ADSL
ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is a technology for transmitting digital information at high bandwidths on existing phone lines to homes and businesses. Unlike regular dialup phone service, ADSL provides continuously-available, "always on" connection. ADSL was specifically designed to exploit the one-way nature of most multimedia communication in which large amounts of information flow toward the user and only a small amount of interactive control information is required.
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Back up
The essential job of saving and storing data on a tape, hard disk or other storage device, such as a CD-ROM, outside of your computer hard disk or computer network.
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Bluetooth
Provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as PDAs, mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras and video game consoles via a secure, short-range connection. It means no wires or leads need to be used - useful if you're out and about. It's also a good way to exchange information with other Bluetooth enabled products instantly.
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Blu-ray
Blu-ray is an optical disc format such as CD and DVD. It was developed for recording and playing back high-definition (HD) video and for storing large amounts of data. While a CD can hold 700 MB of data and a basic DVD can hold 4.7 GB of data, a single Blu-ray disc can hold up to 25/50 GB of data. That is equivalent to 4 hours of HDTV.

Blu-ray discs can hold more information than other optical media because of the blue lasers the drives use. The laser is actually blue-violet, but "Blu-ray" rolls off the tongue a little easier than "Blu-violet-ray." The blue-violet laser has a shorter wavelength than the red lasers used for CDs and DVDs (405nm compared to 650nm). This allows the laser to focus on a smaller area, which makes it possible to cram significantly more data on a disc the same size as a CD or DVD. Proponents of the Blu-ray format say they expect Blu-ray devices to replace VCRs (thank goodness) and DVD recorders as more people make the transition to HDTV
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Broadband
High-speed transmission. The term commonly refers to Internet access via cable and a DSL, which is as much as 400 times faster than analog dial-up. The term has always referred to a higher-speed connection, but the speed threshold varies with the times.
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Burn/Burning
To write a write-once optical medium such as a CD-R, DVD-R, BD-R or HD DVD-R disc. Such a disc is considered "burned," because once recorded, it cannot be erased and rewritten. The term is also erroneously used for writable disks, such as CD-RWs and DVD-RWs, but rewritable media are not "burned;" they are "written." Burn means "once and done'
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CD-ROM
CD-ROM is one of the most popular formats for storing large amounts of electronic information. One CD-ROM can store equivalent to 3000,000 pages of text or one hour of video and audio footage.
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DAB Radio
Digital Audio Radio - a radio that intercepts and interprets digital signals, turning it into your favourite music or radio show. It means a better and crisp, clear sound quality and a greater number of radio stations to choose from. Digital radio is currently available to 85% of the population.
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Digital Music Player
Hardware or software that plays audio files encoded in MP3, AAC, WMA or other audio formats. There are several software-based music players that play audio files in a desktop or laptop computer, such as iTunes, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player.

On the hardware side, countless handheld players use flash memory or a hard disk to hold songs downloaded from the user's computer. Low-capacity units with only 128MB of flash memory hold approximately 30 songs in the MP3 format. Flash-based players with 4GB of memory can store a thousand titles. Hard disk models can handle up to 15,000 tunes and more. Apple's iPod has clearly been the industry leader in portable music players.
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DVD-R and DVD+R
a format of DVD that is recordable. These are discs can record data once, which then becomes permanent on the disk. They have more storage capacity than a CD-R, typically 4,700,372,992 bytes (4.7 GB or 4.37 GiB) instead of 700 MB.
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E-mail
An e-mail, and any computer file attached, can be sent over the phone lines in minutes - distance is no object. It's cheap, quick, convenient and flexible. You can send an e-mail to a colleague if your company's computers are networked. Or to customers around the world via the Internet.
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Ethernet
A popular standard for linking computers into a network.
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Firewall
The primary method for keeping a computer secure from intruders. A firewall allows or blocks traffic into and out of a private network or the user's computer. Firewalls are widely used to give users secure access to the Internet as well as to separate a company's public Web server from its internal network. Firewalls are also used to keep internal network segments secure; for example, the accounting network might be vulnerable to snooping from within the enterprise.

In the home, a personal firewall typically comes with or is installed in the user's computer Personal firewalls may also detect outbound traffic to guard against spyware, which could be sending your surfing habits to a Web site. They alert you when software makes an outbound request for the first time (see spyware).
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FTP
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a method of transferring files from one computer to another.
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Hard disk
Inside the computer, the hard disk stores permanent data.
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HD Ready TV
High Definition Television is a television picture with much higher resolution than normal television can offer. Except for early formats it's almost always broadcast digitally which also makes the picture quality better. HDTV has at least twice the resolution of standard-definition television (SDTV), so allowing much more detail to be shown compared to analog television or regular DVD.
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HDMI Socket
High-Definition Multimedia Interface socket is the socket where you can plug in a cable from any other compatible and digital product (such as a set-top box or DVD player). It allows crystal-clear, all-digital audio and video signals to be delivered via a single cable, to your monitor.
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LCD
Liquid Crystal Display - A liquid crystal display is a thin, flat display device. It makes a flat screen television display possible as they take up a tiny fraction of the space of traditional Cathode Ray Tubes.
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The Internet
The Internet is a global network of computers with millions of users all over the world. Anyone can join this network and from your computer you can send and receive information anywhere in the world - 24 hours of the day. The Internet offers so many different business benefits.
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ISDN
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) is a fast phone line which significantly increases the rate at which you can transmit and receive information, for example when you transfer data over the Internet. So if you have large files of data to transmit (such as video or high resolution photography) or you want to video and data conference regularly, then you might consider an ISDN line.
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ISP
An ISP (Internet Service Provider) is a company that provides third party access to the Internet. Customers simply use their modem to connect to the ISP which then links them to the Internet automatically. There are over 100 ISPs. Although their prices and facilities differ, they all offer some standard basic services such as 24 hour Internet access, a unique e-mail address for your company, storage space for your own Web site and basic software programmes for browsing the Internet. Some ISPs, also referred to as on-line information providers, provide extra services such as access to databases of business information.
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LAN
(Local Area Network) - A way of linking computers in one building together so that they can share files, software, hard disks and peripherals such as a printer or CD-ROM.
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Modem
(modulator/demodulator) - A device that enables computer signals to travel over phone lines. Modems come in different speeds. Low speed modems can be sufficient for simple e-mails but if you intend to use and download information from the Internet then you should usually go for the fastest modem you can afford - ideally a fast 56 k-bit modem.
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Megapixel
A digital image is made up of dots called pixels. The higher the megapixel rating of your camera, the sharper the image will be as the more pixels per cm squared there will be - so making resolution sharper. A pixel (short for picture element, using the common abbreviation "pix" for "picture") is a single point in a graphic image.
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Networking
A network is nothing more than two or more computers, joined together by a cable and software. They can now share information, like a customer database, and peripherals like printers and CD-ROMs. They can share software programmes such as word processing packages and allow you to communicate by e-mail.
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MP3
(MPEG Audio Layer 3) - An audio compression technology that is part of the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 specifications. MP3 compresses CD-quality sound by a factor of roughly 10, while retaining most of the original fidelity; for example, a 40MB CD track is turned into a 4MB MP3 file.

MP3 files are played via media player software in the computer, such as iTunes or Windows Media Player, as well as in countless iPods and other handheld players that use flash memory or hard disks for storage (see digital music player). MP3 sound quality cannot fully match the original CD, but millions of people consider it "good enough" especially because they can pack thousands of songs into a tiny pocket-sized player.
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SCART Socket
The socket that allows your audio-visual equipment (such as DVD player, TV, VCR or games consol) to be connected to other audio-visual equipment - such as a screen. Previously, each of these would have had their own socket, requiring numerous separate connections.
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MP4
May refer to the MPEG-4 technology in general or to its file structure, which uses the .MP4 extension. MP4 files are container formats that can hold a mix of multimedia objects (audio, video, images, animations, menus, etc
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Plasma
One of four states of matter (solid, liquid, plasma and gas). The plasma state is a gas that is heated to the point where it begins to release electrons. Although plasma occurs naturally on the sun and other stars, it is artificially produced in fluorescent lights and plasma displays by electrically charging a gas in order to release ultraviolet light.
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Software
Also called programs - software is the instructions that tell a computer what to do. There are two basic types of software: the 'operating system' which controls the basic workings of a computer, and the 'application software' which allows you to do particular jobs. There are other types of software - for example network software which enables a group of computers to communicate with one another, and language software which enables programmers to write other software.
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Spyware
Software that sends information about your Web surfing habits to its Web site. Often quickly installed in your computer in combination with a free download you selected from the Web, spyware transmits information in the background as you move around the Web. Also known as "parasite software," "scumware," "junkware" and "thiefware," spyware is occasionally installed just by visiting a Web site.
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Surfing
Slang for the process of moving around the Web.
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USB
Universal Serial Bus, usually referred to as the USB cable or USB port. Originally designed for PC's and Macs it is now also a standard port on cameras, video game consoles, cell phones and even some stereo equipment. The idea was to reduce the need for many ports, none of which were standardised - now if you have a USB cable or device it will fit onto anything that has a port, and enable the transfer of information between it and whatever else.
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Virus
Software used to infect a computer. After the virus code is written, it is buried within an existing program. Once that program is executed, the virus code is activated and attaches copies of itself to other programs in the system. Infected programs copy the virus to other programs.

The effect of the virus may be a simple prank that pops up a message on screen out of the blue, or it may destroy programs and data right away or on a certain date. It can lay dormant and do its damage once a year. For example, the Michelangelo virus contaminates the machine on Michelangelo's birthday.
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Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi (short for "wireless fidelity") is a term for certain types of wireless local area network (WLAN) that use specifications in the 802.11 family. The term Wi-Fi was created by an organization called the Wi-Fi Alliance, which oversees tests that certify product interoperability. A product that passes the alliance tests is given the label "Wi-Fi certified
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Worm
A destructive program that replicates itself throughout a single computer or across a network, both wired and wireless. It can do damage by sheer reproduction, consuming internal disk and memory resources within a single computer or by exhausting network bandwidth. It can also deposit a Trojan that turns a computer into a zombie for spam and other malicious purposes. Very often, the terms "worm" and "virus" are used synonymously; however, worm implies an automatic method for reproducing itself in other computers.
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