I totally agree. I'm not sure why apple decided to (in my opinion) cripple the iPhone with such a low-res screen. It doesn't seem to have hurt their sales, though.
On a completely off-topic note, do you have any near-future plans for another release of the desktop version?
I think it was a performance decision. It takes a lot more power to run 640x480 than 480x320, and the lower resolution was probably the best compramise.
As far as the desktop version goes... yeah, I should be working on that soon. I've got a basic Silverlight version on the website to let people try out the comic reader, so a lot of the features should start bleeding into the desktop version as well.
http://comicreader.mobi/silverlight/
The files I have are .cbr or .cbz which are actually .rar or .zip files that are just renamed. Inside is an archive of .jpg files (the actual comic 'pages'). Because of this, only a simple .jpg viewer is required to display the comics. Even something as simple as a digital photo frame could display .jpg's. The player I link to has simple photo album type functionality.Originally Posted by wermy
That player you linked to looks pretty cool, but it doesn't look to be running anything that you could read comics on (doesn't look like WinCE or Android or anything)... If you'd like, I can take some pictures of the U820 displaying a comic page.
Warner
Although I can't possibly imagine anyone more biased on this subject than me, I still feel I should interject here.
Remember, there's a lot of things the comic reader does that you probably take for granted. Here are a couple things I'd look into it first.
Make sure it supports some kind of folder structure and selection methods. It'll get really miserable, really quickly if you have to extract 100 comics in the same place. Especially if theres no bookmarking functionality.
Look into how to change pages. Especially if it doesn't have any hardware buttons. I know it seems trivial, but this has been a thorn in my side for quite some time.
"open next comic" functionality. Again, if you're reading a lot of comics, it really sucks if you have to stop at each one, go back to the menu, remember what comic your at, and than find and select the next one. It really takes away from the reading flow, and in fact was the whole reason I even created my comic reader in the first place!
Beyond that, the 7" screen is 800x480, which will probably look as blury as the 7" SmartQ device Wermy has.
All that being said, I have to admit, the price is certainly nice
Good points Ty. I did send an email to the people at the site about that player, but I got back a really weird response that doesn't make any sense. So I guess it's a crapshoot as to whether or not a folder structure/friendly page turning/etc. exist for it. Keeping with the nicely priced devices, there are some cheap PMP's and tablet style MID's in the $200 range that might work. This page [umpcportal.com] lists a bunch of them. I especially like the Wits A81. 7" 800x480 LED backlit LCD, 600MHz ARM CPU, Windows CE 6.0, Wifi, etc. Lowest price I've found on it is $209 excluding shipping. Any chance of seeing comicreader.mobi for Win CE 6.0?
The Windows Mobile version works on WinCE
Sweet!The Windows Mobile version works on WinCE
Yes, those are the same files that most people on here are reading.
I've used the WinCE version of CRM on a SmartQ running WinCE 6.0, and it worked very well. If I had a do-over, I'd probably get something that was made from the beginning to run WinCE -- the SmartQ 5/7 had WinCE added as an afterthought, and it's glaringly obvious when you use that OS on there. I think if you could find something 7" with maybe 1024x600 resolution, that would be about perfect! I'm not sure how much you're willing to spend, but you may want to look into the Kohjinsha convertible 7" tablets.
I actually just recently got a EEE T91mt and I'm really enjoying it. In my opinion, it's the best way to get an affordable tablet that runs a full version of Windows at the present time.
Yeah, I also have the T91MT. Only problem with reading comics is that when you put it in tablet mode, you only have MT, no keyboard. We need a MT-Compatible Comic Reader and then we own iPad.
EDIT: I got an iPad. It kicks the T91MTs ass in Comic Reading. I am selling my T91MT on ebay right now. No need for it. Apple iPad is what you have wanted since you first learned you could download comics.
EDIT 02: I recently got rid of my iPhone 3G and got a HTC EVO 4G with Android 2.1. I will say this. If and when a Android Tablet comes out with a bigger screen then the iPad, I will be selling my iPad to get it. I'm tired of Apple acting like everyone is stupid and they know best. Android OS, once you get the hang of it, is lightyears better and more customizable then iOS.
Last edited by Rodimus80; 07-04-2010 at 09:09 PM.
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