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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 18, 2014 15:15:03 GMT
This week's Marvel Comixology Freebies:
Infinity Abyss 1
Invincible Iron Man 500
Namor: The First Mutant 1
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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 25, 2014 15:31:39 GMT
This week's Marvel Comixology Freebies:
Ms Marvel Inifite #1
4 issues of Captain America: Theatre of War
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Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 10, 2014 20:53:40 GMT
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Apr 10, 2014 21:11:25 GMT
Thank you and goodnight.
Just what digital comics needs...oh wait no it isn't.
Andy
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 10, 2014 21:35:25 GMT
Perhaps now we'll get a service where paid content does not vanish from customer's accounts.
-Ralph
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Post by Bogatan on Apr 10, 2014 22:17:13 GMT
Or it will eventually merge in to Amazon Prime like Love film has with a similar subscription on demand type service.
I honestly aren't sure what to think of this news.
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Post by legios on Apr 10, 2014 22:41:05 GMT
My Twitter feed appears to have mostly decided that this news is plagues of locusts, and apocalyptic what-not which spells the impending end of digital comics. I...find myself unmoved at the moment. I will wait and see what effect it actually has on service before I form an opinion.
Karl
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Post by Bogatan on Apr 11, 2014 9:15:32 GMT
If it had been bought by Facebook or even google or any social media type company I would have been very concerned, but Amazon sells stuff, usually cheap and without hassle which is all I want from comixology really.
I'm sure theres potential for a big mess, but without being able to really pin point what it could be I'm not getting worried. I can understand the concern though, if I had thousands of pound worth of comics with them I'd probably be worried about how it would all play out.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Apr 11, 2014 10:20:38 GMT
The North American comic Market was pretty much fucked due to the rise of the Direct Market and the monopoly that Diamond holds (as well as catastrophic blunders by certain larger publishers), digital offers a great way to reach so many, and what happens. They create in effect a mini diamond with Comixology, with the strings of you don't actually own any of your comics with them and if something goes wrong your fucked for the most part. Comixology now with Amazon means the chances of a really open marketplace are completely gone, and the sinking inevitability of publishers who have avoided putting all their eggs in the Comixology basket (2000ad, Dark Horse being the two stand out ones) are gone, and then Image who have been offering DRM free downloads as opposed to comixology will likely stop down the line and we end up with a Physical Direct Market model and a Digital Direct Market model.
Andy
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Post by Marc Graham on Apr 14, 2014 9:34:10 GMT
Comixology had a near monopoly and was not being run particularly well, I don't see how being owned by Amazon makes things any worse. Amazon already have a huge interest in the ebook market, so it fits well into their "portfolio". That makes me think they will probably run it better than it was being run. Not a great open market, but to be honest I don't know if comicbooks have enough of a market to sustain multiple platforms.
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 14, 2014 13:07:59 GMT
Ideally I would like every comic on the market to be available in pdf and app formats. As I have found, the problem with closed apps is that content can vanish and then you've spent money on air. At least with PDF's you own a copy or copies that is yours.
Comixology also has too much of a hold on the market. For many things if I don't want to use them then I can't read certain things. It would be like if in the real world there was only one bookshop you could use.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 26, 2014 18:34:18 GMT
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Post by legios on Apr 26, 2014 20:09:30 GMT
Doing it that way means they don't have to share profits with Apple. For the same reason you can't buy ebooks in the Kindle app. You have to go to Amazon.com, buy them and send them to the Kindle App from there. In due course they will integrate the comics with Amazon and do away with the Comixology website. (If Lovefilm s anything to go by the brandname will become something like Amazon Prime Comics or somesuch) and it'll just be a page on Amazon. Also, the new Comixology app is a horrible dogs breakfast of a thing.
Karl is now prepared to admit he is moving somewhat in the direction of the "rain of locusts, cats and dogs living together" school of thought on the Comixology purchase.
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 26, 2014 21:36:22 GMT
It's what happens when the digital direct market is the same as the physical direct market.
-Ralph
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 26, 2014 21:47:21 GMT
Updated Ios App. Now I have to download everything again. App looks horrible. No way to buy things on it.
Updated app on Android phone. Looks the same. All my books still there. No need to redownload. Can still buy books but now prices show in dollars rather than in pounds which is fucking irritating.
As the phone has a higher quality display this won't affect me much.
Can't see this $5 voucher though.
-Ralph
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Apr 26, 2014 22:02:33 GMT
When you add something to your cart you will see it.
Andy
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Apr 27, 2014 9:45:18 GMT
Irritating. I had some iTunes credit built up that I had planned on using for comics through comixology. Also a pain that it's a new app rather than an update so comics can't be carried across.
Whilst setting everything up I noticed there was a UK version of comixology (no foreign currency charge). Bizarrely going to the .co.uk site redirects you to the .com where a message pops up asking if you'd rather go the UK version. Argghh!
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Apr 27, 2014 9:48:34 GMT
It was pretty quick for Amazon to make it's presence felt. Look for certain content to no longer be available in the UK soon, as comixology falls in line with the rest of their digital platforms - such as audible, lovefilm.
Andy
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Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 27, 2014 10:32:05 GMT
It was quicker than that: I don't know if you noticed but the regular Marvel freebies vanished a while back.
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 27, 2014 10:35:25 GMT
The hammer fell quickly! Just yesterday morning I had made some purchases through IOS after red-hazing at the Dark Cybertron sale. By evening, that option had gone!
If I had not recently acquired an Android phone I would be most unhappy.
I do wonder what will happen next. Either digital comics will be a small niche like physical comics or the various publishers will step up their game with their own apps. A year from now, however, expect Amazon Comixology to be just another digital comics service rather than the main one.
-Ralph
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Post by blueshift on Apr 27, 2014 10:38:05 GMT
It's very interesting, isn't it.
I remember when there was no digital comics platform and it was clear that was what was needed to save the industry. Then it happened and now, well, we'll see!
The whole phasing out of comics from the newsstands in the US was down to attempts to monopolise, wasn't it?
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 27, 2014 10:50:50 GMT
The rot with digital comic apps set in when titles began to vanish from accounts (like what has happened with some digital book services). This is why I tend to view digital purchases as cheapish rentals rather than something I own, if I want to own it I'll buy a trade paperback.
-Ralph
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Post by blueshift on Apr 27, 2014 10:54:13 GMT
Silly Ralph, you can't own things that you buy! How can they force you to rebuy things that you own otherwise??
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 27, 2014 11:10:49 GMT
Indeed!
A while ago I came to accept that most digital comics are like library books: they are something you have for a while and may get again in the future whenever you want...but you won't have them forever. And I have had digital comics vanish from my account. A bit like trying to get a previously read book out the library again but they no longer have it in their system.
You're effectively paying a rental fee.
-Ralph
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Post by blueshift on Apr 27, 2014 11:14:57 GMT
You're effectively paying a rental fee. But nowhere does it state that. It is presented as you are buying them for keeps. Technology is liberating, but it also gives more opportunities for greedy exploitation. I am reminded of the time when Amazon deleted copies of 1984 from peoples Kindles. |
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 27, 2014 14:33:33 GMT
I always thought it was pretty obvious you don't own something which downloads to a closed system only.
The only digital products we actually own are ones we can download to wherever we want.
In other news, the new Android app is quick, painless and easy to use when buying. For now anyway. Ios only customers not so well catered for though, which is where I presume most of the consumer base was buying from.
-Ralph
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Apr 27, 2014 15:13:42 GMT
I nearly switched to the Android app last year when I got a new mobile. In the end I stuck with the iOS one due to a better battery life on my iThing.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 27, 2014 18:23:45 GMT
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Post by legios on Apr 27, 2014 19:18:02 GMT
I always thought it was pretty obvious you don't own something which downloads to a closed system only. The only digital products we actually own are ones we can download to wherever we want. Indeed. Which is why I always rather liked the approach that Baen Books took on their early foray into digital distribution (David Weber talked them into the idea of including a CD-ROM on the first edition hardcovers of his Honor Harrington novels, containing the other books in the series to date in a variety of electronic formats, with explicit license for the CD-ROM and it's contents to be reproduced and distributed as long as now charge was made for it. His argument was "giving this stuff away will lead to sales, give me a year and I'll prove it." They gave him a year, and the sales figures for the series duly rose. - even now the ebook releases of the series on Amazon are sold without DRM at the express request of author and publisher.). Drivethrurpg.net, who I use for a lot of my Battletech sourcebooks (haven't bought a non-digital Battletech supplement in about three years) also don't do DRM - all their files include a small watermark in the page footer with the purchasers user name and order number. So if it ends up on Torrent sites they know who to go after, and the end user like me can be confident that the collection of bits that represent the purchased file is mine, and I can transfer it from one device to another anyway I please. By contrast Comixology and iTunes are very much of the "you don't own this, you just bought a license to experience the product". Which, to be honest, most of the world appears to have accepted. I do so grudgingly, but tend to do so only for things that I am not to worried whether I hang on to them permanently or not. Transformers comics, some of my random bubblegum pop music and the like I am happy to have on the "license" arrangement, but I'd never replace my collection of C J Cherryh novels with digital versions and if I was going to buy something like "Queen and Country" I'd toss something out to make room for the physical collections. For me it comes down to how much permanency matters to me. Karl |
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 27, 2014 20:39:22 GMT
Yep, the Apple app is now terrible. However, I can confirm that the Android app works just fine, is very easy to use and is pretty much the same as the old IOS App. I can't see what the screaming about that is at all. Press a couple of buttons and the comic appears. But yes, the Apple app is awful and if folk don't gave recourse to an Android device (which was me until last month!) then no wonder folk are screaming bloody murder. I can't see myself using the Comixology website (which was always a bit poo) or the IOS app again. Though we'll see where we are when everything is inevitably subsumed by the Amazon website store. On a complete aside, I had been moving towards reading comics on a phone rather than a tablet anyway. An HD display means the comics look really sharp and are easy to read but more importantly holding a phone is not as heavy in the hand so I'll tend to read for longer. Sometimes I found holding a tablet to read for a long time was a pain in the bum. I had never previously seen how reading comics on a phone screen could in any way be good but now I get it. Though it depends on the screen size and resolution, I imagine. I think reading on a tiny Iphone screen would drive me mad. The screen size I am using is a Galaxy Note 3. -Ralph |
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