To be honest, I never understood the big fuss over webcams and video chatting. Sure, it’s nice to chat face to face every once in a while, especially when you haven’t seen your significant other or family members for long periods of time, but other than that, I’ve always thought webcams weren’t a justified purchase. Until I learned you can use webcams for more than just chatting.

Have you ever been watching something on the TV or the computer, had to step out for a bit, but “a bit” soon turns into minutes, hours, maybe even days? You return to your screen only to see an image burned into the display and, no matter what you do, it just won’t go away. Sadly, it’s happened to me on a few occasions. Why do images get burned into displays? Why can’t manufacturers just prevent LCDs and plasmas from doing that?

There are many Android games that deserve praise, many of which are logic-based puzzle games like Move the Box and Unblock Me, although there are a few action games like Death Worm to seal the deal. I’ve found yet another fantastic logical puzzler that will calmly pick your mind and stump you regularly. It’s called Quell and it’s available on both Android (Free) and iOS ($1.99).

Who doesn’t love a skilled drummer? Beats are the heart of music and a great beat by a great drummer can absolutely transform the spirit of a song into something transcendent. I’ve tried learning how to drum on a few occasions in the past but always ran into an obstacle: drums are expensive. Luckily for any of you readers in that same boat, there are now a handful of fantastic resources on the Internet

Technology in the computer age has been plagued with unsecured features, security loopholes, and general oversights in software architecture. Flash drives can carry keyloggers. Browsers might have open backdoors. Windows constantly updates with security fixes. We have to take the good with the bad and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is one technological advancement that, too, comes with its share of drawbacks.

Who doesn’t love Internet radio? I was a slow adopter when it came to streaming online music, but now I’m a believer and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Fortunately, the technology has been continually advancing and now we’ve got a number of great mobile music streaming services. Jango Radio is one of them and it most definitely deserves your attention.

These days, the push for the cutting edge in video games is all about graphics, artificial intelligence, and physics. You’ve got beautiful 3D games that have the potential to look like real-life photography (I’m looking at you, Crysis). But what about games before the graphical revolution? Does anyone remember text-based games? Indeed, long ago games used to be all text and imagination. You may know them as interactive fiction.

For those of you who still haven’t heard of Pandora, it’s an online website that allows you to stream music for free. Unlike other music streaming services, Pandora isn’t built on the idea that you should be able to freely add whatever songs to a playlist for leisure listening. Instead, the service is all about finding songs and artists that are similar to your current tastes.

Like most people, I enjoy going out to places with my friends. Restaurants, movies, overnight trips, amusement parks, paintballing – you name it and I’ll go. Going out as a group is great but sometimes there are complications, especially when it comes down to money. Fortunately, there’s a new website that aims to solve this problem. It’s called What Do I Owe You?

Mobile phones have been around for a long time, starting with the massive phones that were bigger than your head, to the flip phones, to the slider phones, to what we have now: smartphones. Yet even through all of that time, mobile phones still utilize ringtone technology to notify you of calls. Of course, nowadays ringtones are higher quality and, better yet, you can create your own! Creating a ringtone is actually a very easy task on Android.

Have you ever seen a post on the Internet and your only reaction was “what? That can’t possibly be true”. It’s happened to me lots of times and I’m always sent on a wild goose chase, researching websites and articles from all over, just to confirm whether or not it really is true. Debunking an online rumor or urban myth takes time, but it’s quite satisfying. Keep reading to find out what makes these rumors and myths so believable.

I love it when MakeUseOf readers suggest new apps and programs to me. With every article I write, I’m just waiting for all of those comments that point me in new directions and expand my own library of cool software. That’s how I stumbled across this cool new Android app that will surely come in handy at future parties – Music Pool, an app that lets you sync up your Android device with other Android devices nearby.

Ciphers have been used throughout history to maintain secrecy and security for sensitive pieces of data. Instead of leaving important information out in the open and available to anyone for reading, these ciphers kept knowledge and messages locked away behind puzzles. At one time, those ciphers may have been simple, but now we have extremely powerful forms of encryption. Think about all of the sensitive data you transmit on a day-to-day basis through your browser.

Security suites are a big deal. There are so many avenues of attack and you may one day find your computer buckling under the weight of malware and viruses. In the latter half of last year, I actually reviewed Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware Pro as part of MakeUseOf’s Rewards Program. But here’s our offer this week: we’re giving away 25 copies of Ad-Aware Pro 10.5 worth a total of $900 for FREE!

So what can you do when Google encompasses a ton of products and services all around the world and you want to escape their control? When complaints and protests don’t work, the best way to speak your mind is to quit using their products and services. But with a company as pervasive as Google, this can be extremely difficult.