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The purpose of this paper is to introduce a wireless web‐based ordering system called iMenu in the restaurant industry.

By using wireless devices such as personal digital assistants and WebPads, this system realizes the paradigm of pervasive computing at tableside. Detailed system requirements, design, implementation and evaluation of iMenu are presented.

The evaluation of iMenu shows it explicitly increases productivity of restaurant staff. It also has other desirable features such as integration, interoperation and scalability. Compared to traditional restaurant ordering process, by using this system customers get faster and better services, restaurant staff cooperate more efficiently with less working mistakes, and enterprise owners thus receive more business profits.

While many researchers have explored using wireless web‐based information systems in different industries, this paper presents a system that employs wireless multi‐tiered web‐based architecture to build pervasive computing systems. Instead of discussing theoretical issues on pervasive computing, we focus on practical issues of developing a real system, such as choosing of web‐based architecture, design of input methods in small screens, and response time in wireless web‐based systems.

Pervasive services and smart environments are becoming more and more popular as an ever‐increasing number of people enjoys these services typically by means of portable devices. These devices are battery‐fed and, thus, energy efficiency is a critical factor for the deployment of pervasive services. In this paper we focus on multimedia streaming services for mobile users. Specifically, we consider a scenario where mobile users with Wi‐Fi devices access the Internet to receive audio files from a remote streaming server. We propose a proxybased architecture and an energy‐efficient streaming protocol that minimize the energy consumption of the Wi‐Fi interface at the mobile device, while guaranteeing the real‐time constraints of the audio streaming. The experimental analysis performed on a prototype implementation shows that our solution allows an energy saving ranging from 76% to 91% of the total consumption due to the network interface. Moreover, it also preserves a good user‐level Quality of Service.

Wireless LANs (WLAN) offer network flexibility and end‐user mobility, making them one of the hottest technologies today. They have great impact on individuals and organizations. Now people can use wireless networks in every application where recent findings indicate that growth in WLAN market continues to be driven by the corporate and educational sectors, where the desire to increase productivity and the benefit of enhanced mobility and learning outcomes continue to fuel demand. A questionnaire was developed to survey the behavior of end‐users, especially students and faculty, in using wireless laptops in accessing information from the Internet, digital libraries and many electronic sources in their education and research. The paper presents the advantages and disadvantages of using wireless network laptops as well as barriers for not using them in Higher Education. Special new update on wireless network security will be included. Guidelines for implementing wireless laptops in higher education are discussed.

Using Internet‐enabled mobile handheld devices to access the World Wide Web is a promising addition to the Web and traditional e‐commerce. Mobile handheld devices provide convenience and portable access to the huge information on the Internet for mobile users from anywhere and at anytime. However, mobile commerce has not enjoyed the same level of success as the e‐commerce has so far because mobile Web contents are scarce and mostly awkward for browsing. The major reason of the problems is most software engineers are not familiar with handheld devices, let alone programming for them. To help software engineers better understand this subject, this article gives a comprehensive study of handheld computing and programming for mobile commerce. It includes five major topics: (i) mobile commerce systems, (ii) mobile handheld devices, (iii) handheld computing, (iv) server‐side handheld computing and programming, and (v) client‐side handheld computing and programming. The most popular server‐side handheld applications are mostly functioning through mobile Web contents, which are constructed by using only few technologies and languages. On the other hand, various environments/languages are available for client‐side handheld computing and programming. Five of the most popular are (i) BREW, (ii) J2ME, (iii) Palm OS, (iv) Symbian OS, and (v) Windows Mobile. They are using either C/C++ or Java programming languages. This article will explain J2ME, a micro version of Java, and Palm OS programming, using C, by giving step‐by‐step procedures of J2ME and Palm application development.

Global commerce demands flexibility in when and how work gets done, as modern businesses increasingly require real‐time responses to partners and customers. With low costs, companies look to mobility as a way to speed responsiveness and increase the personalization of customer service offerings. Mobility is a key element of networking allowing enterprises to unlock their business process from fixed points. A unified approach to enterprise mobility delivers integrated wired/wireless networking, mobile extensions to unified communications, geographic, and end‐point independent network access and location services as major architectural components. As a consequence, this paper aims to focus on a converged architecture that spans wired and wireless networks to enable a seamless delivery of integrated services across the enterprise.

This paper builds a framework to facilitate a continuous delivery of voice services. It also examines an architecture that traverses wireless local area network and local area network. And, proposes a mathematical model of the services delivery in order to analyze network behavior as a response to the new services introducing.

The authors constructed a service scenario framework and also put forward an analytical model of the services delivery for analyzing network behavior response for the inclusion of new services. They also evaluated a network infrastructure, services, and applications, including the prospective converged services, as well as the technology for the transition to future services.

This paper contributes to the development of seamless services delivery model for providing enhanced business services to the enterprise customers along with the ability to migrate more tightly.

One of the barometers of the level of demand placed on libraries to evolve their services is the rate at which the library automation vendors release enhancements, new features, and entirely new product lines to serve the library marketplace. An area in which new technology and library needs intersect is in the area of development for PDAs (personal digital assistants) and other handheld devices enabled for wireless communication. There is little doubt about the opportunities presented by PDAs and wireless technology to enhance library services. However, barriers remain to the real‐world adoption of many of these solutions, chief among them the rate of user adoption of these technologies.

This paper seeks to help marketers become familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of the current state of wireless technology that is being applied to marketing problems.

The paper first examines successful applications of wireless technology to connect marketing applications to wireless technology. A total of 11 important issues and questions are presented to help marketers know the key points in building a successful wireless application. A glossary to clarify the acronyms is presented.

The main focus is business persons as they will create the technology environment that will become the research environment. The excitement caused by new developments such as wireless has the potential to have significant impacts on marketing practice or lead to major failures. Mobile commerce (m‐commerce) driven by wireless technology is generating interest from marketers. A partnership between marketers and technology developers is needed to create a successful application. Developers are enthusiastic and speak in acronyms and may overwhelm marketers with the excitement of an application.

The paper presents new developments such as wireless technology that have the possibility of significant impacts in marketing and organizational performance that are counterbalanced by the potential of significant failures. This changing business environment will be the environment that scholars doing research in sales and service marketing must understand in order to design relevant research studies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how to reduce the time and cost required to conduct reliability testing. With increasing competition in the electronics industry and reduction in product life cycles, it is essential to diminish the time required for new product development and thus time to market.

This study conducts empirical sample test for wireless card and analyzes the fatigue life through finite element modeling (FEM). Simulation results are compared to the data collected from a temperature cycling test under conditions of −40°C to 150°C and −40°C to 100°C.

Assuming that the results of product lifetime from empirical sample test and software simulation exhibit a linear relationship, a “scale factor” should exist for any given product structure, process condition and materials composition scenario. The scale factors were found to be approximately 0.1 in both temperature cycling scenarios. Also, the effectiveness of various adhesive dispensing patterns on solder joint reliability is evaluated through software simulation. The L shape adhesive dispensing was proven to effectively enhance the fatigue life of chip scale package solder joints roughly 100‐fold.

The scale factor is used to convert the results from software simulation to empirical sample test for a given set of processing environments and materials. This helps to reduce the time and cost required to conduct reliability testing.

Wireless computing, as a way of providing mobile services, has been growing steadily during the past few years. While wireless communications offer organizations and users many benefits such as portability, flexibility, increased productivity, and lower installation costs; on the other hand, risks inherent and exacerbated by wireless connectivity are widely reported, wherein networks are open to intruders who may cause unwanted consequences to an organization's information resources. Hence, understanding these risks will help protect against unforeseen threats, delays and costs. This paper aims at the development of a taxonomy for wireless computing risks. Six levels are identified including risks associated with the users, mobile devices, wireless networks, wireless applications, the Internet and the corporate gateway. The findings show that there is a need for systematic studies on wireless risk assessment and management. The implications of these findings for both researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Chris Barnett, director of global business solutions for Rand McNally, was deliberating how Rand McNally should respond to the emergence of wireless technologies for its traditional business of providing static maps and route-planning services. As maps became electronic, interactive, mobile, and enhanced with value-added features, Rand McNally's mapping business was gravely threatened. The opportunities for Rand McNally weren't obvious, and the pace at which wireless technology would disrupt its traditional business was also unclear. Barnett was considering three opportunities: syndicate Rand McNally's brand and mapping content to popular Web sites, become a provider of value-added services to businesses, or focus on automobile manufacturers and try to forge relationships for providing in-car mapping services.

To discuss organizational design, potential responses to disruptive technologies, and market opportunity analysis in order to identify the kind of technology, organizational, and sales force restructuring required to align Rand McNally's organization with the new environment.