Somebody with a chiroptera obsession has a shocking experience in this week's Batman #7. On the left, as viewed through the new iPad's Retina Display. On the right, the iPad 2.

Comixology continues to dominate the mobile comics reading app market with new features for its iOS app, including high-definition comics that take advantage of the new iPad's Retina Display.

Updated earlier this week, Comixology's Comics 3.1 (download) lets you read comics on the new iPad with double the resolution of comics on previous models. It also supports sharing your comments on comics via Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail; and offers a Read Now button which lets you begin reading a comic before a comic has fully downloaded.

Support for the Retina Display almost didn't make it into Comixology 3.1, said Chip Mosher, the company's Director of Marketing. "Our developers turned around HD support in about five days. That's a testament to how dedicated they are."

The difference in resolution is apparent when holding a new iPad next to an iPad 2 and looking at the same comic. If you've downloaded a comic for the iPad 2, Comixology will let you download it again in HD at no extra cost.

Comixology's new sharing options: e-mail, Facebook,... [Read more]

With the incredible success of the original Angry Birds, few iOS gamers were probably surprised that Angry Birds Space would rocket to the top of the iTunes App Store. I've been playing the game quite a lot over the past 24 hours, and though I've noticed some bugs (kill all pigs with one bird to get one star, anyone?), the new gravity fields, interesting levels, and new bird types definitely add something new to the game.

Angry birds isn't the only game in this genre, however. When Angry Birds took off at the iTunes App Store, several developers came out with their own version of the sling-shot game mechanic and many brought new elements to add to the fun.

This week's collection of iOS apps are all Angry Birds-like destruction games, but each have an interesting twist on the original game mechanic. The first offers a heavy metal theme as you smash monster trucks into structures. The second lets you blast ragdolls through intricate levels towards a target. The third mixes game genres to add liquid physics into the equation making for unique challenges.

You get to fire some fierce looking trucks into structures, each with their own abilities.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)[Read more]

Some phones may have extra mileage you're not interested in.

Buying used Android phones can save you a bunch of money, but there are a few things you should check out before forking over your hard-earned cash. Things like water damage, cracks in the phone's body or screen, and of course actual functionality of the device are the obvious things to check -- but what about being blacklisted from a carrier?

That's right, a phone can become blacklisted off a network because it was stolen, or its previous owner neglected to pay a bill or 10. So how can you protect yourself in this case? Luckily, if you're buying a phone for a CDMA carrier, there's a way to look up the ESN (electronic serial number) to see the status of the device on their network.

Step 1: To find the ESN on a device, you can simply look under the battery or in the About Phone area of the Settings menu. Sometimes the ESN will even be printed on the box, but this isn't the best option since boxes and devices can be swapped easily... [Read more]

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET)

Cool filters, effects, and frames without the emphasis on sharing them with everyone you know is what you'll find in Pix: Pixel Maker for Android.

The app features 30 filters (which you can combine, more on that later), 24 effects, and 16 frames. If you're not sure where to start with a photo, there's even a random button to get your creative powers going. Additionally, you'll be able to save your photos in full resolution, for free. Here's how to get started:

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET)

First you'll want to take a photo or choose one from your Gallery. This example is going to work with a photo I took on the Howard Frankland Bridge connecting St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET)

Next you'll want to tap on the magic wand i... [Read more]

Recently a new variant of the Imuler/Revir Trojan malware for OS X was found being distributed disguised as erotic images that, if installed on a Mac system, would attempt to steal personal information then upload them to remote servers. The malware's initial variants included offensive political material, but in its recent iteration has been distributed disguised among a collection of cover girl images in an obvious attempt to trick people into opening the application.

While these attempts are relatively easy to avoid, security company F-Secure has been monitoring a more serious threat from the Flashback malware for OS X. This malware, which has been distributed in fake installer application for the popular Adobe Flash Player plug-in, works by modifying the code in Web browsers to launch the malware when they are run, and then try sending information on visited Web pages to remote servers.

Initially this malware was only an OS X installer file that was disguised as Flash Player, but in February of this year, another variant of this malware was found that attempts to take advantage of Java security holes to install without requiring user interaction or being detected.

OS X does not come with Java installed by default, and ... [Read more]

Now you can place calls to phones from Google+ Hangouts.

Video chatting in Hangouts is busting out of Google+.

Video calls among two or more Google+ users was the big draw when Hangouts launched, but now Google has flipped the switch the allow Google+ users to make phone calls to almost any phone number, not just within the Google+ ecosystem. That means that users will be able, for example, place a voice call from their computers and reach friends or family on their land line or cell phone.

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The feature is limited to outbound calls and cannot accept incoming calls to your Google+ account. It's also currently desktop-only, and isn't compatible with Google+ on mobile apps.

Calls to phone numbers in the U.S. and Canada are free, and callers can buy credit to dial out to international lines.

To place a call, click the "I... [Read more]

Run, Katniss, run! (Also: shoot, Katniss, shoot!)

Can't get enough "Hunger Games"? Need something to do while you're in line to buy movie tickets? (The film version opens today, in case you've been living underground.) Get ready for some Katniss-inspired app action.

The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire for iOS has arrived, and while it may be little more than a "teaser" game (the studio's words, not mine), it sure is fun.

And not quite what you'd expect from a movie tie-in. It's not some fancy first-person shooter or, heaven forbid, Katniss kart-racing. Instead, Girl on Fire taps the very heart of the "Hunger Games" trilogy: a girl constantly on the run, constantly fighting for her life.

This is what's known as a "perpetual runner," meaning your character (Katniss, natch) is always on the move. Actually, it's the scenery that moves; she remains center-screen at all times.

As Katniss runs, she faces increasingly difficult attacks from wasp-like Tracker Jackers, which shoot at her and try to sting her. Katniss' only weapon, of course, is her trusty bow and arrow. To shoot, you simply tap in the direction of the flying menace... [Read more]

Google Voice on Ice Cream Sandwich phones will let you play voice mail from the call log.

If you use Google Voice, and you have Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on your phone, life is going to get a little bit more practical.

Starting now, you'll be able to view and play visual voice mails that you receive from Google Voice right in the phone's native call log. The feature only works on Android smartphones running the latest version of the operating system, and only if you head over to the Google Voice app settings and turn on "Voicemail display."

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I'm a daily Google Voice user and checked out the feature on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus. It worked seamlessly. After opening the native phone app, I tapped the log column and immediately saw ... [Read more]

iPad users challenged by the Music app's tiny controls may appreciate an alternative audio player dubbed Deck.

Selling for $1.99 in the Apple Store, Deck provides a large interface with simple features and big controls so you don't need to struggle to manage and play your favorite music. I've been using the app frequently since Apple -- in my opinion -- screwed up the tablet's Music app with iOS 5.

Launching Deck displays its hefty audio player with all the standard buttons--Play, Pause, Back, Forward, Volume, and more. You tap on the Menu button to access your music library. From there you can view your music by Playlist, Artist, Album, Song, or Podcast. My only gripe here is that there's no way to view iTunes U content as there is with Apple's Music app. But I can launch the dedicated iTunes U app for that.

Tapping a particular album or playlist displays all of the tracks. Tapping a song loads it into the music player. The large buttons let you control the song, change the volume, and jump to the next or previous track. Other ... [Read more]

Angry Birds Space won't be coming to Windows Phone 7.

Angry Birds Space is not yet available to Windows Phone 7 users, but will be soon, according to the CEO of game maker Rovio, who contradicted an earlier report quoting a company executive who said the new game would skip the Microsoft platform.

The kerfuffle suggests some interesting backroom maneuvering in the hours between the two reports. Microsoft partner Nokia, for instance, may have expressed some displeasure about the original statement to the Angry Birds maker, a fellow Finnish company.

Absent the new Angry Birds game, Windows Phone 7 could have a much harder time attracting new users. That, in turn, could hurt Nokia, which just brought its first Windows Phone 7 handsets to the U.S. -- and could also potentially damage the outlook for Redmond's next mobile operating system, Windows 8, due out later this year.

It's also possible that Microsoft's clout is simply on the rise in the smartphone arena, given the possibility that Windows 8 might become a third major player in the smartphone market.

Either could be a plausible interpretation of the sudden volte-face Rovio has just executed.

In an interview with Reuters, Rovio CEO Mikael Hed said the company was "w... [Read more]

iOS 5 users, beware a security flaw in Safari that can be used to trick you into visiting potentially malicious Web sites.

Discovered earlier this month by Germany security firm MajorSecurity, the vulnerability could allow cybercriminals to spoof the URL displayed in the browser, trapping users at the wrong sites.

"The weakness is caused due to an error within the handling of URLs when using javascript's window.open() method," explained David Vieira-Kurz of MajorSecurity. "This can be exploited to potentially trick users into supplying sensitive information to a malicious Web site, because information displayed in the address bar can be constructed in a certain way, which may lead users to believe that they're visiting another web site than the displayed web site."

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• ... [Read more]

A mock-up of the coupon that Marvel will use to drive digital-comics fans to brick-and-mortar stores.

A Marvel digital-comics sale in January came with an unusual perk: a $5 coupon for a print comic book. As a lead-in to its Avengers versus X-Men story starting in April, Marvel is giving the coupon a second chance to power up both digital and print comics sales via its iOS (download) and Android (download) comics apps.

"The coupon bumped [digital comic] sales about 25 percent," David Gabriel, senior vice-president of sales for Marvel, said in a phone interview yesterday. Peter Phillips, the general manager and senior vice-president of the Marvel Digital Media Group, added that it was "very well-received," for a one-day coupon offer held on a Saturday in January.

Neither Gabriel nor Phillips would reveal sales numbers when asked, though they did say that 50 percent of the people who bought Marvel Comics digitally that day qualified for the coupon, and 10 percent of those completed the coupon redemption process.

If that sounds low to you, you're not alone. The coupon redemption process could use some refinement.

Here's how it will work for the new coupon sale, which goes from 12:01 a.m. EST o... [Read more]

HDR lets people combine multiple shots taken at different exposure levels into a single image that better captures highlight and shadow detail, and Adobe's improved HDR in Photoshop CS6. It's also improved its basic editing, though. From left to right are an original image, the same image edited with CS6's new raw tools, and an HDR image created from three shots merged with Scott Kelby's HDR preset in Photoshop CS6. (Click to enlarge.)

Adobe has spruced up Photoshop CS6's tool for creating HDR images--at the same time that it's updated editing tools with features that make high-dynamic range photos less interesting to me.

HDR images combine multiple shots taken over a range of bright to dark exposures. That means that the shadow detail can be taken from the bright images and the highlight detail from the dark images.

Used in a tame way, an HDR image shows more of the full range of tones the human eye can see. But plenty of people prefer the more unusual or even outrageous effects that can be achieved--making images look grungy, otherwordly, cripsy, or spooky. HDR is a very adjective-intensive situation.

So what's new with Phot... [Read more]