Erik Larkin, PC World, Tom Spring

Few companies do more when it comes to embedding secrets into their products than Google. In tech parlance these hidden surprises are called Easter Eggs and range from whimsical images, entire games, or silly secret features that magically make teddy bears appear on your computer screen.

Tech Easter Eggs have nothing to with the Christian holiday Easter other than the fact that coders love to hide them and people love to find them -- just like the Easter Bunny delivering goodies and millions of kids carrying baskets searching for plastic eggs filled with candy.

Five months after Amazon debuted its $200 "game-changing" tablet, the Kindle Fire is feeling more like a McDonald's hamburger next to Apple's prime-rib, third-generation iPad.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Since PCWorld's first roundup of recommended Kindle Fire apps, a cavalcade of new apps, tips, and hacks that breathe new life into the tablet have surfaced.

Key members of the hacking collective known as LulzSec were arrested Tuesday morning, a move authorities are calling “devastating to the organization.” According to an exclusive report by Foxnews.com LulzSec’s alleged ringleader, Hector Xavier Monsegur of New York City, helped authorities with the arrest.

Credit: Foxnews.com's exclusive image of LulzSec's alleged ringleader Hector Xavier Monsegur.Tuesday’s arrests included five LulzSec members: two from London, two from Ireland, and one from Chicago. LulzSec, also known as Lulz Security, is an offshoot of the Anonymous hackers group. Together the two groups have been blamed for hacking into the CIA, FBI, Sony, defense contractors, and the government websites of Great Britain and Mexico.

LG introduced today today the Optimus Vu, a combo tablet-smartphone LTE device with a 5-inch display to support easier multimedia viewing and ebook reading.  

The Optimus Vu will be on display at the Mobile World Congress next week and will be introduced in Korea in March, LG representatives say; no global availability or pricing was disclosed.

Are you wondering how that mysterious icon ended up on your Android phone's start screen? Annoyed at the ads clogging your notification bar? You aren't alone. Thousands of Android apps now include software that shoves marketing icons onto your phone's start screen or pushes advertising into your notification bar--and many of the apps give you no warning about the ad invasion.

Many of these ads come from mobile marketing firms such as AirPush, Appenda, LeadBolt, Moolah Media, and StartApp. The companies work with app developers hungry for some way to make money from their smartphone software. By bundling their adware into popular Android programs, these marketing companies say they are now pushing ads to millions of new smartphones each week.

Few tools of modern technology have become as prevalent as the cell phone, which allows you to be in touch (almost) all the time, (almost) anywhere. And you can do more than just talk--today's phones let you send and receive email and text messages, surf the Web, and play music and videos. Sifting through the sea of service plans and handsets can be difficult, but we'll walk you through what you need to know to get the phone and service plan that are right for you.

If you don't have to own the latest and greatest smartphone, there’s no time like the present to buy a new one. From the newest iPhone to an Android superphone to a business-friendly Windows Phone, you can find the right phone for you. Before you hit the stores, however, do a bit of research and read our guide so that you'll know exactly what to look for.

Scareware has gone mobile: Users of Android devices are starting to see sleazy ads warning that they need to upgrade their device's battery. The supposed battery-saver apps that those ads prod you to download, however, could endanger your privacy or siphon money from your wallet--and generally they'll do nothing to improve your gadget's battery life, security experts say.

In some cases you don't even need to agree to download the apps. For example, PCWorld spotted one ad on an Android phone for a battery utility called Battery Upgrade. Tapping the ad--even by accident--launches the phone's Web browser, which automatically initiates the download of the app's installer file on the Android device.

For Apple's users, Steve Jobs was more than just a CEO -- much more.

For some, Jobs will be remembered as a consumer tech visionary developing groundbreaking products such as the Macintosh computer, iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

Note: This review addresses v00.12.005 of the software.

JonDo anonymizes your connections using a proxy service, so that a Web site or other Internet destination won't be able to see where you're really coming from. But while the software is free, and there's also a free level of service, it'll still cost you a good deal of connection speed.

Note: This review addresses v2.3.0 of the software.

The JonDoFox utility creates a customized Firefox profile that automatically uses the separately installed JonDo program, as well as a number of privacy and security-themed Firefox addons, to allow for anonymous, protected surfing. It's a nicely configured setup that takes very little effort to set up--but using the JonDo option does mean dealing with a major slowdown.

The free version of DisplayFusion makes it easy to customize your desktop wallpaper with your own images. Select pictures from your own hard drive or pull them down from Flickr with this freebie. You can search for and preview shots from Flickr from within the program, and there are nice options for those with multiple monitors.

The straightforward progam window displays your monitor(s) in the top section, and you can click each one in turn to select an image for that monitor, or choose to have the background span both monitors. You can browse your own hard drive for pictures, but it's a good deal more fun to click the "Load from Flickr" button.

Here is the full text of Steve Jobs' resignation letter:

Wednesday August 24, 2011, 6:34 pm EDT