Tech terms are a foreign language to most
Tech terms are a foreign language to most
Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications.
"Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
- Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
If you're reading this, chances are you're tech savvy enough to figure out most of the jargon we throw around. But you might be surprised by how in the minority you actually are. A new Pew Internet and American Life study finds that 70 percent of Americans either have never heard of phishing (as in the common e-mail scam) or are not really sure what the term means. But that's better than the 87 percent who don't know what podcasting is and the whopping 91 percent unfamiliar with RSS feeds.
On the plus side, an impressive 78 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults had a good idea of what a firewall does. No word on a follow-up survey about RAID arrays and HDMI connections.
Mobile Guides
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Mobile Accessories
Smartwatches
Wireless Plans