computers are all around us
from laptop computers to smartphones
to smart watches they're changing the
way that we live our lives
but have you ever asked yourself
what exactly is a computer?
a computer is an
electronic device
that manipulates information or data
the computer sees data as ones and zeros
but it knows how to combine them into
much more complex things
such as a photo movie
website game and much more
computers use a combination of hardware
and software
hardware is any physical part of the
computer which includes the internal
components
and the external parts like the monitor
and keyboard
software is any set of instructions that
tells the hardware what to
such as a web browser media player or
word processor when most people say
computer they're talking about a
personal computer
this can be a desktop computer or a
laptop
which has basically the same
capabilities but in a more portable
package
personal computers come in a few
different styles
the most common type uses the windows
operating system
macs or macintosh computers feature the
mac os
operating system while chromebooks run
on chrome os
smartphones and other mobile devices
mostly use the ios
or android operating systems we'll talk
more about operating systems
in a later lectures
computers come in many other shapes and
sizes
tvs game consoles and even appliances
like refrigerators can have built-in
computers
although they may not do everything a
desktop or laptop can
there is another type of computer that
plays an important role in our lives
servers a server sends information to
other computers on a network
in fact every time you use the internet
web servers deliver the web pages that
you want to see
to your computer servers are also used
in many offices
to store and share files
as you can see there are many types of
computers out there and each one plays a part in our modern world of global creating opportunities for a
better life
