Comic reader applications are very important for the fans of comics and these applications offer them the possibility to read them wherever they are, with the large variety of softwares for mobile phones and even for iPod and iPod.
A new iPhone comics reader application has been released, and its name is Comic Reader Mobi. This application was made for iPhone and iPod touch (there is a version for Windows Mobile, and improvements are made for Blackberry too). It has everything you would expect from a proffesional comic reader: support for .rar, .zip and .pdf, automatic bookmarking and very fast load times. The lens feature makes it really special among the comic reader software.
The autosizing lens has been very appreciated by the users, because by tapping on any text the lens will zoom in that part and finally you can see the comic as the artist intended without loosing quality. The comic sync tool allows you to make USB uploads to the iPhone, and you don't have to wait for slow file conversions or send wia wireless connection between your mobile phone and your PC.
Comic Reader Mobi remember users' position in every file, and in series even, and you can switch between them without worrying that you lose your place. The next page is prebuffered so there is no lag between pages and it loads very fast. Image resizing option offers you the images at their best quality. The transparent onscreen controls appear by double clicking on the image or pressing the lower corner and then you can change the prefferences of the comic viewing application.There is also a pinch gesture to zoom in on comics, and it's very appreciated by comics' fans.Comic Reader Mobi is an easy and enjoyable way to read all your digital comic books on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
There is another comic reader software and its name is ComicZeal, and since the first day it was released, I checked its performances and it seems to be most flexible application for reading any comic on iPhone and iPod. You can download the comics to you mobile phone so you can read them anytime, not only when you are connected to Internet. The images are big, and you can see all the text and small details and the scroll is very smooth, and almost looks like a glide. Using the standard pinch technique you can resize easy and quick your image.
Comics can be read portrait or landscape and you can turn pages easily by using a button at the bottom of the screen. Just like Comic Reader Mobi, it remembers the page where you were, even if you turn off your iPhone. It is very important that ComicZeal has also a converter which allows you to convert the old comics to ComicZeal's format.ComicZeal doesn't read .cbr and .cbz and the explanation is on their website: “A [.cbr file] is way too large for the iPhone. Each page is roughly three times the size of the maximum image that the iPhone can easily display (1024×1024 pixels). If the large images are used on the iPhone, they must be broken into smaller pieces and shown to the user as they scroll throughthe page. This takes up a lot of processor time. Processor=battery so the battery life suffers.â€
If you are a comics' fan, you should try both the softwares presented here and see which fits for your need when reading your favorite comics. All in all, both iPhone comics applications have their pluses and minuses, and the only one who can say which is better is you, the user.
iPhoneguy, on August 07, 2009
I prefer the pre-formatted Comics by comiXology, although if they had cbr/cbz support, that would be cool, too.