Digital Comic Museum
General Category => Comic Related Discussion => Topic started by: citaltras on June 10, 2010, 12:39:38 PM
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I borrowed a new ipad... for reading comics is almost perfect!
Here is a video I recorded with my webcam showing you how:
http://www.youtube.com/v/UKVVLD7vbLo&hl=es_ES&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1
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The presentation looks very nice. What format are the comics and pulps loaded? It would be nice if I could load jpeg files.
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There are many programs available and most of them read pdf, cbr, cbz, zip or rar.
Of course also separate jpg.
The examples in the video are cbr and cbz files.
The only drawback is that you have to use itunes for file transfer.
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Good to know...with all the hubbub about "what does the iPad actually DO?"--I was pretty sure it could read CBZ and CBR files.
And honestly, that's all I would use the iPad for. Well, maybe as an internet browser in the car [directions, restaurants, etc.]---But I spend so little time in the car, anyway--but I can see the value.
As soon as the iPad comes down to $39.99 retail, I'll buy it on eBay for half-price....but only with free shipping. I can wait.
moondood
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Along those lines:
I've always been amazed--okay, not always, but in the past 5 yrs or so--that CBZ and CBR reader apps are known as "comic book readers".
Fact is, they read any sequence of images in a variety of formats--digital photos, book scans, photo scans, any type of scans, etc.
I use the file types to create photo albums, art portfolios, and other non-comics-related material.
It may not be as slick as some other options, but it gets the job done without a lot of storage space sacrificed.
moondood
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Hey, thanks for the video citaltras!
What was the first app you were showing? The second was Arcreader.
I agree with moon the price is above what I'd like to spend and the whole closed sourced/Apple apps store things turns me off though I know many love the idea.
I'm hope they sell enough for others to get into the game and someone make one a bit bigger and open sourced.
-Yoc
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The first app is cloudreader, I believe. Both are free from the itunes store.
Actually the ipad is cheaper than a laptop, so if you only want it to read comics it is worth the price.
I am sure in the next year new similar machines will appear with windows.
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I agree with moon the price is above what I'd like to spend and the whole Apple apps store things turns me off though I know many love the idea.
That's probably the biggest thing that keeps me from getting involved with Apple, too--why buy a "cloud device" if you're obligated to work through somebody's mainframe as a bottleneck? Even IBM discarded the "you can only use software we approve of and distribute" model, and I'd rather not go back, personally.
Pricewise, on the other hand...I don't see four hundred bucks as a terrible price for a reader that could double as a full computer.
I'm hope they sell enough for others to get into the game and someone make one a bit bigger and open sourced.
I'm still holding out for the Pixel Qi displays, personally. I see no reason to buy yet another portable computing device that I can't easily read in direct sunlight. But those screens are now in production, so I've got my fingers crossed for interesting products by winter.
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If cloud computing takes off, it'll be the only option the industry lets us have. I'm sticking with a traditional desktop computer.
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If cloud computing takes off, it'll be the only option the industry lets us have. I'm sticking with a traditional desktop computer.
Getting off-topic, but since this is (sort off) my field, I'll quickly make the point that "the cloud" never quite takes off, nor does full-deskop computing. They wobble back and forth, because both work really well for specific jobs.
I was around for the last "cloud revolution," led by Sun. And how is Sun Microsystems doing, these days...? And the pendulum is probably due to swing back, given how annoyed people are with Facebook.
On the other hand, the Apple/iTunes route isn't the only one possible. The Android people don't have the marketshare (or the tools or discipline to produce consistently-good software), but they have the same basic structure as the iPod approach wthout the need to bottleneck everybody.
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If cloud computing takes off, it'll be the only option the industry lets us have. I'm sticking with a traditional desktop computer.
Getting off-topic, but since this is (sort off) my field, I'll quickly make the point that "the cloud" never quite takes off, nor does full-deskop computing. They wobble back and forth, because both work really well for specific jobs.
I was around for the last "cloud revolution," led by Sun. And how is Sun Microsystems doing, these days...? And the pendulum is probably due to swing back, given how annoyed people are with Facebook.
On the other hand, the Apple/iTunes route isn't the only one possible. The Android people don't have the marketshare (or the tools or discipline to produce consistently-good software), but they have the same basic structure as the iPod approach wthout the need to bottleneck everybody.
Google is still pursuing the cloud arena. Don't be shocked one day if the Microsoft office suite is gone and you are forced to use the same tools online with a monthly or yearly subscription. People want convenience and if the money starts shifting to where companies can use their size to eliminate your options, they will. Sun never got up to speed. Their office package still has serious flaws in compatibility and formatting Microsoft's proprietary formats. They are still making advancements with Google assisting. Google designed their chrome browser with cloud computing in mind. The new HTML standard is incorporating features that make cloud computing more robust. Oracle had envisioned a cloud computing future right before the bottom dropped out on personal computers and hardware in general. The computer industry will justify it as "going green". Less motherboards in the landfill makes them look like a hero. The only way to minimize software piracy is to quit selling the software. The cloud will start cheap and free until they get enough people using it. After that, bonus features and new tools for convenience will pop up at an added cost. As new versions roll out, the free portions will be fewer and the pay portions will be essential tools to have. It won't be an overnight transition. The record industry was secure for years because they controlled distribution entirely. Nobody could press a vinyl record in their home. When CD burners came along and file compression software was available, the record companies lost their stranglehold on distribution. Anybody could pirate the music. I really do think you'll see big companies shifting their focus away from you being able to do anything but run a dumb terminal.
Gene
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Google is still pursuing the cloud arena. Don't be shocked one day if the Microsoft office suite is gone and you are forced to use the same tools online with a monthly or yearly subscription. People want convenience and if the money starts shifting to where companies can use their size to eliminate your options, they will. Sun never got up to speed. Their office package still has serious flaws in compatibility and formatting Microsoft's proprietary formats. They are still making advancements with Google assisting. Google designed their chrome browser with cloud computing in mind. The new HTML standard is incorporating features that make cloud computing more robust. Oracle had envisioned a cloud computing future right before the bottom dropped out on personal computers and hardware in general. The computer industry will justify it as "going green". Less motherboards in the landfill makes them look like a hero. The only way to minimize software piracy is to quit selling the software. The cloud will start cheap and free until they get enough people using it. After that, bonus features and new tools for convenience will pop up at an added cost. As new versions roll out, the free portions will be fewer and the pay portions will be essential tools to have. It won't be an overnight transition. The record industry was secure for years because they controlled distribution entirely. Nobody could press a vinyl record in their home. When CD burners came along and file compression software was available, the record companies lost their stranglehold on distribution. Anybody could pirate the music. I really do think you'll see big companies shifting their focus away from you being able to do anything but run a dumb terminal.
Gene
This strikes me as a highly likely scenario. Thanks for sharing it, GeneYas, OT though it may be.
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Gene made me cry.
:'(
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I half-agree, Gene. There is the obvious push by the big companies, because groups like Microsoft have realized that they've pretty much saturated the market and run out of killer features to add. The only way to get ongoing revenue is, in fact, a subscription model.
However, I see a few problems that I don't think they'll be able to iron out.
First, there's the Open Source groups. OpenOffice is annoying to use, but if it's a choice between it and the next iteration of LiveDocuments (or whatever it was called), guess which one I'll choose. And if they kill Windows, well, ReactOS is finally shaping up into something that's nearly releasable. And I can confirm that OpenOffice actually does run well enough for general use on cheapo netbooks.
Second, there are all the organizations that rely on secrecy. The Pentagon, for example, is not going to allow all its sensitive data to be intercepted during upload or copied from a server farm in another country. Hedge funds aren't going to release their plans somewhere where a guessed password loses them their advantage.
And don't forget to add in the user licenses. To serve your data to you wherever you are, they (like Facebook's Terms of Service, for example) need you to give them the right to copy and otherwise use your content however they see fit. Without that, you could technically sue them for releasing your data to any machine other than the one you uploaded to. But that also means that they own the rights to use and publish your documents without your input. Sure, they usually won't, but if you're an admiral, a day trader, or a criminal, are you going to trust that they won't make an ethical exception? Probably not.
Third, there's latency and reliability. Imagine the day traders at Goldman-Sachs using 3G Wireless for their trades instead of the dedicated NYSE line.
Along similar lines, there are also applications that simply don't make sense anywhere but your computer. Home automation, for example, can only be programmed from your machine. Dealing with that as a "cloud application" is complication for its own sake, and not a likely investment.
And last, there's competition. We don't live in IBM's world anymore, or even Intel's. Hardware is cheap to produce in just about any configuration. If desktops disappear entirely, I wouldn't be surprised to see some Chinese company producing, say, docking stations that'll connect your iPhone to your television, a keyboard, and an external hard drive to turn it into a "real" computer.
So yeah, if Microsoft, Oracle, and Google have their way, the desktop will vanish and we'll be forced to pay them monthly fees for the use of their software. But the resistance is alive and well in the same market pressures that kept picoJava microprocessors from going in your refrigerator fifteen years ago (and kept Windows 95 from being a "cloud operating system"--remember all that "the web is the desktop" propaganda?), so I'm not overly concerned.
(And notice that Microsoft isn't even taking it that seriously. Office 2007's ribbon is a desktop idea, and not web-friendly, for example, and their new file formats are designed to be usable outside of Office itself. That wouldn't make much sense, if their direction is to provide mainframe-based services where nobody would ever see their data.)
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I half-agree, Gene. There is the obvious push by the big companies, because groups like Microsoft have realized that they've pretty much saturated the market and run out of killer features to add. The only way to get ongoing revenue is, in fact, a subscription model.
However, I see a few problems that I don't think they'll be able to iron out.
First, there's the Open Source groups. OpenOffice is annoying to use, but if it's a choice between it and the next iteration of LiveDocuments (or whatever it was called), guess which one I'll choose. And if they kill Windows, well, ReactOS is finally shaping up into something that's nearly releasable. And I can confirm that OpenOffice actually does run well enough for general use on cheapo netbooks.
Second, there are all the organizations that rely on secrecy. The Pentagon, for example, is not going to allow all its sensitive data to be intercepted during upload or copied from a server farm in another country. Hedge funds aren't going to release their plans somewhere where a guessed password loses them their advantage.
And don't forget to add in the user licenses. To serve your data to you wherever you are, they (like Facebook's Terms of Service, for example) need you to give them the right to copy and otherwise use your content however they see fit. Without that, you could technically sue them for releasing your data to any machine other than the one you uploaded to. But that also means that they own the rights to use and publish your documents without your input. Sure, they usually won't, but if you're an admiral, a day trader, or a criminal, are you going to trust that they won't make an ethical exception? Probably not.
Third, there's latency and reliability. Imagine the day traders at Goldman-Sachs using 3G Wireless for their trades instead of the dedicated NYSE line.
Along similar lines, there are also applications that simply don't make sense anywhere but your computer. Home automation, for example, can only be programmed from your machine. Dealing with that as a "cloud application" is complication for its own sake, and not a likely investment.
And last, there's competition. We don't live in IBM's world anymore, or even Intel's. Hardware is cheap to produce in just about any configuration. If desktops disappear entirely, I wouldn't be surprised to see some Chinese company producing, say, docking stations that'll connect your iPhone to your television, a keyboard, and an external hard drive to turn it into a "real" computer.
So yeah, if Microsoft, Oracle, and Google have their way, the desktop will vanish and we'll be forced to pay them monthly fees for the use of their software. But the resistance is alive and well in the same market pressures that kept picoJava microprocessors from going in your refrigerator fifteen years ago (and kept Windows 95 from being a "cloud operating system"--remember all that "the web is the desktop" propaganda?), so I'm not overly concerned.
(And notice that Microsoft isn't even taking it that seriously. Office 2007's ribbon is a desktop idea, and not web-friendly, for example, and their new file formats are designed to be usable outside of Office itself. That wouldn't make much sense, if their direction is to provide mainframe-based services where nobody would ever see their data.)
I'll address a few issues as to why I believe what I believe.
I think that as the consumer base shifts to a cloud system, the prices on hardware and a normal desktop or laptop will increase drastically to the point that your open source developer won't have an audience for his work and your average consumer won't be able to afford the hardware to run it. Less consumer demand means hardware manufacturer's won't be able to make money on volume. Prices will have to increase. Chip manufacturers and hardware manufacturers will quit catering to the PC market. The cost of dumb terminals will stay low and companies will make money on subscriptions and apps for these dumb devices. The defense department will be able to afford a secure system. Some of this will fall into goals the government has for homeland security anyway. The video game industry has been driving the hardware advancements for years. You don't need a terabyte of space to store a word document. As more complex task become available remotely and hand held devices become the way people communicate... the convenience of those dumb devices will change people's priorities. Also, I believe a state government... possible California is shifting to gmail anyway. Google developed an Outlook plugin or service so that businesses and governments don't need to run a mail server. It cuts their IT costs tremendously. Google is going after the business you or I would assume is impossible to get. They are winning people over by showing them cost savings. Is it wise? Hell no, but it's cheaper.
Gene
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Everybody with a Terabyte or more hanging in or off of their systems say "I do".
I DO.
It's not Word docs that people are storing, Gene, it's movies, digital photos, songs and comic scans. Personally I've got about two TBytes and expect to get more in the next year or so.
Do you want to store your life on the "cloud"?
(|:{>
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Everybody with a Terabyte or more hanging in or off of their systems say "I do".
I DO.
It's not Word docs that people are storing, Gene, it's movies, digital photos, songs and comic scans. Personally I've got about two TBytes and expect to get more in the next year or so.
Do you want to store your life on the "cloud"?
(|:{>
I said you don't need a terabyte of data for a Word document... and you don't. Gaming and entertainment does. Business software doesn't need a desktop computer for serious number crunching. That was my point.
Gene
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More clearly made and understood this time, Gene. I agree with you that businesses don't need large local hard drives on their desktops. Does that mean you envision businesses going back to the dumb terminal model? We've come a long way in 30 years to end up where we started. Only difference is the mainframe gets replaced by the net. Hmmm... Seems like a precarious position to me. ALL of the arguments in the 80s for desktop PCs revolved around "what if the mainframe goes down?" To avoid production (i.e. all work) just stopping, they gave us PCs. I have the same question for the net. So much inter-connectivity demands a robust network. If everything depends on the Internet and the data in the cloud, we're back in the same scenario as the mainframe and its hard drive. Might happen, but it's fraught with weaknesses.
Been there, got out of that.
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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That's pretty much what I was going to say, too, Jim. As I said before (and I really don't want to waste anybody's time arguing over something like this), we've been here before, more than once. As I recall, IBM wanted RMX (a real-time, multitasking operating system) on the IBM PC, but the owners believed the mainframe model was the only way the computer industry lived. Windows 95 integrated Internet Explorer not to kill Netscape, but because "the desktop is the web" (or somesuch nonsense). DEC studiosly avoided the PC revolution. Sun wanted their Java processors creating their own cloud.
When I look at how this has progressed, I don't see a smooth motion "forward," I see a pendulum that swings every fifteen years or so, and we've proably reached the limit this time through. Microsoft's Kin, for example, looks like it's trying to push you OFF the cloud, not on. A lot of people are interested in Diaspora, and want to run their own "node" in a social network. And nobody has developed a "killer app" that makes "the cloud" something that real people care about--it's just storage and communications, and you can carry that in your pocket.
To clarify what I meant about "the desktop will go on," I'm looking at hardware like those "wall wart" computers (Marvell), the netbooks (Asus, et al--I've been using one as my main machine for over a year, now), and the "net top" machines. They're dirt cheap, plug into your television, and have more than enough power (and, with a USB stick, storage space) to run Linux, Chromium, or a ReactOS-like Windows clone, plus office software and desktop publishing, audio, image, and video processing, various communications software (web browsers, VoIP phones, etc.), and so forth, all for free. And that hardware isn't going to vanish or skyrocket in price. In fact, with all the money going into so-called SoC ("System on a Chip") research, it looks like we'll have more opportunities, not less.
(And Jim, I'm with you on storage. A 1.5TB drive just appeared on my doorstep this afternoon, by coincidence, like magic. Well under a hundred bucks, too, though I need to scavenge for a cable to make it go.)
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I was thinking of going into a detailed rundown of all my thoughts and feelings regarding the current state of technology and the IT industry, but I'm just too tired to do it! :P
Besides, it would only end in me ranting away. The only thing I will say on the matter is that it's an industry that reinvents... nay, perhaps that's not strong enough... it's an industry that NEEDS to reinvent its wheels every few years. So if things seem to come full circle, well that shouldn't surprise anyone IMO. :)
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So if things seem to come full circle, well that shouldn't surprise anyone IMO. :)
What surprises me isn't that we reinvent (after all, there's only a finite number of ways to organize computers, an each has its distinct benefits), but rather that it hits with such regular frequency (today it's Google and Facebook; in 1995 it was Sun, Microsoft, and AOL; in 1980 there were the BBSs; and in 1965, they were planning ARPANet) and that it's almost precisely the same story every time. And that, well, everybody's always surprised...
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More clearly made and understood this time, Gene. I agree with you that businesses don't need large local hard drives on their desktops. Does that mean you envision businesses going back to the dumb terminal model? We've come a long way in 30 years to end up where we started. Only difference is the mainframe gets replaced by the net. Hmmm... Seems like a precarious position to me. ALL of the arguments in the 80s for desktop PCs revolved around "what if the mainframe goes down?" To avoid production (i.e. all work) just stopping, they gave us PCs. I have the same question for the net. So much inter-connectivity demands a robust network. If everything depends on the Internet and the data in the cloud, we're back in the same scenario as the mainframe and its hard drive. Might happen, but it's fraught with weaknesses.
Been there, got out of that.
Peace, Jim (|:{>
In 1999, where I work.... we had a full in-house IT department They could do anything. Results were instant. The IT department was our friend. In 2001, the IT department was shrunk, and moved off site. It handled multiple geographic locations, and service was atrocious. You could reach the call center in the Philippines, but the things they could fix over the phone were limited. In 2005, we shifted to SAP software for business management. The software was rolled out and they were immediately telling me I needed a dumb terminal. Dumb terminals were placed everywhere. I argued against a dumb terminal at my desk and won, but that was how the software was pitched to management. Management wanted dumb terminals with low paid employees to just plug in numbers. It's ended up being the opposite, but the sales pitch worked to get the software in the door. I believe cloud computing is an inevitable goal that will be forced upon us over time. The sad thing is that 90% of the consumers will openly embrace it because it will be dressed up to look pretty and it will do wonderful things by the time they accept it.
Gene
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Management wanted dumb terminals with low paid employees to just plug in numbers. It's ended up being the opposite, but the sales pitch worked to get the software in the door. I believe cloud computing is an inevitable goal that will be forced upon us over time. The sad thing is that 90% of the consumers will openly embrace it because it will be dressed up to look pretty and it will do wonderful things by the time they accept it.
Ah, but take heart, Gene, because that's exactly how we ended up with all the engineering outsourced to places like India, the Philippines, Russia, and so forth. And how's that working out?
At least in the New York area, where you couldn't find a good software development job unless you were very lucky, five or six years ago, today the experiment has failed (for now) and you'd be hard-pressed to find a company outsourcing development.
IT will follow, once enough CEOs and CTOs are embarrassed at high-profile meetings by a blue screen and bad support for their ever-increasing costs. Claiming you've saved money by inconveniencing everybody doesn't hold up when you've lost a few major contracts along the way.
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Have you called customer support and gotten fewer people speaking with heavy accents? Companies found that most people did not want someone on the other end of the line they could not understand. Seems you are more likely to get someone who at least sounds like they are American
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Have you called customer support and gotten fewer people speaking with heavy accents?
Actually, I'm not sure it'll work for anybody else, but I pretty much stopped calling customer support when I realized I could send angry e-mails and end with, "if you can't handle this, please forward immediately to someone with greater authority rather than contacting me to explain that you're unable to help." It's been surprisingly effective, though I do need to know exactly what I need to happen. Without solid direction, nobody ever seems interested in helping.
Companies found that most people did not want someone on the other end of the line they could not understand. Seems you are more likely to get someone who at least sounds like they are American
Coming from a company that used one of the big overseas services, I can tell you it goes beyond that. You're basically hiring a staff that, on an individual basis, makes a few pennies a day with the goal of closing the case.
In other words, they're paid crap, and they're not being paid that crap to help you or care about the client's business on any level.
There are ways to make that work out, but most companies think the solution is to either suck it up or call the manager screaming that they're only keeping to the contract. It's not...
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Have you called customer support and gotten fewer people speaking with heavy accents? Companies found that most people did not want someone on the other end of the line they could not understand. Seems you are more likely to get someone who at least sounds like they are American
There was an Australian documentary that showed people in India learning to act and sound American so they could work at a call center. They were taught about American culture including things like baseball, American holidays etc. It was disturbing in a way.
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I half-agree, Gene. (snip)
However, I see a few problems that I don't think they'll be able to iron out.
(snip)
Second, there are all the organizations that rely on secrecy. The Pentagon, for example, is not going to allow all its sensitive data to be intercepted during upload or copied from a server farm in another country. Hedge funds aren't going to release their plans somewhere where a guessed password loses them their advantage.
John,
I saw this article and it reminded me of the discussion here...
"At a press event at its headquarters this morning, Google announced Google Apps for Government-a new version of its Google Apps productivity suite that's been certified by the US government as meeting its security requirements."
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/201979/google_introduces_google_apps_for_government.html?tk=hp_new
Of course this is limited to a "moderate" security rating, but steps like this gradually sway the collective minds of it's users who will start to want the same tools for even more classified data.
Gene
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There are many programs available and most of them read pdf, cbr, cbz, zip or rar.
Of course also separate jpg.
The examples in the video are cbr and cbz files.
The only drawback is that you have to use itunes for file transfer.
I'm waiting for a somewhat larger screensize and TOTALLY non-proprietary file & reading program loading.
Peace,
Bob
Public Enemy #1
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Let me know if you every find one Bob, I'm after the same thing.
-Yoc
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Let me know if you every find one Bob, I'm after the same thing.
-Yoc
Maybe all the PC type iPad imitators will have a bigger screen size.
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That and not be closed source like the iPad yeah. That's my hope.
Cheap would be nice too! ;)
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Let me know if you every find one Bob, I'm after the same thing.
-Yoc
We shouldn't have to wait long.
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I'm waiting for a somewhat larger screensize and TOTALLY non-proprietary file & reading program loading.
Remember that larger screen means heavier. The ipad size is 10", almost perfect,
perhaps 11" or 12" would be better, but not something you could so easily read on bed.
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I'm waiting for a somewhat larger screensize and TOTALLY non-proprietary file & reading program loading.
Remember that larger screen means heavier. The ipad size is 10", almost perfect,
perhaps 11" or 12" would be better, but not something you could so easily read on bed.
I'm spoiled by 1600 pixel wide comic scans that just fit (widthwise) on my wide screen laptop monitor.
Is iPad 10" the DIAGONAL size?
10" is probably adequate for books text -- comparable with the size of paperbacks.
Bob
Public Enemy #1
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I'm waiting for a somewhat larger screensize and TOTALLY non-proprietary file & reading program loading.
Remember that larger screen means heavier. The ipad size is 10", almost perfect,
perhaps 11" or 12" would be better, but not something you could so easily read on bed.
I'm spoiled by 1600 pixel wide comic scans that just fit (widthwise) on my wide screen laptop monitor.
Is iPad 10" the DIAGONAL size?
10" is probably adequate for books text -- comparable with the size of paperbacks.
Bob
Public Enemy #1
The diagonal is 9.7 inches, a (modern) comic is 12 inches diagonal.
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Golden Age comics are much larger than modern comics.
I'd like to be able to read GA comics in at least full size.
Bob
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Golden Age comics are much larger than modern comics.
I'd like to be able to read GA comics in at least full size.
Bob
Well, perhaps it is a little smaller, but is readable anyway,
and it has something the paper comics don't have: ZOOM.
(And you can carry hundreds of comics with you)
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Golden Age comics are much larger than modern comics.
I'd like to be able to read GA comics in at least full size.
Bob
Well, perhaps it is a little smaller, but is readable anyway,
and it has something the paper comics don't have: ZOOM.
(And you can carry hundreds of comics with you)
That's the tempting part - you can store comics on your HD or EHD, as well as putting a bunch on the iPad to read a bunch. "Oooh, I'm going on vacation, but it might rain. How do I take a bunch of comics with me? Hmmm - the iPad".
Does anyone use a Kindle (eReader from Amazon) for regular books? It's so tempting as I'm trying to de-clutter my apartment, as well as organize my comics, the allure of having it all digital is becoming quite intense.
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Speaking of external hard drives, something I may have mentioned before but might be of interest here: On clearance, I picked up a semi-obscure product called the "Pogoplug." It's basically a tiny computer with an ethernet connection (wired) and three USB ports for external drives.
The part I'm not overly happy about is that, through the Pogoplug website (and hence a potential avenue for hackers, which is worrisome--and how do I know the company wouldn't do creepy things with my data?), I can log in and download/access any of the files. However, they also have software that "mounts" the three remote drives onto a more traditional computer, so I can access them normally from a desktop or netbook.
Handy little gadget, since I now keep all my drives off where I don't have to look at them, though probably not for anywhere near the retail price.
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http://www.news.com.au/technology/rim-proves-its-playbook-better-than-ipad/story-e6frfro0-1225955453742
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Tnx very much Roy.
:)
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Just saw Googles entry into the market with a product by View Sonic under $400
http://www.viewsonic.com/
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Here's one from Samsung:
(http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4719/samsunggalaxytab.jpg) (http://img98.imageshack.us/i/samsunggalaxytab.jpg/)
Here's some links for more on it: http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?Id=11748
http://www.samsung.com/uk/galaxytab/
http://www.wired.com/reviews/2010/11/galaxy_tab/
Check it out Yoc as your looking into one other then an iPad!
Geo
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Golden Age comics are much larger than modern comics.
I'd like to be able to read GA comics in at least full size.
Bob
Well, perhaps it is a little smaller, but is readable anyway,
and it has something the paper comics don't have: ZOOM.
(And you can carry hundreds of comics with you)
I'm old (60 yo) and can barely read paperbacks with small text in the best of situations.
I can't read most paperbacks at all with my bedside lamp.
Comic book art gets reduced for digest size comics but I generally don't like reading 'em that small.
Perhaps Zoom makes iPad comic book reading marginally doable, but I'm still waiting for a larger, non-proprietary 'epad'.
If it's back-lit, I'll be able to read in bed and maybe not disturb my wife.
My wide-screen laptop gives me full width of the 1600 dpi scans, but not a full page.
Was it Amazon that deleted books from buyers' Amazon reader?
I don't want ANY manufacturer access to any reader I buy.
Bob
Bob
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Thanks Geo but this one is even smaller than an iPad which is my biggest complaint besides being closed source.
Like Bob my eyes aren't so hot and I'd really rather not have to zoom in to read a page.
Rim's product looks very small as well. Maybe someday my perfect tablet will come...
-Yoc
Here's one from Samsung:
(http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4719/samsunggalaxytab.jpg) (http://img98.imageshack.us/i/samsunggalaxytab.jpg/)
Here's some links for more on it: http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?Id=11748
http://www.samsung.com/uk/galaxytab/
http://www.wired.com/reviews/2010/11/galaxy_tab/
Check it out Yoc as your looking into one other then an iPad!
Geo
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Golden Age comics are much larger than modern comics.
I'd like to be able to read GA comics in at least full size.
Bob
Well, perhaps it is a little smaller, but is readable anyway,
and it has something the paper comics don't have: ZOOM.
(And you can carry hundreds of comics with you)
I'm old (60 yo) and can barely read paperbacks with small text in the best of situations.
I can't read most paperbacks at all with my bedside lamp.
Comic book art gets reduced for digest size comics but I generally don't like reading 'em that small.
Perhaps Zoom makes iPad comic book reading marginally doable, but I'm still waiting for a larger, non-proprietary 'epad'.
If it's back-lit, I'll be able to read in bed and maybe not disturb my wife.
My wide-screen laptop gives me full width of the 1600 dpi scans, but not a full page.
Was it Amazon that deleted books from buyers' Amazon reader?
I don't want ANY manufacturer access to any reader I buy.
Bob
Bob
If zoom isn't an option, then the screen size is the trigger for comic reading - it would have to mimic the dimensions of a comic book PLUS have zoom.
Yes, Amazon deleted some stuff: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html
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If zoom isn't an option, then the screen size is the trigger for comic reading - it would have to mimic the dimensions of a comic book PLUS have zoom.
Exactly what I'd like Roy.
In my letter to Santa I asked for -
10x12, Windows or Linux, CDisplay usable, less than $600 if possible.
-Yoc
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I'm old (60 yo) and can barely read paperbacks with small text in the best of situations.
I can't read most paperbacks at all with my bedside lamp.
DITTO! in spades! I just got a couple pair of bi-focals, which I've resisted, well, ever since I've needed them, I guess. Got a pair for general distance and reading and one for computer and reading. I'm 64 and, like you, Bob, I'm only reading a paperback with help.
Perhaps Zoom makes iPad comic book reading marginally doable, but I'm still waiting for a larger, non-proprietary 'epad'.
As with looking at art, seeing a portion of the page zoomed up is NOT the same for me as seeing the whole page larger. I would much rather have a feature like a digital magnifying glass that you can move over various portions of the image to enlarge them. Anyone with Adobe Bridge has seen this feature. They call it a Loupe, but the enlargement factor needs to be adjustable by the user.
If it's back-lit, I'll be able to read in bed and maybe not disturb my wife.
My wide-screen laptop gives me full width of the 1600 dpi scans, but not a full page.
A laptop with a rotatable screen was on the market a while back. Did it not survive? THAT would be a cool solution.
Was it Amazon that deleted books from buyers' Amazon reader?
I don't want ANY manufacturer access to any reader I buy.
Do I EVER agree with you there, Bob! Once I've paid for it, it's MINE. If I have the money, I don't see why I have to "rent" anything and business plans like "cloud computing," where you rent the software and NEVER own it, are rip-offs in my book - just another way to take money from otherwise loyal customers. Given a choice, I buy. Given NO choice other than renting, I walk.
Bob
Bob
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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Do I EVER agree with you there, Bob! Once I've paid for it, it's MINE. If I have the money, I don't see why I have to "rent" anything and business plans like "cloud computing," where you rent the software and NEVER own it, are rip-offs in my book - just another way to take money from otherwise loyal customers. Given a choice, I buy. Given NO choice other than renting, I walk.
Agreed.
Gene
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I have a rotateable screen tablet laptop. The problem is it is an older model, slow and heavy. A look on ebay shows that they can be purchased pretty cheaply now. While having some big advantages to the epads they are not as convenient for carrying around. Fujitsu had a smaller version that was very expensive but can be purchased used for a lot less now.
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The great thing about technology is that it progresses.
I would think that a reader using some kind of e-ink or e-paper technology would be easier on the eyes that a backlight type of display.
Just stumbled across this:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/09/e-ink-shows-off-triton-color-epaper-touts-faster-performance-r/
"E Ink shows off Triton color ePaper, touts faster performance, readability in sunlight (video)"
The above sounds like a basic description of the concept, I'm unclear if this is available commercially, but it sounds cool
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Just did a Google for a couple of new iPad alternatives.
I'm still not sold on the screen size or the lack of a usb port with the iPad.
I'm also hearing iPad 2 will have an even smaller 7" screen. :-[
Names I've heard -
NVIDIA Tegra 2 - http://tinyurl.com/2crlfz9
Motorola Stingray Tablet - http://tinyurl.com/38am6yf
Dell Looking Glass Tablet - http://tinyurl.com/28ul7y2
Samsung Galaxy Tab - http://tinyurl.com/24x3vaj
and one that is for the far east only so far -
Woow Digital The One Tablet - http://tinyurl.com/24phpge
and the ones I found most interesting for their larger screen size (11.6"):
ExoPC Slate - http://tinyurl.com/35bjj48
and
Neofonie and 4tiitoo WeTab - http://tinyurl.com/26qc8f9
-Yoc
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I am waiting for them to sort out to see what shakes out as worthwhile. There is also viewsonic and zenithink
with ten inch versions.
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Just did a Google for a couple of new iPad alternatives.
I'm still not sold on the screen size or the lack of a usb port with the iPad.
I'm also hearing iPad 2 will have an even smaller 7" screen. :-[
Names I've heard -
NVIDIA Tegra 2 - http://tinyurl.com/2crlfz9
Motorola Stingray Tablet - http://tinyurl.com/38am6yf
Dell Looking Glass Tablet - http://tinyurl.com/28ul7y2
Samsung Galaxy Tab - http://tinyurl.com/24x3vaj
and one that is for the far east only so far -
Woow Digital The One Tablet - http://tinyurl.com/24phpge
and the ones I found most interesting for their larger screen size (11.6"):
ExoPC Slate - http://tinyurl.com/35bjj48
and
Neofonie and 4tiitoo WeTab - http://tinyurl.com/26qc8f9
-Yoc
I know a number of people have already stated that a 7" screen is too small for their tastes, but I wanted to mention that I recently purchased a Nook Color for my wife (and she's letting me use it too). It has a 7" IPS (wide viewing angle) capacitive touch screen, with a resolution of 1024x600 (better than the 800x480 screens on many other 7" devices, and almost the same as the 10" iPad's 1024x768), and besides its ebook capabilities, it has wifi and a web browser. I've found comics to be very readable in my tests so far, using the "Preview" on DCM. If I turn the tablet sideways while previewing, the screen "auto-zooms" to show a single panel of the page at a time in greater detail.
I didn't buy this for comic viewing, and I too am intrigued by some of the 10" to 11" units that are coming out soon, but I wanted to share my positive experience.
(Edit: I should also mention that at US$249, this unit is very affordable compared to its competition)
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Thanks for sharing Snard.
I like the sound of Nook and would love to try a test drive but the idea of reading a comic panel by panel without enjoying the entire layout just sounds wrong to me.
Time will tell if any of these make it to market and get the needed marketing and software support to make a go of it.
-Yoc
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With the majority being google powered and with all the google aps I think they will make a good go. Just a shaking out of which brands make it with price and quality. I believe the viewsonic 10in is to be google and windows dual boot. My son has a druid and it has an app that runs like office. I would like to have a carry along spreadsheet in the classroom to keep track of things on the fly.
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I like the sound of Nook and would love to try a test drive
I didn't bother to do so and so don't know if they'll let you surf to your heart's content, but I did some last-minute shopping at Barnes and Noble on my way home, the other night (guiltily, as there's a huge independent shop a few blocks from my house, though lacking the enormous remaindered section), and right inside the entrance was a Nook kiosk. Or a nook nook, if you prefer.
It looked like a typical sales counter, so they presumably let you play.
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I like the sound of Nook and would love to try a test drive
I didn't bother to do so and so don't know if they'll let you surf to your heart's content, but I did some last-minute shopping at Barnes and Noble on my way home, the other night (guiltily, as there's a huge independent shop a few blocks from my house, though lacking the enormous remaindered section), and right inside the entrance was a Nook kiosk. Or a nook nook, if you prefer.
It looked like a typical sales counter, so they presumably let you play.
Yep, we have one here too John. From what I've seen, (haven't done it myself), they do let you "test drive" the Nook. For myself it's a bit on the small size, I would want a larger size screen, (my eyes aren't the best anymore, that's why I have a 17 inch laptop now).
Geo
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A couple comments:
The tablet laptops are still around. They were never super popular bc the cost was significantly more than a comparable laptop w/o a swivel screen. I recently have seen ads for one where the screen rotates in a frame instead of around an axis which seems cool. I have no idea if it is cost effective. You gotta figure with the pads and netbooks out now that it could only survive if competitively priced.
I read comics on my iPod Touch and it works reSonBly well. The viewer I use is ComicZeal and it allows you to zoom as much as you want. Same thing with the preview comics on DCM thru the web browser. My eyes arent quite that bad but they ain't good. Obv you give up seeing the page all at once but you can look at it in whole then zoom in on dialogue as needed.
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Judging from a Fox golden age comic and a ruler I just used, the requirement for reading a GA comic full-size would be a 7" x 10" screen (which comes in at about 12" diagonally). To my mind, the question that then comes to mind is: if it takes nearly a laptop size screen to comfortably read a comic, would a tablet at that size have much advantage over a laptop, aside from being lighter and half as thick?
I do most of my vintage comic reading late in the evening at home on my computer (new Mac Mini, yay!) w/ monitor (Dell 19" flat panel - _very_ nice screen image) and that will just have to suffice for the time being.
I do dream about a perfect tablet, but wonder if I would really use it that much. The iPad still doesn't quite make sense to me: a crippled kinda computer which doesn't accommodate Flash, has no ports, has seemingly slow WiFi and doesn't run a full OS. I guess it does have the nifty touchscreen features of an iPhone, but those will probably soon be ubiquitous across the industry. (I've been an Apple user since 1984 and support their quality-driven approach. I just don't think that the iPad has quite reached where it needs to go. It needs to be a touchscreen full-powered computer in tablet format.) Or so it seems to me...
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The viewer I use is ComicZeal and it allows you to zoom as much as you want.
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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
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I've done a much simpler method to reading comics from the golden-age...
I uzip the cbr and cbz files...
i drop them into iphoto or drop them into a central folder...
and sync my iPad to iphoto or the central folder...
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Hi folks,
Thought I might chime in on this one.
I've used a Pandigital Novel for reading ebooks and comics. Comics were tough because you couldn't put them into the photos section in folders, so I'd only load one at a time. That got old quickly. As far as the ebooks went, they looked fine, but often the machine wouldn't hold the correct page when I would exit, so I took to carrying a little slip of paper with notes for that purpose. The machine was cheap, tho. I got it on sale at Kohl's for $115.00. I think the 7 inch screen is to small for comics without zooming.
I bought an iPad about two weeks ago. 16 gb, no 3G. Most of the comics I read are from prior 1970, so the larger fonts are very readable on the iPad without zoom. I'm using Comiczeal because $8.00 is like, what, 2 Big Mac meals? The app sorts comics into boxes based on same title. Nice feature. The old two-column pulps in cbr/cbz look fine as well, no zoom necessary.
The photo section puts things into folders, so you could convert to jpeg and sync photos if you don't like using a comic reader, but there are a couple out there that are free.
I manage my ebooks with Calibre, which allows for direct links to an iPad, which makes me happy.
All in all, I love the thing. If they reduce the size of the screen on newer versions, tho, that would suck. It's almost funny that the pad has a music feature. I just can't see strolling around with that monster, listening to tunes. Kind of evokes memories of those bozos who used to carry around boom boxes the size of Rhode Island.
--Dave
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Thanks for the review M.
And if you find anything more to tell us on the iPad or anything else please let us know.
I'm going to sit on the fence and see what shows up and is good in Wave 2.
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I haven't looked at it, and don't know what's available for it, but the guys at the office have been raving about Sony's Chumby-based offerings, too.
http://dash.chumby.com/
Looks way too big for the screen, but hey, it's also half the price of the next (serious) competitor.
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I forgot one big drawback of an iPad--the screen protector. These hunks of plastic that you put on top of the screen cost anywhere between $15 (Walmart verson) and $30 (official Apple). Problem is, putting on one of these things and not getting a bunch of bubbles caught under is impossible. I put one on, (after struggling with the thing for more than an hour) and it looked like poop and detracted from function. I removed it, but now I have to be obsessively careful with the screen. I bought a folder for it (Apple again, $30) So it will nickel and dime you at first. If you're one of those all-thumbs people, this might be an issue.
Best Buy offered to put the screen thing on for me (for a charge, of course) which I opted out of. It might be a good idea, but it bugs me that if something is sold to the public directly, you should be able to use it without "professional" help.
Also, I've checked out Sony's Dash. It doesn't strike me as portable. I was stuck by it's odd shape, and wondered immediately what niche it served.
I shopped readers for a while, but I'd be remiss in not pointing out that as both a student and high school teacher, I store all my textbooks and copies of the books the kids are reading in class so I don't have to carry a ton of texts with me. I have two classrooms and I'm always leaving something behind and needing to send a kid back to get a book, which takes away time from our already very short classes. The iPad filled some very specific needs for me which won't apply to everyone for sure.
Quick little story. I was reading some 1950's comic that I would never otherwise own because of current price. I had the device in the aforementioned folder and it gave me the very real feeling of holding a comic book. I laughed out loud when I folded the folder's cover back around, just like I would have 50 years ago. I was 7 again for about 1/2 a second. It felt good.
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Interesting. Nothing I'd buy though.
From the side it looks to have a 3" 'bottom' that it stand on. Bulky. Not a true tablet.
The price is nice but I see you can't expand any memory - they don't even tell you how much memory it has!
Some say it doesn't come with an internet browser. I imagine you would buy an 'app' for that.
Reviews on the Sony site complain the USB port is fubar as well.
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Problem is, putting on one of these things and not getting a bunch of bubbles caught under is impossible. I put one on, (after struggling with the thing for more than an hour) and it looked like poop and detracted from function.
Ha! This sounds very much like a window film I installed that in greyish and is supposed to cut down the heat entering a house. I zapped the leftover bubbles after trying for a good while to squeeze them out by using a fine pin and popping them.
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Anyone seen the ads for the Dell Flippy. Laptop with removable screen that becomes an epad. Lenovia had one but I am convinced Apple paid them not to put it on the market. I hope this comes out soon.
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Yeah I saw one on tv somewhere. But I couldn't see how big the screen was.
A fun idea as long as it's durable too.
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The reviews for the Dell Flip have not been good. I got a Arnova 10 and so far have not been happy with it. There is almost no documentation including on onsite manual. The turn from landscape to portrait seems based on the ap and the picture viewer does not turn. I used a scan folder of jpgs to try it since I do not have acomi reader for it yet. For some reason the picture viewer reads the files from finish to start. Not that much of a problem once you know that. The pictures have to be flipped one at a time which is a major pain. The upside is that they do look fine and are very readable full page. The ebook reader has already stopped working and there seems to be no way to deal with such things. I will most likely be taking it back. I do now know that comics look good enough to read on these devices which is a plus if I get a different one
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Thanks for the warning about the Arnova 10 Narf.
GL on your hunt. Please keep us informed on this interesting topic.
:)
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I went online with the Arnova and got some appsl. The apps make things better. The Droid comic app works great. The book reader app that came with it I do not like. I downloaded another and it is much better. The only thing I do not like is you have to download the books rather than use ones you may already have. Interesting thing about the book reader app is that it will portrait orient either way most apps will only do one. So maybe the Aronva will not be so bad. At only $200 for a ten inch the price is better than most any other.
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Download comics Only???
Really? So you can't read your own cbz or cbr files? That's a deal breaker for me.
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NO NO the comic reader does read my comics I already had. I was referring to one of the ebook readers, other ebook readers can read from an sd card. Each app has its own specific workings and take time to get used to. I LOVE THE ARNOVA FOR COMICS! I think they look much better than on a computer screen. I pulled up Amazing Man 17 to try a fiche and it looked better on the computer even. I guess it is the learning curve to get to learn how to use the apps. At this point I would not highly recommend the Arnova but it is still early so give me time to really decide.
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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
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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.
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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! ;-)
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I got a 4G Thunderbolt. DCM comic previews are very readable in horizontal. COOL
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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...
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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.
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The viewer I use is ComicZeal and it allows you to zoom as much as you want.
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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.
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comixology offers their books in guided view. Comics on your phone one panel at a time. I like it
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Lots of new tablets on the horizon. I'm still waiting for that perfect machine at the lowest price.
Just call me a Dreamer.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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
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with some it might be just a matter of renaming it from cbz to cbr or vice versa.
Let us know.
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as soon as someone makes a "pad" with a USB port - I will get one - does anyone ?
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I believe there are some now yes.
I use this site to get tablet and technology reviews.
http://www.engadget.com/
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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?
The most common problems I have reading cbr/cbz files with the app I use on my iPad are:
1. Non-standard zip or rar tool used to create file.
Solution: De-archive the file, then re-archive using a rar or zip utility that you know works well, then rename (zip to cbz or rar to cbr).
2. Files other than images in the archive. A lot of the tablet cbr/cbz reader apps don't cope well with "other" files in the archive (text files and thumb files are the most common ones).
Solution: De-archvie the file, remove anything that isn't a image file, then re-archive and rename as appropriate.
3. Misnamed files. Name extension implies rar (cbr) or zip (cbz), but file is actually the other.
Solution: Rename file (from cbr to cbz or vice-versa).
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Thanks for the list of trouble JD. Exactly the kind of info I was looking for.
Which app are you using and have you found the same problems in any other viewers?
I love that txt files work in CDisplay on my PCs. It's a real shame they don't on the iPad.
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Thanks for the list of trouble JD. Exactly the kind of info I was looking for.
Which app are you using and have you found the same problems in any other viewers?
I love that txt files work in CDisplay on my PCs. It's a real shame they don't on the iPad.
I use (primarily) ComicFlow, but have also tried Cloudreader, Comic Zeal, Stanza, and PDF/Comic Reader Bookman. All of them had some of the issues I've noticed. (I never found the one true app).
I settled on ComicFlow because I liked the way it organized titles.
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I just spent a good half hour again reading through this discussion thread and catching up. A very interesting progression over a year's+ time.
The push to cloud computing, in the meantime, has been given a significant boost by Apple with its iCloud. I own the last Mac Mini with a superdrive capable of reading CDs and DVDs. The newest ones have no such disk reading capacity. Everything will have to transferred through the cloud or by a USB or other connection. Apple's assumption seems to be that computing is now ubiquitous in several devices we may own - a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop, a desktop - and things will get way too complex and confusing if John Q. Public has to be constantly synching and copying over files from device to device. Some say Apple is building its own closely integrated universe which more or less traps you once you are sucked in. I've used Macs since 1984, so I'm probably sucked in by definition, but I am not thrilled with the prospect of having backups of most of my files in the cloud (i.e. at external server farms).
Some say we are rapidly entering a "post-PC" era where we'll need to rethink our assumptions about personal computing in the same way that cell phones forced a rethinking of having to only make calls on a landline, either at home or in a pay phone booth. So, whatever our druthers, the confluence of technological advances and the integration of new features ('pay at checkout by flashing your smartphone at this UPC or whatever') produces a kind of evolutionary march. Ten years from now will anyone be able to make a retail purchase purely by cash or without a smartphone? But enough on that OT stuff...
I have a question for those of you with iPads: have your found that some files read better at full page size than others? What I mean by that is: can we identify a scanning resolution and/or dpi that works best for viewing comics on an iPad? I've noticed on my desk computer's monitor that image clarity varies strongly from 25% to 50% to 75%, etc. Moire patterns set in at certain viewing sizes, but not at others. Does this prove the case on iPads as well?
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I have noticed some pretty big differences. I have not looked into what came out best. I will have to look at the dpi of the better ones.
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Has anyone tested the new ipad yet for comic book reading?
It's getting rave reviews for crispness and clarity, but I'm afraid it may actually be too good for viewing 4-colour newsprint.
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and do you need ovenmits to read them?
;0
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I'm currently looking into buying an iPad. I'm trying to figure out whether I need the 3G or 4G or if just the wifi is sufficient. I have a feeling I would never really need the 3G/4G for this. Does it operate as a phone? And can you do that through Wifi? Probably I'd need the 3G/4G if I want to do that, but I'm not trying to replace my cell phone anyway. The Wifi will probably do it.
Still trying to figure out whether to get 16 gb, 32 gb or 64 gb. I'd really like to stay on the cheap, but if the space is necessary, I'll have to consider spending more. It looks like reading my golden Age downloads will work at least.
How do you get them on the iPad from your Macbook? Does it just go across the wireless network, I assume?
As for the iCloud discussion. I've never liked this idea. Yes, I have issues of keeping back up of all my iTunes, but iCloud still makes me uncomfortable. I finally ended up building my whole iTunes library on an external drive and copying it onto another one. When I pull up iTunes on my computers, it says there's no library and asks me to choose one. I connect the external and it goes directly to that, so there's no transferring of tunes any more. Of course I can't just get to them through the cloud with other devices. I'm pretty much married to the iomega drive for content. That said, it's small, extremely portable and I can hook it to my retro clamshell iBook that's over 10 years (won't be connecting to iCloud with that! LOL) old or any other computer with USB, firewire 400 or 800. It travels with me everywhere.
I also wonder when we'll start hearing about people losing data using the cloud.
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You could always do without the 3G/4G, get a WiFi and pick up your own wireless hard drive. Western Digital has been marketing their "My Cloud" external hard drive, available up to 4Tb capacity, that can make its contents available thru a home network wirelessly.
That's my plan (as soon as I score an iPad). I will pick up this drive, and use it as back up to my regular external drive that stores all my digital comics.
Then, I can browse the collection from anywhere in the house, spelled my favorite arm chair.
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Sounds like a nice idea BBoy.
I thought I saw on the 16gig wifi cheapest model iPAD that it had an SD card slot on it but when I checked the other models they had none. So I'm thinking one might load some stuff on an SD card and read them no?
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This does sound like a great idea. I was just looking at the Western Digital My Cloud at Amazon.com and they are surprisingly inexpensive for what you're getting. The 1 TB drive is only $129 and the 3 TB only $199. But then I looked farther down. This drive has A LOT of negative feedback on Amazon. It seems mostly with access speed with wireless, user interface and set up, and WD tech support. I think even if I get an iPad, I'll stick with my current set up.
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It looks like the SD card interface with iPad is an accessory you have to purchase separately-- a camera connection kit. It costs $29 at Apple. It's great that the option is there, but sucky that after you just paid a premium price for a tablet you have to spend more just to make it hold more. The camera connector is USB. I imagine you could connect an external drive with this too. I'm thinking my little 500 GB iomega drive might work perfectly with this. Thumb drives also might work. Not sure if this will work though. I'm reading feedback that says some ios versions limit this and devices that draw power through the usb draw too much power and are blocked. I'm also seeing stories about using a jailbroken iPhone as a wireless modem for iPad.
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Interesting. And I totally agree it sucks that at the price they charge that they wont include a simple usb port!
That and this heat issue are my biggest problems with the iPad.
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This does sound like a great idea. I was just looking at the Western Digital My Cloud at Amazon.com and they are surprisingly inexpensive for what you're getting. The 1 TB drive is only $129 and the 3 TB only $199. But then I looked farther down. This drive has A LOT of negative feedback on Amazon. It seems mostly with access speed with wireless, user interface and set up, and WD tech support. I think even if I get an iPad, I'll stick with my current set up.
I had THREE Western Digital drives FAIL on me last year, including my network archive drive! Out of the blue, I'd get a message saying "You need to format the drive before using it" and every system I hooked them up to treated them as unformatted discs. I even took the archive drive to Best Buy to have their Geek Squad look at it. They couldn't get a system to recognize it. I will never buy another WD product. I switched to Seagate and, knock on wood, so far so good. I've got 4Tb hanging off the USB ports of my laptop.
Peace, Jim (|:{>
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I've had many different HDs - so far (knock on wood!) only two 20gig WD drives have failed on me.
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Yeah, Western Digital tends to cheap it out on the connections, as far as I can remember. I was told back in college (now getting to be twenty years ago, so I'm surprised it hasn't changed--it can't possibly be a market strategy) not to bother with them, and haven't really looked back.
I mean, I'll buy the physical drive if it's cheap enough and I'm not storing anything critical there, because they're all probably manufactured by the same Chinese factories. But even there, Seagate drives tend to be quieter, which is kind of important to me.
And the externals are never trustworthy, no matter what company produces them. The parts beyond the drive itself are almost always substandard. However, once you know that, they're not a bad deal for the drive inside, since they're usually cheaper. I'm amazed more people aren't suspicious about them...
"Cloud"-wise, I can also mostly recommend the "Pogoplug" product line. I got one surplus for a song, and it's basically a tiny computer with three USB ports and an ethernet connection. Plug in your favorite drives using a USB adapter, connect it to the network, and the PC-side software pretends it's a local drive (with obligatory Android and iOS apps I've never used). You can also get the files through the web and create shared folders for people.
The only serious down-side is that it doesn't work without their servers. But people have also rewritten the software (which I haven't tried) to work in other configurations, as I understand it.
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I did some more research on iPads today and found out some interesting things about the iPad 3. I read a review of it that pointed out the screen leans heavily toward yellow. The iPad 2 screen looks more blue compared to it and is closer to correct color. He tested it with a photograph of oranges he'd taken himself. They looked like lemons on the iPad 3. The reviewer recommended not using iPad 3 for anything like photo work like color correcting. This is interesting because Adobe just released a version of Photoshop for iPad.
I decided to go to the Apple store and see for myself, since they're still selling the iPod 2. The reviewer was dead on. Putting the two side by side the color issues were obvious. another issue I found when I loaded the sample news magazine on the bookshelf on both iPad 2 & 3 at the same time. It loaded quickly on iPad 2 with all pictures. On 2 different iPad 3's, only some of the pictures loaded and even after 5 minutes of waiting, not all the pics loaded. I'm not sure why this would be, maybe the pics were higher res on the iPad 3.
Black and white text definitely looked better on iPad 3, so I guess if you're mostly using it for novels, iPad 3 is your best bet. Personally, I liked the iPad 2 better because the color issue would drive me nuts and my main reasons for getting one is comic books, watching videos, and trying out drawing apps. All of these would require the color being at least close to correct.
Another issue is you can't run Hulu.com without an app that requires you to use Hulu Plus because the iPad doesn't offer Flash. But, a lot of networks have their own viewers now and offer all of their shows on them. I found CBS runs well directly off the website. You need a free app to run ABC and PBS. I couldn't get NBC to come up, but maybe if I waited a little longer or loaded an app first.
According to Apple salesmen I talked to, you can't hook up an external drive through the camera kit, but I seemed to know more about the units than they did after only a day of research, so I have my doubts about that information. If I buy an iPad, I would still give it a shot and can't imagine why it wouldn't work. Though, I saw reviews complaining about the loss of this ability after IOS 4.2, so they may be correct.
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Thanks very much for the info NR. Especially the colour problems! This is the first I've heard of it.
But surly there is some way of tweaking your colour settings on it no?? Wouldn't that be possible with some of the apps that are out there for viewing files as well? I like that CDisplay has some settings for yellowing, etc.
I was pretty much ready to take the plunge on this latest iPad, the colour issue if not correctable could well be a deal breaker.
I'm curious, you saw both iPad 2 and 3s being sold. How much has the price on the iPad 2 been dropped?
-Yoc
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Here's a link to the the review I read, in case anyone wants to take a look:
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/review/third_generation_ipad_its_all_in_the_pixels/
The iPad 2 is still available with 16 GB with wifi for $399 or with wifi & 3G for $529 both reduced by $100. You can also find refurbs on the Apple site for less.
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Thanks again NR
:)
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I have the 64 gig new iPad and it is spectacular. I had an iPad 1, but this blows the socks off it in every way. I put a PDF book of hires scans of engravings by Gustave Dore on it just as a test, and the lines of the engraving are for all intents and purposes as sharp as a dollar bill. The color is just fine. A little different overall than my iPad 1, but it is able to render colors brighter and more accurately. Animated cartoons look amazing on it. In order to take full advantage of the screen, scans need to be at least 1200-1400 pixels wide in vertical. The bigger the better. It's fast enough to load and change pages quickly.
I got the ATT 4G version and I am using Line2 to use it as a VOIP telephone. It works very well, and it's a LOT cheaper to spend 99 bucks a year on Line2 than to pay 85 a year for my iPhone.
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Thanks for the review PP.
:)
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Doing a little thread necromancy here....
I've been using an iPad app called Comic Flow to read cbz/cbr files on my iPad. A good reader, light on features but easy to use. One of the coolest features of it was its built WebDAV server when enables you to simply mount it like a network disk and copy comic files onto it (bypassing the whole iTunes sync thing). Recent updates to iOS caused problems with its WebDAV drivers, and the developer opted to go a different route entirely - adding a small webserver and a web-based file management tool so now you can add and manage files through your web browser. I've not given it a really good work through yet, so I can't speak authoritatively on how well it works. This change too a great deal of time for the developer to implement and, rightly, he is looking for a little compensation for it. As such, this feature is an in-app purchase for $5 (not an unreasonable price I think).
That said though, while the problem existed I started looking at other, similar, apps and read a review of Comic Zeal that caught my attention. (It's not free, but the price is the same as the in-app upgrade to Comic Flow).
This leads to me actual point (yes, I have one). Has anyone here used Comic Zeal? If so, how do you like it? Particularly, how do like the methods it provides for moving comics to the app? I'm going to either pay to upgrade Comic Flow, or but Comic Zeal, but don't really want to both so I'm trolling for opinions.
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Then again, you could always buy a much cheaper Samsung 10.1 tablet. I got one for Christmas and so far, it's great fun. With a micro sd card, I plug it into my computer and download comics from my hard drive or external drive. Plenty of free android comic related apps available and I don't have to go through i-tunes or Apple store. (Did I get that right?)
As I am in the UK. prices will probably be different in the USA. But our local library service is already offering an e-book service for android devices, also a free magazine service, which came on line this month.
Comics look good on my screen but as I'm not very good with colours, I could be simply accepting what's there. Comics and storypapers, whether in pdf or cbz are no problem.
And now I've found the Popeye cartoons app. Does it get much better? Comixology next.
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Hi John,
I can't help with your question (still haven't jumped on the tablet wagon yet) but it's a topic I'm Very interested in hearing more about. Somebody kick the Mac developers in the nads for me. No USB slot blows my mind - in a bad way!
-Yoc
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Hi John,
I can't help with your question (still haven't jumped on the tablet wagon yet) but it's a topic I'm Very interested in hearing more about. Somebody kick the Mac developers in the nads for me. No USB slot blows my mind - in a bad way!
-Yoc
The lack of USB is - in practice - a much smaller issue that you would think. Actually, until Comic Flow's WebDAV issue popped up, it provided a method of moving content into the app that was much easier than dealing plugging and playing with hardware - just open it on my PC like a network drive and copy stuff into it. Most third-party apps that require moving content in and out on a regular basis provide some method of doing so that doesn't require an iTunes sync.
I've been using Comic Flow on my iPad for quite a while, and it's a very pleasant reading experience.
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Good to know John, thanks!
btw, DCM has recently started working with the COMIX people and their free app.
I understand this is Windows8 compatible and sells on the Apple App stores so I guess it works on iPads too.
It's Free or we wouldn't be involved.
Some here with tablets might give it a try and let us know what you think.
https://www.facebook.com/comixwindows
or
http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/comix/845952b7-bbd9-4248-94b6-47f7ffe601f5#
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Just found a slightly out of date article on this very topic.
Might be worth a read -
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/08/finding-the-best-app-for-reading-your-drm-free-comics-library-on-ipad/
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Good to know John, thanks!
btw, DCM has recently started working with the COMIX people and their free app.
I understand this is Windows8 compatible and sells on the Apple App stores so I guess it works on iPads too.
It's Free or we wouldn't be involved.
Some here with tablets might give it a try and let us know what you think.
https://www.facebook.com/comixwindows
or
http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/comix/845952b7-bbd9-4248-94b6-47f7ffe601f5#
Wanted to throw in few corrections here.
It Windows 8 ONLY and only on the Windows App Store
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Ah, sorry about that gang.
Anyone out there with a Windows8 tablet to try this on?
Looking to see a review so feel free to be as detailed as you like.
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Doing a little thread necromancy here....
I've been using an iPad app called Comic Flow to read cbz/cbr files on my iPad. A good reader, light on features but easy to use. One of the coolest features of it was its built WebDAV server when enables you to simply mount it like a network disk and copy comic files onto it (bypassing the whole iTunes sync thing). Recent updates to iOS caused problems with its WebDAV drivers, and the developer opted to go a different route entirely - adding a small webserver and a web-based file management tool so now you can add and manage files through your web browser. I've not given it a really good work through yet, so I can't speak authoritatively on how well it works. This change too a great deal of time for the developer to implement and, rightly, he is looking for a little compensation for it. As such, this feature is an in-app purchase for $5 (not an unreasonable price I think).
That said though, while the problem existed I started looking at other, similar, apps and read a review of Comic Zeal that caught my attention. (It's not free, but the price is the same as the in-app upgrade to Comic Flow).
This leads to me actual point (yes, I have one). Has anyone here used Comic Zeal? If so, how do you like it? Particularly, how do like the methods it provides for moving comics to the app? I'm going to either pay to upgrade Comic Flow, or but Comic Zeal, but don't really want to both so I'm trolling for opinions.
Ok, for those interested, my own lack of patience and self-control got the better of me and I upgraded Comic Flow and bought Comic Zeal.
Quick capsule reviews.
The new Comic Flow is basically the program it always was, and a version of it is still available as a free app. For the extra $5 you get to make unlimited use of the web-based transfer utility (point your web browser at the IP of your iPad and go to town). The web-based utility does work, but it doesn't offer anywhere near the capabilities of the old WebDAV connection (which was basically whatever you could do in your file system). The real kicker though is that the new web server replaces the old WebDAV server in the app, so once you install the new version WebDAV (or rather, the WebDAV functionality that still worked) is no longer an option. This is actually a bit of a nuisance Comic Flow is aware of directories within its file system, and will (for sorting and displaying purposes) treat each directory as a unique series containing whatever comic file you put in it - a very elegant view of your onboard collection. The new web-server utility does not give you the ability to create, rename, and delete directories, nor can you move cbr/cbz files around from directory to directory (it will, place newly uploaded files into whatever directory - new or old - you specify). To my way of viewing it, this is a loss of functionality.
Comic Zeal is a very different beast than Comic Flow. It provides a reasonably extensive set of file management tools within app itself, so once you've gotten you cbr/cbz file in Comic Zeal you can create new series, delete them, move comics around in them, etc, etc. It's not the most intuitive system (for me) but it works and lets you do a lot. Loading content into Comic Zeal is done through several different processes - based on user preference. You can sync via iTunes, sync via a dedicated Comic Zeal sync app on your computer, copy from Dropbox (via the Dropbox app, or download directly from the app publisher (he has a very small number of PD titles to download, mostly just to get you started with the app). None of these mechanisms are as convenient as Comic Flow's old WebDAV method, but I would call the whole line-up comparable to what Comic Flow currently offers. The downside (that I've found) to Comic Zeal is that it doesn't actually work directly with cbr/cbz files. When files are copied into its file system (regardless of how) they are converted into what the developers calls a cbi file - which is some type of database of images. This makes importing content q slower process than with Comic Flow. Unexpectedly, it also seems to result in slower page to page turning.
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Just found a slightly out of date article on this very topic.
Might be worth a read -
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/08/finding-the-best-app-for-reading-your-drm-free-comics-library-on-ipad/
I just ran across your link here, as I picked up an iPad yesterday and wanted to see how GA comics look on it. Answer: sensational.
Based on this survey of reader apps, I went for Stanza and it looks good to me. Thanks for the pointer, Yoc.
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I don't know if this was stated, but I just click on the download link at DCM or CB+ and my iPad loads the comic directly into Comic Zeal. Our family has four iPads, and Zeal loads into each one for just the one price, which I will remind you is about the same as a Big Mac meal (and much more filling!)
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Hey you iPad users.
Could someone help out another member with a file management on iPads question here?
http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,4640.msg44877.html#msg44877
Thanks!
-Yoc
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I just ran across your link here, as I picked up an iPad yesterday and wanted to see how GA comics look on it. Answer: sensational.
Based on this survey of reader apps, I went for Stanza and it looks good to me. Thanks for the pointer, Yoc.
Just an update that while Stanza looked initially good, it started acting up almost immediately. I also tried Cloud Readers, but that had other issues.
So, I finally just bit the bullet and paid the nominal fee for Comic Zeal. That seems to work well, though uploading scans to it on my iPad is slow and it is not always clear if an upload is happening or not.
It may just be that it will make most sense to read comics on the iPad in a browser pointed to DCM using the Preview button on individual comic pages, rather than laboriously uploading scans.
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We've been talking about moving files around on the other topic I linked to above.
Not the best reviews for those apps there Poz. Thanks for sharing! I know there are a lot of alternatives out there.
-Yoc
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My number one reason for getting an iPad was to be able to read comic scans while sitting in an easy chair (instead of sitting at my computer at my desk), so getting that working smoothly has been a top priority for me in the week or two since I got it. I got a 64GB model with the intention of having enough space to load a good number of comics into it, so I am somewhat frustrated that uploading files is slow and not fun.
As someone who has been using Macs since 1984 (my first was the initial 128K Mac), the Mac OS has been nearly hardwired into my psyche, so the iPad's iOS without a clearcut file structure separate from apps themselves is something I'm having trouble with. I keep wanting drop-down menus and the ability to have folders of files stashed somewhere. But I guess in Apple's quest to 1) make a device that would work well for computer illiterates and 2) would mainly support downloading songs, movies, books and magazines through iTunes, Newsstand, and iBooks (or shooting your own photos and videos with the iPad), Apple intentionally made it difficult to move digital files around to and from the iPad unless using their apps or iCloud. I have a strong hunch (based on no evidence) that after up-ending the music industry with iTunes, Apple set out to at least partly mollify the Hollywood types by dropping CD/DVD drives from their computers to make ripping more difficult, and similarly, to encourage the use of iCloud with users paying the blanket fee for any 'pirate' copies of tunes.
As I recall, this discussion topic began, once upon a time, with a discussion of the computer industry moving back towards having devices (whether PCs or tablets) that were dependent on corporate servers via the Net. The iPad, for all its charms, is definitely in that vein. I'd just as soon have my iPad be a cozy little extension of my Mac Mini, with the easy ability to directly move files back and forth between the two, but that does not appear to be part of Apple's vision. I do wonder what their vision of five or ten years from now is. I'm suspecting that I won't be too happy with it.
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I hate Mac in general. I only have an ipad because it was given to me. It is useful for reading comics but I suspect I would be happier with a Windows tablet. It is also supe great as a camera but I suspect a Windows tablet would be also.
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I hate Mac in general. I only have an ipad because it was given to me. It is useful for reading comics but I suspect I would be happier with a Windows tablet. It is also supe great as a camera but I suspect a Windows tablet would be also.
I'm not inclined to take one side or the other in Mac vs Windows debates. I've worked with both OS's and they both have virtues and faults. I work with Windows PCs at work and Macs at home. Fine. "Both good!"
But you can probably be assured that be it Apple or Microsoft, corporate earnings are the bottom line at the end of the day.
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Poz's review of how difficult it is to work with file transfers on an iPAD has given me serious second thought about buying one!
I want folders with files easy to find and transfer! >:(
Time to look at the android market again.
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Tablets are designed to consume, Yoc. If you go in with the approach that content goes in but doesn't come out, you're generally fine.
That said, the full (non-RT) Windows 8 tablets strike me as appallingly awkward to work with (they feel claustrophobic because of the form factor, and if nothing else, the rotation animation makes me queasy; I didn't spend enough time to get used to it, though), but they're designed to be small laptops with crappy and optional keyboards. As such things go, it solves the problem.
I'm kind of expecting the tablet market to tank soon, though. A Chinese company is releasing a tablet that has the same basic specifications as the iPad Mini for something like a third of the price. If anybody's wondering why everybody's scrambling for a smartwatch, that's pretty much why--there isn't a cheap one on the market, so you can still mark up the price.
That all said, the Ubuntu tablets look pretty slick, assuming they ever make it to market. I might be convinced by this to dust off the credit card, now that my cheapo Android tablet kinda died. (The only real use case I found for it in my life was watching Netflix while getting dressed in the morning, but the audio crapped out and I can't find the connections. Comics didn't really thrill me, with a small, glossy screen.)
http://www.androidauthority.com/ubuntu-tablet-officially-announced-nexus-7-nexus-10-not-htc-157884/
I've been using "normal" Ubuntu for my main PC for a couple of years, now, so I may be biased. However, once you install the proprietary stuff (the "restricted-extras" pack that includes MP3 decoders, Flash, Java, and the other stuff that creeps out the Free Software fanatics...who all seem to use Google+, these days, which strikes me as weird) and turn off the weird Amazon integration, it's actually a really nice setup. It takes a couple of extra steps, but there's even a Netflix program, to get around the fact that they stream using one of Microsoft's magic, ultra-proprietary systems that they sue over if you try to reverse engineer.
Bonus: A couple of weeks ago, I did something incredibly bone-headed and completely trashed my machine. I put the installer on a USB stick and ran my computer off of it (no install) for about a week and a half until I could sit down and work on the problem. Once I read up on decrypting my user folder, I was able to copy it to an external drive, reinstall, and put (pretty much) everything back to normal. So if you're a little bit disaster-prone like me or like to try new versions without committing, it's a good safety net that Microsoft, Apple, and Google aren't likely to provide.
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Hi John,
I've amassed a healthy collection of scans here and the #1 reason for wanting a tablet is to read them away from the PC. Any other uses would be icing on the cake. But I do not want to have to redownload or upload to a cloud something already on my PC. It's just a waste of time and bandwidth. When checking out tablet at Staples the iPad felt like the class of the group but the lack of a USB port has always turned me off. I thought wifi would be the way around that but now I'm hearing it isn't that simple. I would rather not have to reinvent the wheel just to view some comic scans! So I'll be trying out the cheap alternatives now.
Thanks for the Ubuntu recommendation. I've only tried Mint off of a USB stick when I had to reformat the entire system one time. It was pleasant enough.
-Yoc
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It's probably over-engineering, but if it were me, I'd probably run a web server on the PC with the comics. Then you can grab them on the tablet inside the network (or outside, if you mess around with router ports, but ick) right out of the browser. It's a common enough problem that there's a bunch of options.
http://superuser.com/questions/231080/extremely-simple-web-server-for-windows
Mint, I've heard good things about. My impression is that they sort of take Ubuntu and change whatever strikes them as weird, so it's more in line with the rest of the industry. I admit that I haven't tried it, though.
And yeah, the USB thing is great. After some bad Linux experiences in college (yes, you can configure every little thing, but why the heck would I want to waste my time doing that!?), I've used the LiveCDs whenever I had a Windows problem to keep up with how things developed. When I started playing with Windows 8 (pre-releases) for a project at work...well, I like the direction they're trying to go, but I don't like how it's panning out, so I shoved Ubuntu on a cheap netbook to see if it could replace Windows.
Turned out that it's pretty where I need it to be (though to be fair, other than MS Office, most of the software I use is already the free stuff), so when the Windows 7 laptop WiFi crapped out, that was pretty much the end of Windows around the house. More to the point, I'd definitely give a (non-Android) Linux tablet a chance, the way a lot of them have been moving.
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Hi John,
Thanks for the pointers. I suppose it's possible to work around the stupid limitations that Apple is forcing on people but this is the sort of manipulation that drives me nuts. I'll give the others a look and if I can't find anything better maybe I will reconsider the iPad. But the price ($499.99+taxes for the base unit), lack of ports and this other b.s. has me leaning away from them.
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I agree. Apple has never really been my style, so I've never bought any of their stuff. At the moment, Windows also feels out of the question, at least for me--give'em a try at the local Windows store, though. And Android...well, the software's not bad and the physical configuration is better, but the manufacturers seem either careless or short-sighted, so upgrades are usually difficult.
That's why I mentioned the possibility of Linux tablets. If any of the projects shows up, I think it'll be the way to go for a lot of people, since you can just treat it like a computer, the hardware should be cheap, and there's already software to deal with pretty much any need.
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I would not even consider buying an ipad. I would go with any window or android first. It will be cheaper and the file structure is familiar and usable. It all depends on what you want if for of course but if you are not using for anything major go with a low price android with good graphics. Touch screen tablets are making a resurgence. They are skinnier and lighter now. You can flip the screen and have a fatter tablet but you also have a more functional device.
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I'm looking for something in the 10" range for reading comic scans, maybe a couple games like Sudoko and an eBook reader app. With my eyes I wouldn't want to go the 7" option.
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Despite being the chair of our local luddite society ::), I don't seem to have any problems downloading and reading comics on my Samsung 10 inch tablet. And I use a basic file manager to choose a comic then Perfect Viewer opens it. As for downloading, I download files to my p.c. then choose what I want to read and load stuff onto the external sd card. My file manager let's me choose from books on internal or external storage as comics bought from Comixology and Izneo only seem to go to the internal storage, and there seems no way to transfer or copy them to the sd card. That's the only problem I seem to have and as there is a pile of free space on the tablet, it doesn't really concern me yet. My pal, Vince, has a credit card sized thingy which holds 6 or 8 micro sd cards and that's a lot of storage, so he can carry comics, books and old radio shows about with him. Lots of files on Friardale and other places are pdf's and the free pdf reader I found works fine, so I don't need to buy a conversion prog.
Or am I missing something here?
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Sounds like you've got it sorted Paw.
The programs mentioned were for working with Apple's amazingly annoying file restrictions with their iPads.
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I found that using Dropbox to place scan files in Comic Zeal on my iPad was much quicker and simpler than using iTunes. It just took a little digging to figure out how.
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Thanks Poz, but that means wasted bandwidth going up and down if you already had the scan on your PC. Beside annoying it's illogical unless one planned to share it with others.
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Thanks Poz, but that means wasted bandwidth going up and down if you already had the scan on your PC. Beside annoying it's illogical unless one planned to share it with others.
The easiest method I've found to move content in and out of most iPad apps is to use a program called iExplorer (http://www.macroplant.com/downloads.php and download iExplorer version 2 - yes, I know, 3 is available, but you want 2).
Allows you to access the Documents directory of almost any app and drag and files to and fro.
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Thanks Poz, but that means wasted bandwidth going up and down if you already had the scan on your PC. Beside annoying it's illogical unless one planned to share it with others.
Yoc, I don't know about wasted bandwidth one way or the other if something is being transferred within my own home LAN, which scans would be between my Mac and my iPad, whether it was done via Dropbox or iTunes. (I guess they both involve the so-called Cloud - or at least Dropbox does, but my ISP's Internet connection is not metered, so transferring files via WiFi seems to me no more wasted bandwidth than, say, a USB cable transfer would be.)
But the logic at work is that I archive all my downloaded scans from DCM on an external 2 TB HD connected to my Mac and transfer comics I want to read casually to my iPad, as I can then read them seated in an easy chair, instead of staring at the screen of my Mac. Or, I can load up my iPad and with comics for when I go on a trip. I think of comic scans on my iPad as temporary reading material.
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The easiest method I've found to move content in and out of most iPad apps is to use a program called iExplorer (http://www.macroplant.com/downloads.php and download iExplorer version 2 - yes, I know, 3 is available, but you want 2).
Allows you to access the Documents directory of almost any app and drag and files to and fro.
Thanks for the pointer. I will check that out.
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I'd require a screen at least as big as a comic book page.
While zoom is nice and I don't mind reading panel-to-panel most of the time, although for younger GAC fans I am reliant on whatever digital method comes around as collecting the paper copies is costly. And sometimes I do zoom up so my screen only holds one panel at a time (and with a 20" desktop monitor this is quite the experience I would recommend everyone try at least once).
However, most GAC books I have read so far come with a pulp-action text story that I have come to enjoy a lot. And the thought of reading one of those (sometimes faded) pages on a small screen does not fill me with thrills.
I would love the portability that reading on a tablet device would bring. And I do own a laptop if ever the need arises for just such an occasion. But here I think the proprietary hardware becomes my issue. My laptop can double as a slide-presenter by plugging into most televisions (for when I show the holiday photos to my relatives in their home, on a 40" screen), and handles a variety of programs I am not able to find in a tablet (yet).
Now, my best friend is a completely different story and found the video on the first page helpful.
Thank you.
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I'd require a screen at least as big as a comic book page.
While zoom is nice and I don't mind reading panel-to-panel most of the time, although for younger GAC fans I am reliant on whatever digital method comes around as collecting the paper copies is costly. And sometimes I do zoom up so my screen only holds one panel at a time (and with a 20" desktop monitor this is quite the experience I would recommend everyone try at least once).
However, most GAC books I have read so far come with a pulp-action text story that I have come to enjoy a lot. And the thought of reading one of those (sometimes faded) pages on a small screen does not fill me with thrills.
I would love the portability that reading on a tablet device would bring. And I do own a laptop if ever the need arises for just such an occasion. But here I think the proprietary hardware becomes my issue. My laptop can double as a slide-presenter by plugging into most televisions (for when I show the holiday photos to my relatives in their home, on a 40" screen), and handles a variety of programs I am not able to find in a tablet (yet).
Now, my best friend is a completely different story and found the video on the first page helpful.
Thank you.
The screen image size on my iPad is 5 3/4" x 7 3/4" and while a typical comic - at least of the early 50's - was 7x10 with an print image size of roughly 6x9, I don't really notice the image shrinkage on the iPad, due to the high resolution display. Depending on how much margin the scanner includes on each page (and I'll admit that I am not a big fan of cropping right to the panel lines), the page image on an iPad is not significantly all that different from an actual comic. [YMMV]
The problem with a tablet with a 7x10 screen is obviously that it would kick the table size up to something akin to 8" x 11" which would be fairly unwieldy for a tablet. (Of course, coming screen technology changes might be able to eliminate much of the "wasted" margins on present tablets in the same way that those margins have been shrinking on smartphones. My recommendation would be to find a friend with an iPad or Samsung Galaxy and put it through its paces. You might be surprised at how readable a comic would be.
Of course, ten years from now, we might be reading scans as real-size holograms projected in the air in front of us. So, such jockeying over image sizes on physical devices might just be a passing phase.
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5 3/4" x 7 3/4"?
That certainly seems readable for a comic as that is very close to the size of the Japanese mangas.
I think modern comics measure to 6 3/4 x 10 1/4.
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This topic hasn't gotten a post in the last seven months, so I thought I'd share some of my conclusions after living with my iPad since last July (2013).
Regarding loading comic book scans onto the iPad, I eventually realized (in a real 'duh' moment) that it was way easier to just access the Preview feature at DCM for any comic in the archive and read it that way. No need to load scan files into my iPad's flash drive via Dropbox, iTunes, or any other route. Now, that does mean that I have to have wifi access, so if I am on a plane flight and they don't have wifi or do have it but charge $ for it which I don't care to shell out, I'm stuck with just what I have on my iPad. But I take maybe two or three flights a year, and I can always read the free ebooks/pdfs I have loaded on it (Complete Sherlock Holmes is a good one).
So, for me the whole uploading scans thing has become a non-issue.
I will say as a footnote, that I've been fairly underwhelmed by my iPad. I don't play video games or watch movies or update Facebook or most of that stuff, so I keep asking myself "exactly, why did I need this?" It is good for checking out sports stats and facts while watching a game on TV, I will grant you that. But once this iPad has crept into obsolescence, I don't really see myself replacing it with a newer one, unless they totally revolutionize it in some manner.
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I'm sorry you feel that way Poz. I'll try to make it easier to use it for loading comics on the iPad (what ever model you have). I'm working on a "How-to".
Geo
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Hi Poz,
Thanks for the post. But when you do read comics would you say you are happy with the iPad? More so than say reading on your computer?
-Yoc
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Hi Poz,
Thanks for the post. But when you do read comics would you say you are happy with the iPad? More so than say reading on your computer?
-Yoc
Comic scans do look great on the iPad, I will certainly give it that. I don't mean to denigrate the iPad, really, I just haven't found it to be a great fit for how I prefer to go online or read. I download most DCM scans onto a big hard drive archive, and it is actually easiest (to me) to use FFView to flip through a book on my Mac's monitor (which is actually a Samsung monitor) in order to ID the artists. So, go figure.
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Thanks Poz.
I've been thinking of getting a tablet for years... but there are things I just don't like about it - mainly the lack of a USB or SD card slot. If they were there I'd have bought the first one when it came out.
-Yoc
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Those are just one reason why I refer to it all as Apple Crap. They have done their best to make everything their way. They have whipped their followers into the belief that their way is the best even if it does not make sense. Go with a droid or Windows tablet and enjoy the normal way of doing things. I guess you can tell I do not like the Mac way of business.
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Thanks Narf. Right now I'm still leaning towards an iPad because of their light weight. One thing I now consider maybe most vital about a tablet is light weight. An iPad is half the average weight of other tablets. It might be enough to make me break down and buy an iPad even if I agree it's stupid as hell not to have any ports on them.
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even if I agree it's stupid as hell not to have any ports on them.
But the ports ruin the all-important sleekness, Yoc! You need a sleek computer, otherwise what's the point? Did you learn nothing from those Jeff Goldblum commercials making fun of the color beige?
...Jony Ive!
Yeah, it's stupid. At the beginning, it was standard Apple: A new computer product requires every developer rethink how to use a computer. Now, because they're so thin, it actually makes a certain amount of engineering sense. But between the two...?
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I simply use Kindle Reader app on my iPad Pro which works pretty good for me.
Ronny Sharma
Appvalley (https://getappvalley.com/) Tutuapp (https://tutuapp.win/) Tweakbox (https://tweakbox.mobi/)
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On the other hand, the Apple/iTunes route isn't the only one possible. The Android people don't have the marketshare (or the tools or discipline to produce consistently-good software), but they have the same basic structure as the iPod approach wthout the need to bottleneck everybody.
I agree: Android tablets work great for reading digital comics, and they have a real file system; On my Samsung (Android) tablet I can easily download comics I stored on Google Drive, or I can just transfer them from my hard drives via removeable SD card or by using WiFi/FTP transfer.
Downloading comics on iPad is incredibly frustrating, but fortunately the Chunky comic app on iPad lets you download them directly from cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox. Now that I’ve gotten used to iPad’s bizarre approach to file storage it’s almost as good as my previous Android experience.
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Thanks for sharing RD!
I've been using the free Perfect Viewer on an Android tablet for years. Other than occasional crashes it's been the best of the apps I've tried.
:)
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I've been using a Microsoft Surface for a few months now, and it is great. Comics look as good on it as they did on the Ipad, and the USB port and standard Windows operating system makes it a million times easier to load books onto it. Sizewise, it's just as light and portable as the Ipad was, too, and it fully integrates with the computers I use for work in the office and at home. Plus, I don't have to deal with any of the Mac nonsense.
Kusunoki