Are you the type of gamer that likes to get the perfect run before moving on to the next level? If so, then stunt bike games are for you. This collection of games challenges you to navigate past obstacles, avoid exploding barrels, and make death defying jumps--all while trying to get the best time possible.

This week's collection of iOS apps are all stunt bike games. The first gives you a wide view of the track so you know what's coming up. The second offers smoother graphics, and some nice effects that add to the game. The third is a cartoon-looking stunt bike game designed by some of the most respected developers in the iOS game industry.

The camera is pulled way back so you have plenty of time to react.

MotoTrialz (99 cents) is a side-scrolling stunt bike game that's a fairly good remake of the game Trials, but it's not the best in the genre. Like other games of this type, your challenged with riding a motorcycle over several obstacles in the least amount of time possible. You have a couple of different options for controlling your bike in MotoTrialz: you have gas and braking buttons on the right and you can choose between a slider on the left or the accelerometer for tilting your bike. You'll need to pick one and g... [Read more]

Kindle Format 8, or KF8, uses Web technologies such as HTML and CSS to show much more elaborate e-book layouts.

Amazon has retooled and renamed the format for electronic books, embracing Web technologies and adding better abilities for graphics and complex layouts.

The previous format, Mobi 7, will be replaced by Kindle Format 8, aka KF8, according to an Amazon announcement yesterday.

Green Lantern is part of DC Comics' exclusive content deal with Amazon.

"As showcased on Kindle Fire, KF8 enables publishers to create great-looking books in categories that require rich formatting and design such as children's picture books, comics & graphic novels, technical and engineering books, and cookbooks," Amazon said in its announcement. "Kindle Format 8 replaces the Mobi format and adds over 150 new formatting capabilities, including fixed layouts, nested tables, callouts, sidebars and Scalable Vector Graphics, opening up more opportunities to create Kindle books that readers will love."

The ... [Read more]

Want to unlock that phone? Smile.

There's more to Ice Cream Sandwich than just better camera controls, near-field communication support, and the redesigned interface. Google has also been working on making the latest version of Android the safest yet, and several of the features are mighty sharp for a melty brick of ice cream.

The biggest of them all is that you'll be able to fully encrypt your ICS device. This means that all your data will be on lockdown, inaccessible even to you until you enter in the passcode or personal identification number.

The benefit of this obvious: if lose your phone, you won't have to worry about remotely wiping it. The downside, of course, is that if you forget your password, you're locked out and the only way to get your phone back is to factory restore it. Expect to see renewed interest in cloud-based backup services for Android.

How apps manage authentication and secure sessions will get easier in ICS, thanks to a new keychain API that works in conjunction with the underlying encrypted storage. Any app will be able to use the keychain API to install and store user certificates and certificate authorities securely. It's a very technical change that will nevertheless allow apps to be written more safely from the get-go.

The lockscreen itself has received some effective enhancements, too. The first, and the most widely-talked ab... [Read more]