There’s a new iPhone comic reader application ,and it’s called Comic Reader Mobi
The developer Ty Landercasper told me about his new comic reader app made for iPhone and iPod Touch (there’s also a version for Windows Mobile, and coming soon to Blackberry) . Ty told me, “It has everything you’d expect from a full featured comic book reader, native support for rar, zip and pdf files. Automatic bookmarking, and fast load times. But what really makes it unique is the lens feature!
The lens allows you to only zoom in on a small section, preventing the need for scrolling around.”
It’s hard to describe, but easy to demonstrate. Check out this YouTube video to see what it’s all about:
Here’s the info from his website:
Autosizing lens. Just tap on any text, and the lens will zoom in on just that part. Finally you can see the whole comic as the artist intended without sacrificing readablity!
Native support for zip,rar,cbz, cbr and pdf files.
Use the comic sync tool (Windows only), for ultra fast USB uploads to the iphone. No need to wait for slow file conversions or sync over your wireless connection!
Autobookmarking. Comic Reader Mobi remembers your last position in every file, and even in every series. Switch between them without ever having to worry about losing your place.
Next page is prebuffered so there is no lag between pages
High quality Image resizing ensures that images look their very best
Bring up the transparent onscreen controls by douple clicking on the page, or pressing the lower corners
use the stand pinch gesture to zoom in on comics
I’m super buried in work right now, so I haven’t yet had a chance to try out the application. But if any of you readers have tried it, please leave a comment and let us know!
The iPhone comic book reader mystery has been solved!
There is finally an easy and enjoyable way to read (and convert) all your digital comic books on the iPhone and iPod Touch…and its name is ComicZeal.
I have been using ComicZeal since the first day it was released (thanks again to reader Maddux for the tip), and I have been thrilled with its performance. ComicZeal is fast and smooth and the most flexible solution yet for reading ANY comic book on the iPhone or iPod Touch. By the way, I have no affiliation with the developers, and I get no commissions or freebies for writing this review!
The most important features of ComicZeal are:
Comics are downloaded to your iPhone so you can read them offline anytime.The comic images are big enough to see all the text and details, and they smoothly scroll –almost glide– across your iPhone screen.Comics can be resized quickly and easily using the standard pinch technique.
Comics can be read portrait or landscape mode…but landscape mode only works when the iPhone is tilted to the left (the top of the iPhone facing left). Not sure why, but it’s good to know.
You can turn pages easily by tapping a button on the bottom of the screen.
ComicZeal remembers your place! If your in the middle of reading a comic, and you turn the iPhone off, when you come back to the app it will resume where you left off.
For me, the most critical point is that ComicZeal has made a converter that will let me take ALL my old comic files and quickly convert them to ComicZeal’s format.
“A [.cbr file] is way too large for the iPhone. Each page is roughly three times the size of the maximum image that the iPhone can easily display (1024×1024 pixels). If the large images are used on the iPhone, they must be broken into smaller pieces and shown to the user as they scroll through the page. This takes up a lot of processor time. Processor=battery so the battery life suffers.”
I have converted a couple of comics from my collection, and they look fantastic! The converter software is a separate (free) application that runs on your desktop. I will go into the details of using the ComicZeal Creator software in a future post, but there’s not much to it. Nice and simple!
How do you get the converted files to your iPhone? You can either use your own wireless network to download them from your own computer, or you can do what I did and upload them to your own webspace, and then download them off your own website to your iPhone. Anybody can do this, and it allows everybody to share their own iPhone comic downloads! Take a look at the simple and dinky website I just put up today for this very purpose: http://iPhoneComicBox.com
April 19, 2009 UPDATE! ComicZeal has lowered their price!
The ComicZeal Creator software is available for Mac and Windows. It is still in beta, but all I had to do to get the software was email the developer and ask for it. If you have any question or comments about ComicZeal or any other iPhone comic book apps, please leave a comment!
One of our readers named Mookey left a really helpful comment about a new iPhone comic book reader application called Pull Lists. I’ll try to check it out this weekend, but until then here’s what Mookey had to say about it:
The app on the phone is very stable and simple to use, plus the Mac desktop app it uses to get your comics onto the phone looks and behaves a lot like iTunes.
Its a full-blown digital comic book library which I can even use to read my comics on my MacBook!!
I tried out the windows app, and its functional but not as nice as the Mac app… but the developer said he’s working on getting the windows version up to par with the mac one, so I have high hopes for that too.
According to the Pull Lists website, you can import digital comic book files by simply dragging-and-dropping them onto the application. Pull Lists will accept any files in the following file formats: .cbz, .cbr, .zip, .rar and .pdf (PDF is currently only available on the Mac Client)
They also say it has the following features:
Full Multitouch Support
Auto-rotate for portrait or landscape
Categorized Listing by Publisher/Title/Issue Name
iTunes-like blue dot indicating unread books
Page memory: will open archive at the last page you visited
Smart wifi importing via Bonjour (more about this in Pull List’s Library)
I’m looking forward to giving this app a spin around the block. If any of you readers have tried it, please leave a comment and let us know!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Soul’s Winter, the collected TMNT comic book tales of legendary Sandman artist Michael Zulli and longtime TMNT writer and Umbra creator Murphy, is now available on iPhone and iPod Touch from digital entertainment provider Uclick. The collection is presented in three apps available for download on the iPhone App Store at $.99 (US) cents each.
Best known for the moody, realistic illustration style he brought to memorable tenures on The Sandman and Swamp Thing comic books, Zulli’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles work immediately resonated with fans and soon ranked among the most popular stories of the franchise’s 25-year history. The Soul’s Winter collection features an extended tale of the Turtles’ disastrous encounter with their arch nemesis, as well as three short stories.
Besides a host of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles titles, Uclick has created dozens of comic apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch in recent weeks, including Bone, Grounded, GODLAND, Halo & Sprocket, as well as webcomic collections Pibgorn, Basic Instructions and We the Robots and the manga hit Dramacon.
The iPhone Uclick apps feature tap-and-swipe, panel-by-panel controls. The large multi-touch screen on the Apple devices enables clear, high-resolution presentation, but users can also utilize the zoom feature to get an even closer look at any panel.
To get Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Soul’s Winter and other favorite comic books, manga and graphic novels for the iPhone and iPod Touch go to the new Uclick Web App by typing Uclick.com into the Safari browser or visit the App Store on the iPhone or on iTunes.
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