Modern-Tech Jargon Buster - Apps. What are apps?

Is there an app for that?
This is one of the questions often asked by persons wanting more from their smartphone/tablet.  You see most persons understand that in order to turn their smart-devices into useful tools they need to have "apps" for the different tasks they wish to perform or complete, but what most persons may not be able to explain is exactly what are apps?

In simple terms the word app is short for application, which are the instructions that tells your device what to do or how to behave.  These days though, the word app is used almost exclusively when referring to    applications or programs that are designed to run on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, but it is not wrong to call the programs installed on your desktop computer app either.

What are cookies?

Do you remember when the correct answer to the title of this post (what are cookies?) would have been "small sweet cakes, typically round, flat, and crisp?"

Information/computer technology has added so many new words, terms, phrases and even new meaning to old words to our vocabulary that these days if you're not careful you could easily find yourself being completely lost in conversations where you know all the words being used, just not the modern interpretation.

So what is a cookie as far as technology is concerned?

Well, in simple terms a cookie can be thought of as an identification card for an Internet user which allows a website that you would have visited some time before to recognize you whenever you return to that site using the same computer and browser.

In more technical terms, a cookie is a small text-based file which is generated by a web server (the computer that operates a website) and stored on your computer's hard drive through your Internet browser which allows a website to recognize you as a returning visitor whenever you decide to revisit that particular website from the same computer, using the same browser.

Now, on the positive or good side cookies are necessary as they:

• help to speed up the load time of the webpages you revisit
• allows the website to remember what you would have placed in your shopping cart last time around for example
• remembers the personal information that you may have entered so you won't have to re-enter it among other things.  

On the negative side cookies can also be used as malware or spyware to:

• track you and your browsing habits
• flood your browser with ads and popup and your email with spam
• gather your personal information which can then be sold to other companies or third party individuals

It's important to note that for every website you visit, once it uses cookies, a cookie is placed on your computer's hard drive and while they are small files, they, over time will account for quite a bit of space.  For the malicious cookies, this is where common sense, anti-spyware and other internet security software comes into play. See here.

For more information on cookies you can check out this link.
For information on how to delete cookies see here.

Portable devices and security

As the tech-world moves more and more away from being tied to a desk and embraces portable computing, so too the population of persons owning smart-devices (smartphones and tablets) is growing and this is a good things since it now means that more work can get done while we're in transit between home and workplace or anywhere for that matter, but there is a risk involved - that of security.

What would happen to your personal information or company's information should you lose your smart device?  If your smartphone or tablet was stolen would you be be able to comfortably say that your personal data is well protected from the thief?  Many persons would spend "top dollar" to own a smart-device, but few take the time to sit and protect the content of the said device.  How about you?  Is your information, files, credit card information, email credentials etc protected?

Here are three (3) simple ways you can protect your data:

1. Lock or password protect your device - ALL smart-devices come with a feature to lock or password protect the device from being used.  I must admit that some are much better than others based on the operating system you're using, but even then, it's better to have a little protection than no protection at all.  If the device has data encryption as a security feature, USE IT!
2. Pay attention to the apps or software you install on your device and the sort of permissions they request upon installation especially if you're using apps that are from sources outside of the official "app stores" of the various mobile operating systems (side-loading)
3. Physical access restriction - this should have possibly been the first one on the list.  You cannot afford to be careless with your device - DO NOT just leave it lying around.

I'm sure you may have other things that persons can do to protect their devices and their contents, so please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.