Love the idea but app needs some work

[Pasta]

Thanks for the lite version. I would have never taken a gamble on the app without it. I was real happy that it was a good comic being share, one that I'd already read too; all the better to evaluate and compare the experiences of reading on a computer versus reading on an iPhone.

So I dove right in and started tapping away. It works, this way of presenting comics on a small screen really works--which makes it all the more frustrating that every other tap seems to bring up the menu icons. Conversely, when I do want it to pop up, a double tap always brings up the lens first before the menu icons appear. Using the option for the lower corners is an poorer alternative as I set it off every time I get to the corner of the page or want to read a footnote. Why not use another input command like swipe upwards to bring up the menu icons and swipe down to hide them again? I'd very much prefer that.

Well the glow was off after that. How come the previous page isn't cached? Moving forward is usually fine but a jump back results in a loading screen. Why is the image number at the top right corner? Very distracting. What's the deal with cartoon icons? Perfect for when I'm displaying a comic to my little nephew but incongruous for everything else in my library. The catalog display is depressing. Some covers please! Don't stop there--one up Comiczeal and let me collect series under one cover (or folder as you may see it). Why must I hop through menus just to pick a page to scroll too--and then have to browse a list with the actually image names just to find the one I want. And don't even get me started on ugly icon. I'm always tempted to delete it from Springboard because it doesn't seem to fit in. *grumble*

Don't get me wrong; this is still the best idea I've seen yet for reading comics an iPhone. Problem is: it doesn't feel like an iPhone app at all! Even the website isn't geared towards an iPhone; I can't for the life of me figure out how to zoom out properly. The lite version has been fun but I'm still wavering on whether to pay for the (relatively) expensive full app. Here's hoping the next update makes the app must buy.

[TyLandercasper]

I think theres something specifically wrong with the iphone 3g 3.0 OS that makes double tapping unusually difficult. On my touch its really easy, but on the iphone its a pain. I haven't tracked down why that is though. In any case though, I like you're idea about adding a swipe up gesture, and don't see any reason why I couldn't add that to future versions.

I don't precache the previous page due to memory restrictions. It would work alright for most iphones, but there are people out there who haven't restarted their phone in several months, and if I used any more memory it would crash the app!

The next version will have an option to remove the page numbers at the top.
Comic Reader Mobi already has the option to allow you to organize your comics in folders.
So if you had 3 folders:
Spiderman
X-men
Superman
Than each of those would show up in the same way that future tales shows up in the lite version.
As an added bonus, you're place is remembered in each series, so if you take a break from spiderman, too read x-men, when you go back to spiderman, it'll take you to the last spot you were in in that series! (One of my favorite features to be honest)

I'm still working on the UI flow for changing pages. The feedback for it has been very poor (a lot of people didn't even know it was there!) So I'll see what I can do to make that easier. I might even cut out the Comic Info page entirely, and have that button go strait to the page selection menu.

*sigh* the app icon is another universally and passionately hated item. It kind of hurts my feelings a little bit, but a couple people have offered to help me out, and I'll probably take them up on their offer soon.

I'm not sure what you mean about zooming out properly?

Anyway, thanks for all the feedback. It always helps

[Pasta]

Double tap is working fine for me in ComicZeal. ComicZeal also loads up both previous and next pages very quickly. Then again, I'm on a 3GS... The lack of caching makes your app feel slower in comparison even though it's not.

For me, ComicZeal is your biggest competitor so please copy as many features as you can. I must admit though that using your app for a little bit has made me completely unsatisfied with all the other options.

Another feature you can emulate is ComicZeal's slider for quickly changing pages. Some desktops apps have a preview with the slider and/or a thumbnail view of all the pages (SimpleComic on the Mac for example) but that's a little too much to expect of any iPhone app.

I like swiping! I was hoping you'd even take a leaf out of Eucalyptus and Classics and improve swiping into a proper page turning animation. Try those apps, you'll see what I mean (and love).

I strongly agree with rogben that if you're going to charge $15 for the app it'll help to have an 'iPhone-ish' interface. I disagree though that this isn't a high priority issue. To charge a premium price it has to at least look like a premium app (isn't that a factor in why Apples so easily sells iPhones and Macbooks)?! The App store is the biggest mobile app market, why isn't it your main focus and the first version from which all others are ported. Windows Mobile is dying anyway and your Windows desktop version is free.

At a a $10+ price point you'll most likely never be at the top of the App Store charts. Let's face it, apps like comiXology have a much large corporate marketing force behind them. To get an audience you'll need some decent word of mouth buzz and good reviews from sites like DaringFireball, MacWorld, ArsTechnica and TUAW will help. But they'll all tell you that UI is king. Let me repeat, design is important. That's why we all use Macs. That's why I'm using this app at the end of the day--the idea for tapping to zoom in on the world bubbles is a brilliant design choice. ComicZeal has more features, comiXology was the latest comics but Comic Reader Mobi has the potential to be the best designed app. That's why I'll be buying it

But wait, before you take my money and run, please try and fix all the stuff I complaining about. I'm not willing to rate this app more than 3 stars and many recommendations I make to friends and family will be filled with lots of caveats. I'll use Comic Reader Mobi but only because opening the app lets me jump straight back into the comic and I can avoid all the stuff for a while. If it gets too frustrating, I'll even try and get a refund. But I'll will post here before it gets that far and I'm sure you'll respond which is the best thing (as long as I'm not taking you away from coding).

can't believe I wrote all that. Comics are serious business lol.

Anyway, thanks for all the feedback. It always helps

Thanks for reading and replying.

ps. On the website I can't see the whole page. See:

Can't zoom out past that. Ironic really, as I use your app cos I can read the whole page