All language subtitles for Mobile Device Accessories - CompTIA A+ 220-1101 - 1

Many of us use tablets and mobile phones
every day, and we use our fingers

to manipulate and select things
that might be on the screen.

But there are other ways to provide
input into these devices.

And one of these methods
is through the use of a touch pen.

This is a touch screen pen.

You might see this referred to as a touch
screen stylus or a capacitive stylus.

It allows you to manipulate and activate
the interface on these devices

without physically
touching the screen with your hand.

If you'd like to take notes by hand
or you'd like to sign your name

on the screen, you might want to use
one of these touch pens.

Since we're used to using a pen or a
pencil to perform many of these functions,

it simply emulates that same process on
something like a phone or a tablet.

This also makes it a little bit easier
to see what's on the screen,

because your hand has been moved away
from the screen itself.

So if you need to perform very precise
functions or be able to do something

very specific on the screen,
you may want to try using a touch pen.

If you're an artist or someone
who wants to perform more precise

work on a tablet, you may want to try
using an active stylus.

Sometimes you'll hear this referred
to as a digital stylus, and this does

provide you with more functionality
and more precise usability.

That's something
like a capacitive touch pen.

The stylus is able to communicate
independently with the device that's

being used, even if those two devices
are not touching each other.

When you do touch the pen to the device,
the pen can recognize how much pressure

you're using on the screen

and can change what you're displaying
on the screen as you're writing.

This can also include
different buttons along the device,

so that you can tap, double tap,
or perform other functions

by clicking a button on the pen
rather than touching the screen itself.

Unlike a capacitive stylus,
which can be used on

any capacitive touchscreen across
many different manufacturers,

an active stylus is commonly associated
with a certain group of devices.

For example,

if you're using an Apple iPad,
you would need to use Apple's own pencil

to be able to interact with that device
using their active stylus.

Here's
a better view of this active stylus.

You can see

as the user is writing on the screen,
and they apply a little more pressure.

Then you can see that
the difference in the line width changes.

This is a much more natural
and a much more common way to interact

with the devices that emulates what
we're already doing in the physical world.

With pen and paper.

But what

if you're using a computer
that doesn't have any type of capacitive

display, or any type of active touchscreen
that you can interact with?

In those cases, you can add a touch screen
capability with an external drawing pad.

This takes an active stylus,
which you've already seen and combines

that with an external digitizer
that you then connect to the computer.

This gives you that same precise
input as an active stylus,

but allows you to use it
across many different systems.

So if you're using different
operating systems, or you would like

to have the same type of precise
input on your computer

as you might have on your mobile phone
or your tablet,

you may want to include an external
drawing pad with an active stylus.

If you own a laptop, you may

notice that the laptop doesn't have
any external mouse that comes with it.

Instead, the mouse functionality
is built into a trackpad

that's commonly on the device itself.

This is very useful
when you're working on the road,

and there's limited space in an airport
or on a plane,

and you would just like to be able
to move things

around the screen and interact
with a number of different presses.

You can use the built in trackpad
on your device to accomplish that.

You can also take that same functionality
you're using on your laptop

and bring it to a desktop system
with an external trackpad.

These are usually battery powered
and connect to your system over Bluetooth,

making for a very simple connection and
one that you can use on almost any system.

This allows you the same functionality
you might commonly have on your laptop,

but even allows an extension
of those functions to include multiple

finger presses.

And you can customize exactly the way
this trackpad works on your system.

If you're using the keyboard on a laptop,
you may find

that sometimes
you inadvertently move the cursor

or click a mouse button
because you accidentally hit the trackpad.

On some laptops,

you're able to disable the trackpad
through the built in function keys.

This would allow you to still continue
to use the keyboard, but would disable

any of those inadvertent
key presses on the trackpad itself.

If you've
done a lot of work on your computer

with audio and video, or you've been using
a mobile phone to communicate,

you may be using a headset
to make the process a little bit easier.

These can sometimes be wired headsets
that connect via USB to your device,

or they might have a 3.5mm
to press connection.

That stands for Tip Ring Ring Sleeve.

This is an analog audio
jack that takes the information

you're talking into your microphone
or audio that you need to hear,

and sends it through the copper connection
that's plugged into this device.

If you're an Apple user,

you may not have the option of a USB
or 3.5mm audio connection.

Instead,

you may be able to use the lightning port
that's built into that iPhone or iPad.

And of course, if you don't want any wires
connecting your headset,

you may be able to use a Bluetooth headset
and connect to your device wirelessly.

I mentioned that 3.5mm audio
jack is often used to connect,

and it is a TR press connection.

It stands for the tip
ring, ring, and sleeve connection

that is able to separate
all of the signals

that you need to be able to both listen
to the audio and talk into the microphone

for both input and output to that device.

And if you're using an Apple device,
you may want to use a wired

headset with a lightning connector,
or use something like a Bluetooth,

where you can get rid of all of the wires
and connect wirelessly to your device.

One of the challenges with our mobile
phones and tablets

is that the speakers inside of
those devices are very, very small.

So if you like better sound
from your mobile devices,

you may want to use
a set of external speakers.

These are usually battery powered
and connect to your device over

a Bluetooth wireless connection,
and allow you to have a much better sound.

Because the speakers inside of this device

are obviously much larger
than the speakers in your mobile device.

And with the wireless and battery
powered functionality,

this is also a very portable option
for listening to your favorite music.

If you're watching this video on a laptop,
a tablet, or a mobile phone,

you may notice at the top of that
device is a camera or a webcam.

The use of these cameras
has changed over time, and these days

we're using them extensively
for multimedia and video communication.

If you're someone who
takes your laptop back and forth between

the office and home, you may notice
that you are constantly plugging

and unplugging cables whenever you arrive
at one of those locations.

One way to minimize all of this

plugging and unplugging of cables
is to use a docking station.

The docking station stays in place
at your office or your home,

and you would simply need to remove
the laptop from the docking station,

move it to the other location, and
place it into the other docking station.

All of the other devices you use, such
as printers, keyboards, mice, and displays

all plug in to the docking station
so you don't constantly have to plug

and unplug different devices
depending on where you happen to be.

Some docking stations can even support
additional adapter cards,

so if you wanted to extend the hardware
functionality of your laptop,

you may want to look into a

docking station that provides
those additional capabilities as well.

Here's an office that has a screen,
a phone, a keyboard, a mouse,

and you can see there's
a docking station to the side

that has a proprietary connector where
you place the laptop right on the top.

It makes the connection.

And now you're able to use
all of these external devices.

This docking station

looks like it's large enough
to also support additional adapter cards,

which means we could even extend
the functionality of our laptop.

If you like a simpler form of connecting
and disconnecting

your laptop, you may want to use something
like a port replicator.

This is very similar to a docking station,
but you connect to this port replicator,

usually through a USB connection
that's on the replicator itself.

These are also usually very small
and don't support the ability

to add an adapter card
into the port replicator,

but this does speed the process
of connecting and disconnecting,

especially when you're trying to get
that laptop from one place to the other.

You would simply connect over USB,
and you would have all of these

other ports on the port replicator
available for use while you're connected.