Now that just about everyone has high-quality cameras on their phones, people's smartphones have become the main repository for all their photos. This can be great for showing off photos of your kids or reminiscing about an event in the past. But what about when you leave your phone on your desk or coffee table--do you really want people to have access to all your pictures?

This week's iOS app collection provides a way to create a locked folder on your phone. The first is free and offers just the basics for added security. The second adds a few more features for managing photos. The third snaps a picture of would be intruders in addition to having a secure folder.

Add new folders inside the app, then take a picture or import from your library.

HD Photo Lock (free) is ad supported software that provides an easy way to create a secure area for your photos. Start by creating a folder in the app--you can create multiple folders and name them by category. With a folder created simply touch the plus sign in the upper right corner to either add photos from your library or snap a photo using your iPhone camera. You can select as many photos as you want to move from your library, then touch Done to comple... [Read more]

If Scrabble and Boggle had a digital love-child, and that love-child were then adopted by Bejeweled, Dropwords would be it.

To start, you get a five-by-five board of lettered tiles, with each letter worth a certain number of points, a la Scrabble. Your objective is to use these letters to make words and score as many points as possible within the allotted time. A word can be made up of any number of connected tiles, and can go in any direction, just like in Boggle.

But what makes this game different from Boggle is that after you find a word and score your points, the used tiles disappear, and are replaced by new tiles at the top of the board. What's more, you can actually extend your time by finding high-scoring words and making use of specially-marked bonus tiles. These unique features make for a virtually endless supply of potential words, and an incredibly dynamic game every time.

Overall, we think this game is a winner. It's fun, challenging, addicting, and it takes elements from two of the greatest word-based board games of all time. What we're trying to say is, Dropwords is a word nerd's dream come true.

Microsoft has completed its $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype Global, giving the software company a major foothold in the growing market for Internet telephony services.

"Skype is a phenomenal product and brand that is loved by hundreds of millions of people around the world," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement late last night. "We look forward to working with the Skype team to create new ways for people to stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues--anytime, anywhere."

Microsoft announced in May the deal to acquire Skype. A final hurdle was cleared last week when European regulators approved the deal.

Skype's voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services let people hold free video and voice calls over the Internet; Skype charges a fee for "SkypeOut," which lets Skype users dial ordinary phone numbers, and "SkypeIn, which lets people dial an ordinary phone number that actually connects through to a Skype account online. Both services are useful for bypassing steep international calling rates using conventional telephone service.

Related stories: • ... [Read more]

Box.net for iOS gives you fast and easy access to your cloud account--all 50GB' worth!

Looking for a boatload of free cloud storage? If you own an iDevice, you can score 50GB of it, no strings attached.

That's the deal being offered by Box.net: 50GB of online storage for anyone who installs the Box.net app on an iPhone, iPod Touch, or Pad. (Sorry, Android users--not sure why you're being left out.) The app itself is free, as is the Personal account you'll be creating. And if you already have an account, merely signing into it gives you that 50GB bump.

The promotion runs through December 2, but you get to keep the 50GB forever. And that space is available anywhere you use your account, not just on your handset or tablet.

In case you're not familiar with it, Box.net is cloud-storage service not unlike Dropbox and SugarSync. After uploading your various documents, media files, and the like, you can easily access them online, share them with others, stream media to a mobile device, and so on.

There's even a new feature that allows iPhone 4S and iPad 2 users to wirelessly stream Box.net... [Read more]

The Reader view looks very clean, and you can adjust font size for easier reading.

The new iOS 5 brings a refreshed mobile Safari, while Android's nameless Browser has been holding steady as the stalwart of Google's mobile operating system. I looked at two iterations of the latest browsers for iOS and Android: Safari for iOS 5 on the iPhone 4S, and the Android Browser for Gingerbread 2.3.4 on the Droid Bionic.

Although they come from two companies locked in fierce competition for users, the browsers are both built on the WebKit rendering engine and are remarkably similar.

Safari has some useful features that Apple has ported from the desktop version that Android's browser lacks. First is the Reading List feature, a convenient tool for marking pages and sites to be read later. If you tap the Action button (the box with an arrow coming out of it at the bottom of the browser,) the second option is to add it to your Reading List.

Once added, you can access it later by tapping the Bookmark button. The Reading List is the first option. That's no accident: Reading List is simply Bookmarks with a better public relations budget. You can also sync the feature with other iOS devices via iCloud.

Reader is another desktop... [Read more]

With so many risks to your accounts and computer on the Web, wouldn't it be nice to know that none of the people you follow on Twitter are adding to those risks? Safego, a Bitdefender product, offers a free service that will scan your Twitter account for suspicious users, links, and messages. It won't take any action without your consent, but it can be set to alert you when a new issue arises. Here's how to get started:

(Credit: Safego, by Bitdefender)

Step 1: Head over to http://safego.bitdefender.com/twitter/

Step 2: Log in with your Twitter account. This means the Web site will not need you to sign up for a new account (hooray!).

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 3: Authorize Safego when prompted by Twitter.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 4: Wait as Safego redirects you back to its site and starts scanning your Twitter friends for any suspicious behavior. The more people you follow; the longer this process will take.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 5: Once scanning is complete, check out the Friends link on the top banner (next to the Scan Now button). This will change to reflect how many, if any... [Read more]

Your computer is optimized for daytime use. Even if you're a mile away from a window, your brain still knows what time it is, and as the sun sinks below the horizon (wherever that may be), you need softer, cooler light. That's part of the reason it can be so hard to sleep after intense bouts of World of Warcraft or late-night coding; your brain is confused by mixed signals. Enter f.lux, a sweet, small, free app that works on all major platforms to automatically adjust the brightness and tone of your monitor based on time of day. Here's how to use it:

1. Download and install f.lux here (for Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, and Cydia). 
2. It automatically runs and hangs out in the background, but you may want to tinker under the hood a bit first. Click "Your location" near the bottom left to improve f.lux's sense of place, which helps it figure out when the sun goes down. 

   Step 2: f.lux location finder.

3. Click "Change settings" in the top right to tell f.lux about your lighting situation at home or at work, manually enter your location info, and switch between fast and slow transitions. 

   Step 3: f.lux Settings.

4. Finally, if you're working on something that requires true color, it's easy to turn off the adjustment for an hour in the bottom of the main window. 

That's all there is to it. It may or may not ... [Read more]