Glossary of tech terms

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C

Charge

A term used when talking about the quantity of battery power in a device e.g. 'My phone is fully charged'. It's also the act of plugging the device into a power source to restore the battery power e.g. 'I need to charge my phone'.

Click

The action of pressing down quickly on a computer mouse (or touchpad on a laptop computer). Some computer mouses come with a left and right button, and sometimes a scroll wheel. The different buttons and scroll wheel perform different tasks e.g. clicking once on the left button/side of the mouse will allow you to select an object or file on the screen. This is also known as a single or left click. See also double click, right click and scroll wheel.

Cloud

Refers to storing and accessing information and programs over the internet, instead of on your computer. Many big technology companies offer cloud storage e.g. iCloud for Apple devices, and Dropbox or Google Drive for all devices. Most cloud services can be accessed through a web browser like Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox.

Cloud back up

The process of saving your important documents and photos from your device (e.g. tablet) to your cloud account.

Cookies

Small bits of code that are saved to a device when it visits a website. A bit like tickets that show you've visited the site before, cookies can enable a website to be customised for returning visitors.

Cryptocurrency

Also known as 'crypto'. A digital currency in which transactions are verified and maintained by a decentralised system.

Cursor

Usually a small arrow you can see on the screen that's used to point to different objects. You can move or control the cursor with a mouse, touchpad or trackpad. The cursor can change into other icons such as an hourglass (when it's thinking or waiting for something to respond to a click) or a small hand to indicate there's a link you can click on.