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| Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Top Words. My name is Alisha, and today, we're going to talk about 10 tech and gadget-related words. Let's begin. |
| "Preorder." |
| The first word is "preorder," "to preorder." This is a verb. "Pre," the prefix "pre" means like before something, and we have the verb "order." So, it means like to order something early. "Preorder" means to order something before it's officially on sale. So, you could say like, "Preorder the new iPhone," or, "Preorder the new Xbox," or, "Preorder a new videogame," for example. These are things we order before they are available. We can't buy them yet, but we can register to receive them when they become available, to preorder. In another sentence, "I always preorder the newest gadgets." |
| "Handset." |
| The next word is "handset." This is sort of a strange word, but we use "handset" for anything we can use in our hands. So, like a phone, we would say, "My handset." We use this a lot for phones and other things that we can use with our hands, I suppose. But mostly, I feel like in recent days, we use "handset" pretty much just for phones like smartphones. So, if you see the word "handset" in a news or a tech article, it probably refers to a phone, like the phone, like the iPhone or a smartphone or an Android. The physical object is the "handset." So, in a sentence, "Have you ever broken your handset?" |
| "Screen." |
| The next word is "screen." So, a "screen," the "screen" is this part of--ooh, you saw my picture. Okay. The "screen" is this part of your phone, or your smartphone if you like. Let's see. I can see a "screen." So, any part of a device that you can use to view something on is a "screen," a computer screen, TV screen, tablet screen, smartphone screen. We also have screens on doors if you like, but that's a different sort of screen. So, a "screen," it's easy to break, perhaps, if you drop it in just the right way. So, the "screen" is the place where you view information. The part of your electronics where you view information is the "screen." In a sentence, "I cracked my screen." |
| "Sensor." |
| The next word is maybe becoming more and more interesting, "sensor." This word "sensor." A "sensor," this is a noun, is a device that is used to detect something else. So, for example, "There are motion sensors. They detect motion. They find motion, a motion sensor." Recently in smartphone technology now, we have face sensors, or we can have fingerprint sensors as well. They can detect or they can find fingerprints. They can sense or see faces, too. So, a "sensor" is a device, a technology to sense or to find something, to detect something. In a sentence, "This phone has a face sensor." |
| "Wireless internet, Wi-Fi." |
| The next word or phrase is "wireless internet or Wi-Fi." So, "wireless internet" has become more and more common in recent years. "Wireless" means no wire, and "internet" is just the internet connection to it. But "wireless internet" is very long to say, so we usually just say "Wi-Fi." So, we have "Wi-Fi" like Wi-Fi hotspots, free Wi-Fi, maybe there are paid Wi-Fi, maybe you need a password to log in to your Wi-Fi. But generally, we use "Wi-Fi" to talk about wireless internet. In a sentence, "What's your Wi-Fi password?" |
| "Charger." |
| The next word is "Charger." "Charger" is a very important part of your technology, I think. A "charger" is the cord or the cable, though now we're seeing wireless chargers, I suppose, is usually a cord or a cable we connect our device to electric power with. This part is called the "charger." So, there's a charger on this camera. Your phone has a charger. Anything that is battery-powered has a charger. But like I said, now we're seeing some wireless charging technology coming out. But maybe we'll still call that "chargers." We'll still refer to those as chargers in the future. In a sentence, "Can I borrow your charger?" |
| "Bloatware." |
| The next word is "bloatware." So, maybe you can see at the end of this word is "ware" like software or hardware, "bloat." "Bloat," it means like, for example, if your body is holding onto a lot of water, it feels like too big kind of like, we say "bloated." It's like there's too much of something. So, "bloatware" is extra stuff on your computer, usually software. So, for example, if you receive, and if you get a new computer, you buy a new computer and there's a lot of extra software, we call that extra software "bloatware." It's all the stuff that you don't need. It's extra stuff from the company that made the computer. In a sentence, "My computer came with so much bloatware installed." |
| "Disable." |
| The next word is "disable." It's a verb, "to disable." So, "to disable" means to turn off, or to stop, or to make not available something. So, we can disable like a face sensor. We can disable Siri if you use iPhone. You can disable or the opposite is enable, but you can disable any function or many functions on your phone, or many functions on your computer. "To disable something," of course to reverse that is "to enable something." In a sentence, "How do you disable notifications?" |
| "Megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte." |
| The next word is really three words. I have "megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte." These are different ways of measuring data. So, "megabyte" is the smallest, "gigabyte" is the next, and "terabyte" is the largest in this list. So, these are different ways of measuring our data. We could say, for example, "My computer has 2 gigabytes of RAM." However, I want to mention "megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte" are quite long and usually, we do not use these in conversation. We say, for "megabyte" megs, and for "gigabyte" gigs, and for "terabyte"--well, I guess we always just use tera, 2 tera, 1 tera, 3 tera. But in writing, you will see instead of "megabyte," MB. In writing for "gigabytes," you'll see GB, and for "terabyte," TB. So, please keep in mind there are a few different ways of talking about and writing about these vocabulary words. |
| So, when talking about RAM, your random-access memory on your computer, you could say, "My computer has 2 gigs of RAM. My computer has 4 gigs of RAM. For a hard disk, a removable hard disk, you could say, "I have a 1 terabyte of removable hard disk," or for maybe an SD card, a small memory card, you could say, "This is a 64 megabyte SD card," for example. In another sentence, "How many gigs of RAM does your computer have?" |
| "Geared toward." |
| The next word is "geared toward." "Geared toward" is--this is a word that I saw in a few tech articles, which made me want to include it in this list. "Geared toward" means intended for, or the target audience of a product is. So, like, "This product is geared towards maybe gadget enthusiasts. So, this product is geared towards home cooks. This product is geared towards teachers." So, "geared towards" means intended for or made for or the target audience is. We use "geared towards" in this way. But I saw this in a lot of tech and tech news articles, so I included it here. In another sentence, "This app is geared towards people who like shopping." |
| So, those are 10 tech and gadget-related words. I hope those were useful for you. If you have any questions or any comments or want to try an example sentence, please go ahead in the comment section below this video. Thanks very much for watching this episode of Top Words and we'll see you again soon. Bye. |
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