single desktop or a terminal wired to a network.

  Why is it different? The access devices have differing physical parameters: Less memory and storage and no constant power supply. The application software must take these differences into account to optimize for them. The connection methods have differing parameters, too: Less reliability and uncertain bandwidth levels. The connection software must compensate for this to provide as constant a link as possible. Additionally, the translation software would have to be more flexible to account for the small inconsistencies in data formats found when there are a large number of device manufacturers