In general terms, an information appliance or information device is any machine or device that is usable for the purposes of computing, telecommunicating, reproducing, and presenting encoded information in myriad forms and applications. The common technical usage of "information appliance" (IA) is more specific — i.e., an appliance that is specially designed to perform a specific user-friendly function —such as playing music, photography, or editing text.
Typical examples are smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Information appliances partially overlap in definition with, or are sometimes referred to as smart devices, embedded systems, mobile devices or wireless devices.
Read more about Information Appliance: Appliance Vs Computer, Walled Gardens Versus Open Standards
Famous quotes containing the words information and/or appliance:
“I have all my life been on my guard against the information conveyed by the sense of hearing—it being one of my earliest observations, the universal inclination of humankind is to be led by the ears, and I am sometimes apt to imagine that they are given to men as they are to pitchers, purposely that they may be carried about by them.”
—Mary Wortley, Lady Montagu (1689–1762)
“Diseases desperate grown
By desperate appliance are relieved,
Or not at all.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)