graphics

The dividing line between writing books and writing programs just got a big step blurrier.

That's because Amazon has now released tools for creating books using Web technologies. Those tools include Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), used to describe Web pages, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), used for formatting.

"Through the use of HTML5 and CSS3, KF8 allows publishers to create great-looking books in all categories, particularly those that require rich formatting and design, such as technical & engineering books and cookbooks," Amazon announced. Other features are well suited to graphic novels, comics, and kids' books, Amazon said. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Many world champion Tetris players claim to see falling bricks in their dreams (see: Tetris Effect), and now players of all skill levels can wake up to the puzzle game with their own Tetronimo wall graphics, thanks to a collaboration between Tetris and Walls360.

Walls360 is a start-up co-founded by Tavia Campbell, John Doffing, and Yiying Lu, the artist responsible for the famous Twitter Fail Whale. Their wall graphics first caught my eye when they hosted a kick-off event two years ago to launch the company, and since then they've partnered with brands like Star Trek and Paddington Bear to create high-quality adhesive wall images.… Read more

Quanta has sued Advanced Micro Devices over a defective chip used in an NEC laptop.

Quanta Computer, the world's largest contract manufacturer of laptop computers, sued AMD for breach of contract, alleging the chipmaker sold defective products, as first reported by Bloomberg.

The suit is centered on the ATI RS600ME, an integrated graphics solution, an AMD spokesperson told CNET. Integrated graphics chips include other circuitry and also act as a chipset, which supports the main central processing unit or CPU.

"AMD and its ATI Technologies Inc. unit sold chips that didn't meet heat tolerances and were unfit … Read more

Evernote, which acquired the OS X graphics app Skitch in August, has just released an iPad graphics app under the same name. It's a fun and useful graphics product on its own and a decent accessory product for Evernote devotees as well.

An Android version of Skitch was released previously.

Skitch on iOS (download link) is very nicely designed and quite a lot more capable than its simple user interface would lead you to think. While its image modification tools are rudimentary (you can crop an image, that's about it), it has the markup tools most people will … Read more

Skygrid is a fun-to-use, visually slick app for browsing through recent news from multiple sources.

Skygrid isn't tied to any particular news outlet, and you can't see much more than a short blurb and a thumbnail image for any particular story--so whether you're checking out a story from PBS NewsHour, CNET, TMZ, or WebMD, you'll have to click through to the source's Web site to read the whole story. Even so, Skygrid makes surfing the headlines fun, with a streamlined grid (of course) interface that lets you swipe through different sections and stories, with the … Read more

Real Racing 2 is the long-awaited sequel to popular driving game Real Racing, and it definitely lives up to all the hype. Like the original game, Real Racing 2 offers the same sensitive accelerometer steering that feels just right on the iPhone. But there are a lot of new features in this sequel that make it even better than the original.

One of the biggest changes is the ability to drive real-world cars; Firemint managed to get 30 officially licensed cars, and each car sounds and drives like its real-world counterpart. You also can take part in automatched 16-player online … Read more

Modern Combat: Fallen Nation is a first-person shooter with jaw-dropping graphics. The third installment in Gameloft's Modern Combat series for iOS, this game challenges you to fight through 13 missions from Pakistan to Los Angeles, and you will find and use several different kinds of weapons as you complete mission objectives. The game is a universal download, so you can play on any of your iOS devices, but we think it is at its best on the iPad.

You get three different types of control schemes to pick from, with variations of onscreen joysticks and touch-screen actions. I found … Read more

If you thought animating human motion for a video game or feature movie was hard, try rainbows.

In the search for better animation techniques for video games and movies, computer graphics researchers at the University of San Diego have gained insight into the physics of rainbows. Their discovery could lead to more realistic depictions of rare types of rainbows, such as twinned rainbows, and other natural phenomena.

The conditions for the appearance of a rainbow are well understood: light passing through water droplets in the air causes the light to reflect and refract within the water. The reflecting light fans … Read more

Cut the Rope, one of the hottest smartphone games, just got an update to the free standalone holiday version for both the iPhone and iPad (universal) featuring new challenges and holiday-themed levels.

Certain apps have staying power on the top-10 list at the iTunes App Store and Cut The Rope offers just the right mix of challenging physics-based gameplay, family-friendly graphics, and tons of levels to explore to keep it near the top.… Read more