ipad for reading (not just golden-age) comics

[BobS]

I'm hopeful re the Acer Iconia.

Acer has always put out pretty good stuff at a cheaper price than the bigger boys.

My widescreen 21" monitor is an Acer and it was pretty cheap.

Bob

[narfstar]

I probably jumped in too early with my Arnova. If I waited, I am sure there will be cheaper better out pretty soon. I'll bet all those who spent $200 on just a book reader are really upset now. My Arnova has served it purpose well. For $200 I have not only a book but comic book reader and web browser and more. I watched a video on it the other day and the graphics were fantastic.

The Acer Iconia looks super cool. I just wish that Lenovia removable touch screen model had seen production. The best of both words. I am surprised that no one has come out with it yet.

[Roygbiv666]

I probably jumped in too early with my Arnova. If I waited, I am sure there will be cheaper better out pretty soon. I'll bet all those who spent $200 on just a book reader are really upset now. My Arnova has served it purpose well. For $200 I have not only a book but comic book reader and web browser and more. I watched a video on it the other day and the graphics were fantastic.

The Acer Iconia looks super cool. I just wish that Lenovia removable touch screen model had seen production. The best of both words. I am surprised that no one has come out with it yet.

General rule of thumb: unless you're rich and/or like wasting money, never buy the first release of a new technology. It'll only get better and cheaper with the 2nd/3rd release.

I'm waiting for 4-D TV! ;-)

[narfstar]

I got a 4G Thunderbolt. DCM comic previews are very readable in horizontal. COOL

[John C]

I didn't go so high-scale, but I picked up an (deep breath) enTourage Pocket eDGe Dualbook Android Tablet and e-Ink Reader.  I'm in paper-grading mode, so I can't properly say how great or irritating it is, but here's what I've found:

1.  Downloading from DCM with the browser is absolutely doable.

2.  It didn't take me more than a few minutes (but irritating minutes nonetheless) to find ComiCat, which is pretty much like CDisplay with (seemingly) fewer options.

3.  The comics look crisp enough on the screen that the smaller screen doesn't bother me much at all.

4.  ComiCat doesn't do it, but software specifically for the eDGe has the neat feature of pushing stuff over to the eInk side of the machine.

5.  With two screens, it's heavier than my Sony e-reader thingie and Google's Android Market doesn't want to have anything to do with it, so I need to jump through hoops (which I'm still working out) to install better stuff like the Flash player.

6.  Not comic-related, but the speakers are probably the worst I've had in a computer since sound cards became available.  I can barely hear music over, say, the bathroom sink when I'm getting ready for work.

Overall, I'm guessing the Thunderbolt is more fun, but for the price (I got it at daily-deal site Woot.com, for people who need to know such things), and for the uses I'm likely to put it through, it's not bad at all.  Now I just need to figure out how to get the stupid "virtual phone" to work on my PC so Google will let me download free things...

[John C]

I didn't go so high-scale, but I picked up an (deep breath) enTourage Pocket eDGe Dualbook Android Tablet and e-Ink Reader.

FYI, for those reading here today (29 June) and are looking for exactly this device (LCD and eInk screens), Woot.com has them again for today.

The company's out of business, though, so if that's the sort of thing that worries you, steer clear.  But the upgrade to a recent version of the operating system (it ships very outdated) is five minutes when you unpack--there are links in the discussion.

[johndesmarais]

The viewer I use is ComicZeal and it allows you to zoom as much as you want.

===========================

I just looked into ComicZeal and while it does look pretty cool, I won't be popping for the 8 bucks right now.

I use Cloudreaders...an all-around free ipad reader of CBZ, CBR, PDF.  It's free and zooming isn't a problem.

I have other free ipad readers, but they seem to lose the zoom when the page is turned or scrolled.  Cloudreaders keeps the zoom in place all the way thru.

I generally read my comics with the ipad in sideways / landscape mode, zoom to fit the cover side to side [displaying roughly the top half of each page], scroll down as I read, then "flip" to the next page....scroll, flip, etc.

This works fine for me for now.  ComicZeal does have an organizing aspect to it--like itunes does with music, so that's an attractive option, but for a free reader, CloudReaders does the job.

MoonDood

The best free iPad reader I've found (at least, for the way I want to operate) is ComicFlow.  Very basic organization, but it offers the ability to load comics without syncing through iTunes.

[narfstar]

comixology offers their books in guided view. Comics on your phone one panel at a time. I like it

[Yoc]

Lots of new tablets on the horizon.  I'm still waiting for that perfect machine at the lowest price.
Just call me a Dreamer.

[Roygbiv666]

Yoc, there is NEVER the "perfect" machine, just the good enough for now one. If it meets your requirements and the price is right ...

A guy at work keeps waiting for the "perfect" iPhone. He will never own one unless they are the only cel phones left in the world.

Lots of new tablets on the horizon.  I'm still waiting for that perfect machine at the lowest price.
Just call me a Dreamer.

[Yoc]

Yeah, likely true Roy, but as much as I like some aspects of the iPad and others there are still enough things I dislike to stop me from buying.

A nice 10.2" or larger screen.  Sharp focus.  USB connectors.  Can read CBZ and CBR files with somekind of application.  And under $600 Canadian.

[John C]

Yoc, there is NEVER the "perfect" machine, just the good enough for now one.

I don't know, Roy.  Business-wise, the entire point of the cloud is to lock you into a subscription because Microsoft, Apple, HP, and the rest can't improve their stuff enough to convince us to buy enough of it to cover the costs.  Back in the '90s, when I had friends working at Microsoft, they described the subscription/rental model as the master plan on the basis that management couldn't think of any features to add.

Add in the biological limits of how small a pixel you can see and the like, and having a specific purpose in mind, there may well be an absolute perfect device, weirdly enough.

I buy the occasional little tablet when I find one cheap, so I can see what works and what doesn't.  I'm disappointed that I didn't realize the HP Touchpad fire-sale was significant.  I kinda wanted to play with WebOS, too...Pout, pout, pout.

[moondood]

I finally did break down and buy an ipad...and have been reading comics thru an app called cloudreaders--which works great--I tried some other free readers, but I settled on Cloudreaders for its ease of use, I guess....and you can load comics into the app easily when hooked up to my desktop machine.

But I'm wondering if anyone else has this problem--I looked around here a little, but see it mentioned--that is, some files just won't read on the iPad....maybe 5%.

I read CBZ, CBR, PDF, etc...so it's not the file format that's the problem.

For instance: Captain Marvel jr. #6--a CBZ file--which I probably got here [but I can't swear to it]--won't open on the ipad.  And if I locate the file on my desktop machine and open it up fine---and unzip it there's nothing obvious about the problem, far as I can tell.

If I knew what was the problem I may be able to fix it and reload to my ipad.

I'm seeing a lot of "FIXED" files that have been uploaded lately--trying to fix a preview error problem, but I don't know what that's trying to fix --or on what platform/application/reader.  I'm on a mac and my comics may open in an app called "Preview"---but I don't know if that's the preview in mind....since I don't have any problems with it.

Anyone heard of this [minor, but annoying] problem on the ipad?

Anyone know the solution?

[Yoc]

Hi Moon,
Congrats on the iPad.
The problem being 'fixed' on DCM these days are scans that were uploaded as cbr files but with a .CBZ file name.  Those wont show in our amazing PREVIEW feature which is on the page of any issue you go to download.  You can Comment, Preview or Download.  The Preview feature opens a new window with the entire issue now able to be read via html.  I believe it should work on your iPad if you are connected to the web with it.  The Captain Marvel Jr. 006 you mention is an example of a BROKEN file.  The usual sign a scan needs fixing is if you can't see a cover thumbnail on the right.  'No Cover Yet' is there instead.  And if you click on Preview you get the Betty Page broken file message.  Prime user has been amazingly helpful downloading these problem files, recreating them with proper files formats and reuploading them for us.

About your problem.  Have you taken a file that fails on your iPad and recreated your own file for it?  Unzipped it into a folder and created a new zip or rar file for it?  That should fix it I'd think.

[moondood]

I think I did try that, Yoc, but I can't recall the outcome---I'll try it again and report back on results.

moondood