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Sokoban has been around since the 1980s, challenging users to move boxes around a puzzle and into designated storage areas. It sounds easy in theory, but there's actually quite a bit of strategy involved. Sokoban++ is a basic version of the puzzle game that won't impress you with its graphics, but will definitely strain your brain with its 50 levels of challenging gameplay.

The program's interface is plain and not particularly intuitive; if you've never played Sokoban before, you'll definitely be turning to the HTML Help file in short order. Although some versions of Sokoban … Read more

Rejoice, World of Warcraft n00bs. The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is now free to play for up to 20 levels. That means players can now take as long as they need to get familiar with the game before they have to pay a subscription fee.

The game's developer, Blizzard Entertainment, has eliminated the prior free 14-day trial period in favor of the new beginner system, which it's calling World of Warcraft Starter Edition.

The move is brilliant considering that WoW, which was first released in 2004, is known for immersing users in a deep game world. The limited trial seemed too short a time to get acclimated to the rich virtual landscape.

Although the trial subscription had its limits, WoW remains wildly successful, reaching 12 million subscribers in 2010. Will the new trial model help increase the MMORPG's user base? … Read more

Forget being limited to .com, .net, and .org.

The Internet's overseers today approved a plan to dramatically expand the number "generic top-level domains," or GTLDs, as soon as the end of 2012. There are only 22 such GTLDs today--others include .edu, .mil, and .biz--but the expansion could add dozens or potentially even hundreds more.

Among other implications, that means new opportunities and new complications for trademark holders.

"It opens up [what's] the right of the dot," said Rod Beckstrom, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, speaking at … Read more

The Internet's primary governing body today approved the expansion of new top-level domains--one of the most dramatic changes in the Internet's history.

During a special meeting in Singapore, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted to dramatically increase the number of domain endings from the current 22, which includes the well-established .com, .net, and .org. The move will allow domains to end in almost any word, allowing companies to turn their brands into Internet extensions.

"ICANN has opened the Internet's naming system to unleash the global human imagination," Rod Beckstrom, president … Read more

Editors' note: Updated June 1, 2011.

We do a lot of top products lists here at CNET, and manufacturers are usually pretty excited to see their products on those lists. But this is one "top" list that manufacturers probably aren't too thrilled to find their products on.

As we note in our intro to the list, for a phone to pass FCC certification and be sold in the United States, its maximum SAR level must be less than 1.6 watts per kilogram. In Europe, the level is capped at 2 watts per kilogram, whereas Canada allows … Read more

Today a representative for Panasonic told CNET that a design change in the company's 2011 plasma TVs allows them to maintain a relatively constant depth of black, or black level, over their life spans.

The change represents an improvement over 2009 and 2010 designs, which evinced worse black levels as they aged, as tested by CNET.

"The engineers made significant changes to the internal panel materials...to improve the luminous efficiency of the panels," said Bill Schindler, technical consultant to Panasonic. "In so doing they had a byproduct effect, which allows them to not adjust the … Read more

When discussing options for backing up or migrating data to new Macs, we frequently mention cloning as a way to do this. While Time Machine and similar backup schemes can create fully restorable backups of your system, the backups themselves are not bootable, so in order to use them as such you must restore them to an available hard-drive partition, which can take a number of hours to complete. Clones, on the other hand, do allow for immediate booting to the backup, and therefore are quite appealing as an option.

Cloning is when you basically make a mirror copy of … Read more

Welcome to the 411, my column answering all your questions about cell phones and cell phone accessories. I receive plenty of questions about these subjects via e-mail, so I figured many of you might have similar queries, too. At times, I might solicit answers from readers if I'm stumped. Send your questions and comments to me at nicole.lee@cnet.com. If you prefer to remain anonymous, let me know in the e-mail.

Question: I've never had a cell phone in my life. I know that's hard to believe! But I just never saw the need for one -- landlines have been just fine for me. I don't need to be in constant contact all the time. Recently though, I've received some pressure to get one. I just feel like I really don't need it, but maybe a temporary one is ok. Is there maybe a phone I can get that I can only use every once in awhile, that doesn't require a plan? Thanks! -- Beau, via email.

This might come as a shocker coming from a cell phone reviewer, but I don't necessarily think everyone in the world must get a cell phone. If your lifestyle is such that you don't need it, I don't see the problem of not having one. However, it does make life a lot more convenient, and it tends to be cheaper if you make a lot of mobile-to-mobile or long-distance calls.

You can get cheap and disposable phones if you want something temporary, especially if you go the prepaid route. Virgin Mobile's payLo service, for example, offers cheap $15 phones and the basic service only costs $20 for 400 minutes. If you lapse payment, however, it's likely that your phone number will expire, so you might have to keep reupping every month or so to keep the number alive. But if you really only need a phone every once in awhile -- like on vacations -- then maybe you don't care so much about changing your number. Readers, please let us know of other alternatives that Beau can consider.… Read more

Gears is a fun ball-rolling game with a steampunky feel, excellent 3D graphics, and both swipe and tilt control schemes (the former much easier to use than the latter).

The game has 27 levels spread across three worlds, and in each level you're trying to safely roll your ball from the top of the level to the bottom without falling off, while picking up as many points as possible along the way. You roll down ramps, over rotating gears, through gates and past blowers, trampolines, and an increasingly diverse array of obstacles--and you also have to choose between alternating … Read more