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A quick guide to SSDs
What, why, who, how explained 23 February 2009 17:43 GMT
What is it?
Standing for solid state drive it's an alternative to the hard disk drives used for storage and is a favourite in the low cost netbooks that are seen around today from the likes of Asus.

SSDs traditionally have the type of onboard technology...
A quick guide to GPS
What, why, who, how explained 17 February 2009 13:41 GMT
What is it?
Standing for Global Positioning System, it is a radio based technology that measures the distance from a device with access to GPS onboard such as satellite navigation products (sat nav), then calculates that distance to the satellites in orbit sending...
A quick guide to HomePlug
What, why, who, how explained 9 February 2009 13:26 GMT
What is it?
HomePlug or PowerLine, depending on which vendor you speak to, is a technology and series of products that turns your home electrical circuit into a local area network or LAN.

These devices plug into a normal power socket on the wall, whilst...
A quick guide to Android
What, why, who, how explained 5 February 2009 17:43 GMT
What is it?
Android isn't an acronym of any sorts, it's the name for an open source operating system for mobile phones that is set to be the next big step in the evolution of the mobile phone platform. It was initially taken on board by Google and developed to the...
A quick guide to video codecs
What, why, who, how explained 27 January 2009 17:24 GMT
What is it?
Still standing for, COder / DECoder with the same functionality that we brought to you in last week's "A quick guide to audio codecs". Once again, it's the second part of the word that most people will be more familiar with, as that part is handled by the...
A quick guide to audio codecs
What, why, who, how explained 20 January 2009 17:27 GMT
What is it?
Standing for, COder / DECoder, although it's the second part of the word that most people are more familiar with, it's the part an MP3 player, iPod, mobile phone or computer handles whilst playing file-based music.

Without going really technical...
A quick guide to Wi-Fi
What, why, who, how explained 13 January 2009 16:29 GMT
What is it?
Standing for, well, nothing really. In the past, people have wrongly associated Wi-Fi with Wireless Fidelity. When in actual fact it's just a trade mark associated with its governing body over standards. The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA)...
A quick guide to mobile broadband
What, why, who, how explained 5 January 2009 10:00 GMT
What is it?
Mobile broadband is a generic term used to describe fast internet access for devices such as a laptop, whilst on the move or just away from a fixed location. All the major networks: Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, 3 and O2 offer this as a service and various...
A quick guide to HD
What, why, who, how explained 22 December 2008 15:48 GMT
What is it?
Standing for "high definition" in this scenario, it means a better picture quality in either viewing or having images being digitally transmitted to a compatible screen. Most people associate HD with flat screen TVs, either LCD or plasmas, where there are...
A quick guide to DAB
What, why, who, how explained 15 December 2008 13:07 GMT
What is it?
Standing for Digital Audio Broadcast, it's essentially technology used by radio stations to transmit a digit rather than an analogue signal such as the likes of FM. The initial concept was to deliver CD-esque listening quality over the airwaves, which in...
A quick guide to EDGE
What, why, who, how explained 8 December 2008 13:05 GMT
What is it?
Standing for the mouthful that is Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution, it's a way for operators to almost cheat and get nearly 3G speeds to your phone. This is all without your mobile needing to be of 3G in nature or even on a network of that origin....
A quick guide to HSDPA
What, why, who, how explained 1 December 2008 12:00 GMT
What is it?
Standing for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, HSDPA is the next stage on from 3G that allows you to surf the Internet at broadband-like speeds on the go. Available from all the major operators in the UK, the technology is used in a large number of phones...