OK, So you all know I bought the Canon Powershot A720 -YEAH- (it's in the mail). In the mean time I have printed out the book, to learn how to use it - or at least give it a good read. However, I am having trouble -

I am TOTALLY new to all of this and want to use all of the features of this camera (when my old cameras mentioned things like this - IF THEY DID - I ignored them...but this time I am determined to learn)

So, could anyone point me to somewhere that might give a definition and how to use or WHY to use some of these?

Things like noise, ISO, aperture, shutter speed and macro - I feel pretty stupid for asking but any help would be very well appreciated!
Thanks

iso refers to sensitivity of the sensor or film.
An iso of 100 will require larger aperture or slower shutter speed but will give the clearer, less noisy photo.
A larger iso,(they go up to 6400 I believe), will allow you to take shots with less light but the image would probably be pretty grainy or noisy. Most p&s cameras start having trouble with anything over 400 with lots of noise.
Aperture is the hole the light goes through to form an image on the sensor.
The confusing part for new people is that the smaller the hole the larger the number.
Thus an aperture of f/3.5 has a larger hole than an aperture of f/16 or anything in between.
The large aperture numbers will also require slower shutter speed as the smaller hole cannot let as much light in.
The other thing with aperture is depth of field,(dof). The large numbers,(small hole) give more depth of field. Your subject will be in focus as well as stuff behind and in front, depending on aperture selected. A small number aperture,(large hole), will give shallow depth of field. Your subject and maybe only part of your subject will be in focus but not the background or foreground. You see this a lot in flower photography where the flower is in focus but the background is a blur.
Shutter speed is just that..how long your shutter is open. What you need is dependant on light and aperture. A fast shutter speed,(1,2000 or faster), can freeze action whild a slower one can show motion....they are used selectively by sports photographers a lot to either show the motion of the subject or to freeze it. Generally one would not shoot at slower than 1/60th without a tripod as your own movement will show on the photo and it will be blurry. I've done 1/40th and 1/30th but I try to lean against something of find a way to steady my hand if I don't have my tripod.
The darker it is the slower your shutter will be, and the brighter it is the faster it will be.
Macro is a term used to describe photos in which the image is lifesize or larger.
I'm sure your a70 will have a macro setting which will alllow you to focus closer on your subject. You might want to shoot the inside of a rose...don't know if the a70 has that good a macro but that's when you'd use it. Macro requires very fine focusing and generally gives shallow dof. Its an art to learn. Again remember the aperture setting will give varying dof results and its your eye that determines what you want. To see a sharp macro look at Wyatt's TootToot thread in the viewfinder forum. People spend a lot of money for macro lenses on slr but you won't have to worry about that with the a70, though there might be an accesory lens that can be used on it. Oh yes...macro work generally requires a tripod. You're so close to the subject that if your neighbor drops the toilet seat it will show on the shot. Not really but u get the idea.

Now I explained those terms a bit for my own benefit as its good to review sometimes and someone might correct me on something but here's a link to photo terms and there are many on the internet. http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/glossary/glossaryContents.shtml

Just one more little terminology question: What is diferent about a "prime" lens? It seems from the numbers in the name that they are fixed to a single focal length?

Correct, a prime lens is a fixed focal length. The benefit of a prime lens is than it is optimize for that particular focal length where as with a zoom lens compromises have to made to make it work across the entire range. Usually this means an increase in distortion.

We have a very complete photo glossary in the Learn (http://www.photographyreview.com/learncrx.aspx) section. It could stand to be updated a bit for digital stuff. But for standard photography terms, it's very complete, and easy to navigate. We actually have a separate one for digital terms. But it's time we just combined them both, I think.

Glossary of Photo terms >> (http://www.photographyreview.com/photoglossarycrx.aspx)
Glossary For Digital >> (http://www.photographyreview.com/digitalglossarycrx.aspx)

Hope that helps! Remember this glossary, please. Spread the word when people are looking for this kind of help. And don't forget to check the Learn (http://www.photographyreview.com/learncrx.aspx) section if you have a technique or equipment question. There's tons of stuff in there.