The following is a collection of computer terms that you may encounter. If you don't find what you want to know here, you could try Our Community, or ask one of the Tech Solutions staff at your nearest Noel Leeming store.

Term	Explanation
Accessibility	Accessibility features are designed to help people with disabilities use technology more easily, but there is no standard across systems. However there are many features which can assist but are not specifically mentioned, because they are setup options rathers than action keys.
Acrobat	Short name for Adobe Acrobat Reader, or simply Adobe Reader, which is software that allows you to view and even interact with a PDF file by entering data into it (Fill & Sign), but not change it. It can be downloaded free of charge from Adobe.
API	Abbreviation for Application Programming Interface which is an interface or communication protocol between different parts of a computer program intended to simplify the implementation and maintenance of software, rather than every developer writing their own interface. An API may be for a web-based system, operating system, database system, computer hardware, or software library. Each time you use an app like Facebook, send an instant message, or check the weather on your phone, you're using an API.
APNG	Animated Portable Network Graphics is a file format which extends the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) specification to permit animated images that work similarly to animated GIF files, while supporting 24-bit images and 8-bit transparency not available for GIFs.
Apple	Apple Inc. is the company that makes Macintosh computers, such as the iMac, Mac mini, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro. Apple also makes several personal electronic devices, including the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and the Apple Watch, together with Operating Systems to drive them.
Application	An application (or App) is a computer software program or group of programs designed for end users. When you tap or click on an icon to start an application, it may start one or more processes.
Archive	An archive contains multiple files and/or folders within a single file. Archives can be saved in several different formats, most of which incorporate some form of file compression to reduce the file size. They are used for consolidating a group of files into a single package. This can be helpful when transferring multiple files to another user or when backing up data.
ASCII	Abbreviation for American Standard Code for Information Interchange which is a character encoding standard for electronic communication that only supports the characters directly enterable from a standard English-language keyboard. (See also Unicode.)
Attachment	An attachment is a file sent with an email message. Many types of files can be sent this way (e.g. documents, spreadsheets, images, videos, etc). Be wary of attaching large files because these can take a lot of time for the recipient to download, and you may find that some ISPs have a limit on the size of attachments, so your email could fail on sending or receipt. It used to be common practice to compress multiple files into an archive using Zip or similar before sending, but these are often seen as a security risk and rejected, so it is now more common to upload them to a Cloud service for others to access from there. ALWAYS be wary of attachments as they may not be what they seem - if you click on an attachment without checking, you could end up executing a malware program, even if it looks as though it came from a reliable source or trusted friend.
AVI	Audio Video Interleave is a video format developed by Microsoft. File sizes tend to be quite large and are usually better quality than MP4 and WebM, but not as good as MOV.
Backstage	A Microsoft term used by the Microsoft 365 (MS Office) suite to describe a view where you manage your files and the data about them - creating, saving, printing, inspecting for hidden metadata or personal information, and setting options. In short, it is everything that you do to a file that you don't do in the file.
Backup	A backup is essentially a copy of what is stored on your working computer system or device such that, in the event of equipment failure or other loss, you can recover your files. However,it should be noted that there several types of backup that you can take and typically more than one is required for full recovery, depending on your system.
Bard	Bard is an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Google and released in March 2023. It uses natural language processing to create a humanlike conversational dialogue based on its own language models, which at the time of launch are not as refined as GPT-4 used by ChatGPT.
Binary	The language of the computer where everything is expressed in a combination of two values - 0 and 1, which in terms of electronics is either OFF (0) or ON (1). Each digit is referred to as a bit.
Bing	Bing is a web search engine owned and operated by Microsoft. The service has its origins in Microsoft's previous search engines: MSN Search, Windows Live Search and later Live Search. Bing provides a variety of search services, including web, video, image and map search products, and Microsoft will often try to default to using Bing instead of another search engine.
Bit	A bit (short for binary digit) is the smallest unit of measurement in computing. Bits are generally only referred to when discussing serial data, such as online data speeds in bits per second (bps). Most other references are to bytes. 8 bits make up 1 byte which is equivalent to a standard ASCII character, but some Unicode characters can require up to 4 bytes for foreign language text. The number of Bits is also important when it comes to addressing memory: - Systems with 16 bit addressing can access only 64 Kilobytes of memory - Systems with 32 bit addressing can access only 4 Gigabytes of memory - Systems with 64 bit addressing can access 256 Terabytes of memory
Blog	A blog is the modern online writer's column. Professional and amateur writers publish blogs on most every kind of topic, and invite feedback from readers that in turn becomes part of the blog.
BMP	Refers to images stored in Bitmap format, which is an uncompressed lossy format used by Microsoft for image files that supports only static images with a maximum of 16 colours. Images of this type may be used on the Internet, but they are not commonly used due to their size.
Boot	To boot (or re-boot) is to load and initialise the operating system on a computer, tablet or phone. When you power-on the device it will automatically start the boot process. However, if patches or updates are applied, your device may need to re-boot in order for the changes to take effect.
Byte	Historically, a byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit of memory in many computer architectures. (See also Bit.)
Cache	When you access a web page, the data is "cached," meaning it is temporarily stored on your computer. The next time you reference that page, instead of requesting the file from the web server, your web browser just accesses it from the cache, so the page loads more quickly. The downside to this is that if the cached web page is updated on the website, you may not see the latest version. If you suspect that the web page you're seeing is not the latest version, use the "Reload" button on your browser. Sometimes it may also be necessary to hold down the Command key or Ctrl key at the same time to force all of the web page components to be reloaded as well.
ChatGPT	ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI and released in November 2022. It uses natural language processing to create a humanlike conversational dialogue based on its Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) language models which have been fine-tuned using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques.
Cloud	The 'Cloud' refers to the storing and accessing of data and programs over the Internet instead of on another type of hard drive. Examples of Cloud services include iCloud, Google Cloud, MS OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. Most offer a small amount of space for free, and monthly fees for larger amounts, for example MS OneDrive offers 5GB free, with 50GB costing US$1.99 per month.
DaaS	Abbreviation for Desktop as a Service, which is an offering that Microsoft have been developing to replace Windows 10 with the Microsoft Managed Desktop. Instead of owning a copy of Windows, you will have to rent it on a monthly basis, much like users of Office 365 at present. You will no longer be in charge of your Windows PC, and it will be automatically provisioned and patched for you by Microsoft. Not to be confused with IaaS, PaaS and SaaS which are different.
DNG	Refers to images stored in Digital Negative Graphic format, which is a publicly available but patented, open-source, lossless RAW format developed by Adobe and used for digital photography. Most camera manufacturers have their own proprietary raw image format which is not portable, but some are now switching to DNG instead. Moreover DNG files are 15-20% smaller in size than RAW files with no loss of quality. Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, Google Picasa and ACDSee can handle this type of RAW file on both Windows and MAC operating systems. Images of this type cannot be used on the Internet.
DNS	Abbreviation for Domain Name Server that is used to convert URLs from the alphabetic name to a usable IP Address. Every ISP will have at least one DNS which are continually being refreshed, which is why sometimes you receive an error because the URL could not be found, but works if you try again a short time later.
Domain	A domain is a subset of Internet Protocol (IP) Addresses under the control of a particular organisation and registered for their use. The organisation may, in turn, setup sub-domains using these IP addresses for multiple entities so that the resources can be shared.
Domain Name	A domain name is an alphabetic name defined by an organisation that must be converted to an IP Address using a DNS in order to access their website. For SeniorNet Eden-Roskill our domain name is "seniornet-eden-roskill.org.nz".
Download	Downloading is the method by which users access and save software or other files to their own computers from a remote computer via the Internet. In most instances it will be saved to the Downloads folder on your hard drive.
Driver	A driver is a small file that enables the computer to communicate with a certain hardware device. It contains information the computer needs to recognize and control the device. For Windows PCs, a driver is often packaged as a dynamic link library, or .dll file. For Macs, most hardware devices don't need drivers, but the ones that do usually come with a software driver in the form of a system extension, or .kext file. Be very wary of any website or email telling you that your drivers are out of date and offering to update your computer drivers - it is often a ploy used to install malware. In most situations your Operating System will detect when drivers are out of date and automatically update them.
Dual-Core CPU	Dual-Core CPUs are Multi-Core CPUs that have 2 processing cores in a single CPU chip which can execute 4 threads simultaneously.
Email	Electronic mail is a way of sending messages over the internet. Your email address consists of your unique ID for the email server that processes and stores your emails. Emails can be accessed using an Email Client or a Webmail facility. If you use the email server provided by your ISP, your email address will typically be your.identity@domainname. Alternatively you can use an email server from one of the Cloud services, in which case your email address will typically be your.identity@service.
Email Client	If you want to download email to your computer you must use an email client that is configured to point to one or more email servers that process your email. Popular email clients include eM Client, Mail for Mac, Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Polymail, etc.
eMMC	embedded Multi Media Card storage is mostly found in phones, as well as compact, budget laptops or tablets. The "embedded" part of the name comes from the fact that the storage is usually soldered directly onto the device's motherboard. eMMC storage consists of NAND flash memory - the same stuff that you find in USB thumb drives, SD cards, and solid-state drives (SSD) - which doesn't require power to retain data. Despite both containing NAND memory, SSDs and eMMC storage are quite different with SSD the preferred option if ignoring cost.
Ethernet	Ethernet is the most common connection type when devices are connected to a LAN by cable. An Ethernet port, found on the rear of many computers, looks like a regular phone jack, but is slightly wider, and takes an RJ45 connector. This port can be used to connect your computer to another computer, a local network, or an Internet router, via CAT-5 or CAT-6 cable. The term is also used in Windows 10 and Windows 11 in reference to your network connection.
Facebook	Facebook is a social networking website developed by Meta Platforms Inc., where users can post comments, share photographs and post links to news or other interesting content on the web, chat live, and watch short-form video. You can even order food on Facebook if that's what you want to do. Shared content can be made publicly accessible, or it can be shared only among a select group of friends or family, or with a single person.
Firewall	A firewall is a barrier that acts as a security system to protect trusted computer systems and networks from outside connections and untrusted networks, such as the Internet. This is normally built into your Internet Router, but other Firewalls can be added using software on your computer(s).
Firmware	Firmware is a specific class of software that provides the low-level control for a specific electronic device. Firmware can either provide a standardised operating environment for a device's more complex software, or act as a device's complete operating system for less complex devices, performing all control, monitoring and data manipulation functions. Almost all electronic devices beyond the simplest contain some firmware. Firmware is stored in non-volatile memory devices such as ROM, EPROM, or flash memory. Updating the firmware of a device is required to fix bugs or add new features to a device, and is normally performed using a computer or a standalone boot process.
Flash Drive	A flash drive, also variously known as a thumb drive, pen drive, jump drive, disk key, disk on key, flash-drive, memory stick or USB memory, is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. They are available in a range of sizes from Megabytes to Terabytes. Some allow up to 100,000 write/erase cycles depending on the type of memory chip used, and should last many years. However, they are prone to fail without warning so are not recommended as permanent backup devices. Because they are portable, they can easily transport viruses and malware from one computer to another so are not welcome in the learning centre.
FTP	File Transfer Protocol is a common method of transferring files via the Internet from one host to another host.
Function Key	A function key is a key on your computer keyboard that can be programmed so as to cause an operating system command interpreter or application program to perform certain actions, They are normally labelled F1 through F12 and located across the top of your keyboard, but depending on your keyboard and system may have other uses and require an additional key (Fn) to be pressed to activate them. Mac users can configure the top row of keys to work as standard function keys without holding the Fn key. Select 'System Preferences' from the Apple menu and click 'Keyboard.' Choose 'Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys' on the Keyboard tab. If you are a Windows user, look for an F-Lock key if they are not the default action.
GIF	Refers to images stored in Compuserve's Graphics Interchange Format, which is a lossless format for image files that supports animated and static images with a maximum of 256 colours. Images of this type may be used on the Internet.
Gbps	Acronym for Gigabits per second (a measure of data speed).
Gigabit	1 Gigabit (Gb) is 1024*1024*1024 or 1,073,741,824 bits (134,217,728 bytes).
Gigabyte	1 Gigabyte (GB) is 1024*1024*1024 or 1,073,741,824 bytes (8,589,934,592 bits).
Gmail	Gmail is a free email service developed by Google. Users can access Gmail on the web and using third-party programs that synchronize email content through POP or IMAP protocols. Anyone using Gmail will have an email address in the format user's-identity@gmail.com.
Google	Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. According to Google's website, the company's mission is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". While Web search remains Google's primary tool for helping users access information, the company offers many other services, including the Android OS, Google Chrome web browser and their Google Cloud Platform of services.
Google+	Google+ was a social network owned and operated by Google. The network was launched on June 28, 2011, in an attempt to challenge other social networks, linking other Google products like Google Drive, Blogger and YouTube. Due to low user engagement and disclosed software design flaws it was shut down for business use and consumers on April 2, 2019. Google+ continued to be available as "Google+ for G Suite", later rebranded as "Google Currents".
Google Analytics	Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic, currently as a platform inside the Google Marketing Platform brand. Google launched the service in November 2005, and is currently active within this web site enabling SeniorNet Eden-Roskill to monitor activity on the site.
Google Chrome	Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google that was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, and was later ported to Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android. The browser is also the main component of Chrome OS, where it serves as the platform for web apps. Despite the software being rather resource hungry and using lots of memory, the fact that Google tracks and collects user activities, and targets users with advertisements based on their browsing activity, it is the world's most popular web browser.
Google Search	Google Search is the world's most popular search engine such that the term "Google" is now often used as a verb, synonymous with "search".
GUI	Short for Graphical User Interface, and pronounced "gooey", it refers to the graphical interface of a computer that allows users to click and drag objects with a mouse instead of entering text at a command line. The graphical user interface was first introduced by Apple with the Macintosh in 1984, but virtually all of today's operating systems use GUI.
Hacker	A computer hacker is any skilled computer expert that uses their technical knowledge to overcome a problem. While "hacker" can refer to any skilled computer programmer, the term has become associated in popular culture with a "security hacker", someone who, with their technical knowledge, uses bugs or exploits to break into computer systems to steal information or cause malicious damage to the computer and its contents in some way.
HDD	The Hard Disk Drive is generally where a computer stores information such as applications and files. The data is stored on the magnetic surface of spinning disks. (See also SSD.)
HEIF	High Efficiency Image File (HEIF) format (aka MPEG-H) is a standard for images developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). HEIF also supports animation, and is capable of storing more information than an animated GIF or APNG in less size. It is the default for images produced using iOS 11 or iPadOS 11 and later, but can be changed from within Settings. For information on how to display these images on Windows 10, see How do I display High Efficiency Images with Windows 10?.
HEVC	High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) format (aka MPEG-H) is a standard for videos developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). It is a setup option for Android 9 (Pie) or later, and the default for videos produced using iOS 11 or iPadOS 11 and later, but can be changed from within Settings. For information on how to display these images on Windows 10, see How do I display High Efficiency Images with Windows 10?.
Hexadecimal	Expressing values in binary notation (i.e. 0110010100101011 etc) can be very tedious to work with unless you are a computer, so for human readability hexadecimal notation is used. Every 4 bits, which together can store a value between 0 and 15, are grouped together and assigned the numbers 0-9 supplemented by A-F to represent the 16 possible values. For the above example this would be 0110 0101 0010 1011 and expressing this in hexadecimal notation would give us 0x652B.
HTML	HyperText Markup Language is a set of symbols inserted into files intended for display on the World Wide Web. The symbols tell web browsers how to display words and images - e.g. which colour, font and type size to use - and they direct it to link to other pages on the World Wide Web via hyperlinks.
HTTP	HyperText Transfer Protocol is used to exchange information on the World Wide Web. Currently all web browsers support HTTP/2 by default. Safari 14 supports HTTP/3 by default, while all other browsers only support HTTP/3 if selected, but this is likely to change. HTTP/3 uses a different transport protocol that is capable of recovering from packet loss with minimal performance loss.
HTTPS	HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure is an extension of HTTP and is used for secure communication on the World Wide Web. With HTTPS, the communication protocol is encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS) or, formerly, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). The protocol is therefore also referred to as HTTP over TLS, or HTTP over SSL. When you need to input confidential information such as passwords, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, etc, always ensure that HTTPS is being used by checking the URL at the top of your web browser. Rather than show HTTP//, some browsers will show "Not secure" instead.
Hub	A Hub is a device for connecting multiple devices to a single network, not dissimilar to an electrical multi-outlet powerboard. Hubs are commonly used for USB and Network devices, although the latter have been superceded by Network Switches.
Hyperlink	A snippet of text on a webpage that usually appears in a different colour and may also be underlined. Clicking on a hyperlink takes you to a different part of the same webpage, to a different webpage altogether, or even to a different web site. Furthermore, the hyperlink may open within the same tab (as for the hyperlink examples shown above), or it may open a new tab for a different webpage. This action is under the control of the webpage where the hyperlink is specified.
IaaS	Abbreviation for Infrastructure as a Service, which refers to online services that provide high-level APIs used to dereference various lo-level details of underlying network infrastructure like physical computing resources, location, data partitioning, scaling security, backup, etc. Examples of an IaaS are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco Metapod, DigitalOcean, Google Compute Engine (GCE), Linode, Microsoft Azure, Rackspace, etc. Not to be confused with DaaS, PaaS and SaaS which are different.
IMAP	Internet Message Access Protocol is an Internet protocol used by some mail servers to handle email. A IMAP account is an email account. (See also POP.)
Incognito Mode	Incognito Mode is a privacy feature in some web browsers. When operating in such a mode, the browser creates a temporary session that is isolated from the browser's main session and user data. Browsing history is not saved, and local data associated with the session, such as cookies, site data and information entered into forms, are cleared when the session is closed. These modes are designed primarily to prevent data and history associated with a particular browsing session from persisting on the device, or being discovered by another user of the same device. This can be very useful when using a computer that is not your own to access private data.
Instagram	Instagram is an American photo and video-sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms, Inc. The app allows users to upload photos and videos to the service, which can be edited with various filters, and organized with tags and location information. An account's posts can be shared publicly or with pre-approved followers. Users can browse other users' content by tags and locations, and view trending content. Users can like photos and follow other users to add their content to a feed.
Internet	A collection of interconnected networks that allow computers in different locations to exchange information. The Internet includes services such as the World Wide Web, electronic mail, file transfer protocol (FTP), chat and remote access to networks and computers.
IP Address	Short for Internet Protocol Address, it is an identifying number for a device on an IP-based network. Most IP Addresses conform to the IPv4 standard but with the increasing number of devices being connected, the world has run out of IPv4 Addresses, so is slowly moving to the new IPv6 standard. It is also important to understand that your device will generally have two IP Addresses - one by which it is known locally to your router and other devices on your LAN, and another by which it is identified externally by other devices over the Internet. They may even conform to different standards. For most users your local IP Address will be allocated by your Internet Router, while the public IP Address will be allocated by your ISP. To find out your public IP address, type "what is my ip" into Google Search.
IPv4	Internet Protocol version 4 is the 4th version of the Internet Protocol standard, one of the core protocols of standards-based internetworking methods used by the Internet, and adopted in 1983. It provides an identifying number for a device on an IP-based network, and consists of four 8-bit numbers (i.e. numbers between 0 and 255) separated by periods, for example 100.86.254.10
IPv6	Internet Protocol version 6 is the 6th version of the Internet Protocol standard, one of the core protocols of standards-based internetworking methods used by the Internet, and adopted in 2017. It provides an identifying number for a device on an IP-based network, and consists of eight 16-bit hexadecimal values (i.e. values between 0000 and FFFF) separated by colons, for example 0064:0056:00FE:000A:0000:0000:0000:0000
ISP	Short for Internet Service Provider, which is the company that you use to access the Internet.
JAR	A JAR (Java ARchive) is a package file format typically used to aggregate many Java class files and associated metadata and resources (text, images, etc.) into one file for distribution. JAR files are archive files that include a Java-specific manifest file. They are built on the ZIP format and typically have a .jar file extension. One of the issues with JAR files is that they can contain hidden viruses, and you should be suspicious if you receive one unexpectedly.
Java	Java is a programming language developed by Sun Microsystems, but is now owned by Oracle. It is object-oriented and structured around "classes" instead of functions. Java can also be used for programming applets -- small programs that can be embedded in Web sites. The language is becoming increasingly popular among both Web and software developers since it is efficient and easy- to-use.
Javascript	Javascript is another programming language designed by Sun Microsystems, in conjunction with Netscape, that can be integrated into standard HTML pages. While JavaScript is based on the Java syntax, it is a scripting language, and therefore cannot be used to create stand-alone programs. Instead, it is used mainly to create dynamic, interactive Web pages. For example, Web developers can use JavaScript to validate form input, create image rollovers, and to open those annoying pop-up windows. Like so many other things, we have to take the bad with the good.
JFIF	Refers to images stored in JPEG File Interchange Format, which is a essentially a JPEG file that has resolution or aspect ratio information using an application segment extension to JPEG. If you have difficulty opening a JFIF file, simply rename the extension to JPG.
JPEG or JPG	Refers to images stored in Joint Photographic Experts Group format, which is a compresed format for image files that supports only static images with a maximum of 16.7 million colours. The compression algorithms do not change resolution but do reduce quality and is determined by the compression ratio used. Images of this type may be used on the Internet.
Kbps	Acronym for Kilobits per second (a measure of data speed).
Kilobit	1 Kilobit (Kb) is 1024 bits (128 bytes).
Kilobyte	1 Kilobyte (KB) is 1024 bytes (8192 bits).
LAN	A Local Area Network is a system that connects computers and other devices that share a common communications line and wireless link, generally within a limited geographical area such as a home or office building.
LinkedIn	LinkedIn is an American business and employment-oriented service, whose parent company is Microsoft Corporation, that operates via websites and mobile apps. It is mainly used for professional networking, including employers posting jobs and job seekers posting their CVs.
Linux	Linux is a free, open source, operating system that is available in several different distributions, including CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, and Red Hat. Linux can run on many different hardware platforms and may even be used as the OS for electronics devices besides computers. Although Linux is not commonly installed on home computers, it is widely used by Web hosting companies and has many other specialized applications.
MAC Address	Stands for Media Access Control Address, and no, it is not just related to Apple Macintosh computers. A MAC address is a hardware identification number that uniquely identifies each device on a network. The MAC address is manufactured into every network card, such as an Ethernet card or Wi-Fi card, and therefore cannot be changed. While it is made up of six two-digit hexadecimal numbers, separated by colons, hopefully you will never need to reference it as it should be automatic, but you may encounter it from time to time.
macOS	macOS (previously Mac OS X, then OS X) is a series of graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Apple Inc. that powers their Mac family of computers.
Malware	Malware is short for Malicious software. It refers to software programs that have been specifically developed to do harm to other computers, servers, clients and networks. Types of malware include computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware and scareware.
Mbps	Acronym for Megabits per second (a measure of data speed).
Megabit	1 Megabit (Mb) is 1024*1024 or 1,048,576 bits (131,072 bytes).
Megabyte	1 Megabyte (MB) is 1024*1024 or 1,048,576 bytes (8,388,608 bits).
Messenger	An instant messaging app and platform developed by Meta Platforms, Inc. as an alternative to MMS. With texting, users can only broadcast messages to a variety of numbers but can't actively collaborate with a group of people. Messaging allows an individual to communicate with as many people as they want, when they want, on the platform of their choice.
Meta	Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly Facebook Inc., builds technologies that help people connect, find communities and grow businesses, with plans to create a Metaverse combining multiple technologies.
Microsoft	Microsoft Corporation (MS) develops the Windows Operating System, and a range of other software products including the MS Office suite. Over recent years they have also produced a number of hardware devices, the most notable being the Microsoft Surface line of tablet computers. Since 2014 they have also been focused on cloud computing.
Modem	Modem is short for Modulator/Demodulator, which is a communications device that allows a computer to connect and transfer data over telephone lines. The original dial-up modems have become obsolete because of their slow speeds and have been replaced by the much faster DSL or Fibre modems.
MOV	QuickTime Movie is a video format developed by Apple. Videos are better quality than the other formats and file sizes are smaller than AVI but larger than MP4 or WebM.
MP3	MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio. It was originally defined as the third audio format of the MPEG-1 standard, before becoming the third audio format of the MPEG-2 standard with additional bit-rates and support for more audio channels.
MP4	MP4 or MPEG-4 Part 14 (to give its full title) is a digital multimedia container format most commonly used to store video and audio, but it can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images. Like most modern container formats, it allows streaming over the Internet. Portable media players are sometimes advertised as "MP4 Players", although some are simply MP3 Players that also play AMV video or some other video format, and do not necessarily play the MPEG-4 Part 14 format. Much of what you find on YouTube is in MP4 format, but a lot of newer videos are stored in WebM format instead. For Windows 10, MP4 videos can be played using the Films & TV app (default) or can be played using Windows Media Player. For macOS, you can play MP4 files as long as you have a player compatible with MP4 format. Although QuickTime has native support for MP4 file formats, it only plays MP4 files compressed with the codec of MPEG-2 (OS X Lion or later), MPEG-4 and H. 264 codec.
Multi-Core CPU	Multi-core CPUs have multiple processing cores which function as separate processors, but reside in a single CPU chip. A multi-core CPU can process instructions using all of its cores at the same time, but the computer's software must support multi-processing in order to use the cores effectively. Most multi-core CPUs also support Hyper-Threading/Multithreading, which means that each core can process two discrete threads simultaneously, so a dual-core CPU has two cores and can process 4 threads.
NAS	NAS is short for Network Attached Storage and refers to a network storage system in which shared data is stored in a central location, using an NAS server. The NAS server contains one or more hard drives that can be accessed by multiple computers on the network. Most NAS systems allow the network administrator to configure the file sharing settings, including which computers can access the data. They are used in both business and home networks but are not suitable for use with Apple Time Machine without configuration changes.
Network	When you have two or more computers connected to each other, you have a network. The purpose of a network is to enable the sharing of files and information between multiple systems. The Internet could be described as a global network of networks. Computer networks can be connected through cables, such as Ethernet cables or phone lines, or wirelessly, using wireless networking cards that send and receive data through the air.
Network Switch	A Network Switch is a multiport network hub device for connecting multiple devices to a single network. Unlike less advanced repeater hubs, which broadcast the same data out of each of its ports and let the devices decide what data they need, a network switch forwards data only to the devices that need to receive it.
Octa-Core CPU	Octa-Core CPUs are Multi-Core CPUs that have 8 processing cores in a single CPU chip which can execute 16 threads simultaneously. Commonly used in Smartphones.
Operating System	An Operating System is the software that manages all of a device's processes and allows programs and applications to run. The most prominent operating systems for personal devices are Apple OS X/macOS/iOS, Google Android, Linux and Microsoft Windows.
PaaS	Abbreviation for Platform as a Service, which refers to a category of cloud computing services that provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an app. Examples of a PaaS are Apache Stratos, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Force.com, Google App Engine (GAE), Heroku, Openshift, Windows Azure, etc. Not to be confused with DaaS, IaaS and SaaS which are different.
PDF File	Portable Document Format is a multi-platform file format developed by Adobe Systems. A PDF file captures document text, fonts, images, and formatting of documents from a variety of applications. It can, for example, be used to overcome the situation where you create a file using MS-Word but your friend does not have MS-Word, in which case they cannot easily read your file. However, you can e-mail it as a PDF document to your friend and it will look the same way on his screen as it looks on yours, even if he has a Mac and you have a PC. Since PDFs contain colour-accurate information, they should also print the same way they look on your screen.
Pebibyte	1 Pebibyte (PB) is 1024*1024*1024*1024*1024 which is 250 (1,125,899,906,842,624) bytes, or 1,024 Terabytes, 1,048,576 Gigabytes and 1,073,741,824 Megabytes.
Petabyte	1 Petabyte (PB) is 1000*1000*1000*1000*1000 which is 1015 (1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes, or 1,000 Terabytes, 1,000,000 Gigabytes and 1,000,000,000 Megabytes.
Phishing	Phishing is a type of email fraud in which the perpetrator sends out emails that appear to come from a legitimate service or reputable company, such as a bank or an email service provider. These emails aim to lure recipients to reveal confidential information that the perpetrator can use for their financial advantage - for example, online banking log-in details and passwords.
Pinterest	Pinterest, Inc. is an American social media web and mobile application company. It operates a software system designed to enable saving and discovery of information on the World Wide Web using images and, on a smaller scale, GIFs and videos.
PNG	Refers to images stored in Portable Network Graphics format, which is a compressed lossless format for image files that supports only static images with a maximum of 16.7 million colours. Images of this type may be used on the Internet.
Podcast	A Podcast is an audio file (typically MP3) that can be accessed via the Internet from a podcasting website, and listened to on computers or personal digital audio players. The term comes from a combination of the words iPod (a personal digital audio player made by Apple) and broadcasting.
POP	Post Office Protocol is an Internet protocol used by some mail servers to handle email. A POP account is an email account. (See also IMAP.)
Portal	A portal is a specially designed website that brings together information from diverse sources. In most cases you must log on using a specified name and password, after which you can access privileged information. They have become common in NZ for access to your personal data held by various NZ Government departments (RealMe) and for health information in conjunction with your personal doctor, such as Health365, ManageMyHealth, The Patient Portal, etc. The health portals can also be used to book appointments, order prescriptions and check test results.
Process	With computers, a process is an instance of a computing program that is being executed utilising one or more threads which exist as subsets of that process. Processes have separate address spaces whereas their threads share their address space and are not normally visible externally. Whenever you open a document from an application or open a new tab in a web browser it will initiate one or more new processes. If you view activity via an activity monitor/task manager, you will only see processes running, and any number of those could be for the same application.
Quad-Core CPU	Quad-Core CPUs are Multi-Core CPUs that have 4 processing cores in a single CPU chip which can execute 8 threads simultaneously.
RealMe	RealMe is an initiative from the New Zealand Government and New Zealand Post to make doing things online easier and more secure. Your RealMe login is a single username and password you can use to securely access services online. Not to be confused with a Shenzhen-based Chinese smartphone manufacturer called "Realme".
Reddit	Reddit is an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website. Registered members submit content to the site such as links, text posts, and images, which are then voted up or down by other members.
Ribbon	A Microsoft term used to describe the rich command presentation system that provides a modern alternative to the layered menus, toolbars, and task panes of traditional Windows applications. The original ribbon was introduced with MS Office 2007 and has been enhanced in later versions as well as being used in other MS apps.
Router	This is a hardware device that routes data on a local area network (LAN) and allows access to wide area network (WAN) connections. It is one of the primary functions of the device that connects you to the Internet. In most instances it is also the device that provides WiFi access to the Internet at home.
SaaS	Abbreviation for Software as a Service, which refers to cloud application services, represents the most commonly utilized option for businesses in the cloud market. SaaS utilizes the internet to deliver applications, which are managed by a third-party vendor, to its users. A majority of SaaS applications run directly through your web browser, which means they do not require any downloads or installations on the client side. Examples of a SaaS are Cisco WebEx, Concur, Dropbox, Google Apps, GoToMeeting, Salesforce, etc. Not to be confused with DaaS, IaaS and PaaS which are different.
Search Engine	A search engine is a web site that collects and organizes content from all over the Internet. When specific keywords are entered, the search engine matches the keywords against the documents available on the Internet and returns a list of documents in which the keywords were found. There are many search engines such as AOL, Ask, Baidu (Chinese), Bing, Dogpile, DuckDuckGo, Google, NATE (Korean), Yahoo, Yandex (Cyrillic), etc.
Server	A server is a computer that handles requests for data, email, file transfers, print, games and other network services from other computers. When your computer connects to a server it becomes a "client" of that server using what is known as the client-server model. A single server can serve multiple clients and a single client can use multiple servers. A large number of servers housed at a single location is referred to as a "data center", and for security purposes there may be multiple data centers. Google, for example, has an estimated 3 million servers spread across 4 continents.
Service	With computers, a service is a computer program that operates in the background, and is normally associated with the operating system of the computer, but may include drivers or background applications servicing multiple processes. On macOS these are referred to as System Processes. If you view services via an activity monitor/task manager, you will see that services can be Automatically started, Manually started, or Disabled, which is why they may show as Running or Stopped.
Signal	Signal is a free and open source software application for Android, iOS, and Desktop that employs end-to-end encryption, allowing users to send end-to-end encrypted group, text, picture, and audio & video messages, and have encrypted phone conversations between Signal users. In 2020 it was adopted as the messaging app of choice by the European Commission.
Skype	Skype is a telecommunications application that specializes in providing video chat and voice calls between computers, tablets, mobile devices, the Xbox One console, and smartwatches via the Internet. Skype also provides instant messaging services. Users may transmit text, video, audio and images.
Snapchat	Snapchat is a multimedia messaging app for Android and iOS, created by former students at Stanford University, and developed by Snap Inc. One of its principal features is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. The app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring users' "Stories" of 24 hours of chronological content, along with "Discover", letting brands show ad-supported short-form content. It also allows users to keep photos in the "my eyes only" which lets them keep their photos in a password protected space.
Social Media	Social media is a broad term for any online tool that enables users to interact with thousands of other users. Facebook and Twitter are among the largest social media networking sites, and LinkedIn is a combination social and professional site. Other popular sites include Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, Telegram, Tumblr, WeChat, WhatsApp and YouTube.
Spam	Spam is the jargon name for unwanted and unsolicited email, which comes in two main categories; high-volume advertising which is simply annoying, and hackers attempting to lure you into divulging passwords and other information which is dangerous. Filtering is one defence against spam, where the contents of incoming email are read and based on rules the email may be directed to you Junk folder or deleted. However, sometimes genuine emails are mis-read as spam so if someone sends you an email and you don't seem to receive it, check your Junk folder.
SSD	The Solid State Drive is where a computer stores information (applications and files) on many newer computer, laptops and tablets. The data is stored using special NAND flash memory that simulates a disk drive but behaves quite differently because there are no spinning disks as you have with HDD drives.
SSL	Secure Sockets Layer is a protocol that allows Internet users to send encrypted messages across the Internet. It is generally used when transmitting confidential information (e.g. personal data or credit card details). A web address that begins with "https" indicates that an SSL connection is in use.
Streaming	Streaming is when you watch live TV or listen to podcasts on an Internet-connected device. With streaming, the media file being played on the your device is stored remotely, and is transmitted a few seconds at a time over the Internet.
Tab	This term can have multiple meanings: The Tab key on the keyboard to advance the cursor to the next (or previous) defined tab stop or enterable field. A tab may be used within a document to position the text at a specific location and may appear as → within the line of text. With your web browser, every open webpage will appear as a "tab" at the top of your browser's window and clicking on the tabs will switch between your open webpages. For operating system programs, there are often tabs at the top of information or control panels that you must select to display/change different types of information. It is often used as an abbreviation for "tablet" computer.
Threads	Threads is an online social media and social networking service operated by Meta Platforms, Inc. The app offers users the ability to post and share text, images, and videos, as well as interact with other users' posts through replies, reposts, and likes.
Telegram	Telegram is a cloud-based instant messaging and voice over IP service. Telegram client apps are available for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows NT, macOS and Linux. Users can send messages and exchange photos, videos, stickers, audio and files of any type.
Terabyte	1 Terabyte (TB) is 1024*1024*1024*1024 (1,099,511,627,776) bytes, or 1,024 Gigabytes and 1,048,576 Megabytes.
Threads	A thread refers to the smallest sequence of programmed instructions that can be managed independently by a scheduler, and will generally be one of the many threads executed by a process. Depending on the CPU, multiple threads could be executing simultaneously, sharing mamory and resources but these are not shared across processes.
TikTok	TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, who produced the original app called Douyin for the Chinese market, hence the "d" styled logo. It is used to create short music and lip-sync videos of 3 to 15 seconds, and short looping videos of 3 to 60 seconds. TikTok is not available in China due to Internet restrictions, hence Douyin, which is one of the most downloaded apps in China.
TIF or TIFF	Refers to images stored in Tagged Image File Format, which is a compressed lossless format for image files that supports only static images with a maximum of 16.7 million colours. Images of this type CANNOT be used on the Internet, but can be read by Safari when the "Read Tiff" app extension is used with iOS 8 and above.
Trojan	A Trojan is a special kind of hacker program that relies on the user to welcome it and activate it, believing it to be genuine. Named after the famous Trojan Horse tale, a trojan program masquerades as a legitimate file or software program. Sometimes it is an innocent-looking movie file or an installer that pretends to be actual anti-hacker software. The power of the trojan attack comes from users naively downloading and running the trojan file.
Tumblr	Tumblr is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog. Users can follow other users' blogs. Bloggers can also make their blogs private. For bloggers many of the website's features are accessed from a "dashboard" interface.
Twitter	Twitter was an American microblogging and social networking service on which users could post and interact with messages known as "tweets". Registered users could post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users could only read them. Each message was limited to 280 characters. However, if 2023 it was purchased by Elon Musk for $44 billion, re-branded as "X"", and many changes were made.
Unicode	Unicode is an industry standard for consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. In so doing, it retains the ASCII standard embedded within it. The latest version contains a repertoire of 136,755 characters covering 139 modern and historic scripts, as well as multiple symbol sets. This website supports the UTF-8 standard.
UPS	An Uninterruptable Power Supply is an electrical apparatus that provides emergency power when the input power source or mains power fails. The UPS will provide near-instantaneous protection from input power interruptions by utilising a small battery with an inverter. The on-battery run-time of most uninterruptible power sources is relatively short (only a few minutes) but sufficient to start a standby power source or properly shut down the protected equipment. For laptop users with their own power supply on-board, a UPS can often be used to power the broadband router and thus keep the Internet connection working. Because of the low power consumption of the router, this can often be used for much longer periods, depending on the size of the battery.
URL	Uniform Resource Locator is used to locate resources on the Internet and is often referred to as the Web address. The first part of a URL identifies what protocol to use, e.g. http, https, ftp, etc. The second part identifies the IP address or domain name where the resource is located, e.g. seniornet-eden-roskill.org.nz. The last part if used, identifies the name of the file to be displayed, e.g. index.html.
USB	Universal Serial Bus is a common interface that enables serial communication between devices. • USB 1.0 (1996) allows for two speeds;   1.5Mb/s and 12Mb/s depending on the device. • USB 2.0 (2001) allows up to 480Mb/s • USB 3.0 (2011) allows up to 5Gb/s • USB 3.1 (2014) allows up to 10Gb/s • USB 3.2 (2017) allows up to 20Gb/s • USB 4.0 (2019) allows up to 40Gb/s Unfortunately, USB also spawned a wide range of connectors, some of which are version dependent, so if you have lost a cable the USB entries in the Technology Glossary may help you identify a replacement.
UTF-8	UTF-8 is a variable width character encoding capable of encoding all 1,112,064 valid code points in Unicode using one to four 8-bit bytes. The encoding is defined by the Unicode Standard, and the name is derived from Unicode Transformation Format - 8-bit. UTF-8 supports any unicode character, which pragmatically means any natural language (Coptic, Sinhala, Phonecian, Cherokee etc), as well as many non-spoken languages (mathematical symbols, music notation, APL, etc). This website supports the UTF-8 standard.
Virtual Reality	Virtual reality is an artificial environment that is created with software and presented to the user in such a way that the user suspends belief and accepts it as a real environment. On a computer, virtual reality is primarily experienced through two of the five senses, sight and sound, and often utilises a VR head set many of which use a smartphone display.
Virus	A computer viruses is a small program or script that someone has written in an attempt to negatively affect the operation of your computer. These malicious little programs can create files, move files, erase files, consume computer memory, and cause your computer to function incorrectly. Some viruses can duplicate themselves, attach themselves to programs, and travel across networks. In fact opening an infected e-mail attachment is the most common way for your computer to be infected with a virus, which is why you need to have a virus checker running at all times, especially on MS Windows systems.
WAN	A Wide Area Network is a telecommunications or computer network that extends over a large geographical area and is used by many larger businesses.
Web Browser	A web browser is an application program that is installed on your computer and is used to access various websites and web pages over the Internet. There are many web browsers such as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer (obsolete), Mozilla Firefox, MS Edge, Opera, Safari (Mac only), Samsung Internet, UC Browser, Vivaldi, etc.
WebM	Refers to videos stored in Google's audiovisual media format that is primarily intended to offer a royalty-free alternative to use in the HTML5 video and the HTML5 audio elements. For Windows 10, WebM videos can be played using the Films & TV app (default) or can be played from a Web Browser. For macOS, you can play WebM files using the Safari web browser, but you can only do so through VLC with the VLC for macOS plugin. It has a sister project WebP for images.
Webmail	If you want to access your email directly over the Internet, rather than downloading it to your computer, you must use a Webmail facility. Most ISPs provide this as a service and it is the standard for Cloud-based services such as iCloud Mail, Gmail, Outlook.com (previously Hotmail), Windows 10 Mail, Yahoo! Mail (Ymail), etc.
WebP	Refers to images stored in Google's compressed format that uses both lossless and lossy compression with the intention of replacing JPEG for Internet use but it is not commonly used except by Google, hence WebP images can be viewed using Google Chrome, and more recently by Safari 14. It has a sister project WebM for videos.
Webpage	A webpage is what you see in your web browser when you are on the Internet. Think of a webpage as a page in a magazine. You may see text, photos, images, diagrams, links, advertisements and more on any page you view. Often, you click or tap on a specific area of a webpage to expand the information or move to a related webpage.
WeChat	WeChat is a Chinese multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. It was first released in 2011, and became one of the world's largest standalone mobile apps in 2018, with over 1 billion monthly active users.
WEP	Wired Equivalent Privacy is a security protocol used in Wi-Fi networks. It is designed to provide a wireless local area network (LAN) with a level of security similar to that of a regular wired LAN. WEP-secured networks are usually protected by passwords. (See also WPA.) Because your Wi-Fi connection is visible to the world, it is important to password protect it, and prevent others from using it indiscriminately.
WhatsApp	WhatsApp Messenger or simply WhatsApp is a freeware, cross-platform messaging and Voice over IP service owned by Meta Platforms, Inc. It allows users to send text messages and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other media.
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi is a technology that allows computers and other devices to communicate via a wireless signal. The most common connection is with the Internet Router, while the speed is dependent on the Wi-Fi standard used by each device. Moreover, there may be compatiblility issues with some of the older versions.
Windows	Windows is the operating system developed by Microsoft Corporation to run on personal computers, tablets, and phones but the latter was not popular and that version is no longer being developed. All Windows platforms use a graphical user interface (GUI), like the Mac OS, and also offer a command-line interface for typing text commands. There have been numerous versions of Windows as detailed here. Prior to this it was called MS-DOS.
WPA	Wi-Fi Protected Access is a security protocol used in Wi-Fi networks. It is an improvement on WEP because it offers greater protection through more sophisticated data encryption. (See also WEP.) Because your Wi-Fi connection is visible to the world, it is important to password protect it, and prevent others from using it indiscriminately.
X	X, previously known as Twitter before it was bought by Elon Musk, is an American microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as "posts". Registered users can post, like, and repost posts, but unregistered users can only read them. Each message is now limited to 10000 characters, with 6,000 posts per day for verified users, 600 posts for existing unverified users and 300 for new users.
XML	Stands for Extensible Markup Language, and is used to define documents with a standard format that can be read by any XML-compatible application. The language can be used with HTML pages, but XML itself is not a markup language. Instead, it is a "metalanguage" that can be used to create markup languages for specific applications. For example, it can describe items that may be accessed when a Web page loads. Basically, XML allows you to create a database of information without having an actual database. While it is commonly used in Web applications, many other programs can use XML documents as well, for example MS Word documents saved as .docx are stored in XML format.
YouTube	YouTube is a video sharing website owned by Google that allows users to watch other people's videos and publish their own. It allows both professional and amateur users to post videos, which can be viewed by anyone in the world with an Internet connection. Uploaded videos are available at YouTube.com and may also be referenced on other websites, but they do not permit copying of videos, as YouTube and their authors are paid by advertisers according to the number of views, and copying denies that. This does not stop other sites promoting facilities that violate those conditions, but they are often more than they seem - beware!
Zip	Windows users will see this term a lot when looking for files on the Internet. A zip file (.zip) is a "zipped" or compressed file. For example, when you download a file, if the filename looks like this: "filename.zip," you are downloading a zipped file. "Zipping" a file involves compressing one or more items into a smaller archive. A zipped file takes up less hard drive space and takes less time to transfer to another computer. This is why most Windows files that you find on the Internet are compressed. One of the issues with zipped files is that they can contain hidden viruses, and many application programs will refuse to process them.
Zoom	Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service you can use to virtually meet with others - either by video or audio-only or both, all while conducting live chats - and it lets you record those sessions to view later. Zoom allows one-to-one chat sessions that can grow into group calls, training sessions and webinars for internal and external audiences, and global video meetings with up to 1,000 participants and as many as 49 on-screen videos. The free tier allows unlimited one-on-one meetings but limits group sessions to 40 minutes and 100 participants. To take part in a Zoom meeting, you must download and install the Zoom app, and the meeting organiser must send you a code for the meeting. Take particular care when downloading the app, as many users have inadvertantly downloaded malware at the same time.