The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) announced a new partnership with the San Francisco Giants during a press conference on Wednesday at AT&T Park, pertaining to video games and their respective ratings.

ESRB is the non-profit entity responsible for assigning ratings to video games, based on the content within them. ESRB’s ratings serve as a helpful guideline for parents to decide what games may or may not be appropriate to purchase for their children.

On Wednesday, ESRB revealed a new public service announcement (PSA) campaign, starring two popular baseball fan favorites – catcher Buster Posey and pitcher Ryan Vogelsong, both of the San Francisco Giants.

Microsoft Publisher is often peoples’ go-to program when they want to create brochures and other printed presentations. Unfortunately, many users feel as though its usability could be greatly improved, particularly for beginner designers.

If you find creating printed material with Publisher a little too complex, there are alternatives available that might make your creation process a little easier.

Here are four great alternatives to Microsoft Publisher for people looking to make the switch.

Internet Explorer 9 is a big improvement over its predecessor. Unfortunately, the newest version of Microsoft’s popular browser isn’t compatible with Windows XP. For that, you’ll need to use Internet Explorer 8, which is still a solid browser by anyone’s estimation.

Cookies are pieces of information stored on your computer that personalize your experience every time you visit a website. If cookies are disabled on IE 8, you will often encounter problems such as being unable to complete an online purchase, among other important actions.

Fortunately, managing cookies in IE 8 is a relatively simple process. I’ll show you how to enable, disable and even delete your cookies entirely in a few simple steps!

KMPlayer is one of the most popular Windows media players out there and for good reason. It supports plenty of audio and video codecs like all the other media players out there but what does KMPlayer do to seprate itself from the rest of the pack like VLC Media player, UMPlayer, and GOM Player? In its latest iteration, KMPlayer introduced 3D features. Not only can you stream 3D content but you can turn your 2D content into 3D. Here's how:

If you’re feeling  creative and want to give animation a try, you’ve got a lot of software choices. Pivot Stickfigure Animator is one of the options available to you. Plus, it’s free!

Pivot Stickfigure Animator lets you make stick figure animations by creating individual frames of action and then playing them in sequence. If done correctly, you’ll end up with a seamless cartoon.

The program also gives you a good variety of custom options, like modifying frames, preset characters, the ability to add different colors and even altering the appearance of the background. You can preview every change you’ve made before saving, to ensure your animation comes out just the way you want it to. Take a look!

There are plenty of great video editing programs out there for Windows but none can match the price (free) and simplicity of Windows Live Movie Maker. Microsoft has maintained the intuitive timeline dragging, easy to use ribbon interface, and an abundance of good looking effects and animations. In today's How To, we will teach you how to add visual effects and animations in Windows Live Movie Maker.

It’s that time of year again: Taxes must be filed by Tuesday, April 17 in order to be on time in the US.

If you waited until last minute to file, you’re not alone and there’s no need to fret. There are a lot of great web services that let you fill out all your information and file online, many even for free!

Which one to pick? It largely depends on what types of returns you need to file, as well as how much help you need during the process. Whether you have the most basic W-2 paperwork or you’re overwhelmed with a grocery list of itemized deductions, independent contractor work and student educational expenses, there’s a web app out there for you.

WinRAR is already known as a fantastic file compression tool. It can do a lot of other useful things too though, one of which is splitting up large files into several smaller ones.

If you want to share a large file with someone else, its size might make doing so a bit tricky. A great way to work around this is to break up one big file into several files of a smaller size.

WinRAR can split up files quickly and effectively. It's also very easy to do. In fact, it only takes three simple steps!

The rise of game download portals such as XBLA, Virtual Console and PlayStation has presented a flurry of retro games and weirdly innovative titles. PC users needn't feel left though because there's a thriving indie scene producing tons of games, many which are free. While these are not the 3D, high production value epics we pay for, they do provide some unique experiences. They represent great time wasters with some fiendishly hard and addictive gaming - perfect for these difficult economic times. Here are a few of my recent stand-out indie experiences:

For relaxed ambient games, give chilled out real time strategy game Dyson a spin, or the demo of the hypnotic Osmos. Both of these manage to be addictive and relatively peaceful experiences. These are great if you have a spare ten minutes, but don't mind losing an hour or two.

Equally stylish, but more traditional, is the wonderful Multiwinia. Download the demo here to check out one of the coolest looking action/strategy games from last year.

If you need more action, there's fast paced 8-bit zombie gore-fest 10800 Zombies, or the slightly more cerebral The Manipulator, both of which are totally free and great examples of not-quite-retro indie productions.

I also recently looked at the cute platformer The Kiwi's Tale, which is a great throwback to early-90s gaming. For a desktop high score challenge, check out Skull Pogo. I loved the simple controls and macabre comic-style graphics, and spent far too much time trying to beat my last score. It has an online scoreboard too, so keep clear if you're super competitive!

If you're a frequent software downloader, then you'll be aware of terms such as "Freeware", "Shareware", "Beta Version", "Demo" etc. But do you really understand what they mean? Licenses are certainly nothing to be taken lightly as the the UK National Consumer Council recently highlighted in its claim that software licenses are "Misleading, burdensome and unbalanced". They were in fact referring to big players such as Microsoft, Adobe and Symantec but the same questions could be asked of developers no matter how big or small.

In their study, "Who's licence is it anyway?", the NCC appeals to both the Office of Fair Trading and European Union to take action stating that:

Consumers can’t have a clue what they’re signing up to when some terms and conditions run to 10 or more pages. There’s a significant imbalance between the rights of the consumer and the rights of the holder.

It also adds its concern about the contract that users are bound to when they install a product:

Installation requires the user to agree to nonnegotiable terms set out in a licence agreement – the ‘terms and conditions’. These licence agreements are more like legal mandates than consumer options, raising concerns about the extent to which they favour the producer over the consumer.

With these concerns in mind, it's worth knowing exactly what you are signing up for when you install a piece of software. Of course when you download something from Softonic, the license refers only to the commercial use of the product - is it a full version, can it be distributed freely, do you have to pay to use it etc. Here then is a lowdown to the meanings of the types of licenses you frequently encounter when downloading software:

Freeware - There is no exact accepted definition of this term but it generally refers to software than can be distributed freely (i.e. no need to pay the developer a licence fee) without modification. Note that despite the terms "free", it does not necessarily mean that the program is free to download or use. Most software on Softonic falls under this category or Shareware.

Shareware - Software that can be distributed but requires the user to pay a licence fee to the developer. Usually the source code is not available so you can't modify the software. Often you can download a demonstration version for free but are required to pay a licence to continue using it.

Demo - Solely a demonstration version of the software - usually for free and valid for a limited period of time - but not a full version. To access the full version, usually you have to pay a fee or download it separately.

Adware - Software that is usually completely free but also contains advertising to pay for it. The distribution rights depend on the developer. The good thing is it's free to use but the obvious downside is that you may be plagued with adverts.

GPL/GNU - 'General Public Licence' - the most libertarian form of software you can download. It is totally free, the source code is readily available for you to modify and you can distribute it without a licence for free. A famous popular example of this kind of software is Linux.

BSD - 'Berkley Software Distribution', which is a Unix like operating system for which the licence is specifically named. Very similar to GPL/GNU although it offers total freedom of distribution and modification (even the licence can be modified to your own terms) whereas the former can occasionally impose limited restrictions based on the developers wants and requirements.

Beta Version - A program that's still not complete and may be downloaded as a prototype. Developers usually allow you to download this for free and hope that you will report to them bugs and problems so they can fix them for the final release, but warn against Betas being used on essential computer systems - they are more liable to crash than final release editions. Rules on distribution and licensing depend on the developer.

Remember that if you are ever in doubt over the licensing status of a piece of software, it's best to contact the developers directly to find out.