The Apple Tablet

[Dan Kelly]

Charlie Brooker nails a lot of what is exciting about the iPad in his column today.

[Emperor]

Now anyone know how the smaller publisher can get on comiXology? It would seem to be ideal for the small press to get on their for free or at a very low cost but I've had a nose around and can't find anything - it might be helpful to quite a few people to know where to sign up and get some tips on resolution, possible problems with font sizes, do you need to do anything fancy for the panel-to-panel scrolling? I think Alex de Campi is going to write something on this but if anyone has any resources then throw them in when you find them - it might even be worth starting a thread for it over in Creator Commons eventually.

OK she has done a column on the iPad (its after she talks about the progress in her electronic comic adventure):

www.bleedingcool.com/2010/02/01/uncanny-valleygirl-by-alex-de-campi-9-valentine-sales-epub-how-to-and-ipad/

I have asked for more details on how you actually get published by people like comiXology as it is far from clear on their site. graphic.ly only seem to be on a beta test sign up but I've registered to see what happens there. They are UK-based so it might make some sense seeing what they can do as I assume they'll be doing the rounds of comics conventions this year and people can buttonhole them and see what other information they can get out of them.

Don't Clickwheel make 2000AD available on the iPhone? I'd assume this would put them in a good position to move easily into the iPad early on.

Signed up there too. Their iPhone offering does mean you'd probably need to slice everything up into panels, so will need quite a rejigging to use that specifically but they do host CBRs and PDFs so that'd be a start and you'd imagine they'd eventually come up with some way to simply convert those formats into one suitable for the iPad.

[Emperor]

Alex De Campi has a great tip there Calibre will convert CBR/CBZ files into ePub ones (and other formats too):

http://calibre-ebook.com/about

So all you need to do is make a CBZ (which is very easy) and then use that bit of kit to turn it into PDFs and ePubs (the latter being important as it is the one Amazon use for the Kindle). Which is almost all your electronic publishing needs in one package.

[Light Surfer]

Quick question while we are talking about reading digitaly....
Where does everyone buy their comics from? I have started using Clickwheel for 2000ad but where else is there?
Also, is there any progams for filing them etc. other than just putting them in a folder on the desktop?
Thanks.

[Bolt-01]

Thanks for the link to the CBr formatting. We've been talking...

[Emperor]

Where does everyone buy their comics from? I have started using Clickwheel for 2000ad but where else is there?

I've also snagged some from DriveThru but often it is the individual's site (so you can download the first 13 issues of Warhammer Monthly straight from the Black Library) or places that offer a download as part of their other publishing endeavours like myebook (for titles like Turning Tiger) or Lulu.

Also, is there any progams for filing them etc. other than just putting them in a folder on the desktop?

I haven't done anything fancy with the mixed bag I currently have just jammed them in a folder with sub-folders (I do index them and all my comics online though at the comicbookdb). However, I see that the main function of Calibre is eBook management and, as I'll be using it to convert files, I might as well take advantage of its core functionality to make a bit more sense of the mess of electronic files I have (because as well as the few dozen comics there are a lot more scientific papers, eBooks, public domain stories and books, etc. - the last mainly in plain text but I can now turn them into something a bit more friendly or redownload from Archive.org and the Gutenberg Press which are now testing eBook formats). Ultimately I could see moving to some kind of centralised eBook storage (desktop PC or external hard drive) and accessing them wirelessly though some kind of tablet, so I might as well start getting my house in order now so it won't be so painful in the future.

[Tweak72]

I think it is pointless to liken the iPad to anything other then lower end netbooks, ebook readers, larger screen media players or mp3 players. It is less a scaled up IPhone more a that doesn’t make calls more a scaled up iTouch that can brows the net and get books without having to plug in to a wifi system.

There is room for not far in the future the iPad to be a cheap alternative to Wacom high end displays but that is waaaayyy off speck wise. The iPad is for watching films or reading a book on the train, having a quick look at your emails and flicking trough the Guardian.

The main target is Amazon and Kindle with a quiet “Eff you!” and “get your thumb out your arse” to Sony and the Newspaper and magazine groups respectively, who up until now have been dabbling with multi touch ereaders and pricking about how to approach the digital age and solving nothing.

There is a potential for comics but TBH the real shot in the arm to comics was online comics which are not limited to any one device. More and more I read comics online for free and then buy the collected book when it comes out. Before this I went in to FP and read the single issues in the shop and then bought the collected. And I think that this will be the model for the next few years.

I for one am not going to run out and buy an iPad because if I have to carry something the size of a tablet or netbook round with me I will want it to have more ‘oomph’ and better multitasking as standard as I would use it like Iain M Banks’ terminals or Treks PADDs. In fact the only think that iPad has done is put off me buying a Kindle or ereader for a couple of years more.

In fact the one to watch IMO is the Courier

http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsofts-secret-tablet

[Jim_Campbell]

I for one am not going to run out and buy an iPad because ...

... You've made it very clear that you don't rate Apple products?

As for the Courier, I'd bet hard cash on that being vaporware. MS always have some mystery product in the pipeline when they find out that someone else is working on something they're not!

Cheers

Jim

[Tweak72]

I for one am not going to run out and buy an iPad because ...

... You've made it very clear that you don't rate Apple products?

Well, I was actually keeping away from any comments on my feelings on Apple as a company and focusing on expressing my own opinions on the wider implications of the device itself as was started by PJ.

But as you have decided bring it up Jim...

I have made it clear I don’t like Apple as a company. What they tell you and what actually is true are often two different things. I may be a bit carried away at attempts at humour about it in the past. But that was just me trying to be funny.

I really am too suspicious of the company to become an iSheep. I dislike the "control-freakery" (John Naughton of the Observers term, not mine http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/31/ipad-review-comments-naughton) of any company trying to tell me what to do or how I should use anything I have bought. If there is a law governing such matters then that would be between me and the Law. However brilliantly designed thier stuff is (and it is) I really dont like how they do things.

I didn’t buy Vista for exactly those reasons. I dislike being dictated to or being lied to by companies.

For example here is some information from a BBC tech blog that show Mr Jobs would appear to have been abit misleading about Apples place in the mobile world. And I am sorry to say I am not surprised.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/01/nokias_quiet_comeback.html

And I think that the court cases going on with Apple are going to be really interesting

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8465565.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8460899.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7895503.stm

[pauljholden]

I think there's a distinct philosophical thing going on here which I can completely understand, and actually agree with. (In the sense that, yes, you own it so you SHOULD, therefore, be allowed to open that sucker up and do whatever you want with it)

On the other hand... I don't know how nor do I ever want to, manually service my car, my cooker, my tv or a hundred other appliances. And I think Apple are aiming for the iPad to be an appliance, something that non-techies can work.

I gave up on PCs several years ago when I realised that I was doing more work keeping the thing in proper working order than I was in actually using it for real work.

Seriously: in what world should you need to know how/why or when you need to edit your registry? That's just mad.

-pj

[TordelBack]

Nice BoingBoing piece on the iPa...err... NewsPad in 2001:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/02/arthur-c-clarks-2001.html

[MIKE COLLINS]

http://www.slashgear.com/notion-ink-tegra-android-smartpad-uses-pixel-qi-display-1866308/

For the non-Jobbities out there... might be cheaper too...

[Banners]

Seriously: in what world should you need to know how/why or when you need to edit your registry?

PC World...(!)

M@

[LARF]

PC World...(!)

LMAO!

 

[TordelBack]

For the non-Jobbities out there...

Heads up Jim, I'm pretty sure Mike just called you a Jobbie!