Comments on: Tech Friday: Time to Step Up

By: Lori Henderson

Lori Henderson — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 05:50:27 +0000

I think Web is the best option for a wider audience. I don’t have an iOS or Android device either, and I would really love to have some options, instead of hearing about another reader on a device I have no desire to, and will never own.

By: Lori Henderson

Lori Henderson — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 05:47:45 +0000

With the right app, a smaller screen could be readable, but that’s about it. I’ve dabbled with comics on my HTC HD2 with a 4.3″ screen. It gets the job done, but if I really like a series, I’m still gonna buy the books. Even on full size computer screen, it can’t beat a physical book.

By: Angela

Angela — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:32:46 +0000

I don’t own any of those devices, so I’ve been hoping they’d put the app on the Internet since they announced it. At least, make it available through iTunes so I can download books there.

Not that I’d be buying too much (I’d mostly use the app to preview) but it’d be nice to have that option.

By: Charles Gray

Charles Gray — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 14:54:45 +0000

To my mind the Android would be the best in terms of reaching the majority of platform users out there. I think that expanding the reading audience is vital for them– and given the length of many manga series, this could be important for gaining and maintaining readers who are either mobile, expecting to move quite often (which is a number of younger people), who have space limitations, or equally, simply don’t want to mess with mail order or going out to get hardcopy manga volumes.
Though, as an owner of a nook color, I am not certain if smaller phone style screens can really effectively display manga– even with the nook’s larger screen trying to read a single page at once leads to tiny lettering, and I don’t know if a smaller screen would be usable at all.
On the other hand, I’m one of those older readers with bad eyes, and it might simply be that I’m used to larger screens where those who are used to the smaller phone sized screens might have no trouble at all.

By: Lori Henderson

Lori Henderson — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 19:54:00 +0000

I completely agree that I don’t think e-ink devices are in the running. The Nook color maybe, but that’s really an Android tablet diguised as an e-reader. And I don’t see it as a device more people have than iPads, and really doesn’t fit the demograhic. If they want younger readers, they have to go where they are, and that’s smart phones or the web.

I hope they don’t go for the camera-pan-style. I’ve tried reading comics/manga like that, it’s really dissatisfying. You really need to see the whole page (and sometimes 2 page spread) to really get the feel of the title. I always read my manga online with two pages. Maybe I’m just still too entrenched into print, and just want my digital to emulate that.

By: William Flanagan

William Flanagan — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 09:00:33 +0000

The easiest thing would be to port their app from iOS to Android for use in Android tablets. But more people don’t have Android tablets than iPads.

So the next idea would be, as you say, working up an app that could be used on the iPhone. Because of the small screen size, they’d probably have to program a camera-pan-style app to go panel-by-panel for the smaller screen. And if they do it for the iPhone, then other Android smart phones probably wouldn’t be too far behind.

What I *don’t* think it will be is for e-ink devices like the Kindle. Since the Kindle doesn’t really have an image-zoom feature (they probably felt that because the user can resize text, they don’t need one), then the size of the image is limited. If Viz wanted to go on Kindle (or other e-ink devices) they’d have to reletter all their artwork to make sure it’s readable at the smaller page size.