The past few years have seen many new developments in the computer industry. As the years have progressed, computers have become smaller and smaller. Laptops and handheld computers have slowly evolved. Weighing anywhere between 4 ounces and 6 pounds, these laptops and handhelds are the very essence of the computer world today. Have fun exploring some of the new innovations found throughout the world today!
DVD
Although not an extremely new invention, the DVD player has just been coming into popularity recently as more and more movies are coming out in DVD and as more and more of the general public are buying DVD players. Also, it is just recently that DVD players have been being built into computers.
DVD, which stands for Digital Video Disc (or Digital Versatile Disc) is similar to a CD, but it is much faster and bigger (not in physical size, but in storage space and capacity). It can play movies just like the movies seen at the showcase cinemas and at the movie theaters. The movies are played with sharp images and great sounds! The DVD has a realistic picture and it plays on a 16 X 9 Enhanced Cinemascope Panoramic Deluxe Ana orphic Wide screen. In English, this means that the DVD player can play movies on a 16 X 9 screen. This creates an effect similar to the one found at the movie theater! Furthermore, the DVD player can hold computer data. It strives to create a single digital format for all home entertainment systems and computers.
The concept of a DVD player was first developed in 1995. The present-day DVD format is formed as a result of a combination of two DVD proposals. Sony, Phillips, as well as other companies made the first, while the second was made by Toshiba, Matsushita, Time Warner, and various others. With the emergence of the new DVD format, it is now officially decided that the DVD was developed by ten companies: Hitachi, UVC, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Philips, Pioneer, Sony, Thomson, Time Warner, and Toshiba. Now, DVDs are not only played on the television screen, but they are also played on computers. Computers built by companies like Apple, IBM, Compaq, and Dell have built-in DVD players while companies such as Intel and Microsoft provide DVD playback hardware and software!
Pentium 4 Processor
Microprocessors (also known as the central processing unit or CPU) are the very heart of computers. It is up to the microprocessors to interpret and execute instructions and to perform operations. Throughout the years, scientists have found ways to compress more and more information onto the small silicon chip we call a microprocessor. The Pentium 4, developed by Intel, is a new super-fast processor. It is the successor to Intel's other famous processors, the Pentium 1, 2, and 3. Intel's Pentium microprocessors are found in nearly all personal computers! The Pentium 4 is a new microprocessor with amazing capabilities! It can operate at speeds of up to 1.80 GHz, which is extremely fast! It can also convert MP3s extremely fast, and with an enhanced multimedia support, it can additionally encode videos at high speeds. The Pentium 4 allows for realistic 3D affects and smooth animation in computer games. With time, the Pentium 4 will replace the Pentium 1s, 2s, and 3s in personal computers. Computers will be operating at amazing heights!
Intel Wireless Series
The company, Intel, has developed a series of wireless peripherals for computers. All of these allow for easy and comfortable computer usage.
The Base Station is at the very heart of the Intel Wireless Series. All the wireless peripherals connect to the computer via the Base Station. This product allows for the connection of up to eight other wireless products to a personal computer and to the Internet.
The Wireless Keypad is a keypad that does not need to be connected to the computer via wires! It can operate anywhere within a 3 meter radius of the Base Station, and it even includes a folding palm rest! The Wireless Keyboard is designed for as much comfort to the user as possible. It allows for more movement and can be placed at a comfortable location. This keyboard also includes special multimedia keys and it connects to the computer via a PS/2 or USB connection.
The Wireless Mouse, like the Wireless Keyboard is specifically designed for comfort and mobility. It can be positioned anywhere within a 3 meter radius of the Base Station. This maximizes the comfort of the user. In addition, the mouse contains a scrolling wheel and three programmable buttons.
The Game Pad consists of controllers that are specially designed for various computer games. Like the mouse and keyboard, it, too, works anywhere within a 3 meter radius of the Base Station and is designed for comfort. Its sleek design and customizable controls allow for the greatest comfort for its users and its target precision and character profile sharing make it easy to use. In addition, the Game Pad allows for multiple players!
Call-Waiting Modem
Have you ever been annoyed by the fact that whenever you go online, you can't receive phone calls? Well, Actiontec Electronics, Inc. designed a call-waiting feature on modems. This feature screens incoming phone calls while you are online. You can either choose to ignore the call if you feel that it is un-important, or you can choose to pick up the phone and talk with whoever is calling. Choosing to pick up the phone will not drop the Internet connection! Previously, there had been a feature on modems that would put the modem on hold. This means that all Internet activity would be paused while you talk with a friend, your parents, your boss, etc. However, with the new call-waiting feature, the Internet connection would not be interrupted at all!
Mac OS X
The Mac OS X is an easy-to-use operating system developed by Apple, Inc. It is fast and has an easy navigation system. It has an interface that includes a custom toolbar, which gives users many options and choices. This allows the user to choose what best suits his or her taste! The Mac OS X also has a UNIX-based foundation called Darwin. Using Darwin, the memory architecture is protected. This means that separate applications have separate areas in the memory, and thus if one application gets messed up, the computer does not need to restart in order to work properly. This makes it easy for multi-tasking.
iTunes, iMovie 2, and iDVD
Apple, Inc. recently designed the new software, iTunes, iMovie 2, and iDVD. These maximize computer experiences by allowing for all sorts of easy-to-use functions and operations. They are the very essence of computers today!
iTunes is a software used to operate with all sorts of MP3 functions. It can import music from CDs to MP3s and it can also create libraries of MP3s. It can be used to burn CDs with music specifically designed by the user, and it can also be used to browse radio stations. Using iTunes, the user can listen to radio stations broadcasting anything from country to pop to jazz to classical! Most importantly, iTunes plays all the music smoothly and with a great effect!
iMovies is a software used to make desktop movies. Users can make their own movies, and then they can add special visual and sound effects. Once finished, they can share their awesome creations with friends and family!
iDVD allows users to make their own DVDs. The DVDs created are not some poor-quality products, but actually have many of the same features as Hollywood created DVDs! The general public can now create their very own high-quality movies!
iMac
The iMac is a user-friendly Macintosh developed by Apple, Inc. It is appealing to the general public because of its availability in spiffy colors, such as Indigo, Flower Power, Blue Dalmatian, and Graphite. In addition, it has some of Apple's software, iTunes and iMovies 2, installed. It also uses Apple's famous operating system, Mac OS X and the Apple Pro Mouse and Apple Pro Keyboard. The Apple Pro Keyboard has 108 keys, some of which include special keys that when pressed, can adjust the audio volume, can mute the speakers, and can eject CDs from the drive. In addition, the keyboard contains a flip-out foot that allows for it to be placed at a comfortable angle. The iMac also comes with a built-in 56K modem.
iBook
The iBook is one of Apple, Inc.'s newest laptop computers! Weighing only 4.9 pounds, it is two pounds lighter than any of Apple's previous laptops! The iBook is also smaller than previous laptops. It is only 11.2 inches wide, 9.1 inches deep, and 1.35 inches thick. The iBook is equipped with three of Apple's new software, iTunes, iMovie, and iTools, and because of this, it brings new dimensions to MP3 players, to CDs, and to digital cameras. The iBook is also extremely powerful with its 500 MHz Power PC processor and with its 256 K on-chip cache. In addition, this laptop has a 1024 X 768 pixel resolution and is on the market for $1,299.
Power Mac G4
The Power Mac G4, designed by Apple, Inc. is one of Apple's most powerful computers. It can operate at speeds of up to 733 MHz and it has an improved system architecture. This laptop has a new 133 MHz system bus that can move data at extremely high speeds-1 gigabyte per second, to be exact. Finally, it has a built-in Gigabit Ethernet. This is used to transport large files across the LAN, or local area network, quickly. Local area networks are groups of personal computers that are connected together so they can share files. With the Gigabit Ethernet, these shares files can be transported from one PC to another quickly.
Powerbook G4
The Powerbook G4 is a small, compact, lightweight laptop. It is only 1 in. thick and weighs a mere 5.3 pounds. It is the first notebook computer to be made of 99.5% commercially pure titanium. It has a built-in DVD player and can operate at speeds of up to 500 MHz. It has 30 gigabytes of RAM and built-in microphone and stereo sound output. In addition, its 15.2 wide screen and 1152 X 768 pixel resolution optimizes video, graphics, and multimedia applications.
IBM ThinkPad
The IBM ThinkPad is an extremely light and portable laptops. It clocks in at only 3.1 pounds and is only 1 inch thick. It is wireless and allows for cable-free Internet connectivity! This laptop computer demonstrates the modern ideology of light and portable personal computers.
Handheld Computers
With more and more information being compressed into one small silicon chip, the only place for computers to go is down-that is, down in size; down in size from the large room-sized computers of the early 1900s to the smaller desktop computers to the portable laptop computers. However, there are still even smaller computers being developed today! These tiny computers are known as handheld computers. They are pocket-sized and can fit in your palm! Most of these tiny products contain many of the same features as desktop computers, but they do not contain all of them. They can be used to check e-mail and to write documents. Some good examples of these computers are the Dell Visor Deluxe, which contain 8 MB RAM for storage and which have great organizational skills, and the IBM Work Pad, which have an advanced monochrome display and 8 MB of storage.
bulbs for the output. These lights were known as light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. It is hard to believe, but it is the in-complexity of the Altair 8800 that helped to establish the personal computer industry. Because of its limitations, the Altair allowed for other companies to refine the computer and do develop more software. 
The Lisa, invented by Apple Computer, was the first PC to use graphical user interface. It had one MB of RAM and had a 12 inch black and white monitor. The Lisa had two 5-¼ floppy disk drives, 5 MB of profile hard drive, and it used a Motorola 680000 microprocessor. Unfortunately, Lisa was never successful because of its high price and slowness.
create a computer that would accommodate as many as Lisa's features as possible at a much lower price. It slimmed down on Lisa's high-level languages, and it also used the minimum number of chips and circuit boards needed to operate efficiently. It had graphical user interface and a user-friendly design. The computer contained software in which users could point and click with a mouse. For example, there was MacPaint and MacWrite. The Apple Macintosh used a 32-bit Motorola 68000 central processing unit and had a 9 inch black and white screen. It was first sold for $2,500. 
second, Deep Blue challenged the reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov to a chess match. Kasparov wins the match, with 3 wins, 2 ties, and 1 loss. This was the first time ever that a computer has beaten a reigning world chess champion. It brings up the question: will computers soon surpass humans in chess playing and in other aspects of intelligence?
simple in design-physically, logically, and electronically. It only had 4,096 words of memory, and its word length was only 12 bits. This machine became the first commercially successful minicomputer because of its reasonable cost, speed, and small size. Minicomputers are medium-sized computers that were much cheaper than the larger and bulkier mainframe computers.
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