Who says you can't learn anything from TV? In the latest episodes of McG's NBC spy show Chuck, Agent Walker gets a call from the title character and the camera slowly zooms into her iPhone showing his photo as it rings. Now my first thought was that they faked this just to add some spice to the technology, but I should have known better. You can associate any photo in your library to any contact and that picture will display when the person calls. I guess it's just a matter of my still being unaware of all the cool things the iPhone can do.

In the following episode, the iPhone saves the day and we get to see some good use of its touch screen technology in the show. Chuck is sent a picture of from his best friend's boat trip. Using the touch screen to zoom in and pan around the picture, he spots the bad guy in the background and cracks the case. I knew the iPhone could do this, but it was still cool to see it worked into the show so well. Still, this made me think it was time I really delved into all the other cool things the iPhone is capable of.

In quest to discover more of the features of this device, on of the things I came across was the use of web apps. Apple has quite a list of them on their page. The great advantage of web apps is that they run in the Safari browser on the IPhone meaning they are available anywhere, unlike content synced with iTunes. These can include puzzle games, news feeds and even video sites similar to the Youtube included on the iPhone. In fact, one of the web apps I checked was a Chinese video site, similar to Youtube, which plays content from Chinese TV. They have a lot of current anime in Japanese with Chinese subtitles, but if you know Japanese, that can be cool to see.

Now you may say, Well the iPhone has a full web browser so it's just like going to any web page. This is actually not the case. These web apps are designed specifically for the iPhone's screen size and touch screen features. Some of the puzzle games make use of the screen in ways that wouldn't play well on the desktop. Also navigation of the apps is designed for the gestures available on the iPhone screen. Many of them are very similar to apps running natively on the iPhone. These web apps aren't just limited to fun and games either. Just check out the latest releases on Apple's page today.

As you can imagine from the use of iPhone in the shows I mention, a lot of industry pros probably use the device. It's easy to see how these web apps could be useful for quick information. Of course I had to try them out just now... The footage calculators from Digital Rebellion are really cool. Imagine if you're in the studio or on set and need a quick calculation of the film or video footage you're shooting or editing. Being available on the iPhone as a web app is convenience defined.

You may also notice that Google released quite a suite of apps for the iPhone. I just tried it out and I have to say I am very impressed, especially with having a iPhone sized Google reader on my handset at all times. The gmail feature is cool too. These tools, of course, have existed for the desktop browser for ages, and the iPhone could easily navigate to and use the full size pages, but having iPhone specific versions makes all the difference.

You know I'm going to have to write a web app now right? Can you guess what it is?

Tags: iPhone, Pop Culture, TV, sightings

I said I would kick it into high gear and that plan continues with the release of the new iPhone manga title Evidemic. This is the beginning of an exciting new series about the spread of a disease unlike anyone has ever encountered.

Serin is a beautiful "solutionist" called in to investigate the problem, but things start going sour as soon as she arrives. They only expand from there. Evidemic is available free, for the time being, in the sample titles bar to the left. Feel free to download it and check it out. Look forward to more episodes coming soon!

The great thing about iPhone manga or any cell phone content is easy access. I am already working on another title that will be placed in the new store as soon as it is live. I will also build pages that allow the sample titles to be viewed in the Safari browser directly on the iPhone, even over an Edge Network connection. There is a lot lined up for this month, and I'm just getting started. If you like Heaven's Burden, be sure to look for another episode of that series appearing this month as well.

Building up from scratch always takes a great effort, but in the world of digital content, that build up only needs to happen once, and then it's smooth sailing from there. In this case, smooth sailing means a lot more iPhone manga for you.

Tags: iPhone, Manga

It's a new month and it's time to kick this thing into high gear. I have big plans for this site and the world of mobile manga in general is going to be big. Companies in Japan are popping up extremely fast. I have recently found two new mobile and digital manga sites in just that last week. They see that this is where it's at. Not to be left behind in what I see as an incredible sea of possibility, I am creating some serious new work myself.

I am working on a new series called Evidemic. I don't want to say too much about it because it will be available for free download here very soon and you can see for yourself. Needless to say, it involves a very different kind of disease. I am learning a lot when it comes to creating art for the mobile content generation. The rules no longer apply. The one thing you will find here that most other places are not doing is content specifically formatted, nay, created for the mobile device in question. Chopping up print comics and making them fit on a phone may be a start, but the real revolution begins with content designed exclusively for the device. Why not take advantage of the technology?

Creating art for the iPhone as opposed to print yields some very different challenges. Your screen is smaller than a page, but it is also extremely sharp and crisp. You can't display a standard comic page, but you can do something new and fitting that I think is very impressive. There is a combination of page and screen coming into play. Now some things, image wise, which look good in video or film, can look good on a manga page. I will certainly be taking more advantage of that in this and future titles.

There will surely be a lot of titles, and not just by me. One of the many things I intend to do this month, as I kick things into high gear, is to get a full online store integrated into this site. I've already spoken to a few artists and publishers who have shown great interest. I expect the expansion of this site will be quick. Of course, I also have a ton of ideas and stories I want to tell, and I can think of no better way to tell them than through iPhone manga.

Another thing I intend to see accomplished this month is that I plan to go all out. I am going to advertise. When I created my first independent project, a DVD called Understanding Chaos, I did what might now be called traditional web advertising, and it worked. It brought people in and generated great interest in the project. Although I have created other projects since then, I haven't returned to the method of market generation I started with. Well, advertising is expensive right? Not today. It's easier than ever with all the tools available on the web. So I will do a real campaign to push and build this site.

All in all, I am preparing for 2008 to be the year of mobile manga. It will explode. In Japan, it already has. A fully Japanese version of this site and all products is on the horizon too. There's a lot to create in the coming weeks and months, so I guess I better get started!

Tags: Manga, iPhone