There are now thousands of apps and extensions for Google Chrome. I've selected ten of the most interesting and useful to get you started. As you'll see, browser customization is no longer a Firefox-only affair, and Chrome makes installing apps and extensions incredibly easy, so try them out!

Evernote Web Clipper

Much easier than searching your history, and much more flexible, Evernote is an excellent way of keeping pages, links and articles you like. Evernote is like a well-organized web scrapbook, and can quickly become something you rely on. Download here.

M86 Security Secure Browsing

Have you or any of your friends ever been caught out by clicking a scam link on Facebook or elsewhere? This extension checks links on a page and tells you what is genuine and safe. Download here.

Awesome Screenshot

There are many reasons you might want to take a screenshot of a webpage, and Awesome Screenshot makes it really easy. It also features an annotate and edit function, so you can highlight or point to the important areas of the page. Download here.

Google has announced an update to their terms and conditions that means from 1st March, it will now track and collate user activity across all Google products including YouTube, Gmail and Google+. According to the company, the aim of this is to unify the privacy policies for different products as well as provide a more personalized service. Google said in its announcement:

We may combine information you've provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.

Specific benefits of this mean Google can deliver personalized results when you do a Google search, more relevant ads to your interests and even set reminders based on your activity.

However, if you'd rather Google didn't collate or track all your activities across the various Google products that you use, there are a few simple measures you can take to stop it.

• Sign-out of your Google account. This only works when using certain Google products. For some, such as YouTube, you can use the service without being signed-in. Obviously, this method isn't much good if you want to check your Gmail. If you want to see whether you are signed-in or not, check the top-right of your screen.

• Create multiple Google accounts. You could create one for each product that you use so that your activities or data are limited to one account at a time. You can then sign-in with multiple accounts in one browser although for some services, you can only sign-in to one Google account per browser at any one time which could become a bit messy and annoying.

• Customize your Google privacy settings. Google does offer a privacy customization page where you can tweak your settings for various apps. However, it isn't clear whether these will still work once the new privacy policy takes effect on March 1st.

It's worth adding that if you're not happy with the new privacy changes, you can close your Google account and take your data with you in accordance with Google's data liberation policy. To check the data that Google currently holds on you across different services, check the Google Dashboard.

So you've been making masterpieces on your camera phone...but when you get your hands on the video, everything's upside down! If you're using super-app VLC media player, you'll be really pleased to hear that rotating it back so you can watch it comfortably is really easy. Even better, VLC lets you rotate freely, so even if your video is at a funny angle, you're guaranteed to be able to watch it perfectly straight.

Rotating video in VLC;

1. Open your video in VLC and pause it so you can fix it without missing anything
2. In the menu, go to Effects and Filters > Geometry and enable the Rotate checkbox
3. You'll then be able to rotate your video in real time, so you'll be able to spot exactly when you've managed to turn it back to where it's supposed to be!

Bear in mind that this is a temporary solution. If you want to rotate your video and save it with the correct orientation, your best bet is to use a video editor like VirtualDub or Avidemux. If you'd like a tutorial on this, let us know in the comments!

The recent closure of Megaupload highlights the risks of using a cloud based service to backup and store data. Of course, backing-up your data to an external hard drive isn't without risks but there is one that's significantly reduced - the threat of losing access to your data due to sites being shutdown.

We've already compiled and compared a list of other cloud backup solutions so here are five of the best desktop backup alternatives for Windows and Mac:

TimeMachine

(Mac):

Apple's easy to use discreet backup solution. Constantly backsup your data without slowing down your Mac so that you can effectively "go back in time" and restore files and data. Note however that some people have found it unreliable at times - it may start-off well but may become erratic over time.

SuperDuper!

(Mac):

SuperDuper! creates exact clones of your Mac's hard drive so you have a full backup of all your data, including permissions, user profiles and private settings. Simply select the target and destination drives and start backing up. You can specify exactly which files you want to transfer and which you'd like to omit.

Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC)

(Mac):

Carbon Copy Cloner is free, simple to use and backsup only those files and folders that you want it to. Just connect your external hard drive to your Mac, CCC will automatically detect it and off you go. You can also schedule automatic backups at specific times and create disk images with it.

Norton Ghost

(PC)

Norton's Anti-Virus is a nightmare but its backup solution is a much better package. Norton Ghost is probably the closest thing to Time Machine on a PC and backs-up your entire hard drive – or just selected folders – to another partition, networked drive or an external storage device. Norton Ghost can also create an exact copy of your hard drive with all the existing files, programs and settings and provides restoration points.

USB Image Tool

(PC)

USB Image Tool is one of the simplest PC backup solutions you'll find. It's free, straightforward and automatically detects USB devices connected to your computer and scans them before asking you whether you'd like to create an image backup or restore a previously backed-up image. USB Image Tool can create images of USB memory sticks and MP3 players that are mounted as USB drives.

[Image courtesy of OnSoftware ES]

Need to take a screenshot of a video? One of the simplest ways to do it is with UMPlayer, an excellent media player that’s a worthy alternative to the popular VLC Player.

Whether you have a movie review web site and want to take some stills of a new film, or you just want a shot of your favorite movie to set as your desktop background, UMPlayer makes it dead simple.

Install UMPlayer

First, download UMPlayer from Softonic and install it on your PC. Launch the application and load a movie by dragging the file into the main interface or choose File from the Open menu.

Capture a screenshot

Go to the point of the movie you want to capture and press pause to freeze it. Now go to the Video menu, and you’ll find two screenshot options here. Select Screenshot to take a grab of what’s currently on screen, or choose Start/stop taking screenshots and UMPlayer will keep taking shots of the screen as the movie plays. Then choose this option again (or hit Shift + D) to stop the capture process.

Change output options

To find out where your screenshots have been saved go to the Options menu and select Preferences. On the General tab of the General options (which should load as the default menu) you’ll see a section called Screenshots. Here, you can change the destination folder of the saved screenshots, and enable/disable UMPlayer’s screenshot functionality.

Hiding your IP address while you're browsing the internet is a good move for anyone wanting an additional level of privacy online.

UltraSurf is a simple tool that's perfect for doing this when you're using Internet Explorer. It will help ensure security while you're shopping or banking by encrypting your personal information - your IP address gives information about you to third parties. UltraSurf is a great portable tool for people who don't want third parties to be able to view this information, as well as those who want to access websites that are blocked in their locale.

If you prefer Firefox to Internet Explorer, though, there's an add-on just for you. It's called UltraSurf Firefox Tool.

All you have to do to use UltraSurf on Firefox is download both UltraSurf and the add-on for Firefox. If you're currently running Firefox, you may need to restart befure UltraSurf will work.

Besides being able to hide your IP from third parties, UltraSurf can also automatically delete cookies and browser history every time you close it, an extra level of security that users are sure to appreciate.

Yesterday's big announcement by Apple was the release of iBooks Author and iBooks 2. iBooks Author is a Mac application and Apple's attempt at revolutionizing educational books whether they be textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books and more for iPad. With it, you can create all of the above and more via a classically easy to use Apple interface. iBooks 2 is the application you need to view publications created in iBooks Author.

To get you started quickly, there are lots of Apple-designed templates that merely require you to add your own text and drag and drop images.

To add interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects and more, there are simple widgets which make things very easy indeed. The widgets are one of the outstanding features of iBooks Author. They enable you to add everything from a photo gallery to a Keynote (Keynote ’09 v5.1.1 or later) presentation and can be easily identified in your Table of Contents. You can also add a voice-over to make it easier for sight-impaired readers to read your books.

iTunes is the main app for controlling iOS devices on your computer.  But when you're not near the computer that contains all your music and need to copy music from that device, iTunes can't help. Even manually managing an iOS device on another computer doesn't allow for exporting files.

The solution is very simple - use Sharepod: a free program that can access any iOS device. I recently replaced my iPod 3 Gen and used Sharepod to export my entire library off my old iPod to reload through a new computer. Here's a step by step guide:

1. Connect the device to your computer with the USB cable. Sharepod will load the device.

2.Select the files you want to export and click "Copy to computer."

Sharepod gives you options of where to save and the formatting of the folders for music.

3. After completing your options, click "Ok" and Sharepod will begin exporting the files. Export times vary on the size of the library, but with patience you will have your entire library available on your computer.

Sharepod is a great free tool for music and video backups and much simpler than iTunes! I tested it with my iPod Touch 3rd Generation, iPad 1, iPad 2, and iPhone 4S and after the computer installs the initial driver, music and video files are accessible.  Sharepod can't export apps, but it can export a selection of files or backup entire music libraries.

Boldy going where many MMORPGs have gone before, Star Trek Online goes free-to-play this morning.

On its original release, Cryptic Studios' take on Star Trek had a generally lukewarm reaction. Despite the huge possibilities that the Star Trek universe offers, it felt bland and lacked character. Thankfully since then there have been lots of updates and episodic content to play through.  The Space combat was exactly what fans wanted, but down on planets, Star Trek Online felt like a bit of a grind. I was surprised by this, as Cryptic's super-hero MMORPGs are some of the best in the genre, and great fun to play.

We'll be taking another in-depth look at Star Trek Online later today when the Free to Play version is released - lets hope more fun has been injected into the game, as the camp humor of the series should be able to differentiate it from po-faced Star Wars The Old Republic!

You can sign up for a free Star Trek Online account here. Cryptic Studios' other MMORPGs, City of Heroes Freedom and Champions Online Free for All are still available to play for free, and are highly recommended!

Smartphone users can now listen to free music through Grooveshark on their device thanks to the launch of a new mobile web app from the music streaming service.

Grooveshark’s native apps were removed from both the Apple App Store and Android Market last year due to record label complaints. However, Grooveshark has now launched an HTML5-based music streaming service – effectively bypassing the app store owners since approval is not needed.

The Grooveshark web app can be accessed through many mobile web browsers, supporting iOS, Android, BlackBerry and HP devices. To use the service, simply visit html5.grooveshark.com from your mobile and start listening.

You can use the Grooveshark web app to search for and listen to a particular song or artist, or hear playlists generated by genre through the Stations section. The Popular tab lists the most searched-for tracks of the moment. The Grooveshark web app has a compact and easy-to-operate user interface, although it lacks the range of features and functionality that the short-lived native Grooveshark app had.

Not sure how to add subtitles to videos you play in VLC media player? It's simple once you know how! Here's a step by step guide:

1. Download a subtitle file for your movie - if your source was a DVD or Blu-ray, make sure to search for a subtitle file for that type to ensure good audio/subtitle syncing. Generally speaking, look for a subtitle with a file name that closely resembles the video file you want to play. The most common file type for subtitles is .srt (we will deal with creating subtitles another time). AllSubs.org is a good resource for subtitle files
2. Move the subtitle file into the same folder as your video file.
3. Rename the subtitle file with exactly the same name as your video file, so you have two files like this: examplevideo.avi and examplevideo.srt.
4. Play your video in VLC. You should now see subtitles appear over your movie. If you don't, double check the .srt file is correctly named, then close and restart VLC before playing again.

This process is the same on both Windows and Mac versions of VLC player.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is one of the most popular online multiplayer games around. When the game launched, Activision started an online service that aggregates multiplayer data from matches played. Called Call of Duty ELITE, it is now available on iOS with an Android version set to be released in the near future.

As you can see in the screenshot, the iOS version of Call of Duty ELITE features the same information you can get on your browser or console, but rearranged to fit the touchscreen better. Read our Call of Duty ELITE review and download the app here.

Think back to the last time you used Facebook at someone else's house or an internet café. Now ask yourself, did you remember to sign out? Are you sure? Here's how to log out of Facebook remotely.

If you forgot to log out of Facebook while on a different computer to the one you normally use, the consequences can be catastrophic. If your account is logged in at your friends' house then 'you' suddenly might start posting some strange updates about yourself indicting you for various embarrassing things you haven’t actually done. Worse still, if it was on a public computer, all of your personal details, photos and messages are accessible to complete strangers. Still sure you signed out?

Luckily for you, there's an easy way to check wherever you are signed into Facebook – and close active sessions remotely. Even if you're 99% certain you've signed out it’s worth checking by following the process below – you might regret it if not!

1. Account settings

Click on the little down-facing arrow in the top-right of your Facebook page and choose Account Settings.

2. Security

Now click on the Security option in the left-hand menu.

3. Active sessions

Click the Edit button that appears next to Active Sessions, which you'll find at the bottom of the Security settings window. Here you can see the current session you're logged in on (which should be the computer you’re using). Crucially, you can also see information about all other sessions where you'e currently still logged in. Click the End Activity button to close down a session and prevent access to your account from that machine.

Via OnSoftware Spain

Microsoft's hugely successful motion sensor technology Kinect is being released for Windows on February 1st. This will allow Windows 7 (and later Windows 8) users to interact with PCs without a keyboard or mouse.

As well as motion control, Kinect for Windows also includes voice control, which could make Windows 8 a really interesting and flexible operating system. Microsoft's Kinect for Windows SDK for developers has been available for a couple of months now, so developers can already get stuck into experimenting with Kinect integration into apps.

I am excited about the possibilities for Kinect for Windows - in recent years Apple's excellent trackpads have been my favorite navigation tools, but I can imagine Windows 8 with motion control being fantastic. Using gesture controls on an office desktop would be really comfortable as a replacement for a mouse if it's precise enough - for me motion control on a desktop makes much more sense than touchscreens, which are better used on portable devices.

With Kinect for Windows, 2012 has got off to a great start for PC users, and the potential for new software is huge.

Tumblr's on the move again when it comes to adding new features. This time it's a new way to privately message other users.

Called Fan Mail, this new features allows Tumblr users to send stylized messages to blog users they're following. Currently there are two skin options for the message body and three font choices, one of which looks like actual handwriting. Just type in the username of the blog you want your message sent to, pick your style options and write your message.

According to Tumblr founder and CEO, David Karp, you'll be able to send unlimited private messages via Fan Mail, which can be accessed through your Tumblr inbox, the avatar drop-down menus of the users you follow and on the top corner of the main page on each blog you follow. Unlike the current messaging system, you can't post Fan Mail messages publicly on your blog without the use of a screen capture program.

Tumblr has a history of adding new features and making big changes to the dashboard interface, so this new feature isn't necessarily a surprise. What might surprise some users though is that Tumblr developers have chosen to focus on this particular feature. Tumblr already has a private messaging system that, until recently, allowed unlimited messages (asks) to be sent. In the past few months, however, this feature has been limited, both by restricting the number of daily messages you can send and limiting the characters each message can contain. While Fan Mail does look neat, some users might find it a little redundant or wonder if it's meant to replace the current ask feature altogether.

What are your thoughts on Fan Mail? Does it have potential or is it just plain unnecessary?