As far as syndicates go, Universal Uclick has always been a leader in the mobile space. They were the first to have a mobile friendly website and one of the first to release iPhone apps for various comic titles. But I failed to realize that they didn’t have a native mobile app available. They’ve now released a new (free!) native app for iOS, Android and Windows phones for the 250+ comic features found on GoComics.com.

You can find the app at the following online stores:
iTunes Store, Windows Phone and Google Play

The Daily, the much publicized first iPad only newspaper created by Ruport Murdock, is going to shut down just shy of two years. All Things D reports that the publication is being shuttered because it “could not find a large enough audience quickly enough” to make the endeavor sustainable long term. Last year it was reported that it only had 120,000 subscribers at a time when it needed 500,000.

From All Things D:

The Daily launched in February 2011 with a great deal of fanfare and a blessing from Apple, which worked closely with News Corp. to get the paper off the ground. But The Daily never clicked, and struggled to attract subscribers.
The app was initially hampered by technical problems, but The Daily’s key issue was a conceptual one. While the app boasted lots of digital bells and whistles, in the end it was very much a general interest newspaper that seemed to be geared toward people who didn’t really like newspapers. You can’t make that work no matter what kind of platform you use.

Here’s my initial review of The Daily. It was written during the initial technical problems mentioned above. After my trial was over, I didn’t think the content was deep or original enough to warrant the subscription (which I felt was quite reasonable). I had high hopes that the experiment would work to prove that the tablet was a viable platform for subscription content.

Adobe announced changes to their upgrade policy stating that only users of the latest version can upgrade to the next release at a discounted price, all other previous versions will need to pay full retail price to get the latest offerings. If you upgrade by the end of this year, you can avoid the full retail price (but you have to pay for two upgrades to get up to speed)

MAD Magazine cartoonist Tom Richmond sums up how I feel about it:

This really is ridiculous. The upgrade pricing on Adobe products is already an outrageous amount. To force customers to upgrade to every new version, or have to go back to full retail pricing is a slap in the face to users who don’t resort to pirated software (very easy to get), and are willing to support the software developer with legitimate upgrade purchases. If a user already purchased the software at full retail price, and let me tell you charging $1,299.00 for a suite of computer programs borders on a criminal offense, then those customers should be able to choose when they want to upgrade for an upgrade price, within reason.

I am currently using CS5.5. I have no interest in upgrading to CS6. There are no features worth the $275 upgrade fee for me. Likely I would upgrade to CS7, simply because if you upgrade your operating system regularly, you need to stay reasonably current with major software as well or you may run into compatibility issues, and maybe this version does have some features I’d really like to have. Now Adobe is telling me if I don’t upgrade to CS6 by the end of the year, they are going to make me pay $1,300 to get CS7??? Unbelievable. No wonder software piracy is so rampant. This kind of pricing and practices like Adobe’s new policy are practically begging people to say “%@#$% you” and just steal their programs. I have NEVER used a pirated program and have always paid for legitimate licenses, even when I had to buy multiple ones for software like Microsoft Office, so each of my kids could have the programs on their laptops for school. Paying twice for the same program just so you can use it on several computers really rankles as well, but I get that policy and paid the money without complaint. Developing software costs money, employs people, and deserves to be supported. This new upgrade policy, however… this is just putting the screws to the people that do legitimately support Adobe and their products.

I’ve had other issues with Adobe over the years as well. Every time I install the suite, I feel a lack of disrespect from the software – changing my settings to map opening files with their products whether I want it or not; spreading system files out across the machine like marbles dumped on a sidewalk; requiring installing other products I don’t want or use (hello Bridge! I’m talking about you). There’s not many other options at that high end. I use more and more low end stuff like Pixelmator when I can get away with it.

Read more about their upgrade policy.

That usage trend is continuing, based on IBM’s retail analytics report covering Black Friday’s online shopping surge. With online sales on Friday up 20.7% year-over-year, there was a lot of clicking going on – and quite a bit of tapping, too. Sales via a mobile device hit 16% of all online sales, up from almost 10% the previous year; mobile visits to shopping sites climbed to 24% of consumers, up 10 percentage points from 2011.

The big kahuna in the mobile shopping landscape: the iPad. Apple’s tablet “generated more traffic than any other tablet or smartphone, reaching nearly 10 percent of online shopping,” according to IBM’s report. The next device in line was the iPhone, with 8.7% of shopping traffic, then all Android devices combined with 5.5% of traffic. The iPad’s 10% slice of mobile retail translates to a whopping 88.3% of tablet shopping traffic, with the Nook, Kindle and Samsung Galaxy tablets all eking out shares of 3% or less.

Business Insider also reports that mobile payments increased substantially this year as well – 173% over last year.

Say it with me now, “the future is mobile.” Are you ready?

From the press release:

Telnaes has been intrigued by how apps could allow cartoonists to approach
editorial cartoons in new ways. “In print, users are passive – meaning
that editors determine what they see.” She adds “Online, readers have
more content choice but it’s still a passive experience. With apps, the
evolution of the relationship between users and cartoons takes a big step
forward due to the potential for interactive and non-linear content.”

Telnaes created 24 original animation sequences for POTUS Pick. Users
experience and navigate among the sequences using a combination of
touching, dragging and shaking their devices. Telnaes notes that “the
number of ways a user may proceed through the app cartoon is greater than
the number of Romney gaffes.”

The app was produced with The Cartoonists Group. The app has links to more than 1,000 election-related cartoons from The Cartoonist Group and a searchable database for reprints of comic strips and editorial cartoons by 50+ leading cartoonists.

The app costs $.99.

From All Things D:

The publisher plans to tell its workers today that it will fire 50 of its 170 employees, according to people familiar with The Daily’s plans.
The move comes 18 months after the tablet newspaper’s high-profile launch, and a little more than a month after News Corp. announced plans to split itself into an entertainment company and a newspaper company. (News Corp. also owns this Web site.)

The worst thing the news industry ever did was to give away their content for free. I had high hopes for this endeavor as someone with deep pockets could prove the tablet as a possible platform for paid content. It might be too early to write The Daily’s obituary, but not sure how this announcement can be spun as a positive sign.

Other details: the cuts will mostly be in the area of sports and editorial as they were the least read sections of The Daily.

Utilities:

Two weeks ago Pearls Before Swine creator Stephan Pastis launched an iPad app called Only The Pearls – a 250 best of collection with audio commentary, interactive features and 22 videos of Stephan acting like an egotistical “ass#%$*” (his description, not mine. Okay, maybe I inserted the word egotistical). There’s something troubling about the app and it has nothing to do with the technical aspects or the humor. It’s the price. It’s currently priced at $3.99 and if you look at the app as an ebook of 250 of Stephan’s best work, it’s ridiculously cheap. His last print collection retailed at $12.99. I purchased the app late one night soon after it came out. I brushed my teeth while it downloaded and then took it into the master closet and casually started playing through it and finding it hard not to laugh too loudly lest I wake up my dear wife. An hour later I forced myself to close the app down and go to bed. Four dollars is slightly higher than the average entertainment app, but it was money well spent.

Most of the comic apps I read are pretty simple – a single repurposed comic on a white background with a swipe gesture to advance to the next strip in the series. It’s about as interactive as a print book. If you believe the hype, the iPad is changing several industries – education and medicine are oft cited examples. Only the Pearls has in my opinion raised the bar for comic apps and hopefully inspired other publishers to take advantage of the capabilities of the iPad.

About 2 years ago, Stephan met with a former college-mate who is now a VP at Chronicle Books. She described a new cookbook app that had audio and video and as Stephan tells me, “the light went on.” His earlier interaction with kids at schools and book signings told him connection to fans through newspapers was diminishing. When he asked their favorite comics no one knew Calvin and Hobbes and everyone thought Boondocks was only a TV show. Stephan realized the next generation has “a lot of options that aren’t you.” If he were to create an app, it had to at minimum compete with a DVD.

Various screenshots of different pages ro video in the app.

The app took about 14 months from idea, contract negotiations, recording audio, shooting video and all the writing, designing, development and meetings that would go along with a project of this size – a sum of 100 hours of his personal time. Stephan determined the content and Chronicle designed and developed the app. As an aside, I’d rate their work very highly. Very intuitive, simple, and focused attention to detail.

Now back to Stephan being an ass. He admits that an app with lots of video of the cartoonist isn’t for everyone. He describes a future where the cartoonist will need to be just as entertaining as the strip. During the shooting of the video Stephan was surrounded by a crew of 20-30 year-olds. “If I had a fragile ego, it would have hurt. You work by yourself and you think you’re funny. A stand-up comedian has no delusions whether they’re funny or not.” The video series is shot as if it were the outtakes of Stephan trying to be a serious cartoonist and the crew often part of the gags.

Video of Stephan goofing off after a successful day of writing

If you have an iPad and $4 (come on, skip today’s latte and you’re covered) I highly recommend the app.

Related media coverage:

GigaOm talks to Stephan about his motivation for the iPad app

Tom Racine interviews Stephan on Tall Tale Radio.

WE ARE THE COMIC SANS DEFENDERS. WE FEAR NO FONTS AND WE WILL MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD COMIC SANS.BECAUSE HELVETICA IS SOOO 2011

The site features famous logos, marketing collateral that has been reworked using Comic Sans.