Detailed specification and costs of a mobile computing device and a Essay

Detailed specification and costs of a mobile computing device and a desktop machine - Essay Example Computers do many different things by using the same hardware (all the solid stuff in and on the case) but using different software, programs which tell the computer what to do and how to do it. Computers come in three basic types: desktop, laptop and palmtop. The desktop which usually consists of a box, a screen, a mouse and a keyboard can usually do more than the others. The laptop, sometimes called a notebook or subnotebook PC. These machines are all-in-one packages with the computer, keyboard, mouse and display screen all together. They are generally not as powerful as a desktop and the desktop costs less for the same features, because the portability is expensive. Palmtops are really small subnotebooks, not much bigger than your hand. However, to qualify as a palmtop computer it has to have all the same attributes as the others: it must run different programs which you can buy and install, it must have an input device, a processing unit and the ability to output to a device. A PDA is a Personal Digital Assistant. It has many of the functions of the computers, but very limited capacity and power, partly due to its small size. The high end PDAs include word processing, email, calculating, databases and Internet access. Some come with simplified accounting software as many users need them to make entries into expense accounts. Mapping and GPS is a very popular function on these devices, and a few, called smart phones, have a cell phone, possibly a camera and Bluetooth and edge wireless technology built in. Most newly manufactured PDAs will accept external memory cards to expand their capacity. Most PDAs will connect to your computer in order to synchronize information, such as contact lists, to-do lists, and calendars. They can also move music, photo and video files back and forth between the machines. (Gookin, Dan, 31-44) So let’s look at the components of these devices and exactly what they do. Once thing they all share is