We’re storing more and more data in the cloud these days. Email, contacts, documents, photos, calendar entries – you name it, it’s on Google’s servers. But what happens when the services we rely on go down? When the US government seized Megaupload, many users lost data they were storing on Megaupload’s servers.

Windows 7’s Homegroup feature makes sharing printers on your local network easy, but what if you want to share a printer over the Internet? This has traditionally been very complicated, involving print drivers, firewall rules and IP addresses. Google Cloud Print, built into Google Chrome, simplifies online printer sharing.

The Great Firewall of China, officially known as the Golden Shield project, uses a variety of methods to block foreign websites that the Chinese government doesn’t like. The Chinese government doesn’t publish a list of blocked sites, so it’s not easy for foreigners to tell if their website is visible in China or not. However, there are several web-based tools that can quickly check for you.

Mumble improves on other voice chat applications for gamers and offers quite a few advantages. It’s optimized for low-latency communications, making it perfect for hectic game situations where every second counts. If you’re coming from Ventrilo, another popular voice chat application for gamers, you’ll also find that Mumble has a much more streamlined interface.

The User Agent Switcher extension is a secret agent in disguise for Firefox. You can put on your IE hat and slip past virtual bouncers into Internet Explorer-only websites; blend in as an iPhone and explore the web’s mobile underbelly; or flash your fake Google ID card and get the V.I.P. treatment.

If you’re looking at buying a smartphone, you’re probably going to buy an Android device or an iPhone (sorry, Microsoft). What’s the difference, and which should you choose? We recently gave the pro-iPhone side of the story, and now in the interests of balance, it’s time for to put forward the case for Android.

HTTPS Everywhere is one of those extensions that only Firefox makes possible. Developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, HTTPS Everywhere automatically redirects you to the encrypted version of websites. It works on Google, Wikipedia and other popular websites.

Google Talk is great, but not if you have friends scattered across MSN, AIM, Yahoo, Facebook and every other chat network ever created. You don’t have to run eleven different apps to stay in touch; just use imo.im for Android and get every protocol in one slick app. It integrates nicely with Android and has a simple, clean interface.

Google’s Chrome OS is ambitious. Too ambitious. The concept of booting to a web browser is an enticing one, but Google hasn’t pulled it off well enough. Offline support is incomplete at best, the Chrome Web Store pales in comparison to other app stores and Chrome OS is on a collision course with Windows 8. Chrome OS will fail – not by going down in flames, but by being quietly folded into Android.

Interested in Android? You don’t have to buy a device or go to a physical electronics store (do those still exist?) to try it out. You can run individual Android apps and play with the latest versions of the Android operating system on Windows. Whether you want to try Android before you buy, experiment with the latest version of Android or sync apps between your Android device and your PC, these Windows programs have you covered.

Google’s Chrome Web Store hosts many extensions that can protect your security and privacy while using Chrome. Whether you want to block JavaScript, plug-ins, cookies and tracking scripts or force websites to encrypt your traffic, Chrome has an extension for you. We’ve written about security and privacy add-ons for Firefox in the past, but Chrome’s add-on ecosystem has taken longer to mature.

Foobar2000 is the desktop music player of choice for audiophiles, tinkerers and anyone looking for a lightweight, efficient program. We have it listed on our page of the best Windows software for a reason, although it may not be obvious when you first install it. Foobar2000’s default interface is spartan and hides powerful features and nearly infinite customizability.

We’ve previously written about Ubuntu’s Unity desktop environment, which we touted as a “big leap forward” for Linux when it was introduced with Ubuntu 11.04. Unity was certainly a big leap in a new direction, but it left a lot of users behind. Luckily, Linux is all about choice and Ubuntu’s software repositories contain a variety of excellent alternatives to Unity.

Dropbox brought cloud-based file synchronization and storage to the masses, but it’s been hindered by high-profile security problems. Fortunately, you have another option — an alternative service that secures your files with local encryption and decryption. The encryption keeps your files private, outwitting hackers and preventing rogue employees from snooping around.