App released 21st August 2010, developed by Developer: comiXology, £ Free
Ever find yourself bored at the bus stop or in the doctor’s waiting room? Comics is a cool app that can turn those boring moments into a great mini-entertainment timeslot.
Some comic apps are clunky and unfriendly, but Comics is well designed and gives the reader a smooth experience – it feels like it’s just you and the comic in your own little world. Flipping from box to box and page to page is easy – in guided mode you’re taken through the comic seamlessly – but you also have lots of easy to use zooming options at your fingertips.
You can personalise your settings so you get your preferred user experience. For instance, you can choose to view the whole page after you’ve read it rather than at the beginning, which sometimes gives things away too early.
Comics comes with a bunch of free comics to read, and provides easy access to a store with a huge selection of others. One of the things I liked most was browsing by genre and finding new, exciting comics that I’d never come across before. I enjoyed buying them directly in the app and liked the easy-to-use ‘buy in print’ option, which even shows your local comic stores, as well as Amazon purchase options.
On the downside is the number of free comics – after using this app you will almost certainly want to spend money on new comics! It would be great if there were a bigger selection of regularly updated comics included free.
I would give the app five-stars for its usability, and am just knocking a star off because of the limited amount of reading you get in the free app.
