Don't be fooled by the name - Alarm Clock Pro is much more than just a flashy way of getting you out of bed on time.

Alarm Clock Pro is a fully functional organizer and scheduler that aims to ensure you never miss an important date again. As a wake-up alarm, it allows you to configure the tone as anything from an internet radio station to an MP3 and even a movie or daily task. If you don't have your PC in your bedroom that's no problem either - Alarm Clock Pro can be configured to send wake-up text messages to your cell phone.

An alternative use for the application is to have it periodically check your webcam and automatically send security screenshots to your e-mail address. This way, you can use your PC as a closed circuit TV monitoring device. In addition, you can program it to randomize the iTunes playlist, remind you of holidays and special occasions, perform system tasks, automatically send out birthday cards, text message your daily task list to a cell phone, amongst other things.

One slightly unusual aspect of Alarm Clock Pro is the ability to speak inspirational quotes at random moments throughout the day. This can be programmed to occur at virtually any specific time interval set by yourself to keep you going through the day.

An attractive interface combined with an array of different uses make Alarm Clock Pro one of the best alarm clocks around - it's just a shame it's not free.

Download Alarm Clock Pro 8.4.7 in Softonic

Move Action is designed to allows your webcam to detects motion and set it up as a security camera.

This can be used to trigger a blocking mechanism on your PC or signal an alarm. Alarms can either be sent via e-mail or even text to warn you of intruders. The PC blocking function works by blocking your PC and requiring a password to access it again. It can also save webcam shots in JPG format and then send them submit them by mail or transfer them by FTP, play a sound file or run external applications. However, as impressive as this is, the most intriguing feature of this program is that it can compare two images captured at different intervals. This way you can monitor a site without having to look at the videos on the camera constantly. This saves you sitting there for hours on end monitoring and is great if you need to use evidence to prosecute or charge someone.

A great little program for those concerned with security although the configuration is rather complicated.

Download Move Action 2.5 in Softonic

If you're looking for a webcam that doubles up as a webcam, image capturing device and even a security camera, then you should take a look at CamUniversal.

What's really interesting about this app is that it includes a network server so that you can send images and viewing information from one PC to another which makes it an ideal monitoring device. There is a built-in motion detector which allows you to select which areas of the video are tested for motion, when, where and how. In this way, it allows you to target a specific part of your house or home without worrying about the consequences. The program also features video recording functions, picture capturing, external program execution, log file creation, sound playing, FTP transfer, email sending and there is also a scheduler. You can upload the images to an FTP server, a webpage or use a company LAN to distribute the images. Probably the only major problem is setting-up the software to work with your webcam - it doesn't seem particularly friendly with all webcams and you may not be able to get it up and running at the first attempt.

A useful webcam tool that doubles up as a security camera but may cause some problems during setup.

Download CamUniversal 3.5 in Softonic

WebcamXP offers unique features and unequaled ease of use to let you broadcast/manage your video sources or secure your company with up to 10 video sources per computer. The software supports all video for Windows/WDM sources and most file-based or ip based sources. You can unlock an unlimited and free version by joining and sharing your cam on http://www.myvideochat.net.

Download WebcamXP 2008 5.3.1.264 in Softonic

Your webcam can be much more than just a communication device - it can help protect your property while you are away.

Webcam Monitor provides you with email notification along with a photo directly into your mailbox as soon as a motion or noise intrusion is detected by your webcam. You can customize alerts so that you can even receive video and audio recordings, snapshots with date and time, alarms and SMS notifications. In addition, you can automatically upload recorded video, audio, and snaps to an FTP server of your choice. It goes far beyond just monitoring small areas though - you can also monitor large areas using multiple cameras with recording sessions set to start and end at any time of the day.

All movement and any monitored activity is recorded in an event log for quick reference later. On the other hand, if you want your security cam images to be broadcasted live on the internet, you can set up a web site where the images are constantly updated by WebCam Monitor. In addition, limited enhancement is possible as you can digitally zoom any camera up to 200 and configure one or several cameras to focus on one particular area.

Webcam Monitor can turn your webcam into a powerful security monitoring device that you can control from any location.

Download Webcam Monitor 5.05 in Softonic

Turning your PC into a home surveillance device is not as difficult as you might imagine with webcams so readily available nowadays.

Cam Wizard makes it possible to set up multiple web cameras as a CCTV audio/video surveillance system with motion detection in a just a few clicks. The program captures motion footage in video and audio is captured as a compressed WMV movie. It would have been nice to be able to choose which format the footage is saved in as I'm not a big WMV fan but still, it's workable and you can always convert it later.

The program gives you the option of sending any captured footage as an email attachment and most importantly, features a built in SMTP client which means it doesn't require any user interaction with outlook express etc. No messy e-mail configuration to carry out - just leave it running in your system tray and your work is done.

Alternatively, for large amounts of footage that may not fit in an e-mail, you can instruct Cam Wizard to upload footage to an FTP server which gives you the advantage of being able to view a webcam that's behind a firewall - great for keeping an eye on your property while you are at work. Viewing itself couldn't be easier either - the program supplies you with a static URL address that you can use to access your cam page from any location.

You've got it all here for a total security solution so make the best of your webcams with Cam Wizard.

Download Cam Wizard 8.01 in Softonic

Long gone are the days when you’d have to save up for weeks to make a long distance or international phone call. Thanks to Voice over IP technology and the widespread availability of broadband it’s now possible to talk free of charge to anyone in the world.

Skype has made the technology accessible to all through it’s simple and fun-to-use chat-style interface. The program is gaining in popularity, meaning the community of users you can chat to for free is expanding. This update certainly contains some decent additions to the previous version, most notably its webcam facilities. This means you can now watch your buddies as you chat to them and let them see you if you want.

You can use the program to chat with other Skype users anywhere in the world for free either via telephone or the built-in chat feature. However, some overly optimistic users may be disappointed to learn that you still need to pay for credits to make calls to landlines and mobiles with Skype, through the SkypeOut function. Luckily, this is a very painless process, and Skype has recently added a plethora of different ways to pay.

The program is perhaps even easier to use than ever, with streamlined new tools such as the ability to add a contact from the main Skype window and contact grouping for arranging your friends, family and colleagues into categories. You can even import contacts from Outlook, and find out if any of these use Skype. The changes to the interface and its icons may confuse existing users for a while, but once you get used to it, the new GUI is arguably more intuitive than ever.

As we’ve come to expect there’s plenty you can do other than just having a two-way conversation with a friend, including inviting other users into a conference, setting up chatrooms, exchanging files, and viewing the history of your contacts. You can even set up customized voicemail to record messages while you’re away from base.

We're also excited by the new public chats function. You'll get to join in many different groups and talk about a specific subject. You can even create your own chat for others to join in, like an Italian language class or a talk on the consequences of the Iraq war.

As more people clamber aboard the Skype bandwagon, the network will become a much more convenient way for people to chat with each other. The client now provides the perfect platform on which to join the communication revolution. Let the Skyping commence…

Download Skype 3.8.0.139 in Softonic

H264 WebCam is a 8-channel h264 remote video camera surveillance software for Windows. It has advanced video motion detection algorithm, various alert functions including Email, FTP, and sound.

It can handle up to 8-channels video input and 8-channels of audio input, captures images up to 30 frames per second from USB and analog cameras, TV boards, capture cards etc. It uses H264 video encoder and MP3 audio encoder etc, high quality video and audio effect with a low bandwidth, record file format may be AVI or MPEG or others.

The files can be played with Windows Media Player or Real Player. Manual video recording is available, along with scheduled recordings or motion-triggered recording. JPEG image snapshots can be made from video images, and detailed log files and help files are available. Other features include secure Login with a valid user ID and password from Net, automatically restore Net connection. This software has features of both digital video recorder and digital video server, and can work as a stand-alone product or be used to build a powerful surveillance network.

Download H264 WebCam 2.38 in Softonic

Customer Service is an increasingly important part of a commercial website's operations and the closer you are to them, chances are the more you will sell.

LiveZilla aims to help you achieve this by chatting with your website visitors in real time and therefore allowing you to provide live assistance when help is needed. The advantage is that instead of having to e-mail you -which customers frequently can't be bothered to do - they can instantly ask you and have a response within seconds.

To get started is relatively simple - you just need to upload the LiveZilla client configuration to the server of your webpage via LiveZilla Server Admin. Everything is taken care of via an easy-to-follow setup wizard so there are no technical obstacles to be worried about. Once done, you can communicate via instant messaging with users without installing anything else. They can even use webcams and send files to communicate with you.

The program also tracks stats on visitors arriving at your site, their country of origin and page visits although you'll probably have all of this taken care of by a decent stat-counter service anyway. For your security and convenience, you can also save common questions asked and send answers in one click including the sending of sketches and complex information.

If you have regular customer enquiries and want to be closer to your clients, then LiveZilla is an excellent business solution.

Download LiveZilla 3.1.5.51 in Softonic

LiveStream Broadcaster is a program that allows you to control your web camera from your mobile phone or remotely via the Web.

The program itself works as a simple server that is responsible for issuing, via the Internet, a flow of images captured by the webcam installed and pre-configured on your system. Thanks to this server, you can connect to your camera from your mobile phone, available through a Symbian applicationhere. The problem is that the service is not particularly stable - you'll often suffer dropped images, slow loading times and sometimes complete crashes. On the plus side, the interface is extremely user friendly meaning that even the most novice user should have no problems setting using it. The setup process in particular is very straightforward. A more important question for me though is why you'd want to control your webcam from your mobile. The only feasible use I can think of is for home security or monitoring who is using your computer in which case, you'll find this an easy to use if not hugely reliable solution.

An easy way to control your webcam from your mobile although don't expect it to hold the connection.

Download LiveStream Broadcaster 3.0 in Softonic

There are different ways to share photos, videos, music and documents online, but what if you could share all of them simultaneously from one single application?

Now you can with Cyberlink Live, a complete file sharing solution with which you can not only share digital media online with your friends and relatives, but also access those files from anywhere with a simple web browser.

Cyberlink Live allows you to share TV stream (if you've got a TV tuner card), photos, videos, audio files, documents and even the image that your webcam is currently capturing. The program doesn't actually transfer any files between your computer and the Web: it just allows access to the folders you specify so that their contents are displayed on your Cyberlink profile. You can control which folders are shared and which ones are not at all moments, as well as mark a specific port to be used by the program and your router.

Cyberlink Live enables several ways to interact with your friends: send them an email with the URL of your photo album or music collection, let them leave comments on your photos, create a contact list to share content in the Cyberlink community… unfortunately I was unable to complete this last point, because the program was taking way too much time to look for contacts on the network. In fact, the lack of speed and the sometimes never-ending waiting times between tasks is the great flaw in this awesome app.

With Cyberlink Live you can easily share digital media online. Just install the client, create an account and be patient, very patient.

Download CyberLink Live 1.5.0.2302 in Softonic

Willing Webcam is a simple, yet fully-featured software tool designed to help you capture streaming video and snapshots and publish them on your website. To make your video production shine, you can enhance it with comments, date and time stamps, watermarks, and various live video effects. You can also create a digital album where images and videos are organized for fast retrieval and viewing.

The program uses a motion control detection sensor that wakes up your web camera at the slightest motion in the room. The sensor can trigger a variety of actions, including email sending, movie saving, FTP uploading, sound alarm, or a launch of any specified application. In addition to the motion sensor, the program has a time-lapse option. It allows you to record video at specified time intervals.

Using a web camera with our software, you can unleash your creativity and come up with a compelling website that will attract many visitors. You can also discover a multitude of ways how to make your everyday life more secure and comfortable.

Live Video Streaming on the Web. With Willing Webcam, you can record your day as live streaming video and share it with your family or friends in real time over the Internet. No matter how far you might be, they can always visit your personal website and see what you are doing. If you are a researcher, you can also add video to your landscape, weather, or astronomy web pages.

People who are often out of home can use Willing Webcam to turn a web camera into a digital surveillance device that can detect the slightest motion in your apartment and instantly let you know about an intruder. By watching this video live, you can see what?s going on in your house, call the police, and provide them with the taped evidence of the crime. Willing Webcam is compatible with most USB-based or FireWire (IEEE 1394) video devices, including capture cards, webcams, camcorders. It can also work with IP Network cameras.

Download Willing Webcam 4.2 in Softonic

Coccinella is an open source jabber client with a nice set of features.

Coupled with a whiteboard, Coccinella becomes a useful tool to chat and work on projects with other people on a network. Although it won't let you use multiple accounts, the client is highly flexible, and will allow you to connect to any Jabber/XMPP server, including popular IM clients like MSN Messenger, ICQ and even Google Talk. However you won't be able to make use of the VoIP capabilities and webcam support of these IM services, as Coccinella does not handle them.

The client's interface is simple and uncluttered and you can keep all your messages in an inbox, making them easy to browse by subject, sender or date. Coccinella also offers file transfers, and you can choose your own avatars. Apart from the decent collection of emoticons, you can also import new ones if you have them in jisp format.

The whiteboard is really fun to use and easy to share with as many other users as you want. Coccinella also offers up connections to chatrooms, something we've never really been convinced of, but at least, for people interested, it's there.

Coccinella is a good open source jabber client with a whiteboard and loads of emoticons that can connect to any server. A recommended IM tool.

Download Coccinella 0.96.4 in Softonic

Trillian is an exciting and innovative Messenger application ideal for those who are connected to multiple IM networks and like to customize their programs.

The installation process is a bit lengthy, but once set up, Trillian loads quickly. A set-up wizard guides you through the installation process, like choosing your picture, typing an alias and selecting the different networks you will connect to. One of the most versatile IM clients out there, Trillian allows you to connect to Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ, AIM and mIRC. To manage your status on each different network you have little round icons at the bottom of the messenger. You can set different states of availability for different accounts. Your IM chats are made secure so you don’t have to worry about anybody eavesdropping on your conversations.

Like most IM clients out there, Trillian serves up videoconferencing, but it uses the QuickTime player to handle your videos. If you and your buddies have webcams, it’s a good way of communicating with each other. The time travel function allows you to replay parts of your webcam chats. Trillian separates contact lists according to the different IM networks you are connected to. You can also choose to create different identities for each of your IM services.

The program has server-less IM to connect with other people in your office or home and send quick messages. The “Instant Lookup” feature is really handy and something we hope to see more of in all IM clients. Right-click on any word in your chats to look up for its definition on the web or Wikipedia.

Trillian is part of the VoIP revolution and lets you make international calls to other VoIP services like AIM, MSN and Yahoo but you won’t be able to make PC-to-phone calls. You can send away messages and SMS to your friends and join a chat room in a click. The “global reconnect” function is useful to reload your connection settings on all of your networks. The “contact message history” function is extremely useful to catch up on what you said to your buddies.

One of the big strengths of Trillian is the wealth of customization tools on hand. You can personalize the interface, change the emoticons and even add new sound packs. With the “Biography” section you can even edit AIM profiles in html. We weren’t too impressed with the default selection of skins and other plug-ins and were furthermore disappointed to learn that you have go to the Trillian site to download new ones. However, there’s a large selection of extra customization tools available online and they’re sorted by popularity for easy browsing.

Versatility and customization are Trillian’s defining aspects. Packed with recent innovations such as videoconferencing and VoIP, and original add-ons like “Instant Lookup” or “global reconnect”, Trillian is a great choice for those of you who want to nest all your IM services into one solid application.

Download Trillian 3.1.9.0 in Softonic

If you need some basic surveillance for your home or small business but can't afford a professional system, Secure Cam may be the right choice.

As I said, it's a fairly basic system but it may work for you if you don't need advanced features. Secure Cam is also very easy to use: simply run it after plugging in your camera and you're ready to go. One tip: to open the program's settings menu, double click on the camera image – after spending a while looking for it, I'm still wondering why they didn't add a standard Settings menu.

This configuration menu allows you to select the motion detection threshold and set the program to take pictures whenever there's movement in front of the camera. You can also overlay a text on the image as a watermark, and flip or rotate the image.

Secure Camera works pretty well and takes pictures in the right moment. Also, it includes a special viewer where you can review all the captured images frame by frame. On the downside, it doesn't feature the possibility to capture video or warn you in any way (e-mail, text message) every time it detects movement.

Secure Cam is a basic surveillance system with which you can keep an eye on your home or office with the help of your webcam.

Download Secure Cam 1.0 in Softonic

Facial recognition is something we've all seen in movies, used to grant access to secret labs, high-tech computing systems or locked safe boxes. Now you can also use it to keep your PC secure while you're away from it.

Despite its cartoonish name, BananaScreen is an efficient tool that will protect your computer from unauthorized access in a very easy way. Simply install it, plug your webcam, record your own face and you're done. The program will lock the PC after the lapse of time you set in configuration options and immediately unlock it only if the same face that was recorded before sits in front of the computer.

BananaScreen did a good job during our tests, recognizing our face on every occasion and blocking other users. There's also the option to enter your own Windows password in case it doesn't work. However, and since it's still a beta version, we have doubts about its reliability. In fact, we've read comments from users who were able to fool the program by using a picture of the computer's owner.

Download BananaScreen 1.2.1 Beta in Softonic

Webcam Surveyor is complete software that combines video surveillance and video capture tools. With this software you can record all video activity, work as a motion detector, and program alerts to be trigged by events (send a e-mail or upload images to FTP site when detects a movement).

This makes it possible for you to remotely observe whatever activity your camera captures. The built-in file browser allows you to easily organize captured images and video clips. Webcam Surveyor supports video and audio codec's like: MJpeg, DivX, Mpeg-4 and MPEG Layer 3 (MP3), WMAudio Encoder (WMA). With Webcam Surveyor you can capture sequence of images with an interval of time of a second to 59 hours.

Features:

• Ease of use and compatibility
• Digital zoom - view cams with digital zoom
• Capture video/audio - recording movies on your HDD
• Capture image sequence - capture sequence of images with an interval of time of a second to 59 hours
• Motion detection - alert you immediately when activity is detected
• Email Alert - send a message with snapshots if motion detected
• FTP Alert - upload images on you FTP site if motion detected
• Other alerts - if motion is detected you can predefine other alerts like: run program, play sound, open url and capture image sequence
• Built-in file browser with all shell extension - easily organizing captured images and video clips
• Security - the password protection prevents anyone else trying to restore the Webcam Surveyor without your permission
• Supports output image formats: JPEG, PNG (Portable Network Graphics) and BMP (Windows Bitmaps)
• Adjustable image resolution
• Adjustable frame rate
• Adjustable compression quality
• Motion sensitivity adjusting
• Auto Start - Webcam Surveyor is ready to run when windows starts

Download Webcam Surveyor 1.7.0 in Softonic

Now, with CoffeeCup WebCam, you can hook up your camera, start the WebCam software, and put live Images online in minutes. You can even have multiple cameras and multiple Websites.

CoffeeCup WebCam will upload images from any camera, to any Website on your list, on any schedule you set. And with the Security Cam feature, you can have your WebCam keep an eye on things for you. Have it watch your home, your office, your baby, or anything else. It alerts you when something moves in the picture. It's that easy. It can also make your Web Pages and auto-upload live Web cam images to it. The program lets you connect and use several Web cams at once, has motion detecting security cam functionality, fast refresh rates, an HTML wizard and the ability to upload to multiple Web sites with the Camera Cycler. Finally you can create and save AVI movies.

Download CoffeeCup WebCam 4.0 in Softonic

VirtGuard is a digital video surveillance system. With the help of digital camera or any webcam and a PC, you can create an office or home security system. You can secure your business, watch over you family or even over your pets. Virtual Guard detects all motion, saves images and logs events. The convenient interface and ease of use will save your time and money.

Download VirtGuard 2.02.08 in Softonic

Dorgem is a webcam capture application for Windows 9x and up. Any Video for Windows compatible webcam (or other digital camera) is supported. It has unlimited storage events that can put the captured image on an FTP site as well as a local disk, all with their own time interval. It can put a unlimited texts and bitmaps on the captured image before the image is stored. Dorgem supports an unlimited number of simultaneous cameras. It has a built-in webserver for still images and can be used as security camera because of its motion detection.

Download Dorgem 2.10 in Softonic