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eManga Revamp Brings Mature Manga to the Tablet

January 19, 2013 /

In the early days of eBooks, I marveled at the abundance of yaoi manga titles on the Amazon Kindle. And I wondered when more mainstream manga would make its appearance there and on other tablets. I did not have very long to wait before the collapse of large bookstore chains like Borders, coupled with the popularity of the iPad, pushed most popular manga and comics to digital formats.

At the same time, mature genres like yaoi were coming under fire. Amazon banned a number of titles from the Kindle store. And, of course, hentai was not to find a home in any of the major digital storefronts. Anyone wanting to read more adult themed manga, not necessarily anything sexually explicit mind you, had to resort to scanlations. Not the best choice if one actually wanted to support and reward the manga-ka for their work.

eManga on iPad

eManga PDF manga looks pretty good on my iPad!

This began to change with the arrival of web sites like eManga, and JManga, where many manga not likely to ever see print releases in the United States, could be purchased and read online. JManga carries a wide variety of titles including some yuri and yaoi, but no hentai. eManga, however, is very yaoi heavy with a sprinkling of other genres including hentai and some photobooks.

I’ve read many manga on JManga over the last year, but never really paid much attention to eManga until I recently received news of their site revamp in my email. Of particular interest was the news that many of their titles, previously only readable online or in print, would be available for download in a variety of formats. This included hentai titles from the recently launched Project-H. While I’m not a big hentai fan, I had followed the Project-H story with some interest because it, like the Digital Manga Guild program, appears to be an effort to license and publish manga that has been popular as illegally distributed scanlations. And in the process, harnessing the talents of many of those responsible for the scanlations in the first place.

So I updated my eManga account, found some interesting stories, and then started looking for the reader app. I looked and looked… Then I reread the email, and read the site more carefully. There is no app! GASP! I was a bit frustrated, then took a deep breath and started thinking about why eManga does not have a reader app for Android or iPhone.

*facepalm* Of course! Apple and Google are not likely to approve reader apps for hentai, or yaoi any more than they would for straight up live action pornography. That’s why readers have to download book files from the eManga site directly after making their purchases.

Currently, the downloadable formats include, EPUB, PDF, PRC, MOBI, and CBZ. And note that they have EPUB optimized for Apple and Kobo tablets as well. These are not encumbered by DRM or encryption of any kind, but the buyer’s ID is encoded into the file in some manner to discourage piracy. I’m a big fan of EPUB and it’s my publishing format of choice, so I chose this for my first download. But that turned out to not be the best choice for the Kindle readers on my Nexus 7 and iPad.

I like using the Kindle readers because of the cross platform support and the option to upload books to your document library so that they are available on all of your Kindle devices. But I couldn’t upload EPUB to the library without first converting it to MOBI using Calibre. The resulting eBook had pages that were about 75% the size of my reader screen. Not a good thing for graphic novel reading especially on the smaller Nexus tablet.

Fortunately, downloading another format was only an additional $1. So I chose the PDF option, which is also the format that eManga says gives the greatest flexibility across readers. This was much better, looking great on my Mac, iPad, and Nexus 7. I’d recommend PDF format to anyone who, like me, reads their graphic novels and manga on multiple devices. The eManga online reader also works in Safari on the iPad and Chrome on the Nexus 7, but it wasn’t what I’d call a great reading experience. You’ll want to stick with downloads for your tablets because the web site is not optimized for mobile devices.

Manga on eManga are generally more expensive than JManga, or Viz, but I expect that this is the mature content premium at work. And for DRM free titles that you can legitimately own and read on your tablet forever, it’s worth a few dollars more. So if your preferred manga fare is on the spicy side and you rock the tablet, give eManga a look.

Nexus 7 First Impressions

October 2, 2012 /

My Nexus 7 arrived yesterday and after a night setting up and playing with it, here are some first impressions of Google’s 7 inch tablet. First off, it feels pretty good in my hands. It’s solid, but doesn’t have the dense heavy feel that my wife’s Nook Color has. And its compact size is perfect for the use I have in mind for it. I decided to get a Nexus 7 as a replacement for my eInk Kindle and Nook readers. Don’t get me wrong, I still love my eReaders, but they aren’t that useful for me on the road where they often cannot take advantage of the nearly ubiquitous free Wi-Fi at shops and cafes. My new Nexus should have no problems with wireless connections anywhere I shop or eat lunch. Additionally, I’ll be able to read my eBooks, comics, and digital manga on it regardless of whether I bought it from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I could do this with my iPad too, but it is simply too big for my daily load out.

So how does the Nexus 7 compare to my iPad? In a word, it’s okay. A frequent iPad user will immediately notice the lack of finger tip real estate the 7 inch form factor brings and typing on the smaller screen is a bit of a pain. I didn’t realize just how much I depended on having the keys on the onscreen keyboard jump up at me as I typed. So it’s taken a bit of getting used to. An iPad user will also have to get used to the Android way of doing things. Apple’s lawsuits not withstanding, Android and iOS offer significantly different user experiences. Which you prefer is a matter of personal taste as either will get you where you want to go.

Another thing I noticed was that the Nexus seems a hair slower than my iPad. The interface responds fast enough, but I felt a little sluggishness using the apps. Now in fairness, this is just a first impression and I had a lot of stuff open as the night went on. That said, I like my Nexus. I spent a lot of time in the reader apps from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Viz. From text to manga, it was a pleasure using the Nexus 7 to read my books and comics. This is why I bought the Nexus, to have all of my books, manuals, and graphic novels in one convenient, network connected, and portable package. Plus, I now have my own Android reference hardware for my Android development projects. Amazon and Barnes & Noble make some nice 7 inch tablets too, but the one from Google is pure Android, which is what I want for development.

So on the whole, I’m liking my Nexus 7. It’s not an iPad, but I don’t need it to be.

Does JManga Comic-Con iPad Give-Away Herald App Announcement?

July 12, 2012 /
jmanga_sdcc_giveaway

JManga iPad Give-Away: Is App Far Behind?

A couple of days ago I received a curious bit of news in my JManga newsletter email. JManga announced that a lucky person attending their panel at this week’s San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) would receive a free iPad. Anyone using the site knows that currently  manga cannot be read there on an iPad because the JManga online reader is Flash based. Flash doesn’t work on iPads, but a native JManga  iPad app has been in the works for some time now.

While I was able to come up with a work-around to reading JManga titles on an iPad, I and many other JManga members, still hold out hope for native apps for our tablets. I can only hope that their iPad give-away tomorrow will signal the arrival of the JManga app at last!

Update: JManga announced that apps for iOS and Android will be available in October!

Viz Manga Now On Nook Tablet/Color

March 8, 2012 /

One Piece on the Nook TabletI was pleasantly surprised today by an email from Viz proclaiming the arrival of Viz Manga such as One Piece, Naruto, and others on the Nook. Viz manga has been available on their web site and the Apple iPad for a while now. The iPad makes an especially good platform for reading manga with what I think is the perfect sized display. So I really wasn’t expecting to see Viz support the Nook.

I might also add that the email seemed to imply that the eInk Nook might also be supported. However a quick visit to the Barnes & Noble web site put that notion to rest. The site clearly indicates that Viz manga titles require the Nook Tablet or Nook Color with software version 1.4. And don’t get any ideas about reading these titles in the Nook reader software either. I tried reading a sample in the Nook reader on my iPad and Mac only to be informed that the title was not supported there.

Viz Manga on Nook Tablet

Popular Viz manga comes to the Nook Tablet and Nook Color. Sorry, none for eInk Nook!

Honestly, I cannot see any advantage to Viz in locking these Nook titles to the hardware like that. The primary beneficiary would be Barnes & Noble if the availability of Viz titles drives some Nook Tablet sales. The price drop to match the Kindle Fire, a price point that seems to be costing Apple at least a few iPad sales, along with some compelling content may be just the thing readers need to give the Nook color tablets another  look. Especially the younger, manga reading demographic who can’t afford iPads. And I might add that Viz manga is not yet available on the Kindle Fire.

Hopefully we’ll see some joint marketing from Barnes & Noble and Viz to promote this like crazy!

How To Read JManga Titles On The iPad

February 19, 2012 /

Girlfriends on JMangaI’ve been reading manga on the JManga website on my laptop while patiently waiting for an iPad app for a few months now. The current JManga reader is Flash based which will not work on the iPad.

I don’t really like reading manga on my laptop, as a result I really haven’t been finishing many titles. Not only that, because there’s no way to save a bookmark in the current reader, I always lose my place if I have to stop reading before completing a chapter.

So I started wondering how I might get around the restrictions and read JManga titles on my iPad using the current reader. Remote desktop apps immediately came to mind. I’d heard that there were such apps for the iPad, so I decided to see what the available options were.

The iTunes App Store has a fair number of remote desktop apps listed, but I decided to go with the Splashtop Remote Desktop app  for iPad because of its high ratings and low cost ($4.99 as of this writing).

Installation was pretty easy on the iPad of course. Next I needed to download the free Splashtop Streamer for my Mac. I installed the streamer, started it, and then set an access code for the remote connection from the iPad.

The iPad app easily detected my Mac and I had no trouble connecting using the access code I’d just set. I was greeted with a cheat sheet of gestures to interact with the desktop. The desktop looked great on my iPad and I had no trouble at all accessing JManga in my desktop browser. I opened Girlfriends in the reader and then went to full screen mode just tapping the left or right to turn pages.

JManga Girlfriends on iPad

Girlfriends looks pretty good on my iPad!

Before I knew it, I’d finally finished volume 1! To escape full screen mode, I just tapped the keyboard icon on the lower righthand corner and then tapped the escape key. It all worked like a charm! Quite readable and very responsive page flips.

This method should work with other tablets as long as similar remote desktop apps are available. I still want that JManga iPad app, but this workaround will do for now.

Is the Sun Setting On the Nook?

January 10, 2012 /

NooksetAgainst the backdrop of Amazon Kindle Fire sales that may have exceeded 5 million units last quarter, Barnes & Noble made statements last week that implied they were seeking to spinoff the Nook division. All said, Barnes & Noble may not have the resources needed to grow the Nook business into a profitable competitor to the Kindle.

Ironically, many credit the Nook and eBook sales with helping Barnes & Noble avoid the fate that befell long time competitor Borders last year. It’s hard to see exactly how they would benefit from spinning off the Nook. It’s believed that both Amazon and Barnes & Noble sell their eReaders at a loss, intending to make up for that by profits on the content sold through that hardware. It makes sense that Barnes & Noble would want to escape the loss making part of the equation, but what partner would want to pick that up?

Much of the popularity of the Kindle Fire has been ascribed to its $199 price point. This low entry price is credited with a small decline in iPad sales in December. And it seems likely that despite some quality and usability issues, the Fire will take the number 2 tablet position behind the iPad. Again, one of the reasons Amazon can do this is that their profit comes from content sales on the Fire. A hardware only tablet maker has to make a profit on the hardware itself, which may not be possible at a $199 price point, or even the $249 of the Nook Tablet. If that is true, then Barnes & Noble will have a hard time finding a partner with the deep pockets needed to take that kind of risk.

Then what is the point of the announcement? Is this some tasty bait being dangled before the likes of Google perhaps? While Google already has an eReader tablet, it has not been a great success, nor has their eBooks store relative to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The Nook Tablet is powered by Google’s Android operating system, and is arguably one of the best Android tablets on the market. A Google Barnes & Noble partnership could be profitable for both and give publishers a viable counter balance against Amazon. Still, it’s hard to see this happening. And in the absence of additional resources, the sun may be setting on the Nook far too soon.

Runners in Different Races: Amazon Fire vs iPad

December 7, 2011 /

As expected, Black Friday sales of the Kindle Fire were very good and some analyst project that Amazon will sell 4 to 5 million Fire tablets before the end of the year. While there have been some indications that sales have cooled a bit, right now there’s no reason to believe that the Fire is going away any time soon.

The thing I find most interesting about the news I see is the continuing comparison to the iPad. Many stories cast the Kindle Fire as a potential “iPad killer” when clearly the hardware and software indicate a different target. Amazon’s new tablet is first and foremost, a Kindle. It’s an eReader first and was probably initially intended to be a response to the Nook Color than the iPad. As I’ve ranted here before, the Kindle Fire was made for book lovers making the initial move into digital. The Fire and iPad are horses running different races. If anything, over the long term, the lower spec’d Fire is more likely to drive iPad sales as many Fire users get hooked on digital media and seek out a more capable tablet still compatible with most of the media they’ve already bought.

It’s too early to tell if the Fire has made a significant dent in iPad sales, but it does look like it has claimed at least one victim as Dell has recently dropped its own 7 inch tablet. Dell has always been pretty quick to drop products that have no long term profit potential, so this move speaks volumes. As for the Nook, Barnes & Noble has been claiming good sales and a doubling of its Nook business since last year. We won’t really know if the Nook tablet has gained any traction until Barnes & Noble’s next quarterly report.

Competition is generally a good thing for the consumer, so I hope the Nook tablet won’t fall victim to the Fire too soon. However, the days of other 7 inch tablets that lack strong ties to eBook and media stores may be numbered.

New Nook Tablet Plays With Fire At High Price

November 7, 2011 /

Barnes & Noble unveiled their new Nook Tablet today, boasting higher specs than Amazon’s Kindle Fire in nearly every measure, including price. The new Nook weighs in at $249 versus $199 for Amazon’s tablet. Barnes & Noble also announced immediate price cuts of the current Nook Color to $199 and the Nook Simple Touch to $99.

kindle_less_is_more

Sometimes Less Is More

Clearly, these moves are in response to Amazon which makes the higher price of the new Nook rather puzzling. Even more puzzling given that anyone who’s been watching the iPad vs. everyone else tablet wars has already seen this movie played out before. Barnes & Noble calls the new Nook a better value than the Kindle Fire because it has a faster CPU, more system memory and data storage. And they’re right, in a rationale world, the higher spec’d, better performing tablet should command a higher price. Consumers should flock to it, right?

But isn’t that what a number of tablet makers claimed when they went into battle against Apple’s iPad? They offered tablets with more features, raw processor speed , and memory than the iPad. And some of them could play Flash videos and games too which the iPad still cannot do. This greater performance came at a greater price than the base iPad which was entirely reasonable being a better value. But in the end, most of these tablets were utter market disasters. Even the most successful of them have scarcely made a dent in the market share of Apple’s iPad.

Consumers are looking for value, but that doesn’t always correspond to the better hardware. Amazon has an enormous media and online retail data infrastructure to plug the Kindle Fire into. This is entirely analogous to the integrated ecosystem that Apple has built around iOS devices. When you buy an iPad, buying movies, music, and apps is drop dead easy. If Amazon produces a similar user experience with the Fire, the higher spec’d Nook won’t even get a chance to play. Sometimes less is more.

It is good that Barnes & Noble seems to have gained an ally in Netflix, but launching a new tablet at $50 more than the latest from the Amazon juggernaut could be a fatal mistake. Techies love the faster hardware, but they are not the market that is at stake here, nor are the people happily using iPads and other full function tablets. The real market consists of that larger, aging population of people who are increasingly annoyed that so many physical bookstores are disappearing.

These book lovers are being forced by necessity into buying their first eReaders. Little do they know just how quickly they’ll be hooked on eBooks. Once that happens, they’ll be well primed to buy other digital content. This crowd is not going to go for the tablet that costs $50 more than the one from the company that they’ve probably ordered books from in the past. I mean, really, who hasn’t bought something from Amazon in the last 10 years?

I think, B&N can build some advantages with their physical stores and the ability to not only showcase the Nook, but also popular and up and coming authors. But they’ve seriously got to lose the $50 premium. Price matching the Fire with the slower, older Nook Color is not going to cut it either. I think this fall is setting the stage for whether the last major U.S. bookstore chain survives or closes the book on the era of popular printed literature.

JManga Announces Sale And iPad App In The Works

October 5, 2011 /

JManga Lovers SaleOnline legal Japanese manga site JManga launched back in August with a lot of titles never before available to English speaking readers. One could see from the number of titles and the scope of the site that it was indeed an ambitious undertaking involving most of the major manga publishers in Japan. But early reports were quick to note that many of the titles, though listed, were not yet available to read online. Not only that, the prices were much higher than those of similar online titles such as those from Viz, and the Flash based reader did not work in iOS devices such as Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

Since that time, JManga has steadily added new titles, and most recently announced the JManga Lover’s Sale slashing the prices of manga on the site by up to 60% during the month of October. JManga also gave a 50% rebate on titles already purchased prior to the October 4th beginning of the sale. And to top it all off, Anime News Network reported that JManga has announced, via Twitter, their plans to release an iPad app by the end of the year.

Clearly, JManga is listening to its customers which can only bode well for manga lovers everywhere! In particular, support of the iPad is essential as Apple’s popular tablet computer has become the place for digital comics and manga.

Amazon Lights Kindle Fire, Nook Color May Get Burned

September 28, 2011 /

Amazon Kindle FireIn probably one of the worst kept secrets in tech history, Amazon unveiled its much anticipated new color Kindle today, the Kindle Fire. In addition to the Fire, Amazon is releasing 3 new eInk Kindles, a $79 non-touch model and two touch screen Kindles. One with WiFi and the other 3G.

While this Bloomberg report describes the Kindle Fire as a tablet computer, and much has been made of it being an “iPad killer”, I think Barnes & Noble has more to be concerned about than Apple. At $199, it’s $50 less than the Nook Color and its lack of a camera and microphone is more evidence that the Kindle Fire is more of a response to competitor B & N in filling a hole in the the Kindle lineup from which the Nook Color had garnered some success.

Amazon has an extensive Kindle Fire page that reveals a powerful color eReader prepared to take back any ground lost to the Nook Color in children’s books, magazines, or games like Angry Birds. Like Kindles before it, the Kindle Fire is clearly designed to sell Amazon books and content, including movies and TV shows.

I suspect that Amazon has discovered that iPad folks and Kindle folks are two different markets. They overlap a bit, but not enough to make the Kindle Fire a more general purpose tablet like the iPad. And Amazon’s well developed information infrastructure, which will leveraged in the Fire’s Silk browser, will more than deliver on the promises they’re making content wise. The Kindle Fire is a nuclear powered reader’s tablet. The iPad will feel the heat, but the Nook Color will be the one getting burned in all likelihood.

Of course the game is not over yet. Barnes & Noble is expected to be announcing the next Nooks soon. And I would be surprised if the Nook Color doesn’t see a price drop ahead of the Kindle Fire’s November availability date. So stay tuned!

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