This feature allows readers to automatically focus in on individual panels in graphic novels and comics, to better appreciate the artwork and storytelling. To mark the launch, Nook is offering a free DC Comics 2013 Superman Sampler to customers who download the updated iOS apps and set up a new Nook account. Other features on the updated apps include animated page turns for Nook Books, the ability to enlarge book illustrations, improved organisation for Nook Newsstand and improvements to PagePerfect/PDF titles.

Earlier this month, Microsoft reportedly offered Barnes & Noble $1bn to buy Nook, with a leaked document also apparently revealing that Nook Media plans to discontinue its tablet business by the end of its 2014 fiscal year, moving to a model where Nook content is distributed through apps on third-party partner devices.

The post Nook iOS apps get enhanced with Zoom View appeared first on The Appside.

Three issues are available, with Mylo Xyloto #1: Color is Crime available as a free download, while issues #2 and #3 (Cover-Up and Another World respectively) costing £1.49.

The fourth, fifth and sixth issues are also available to pre-order on the store, also for £1.49 an issue.

The physical editions of the Mylo Xyloto comics were first announced in July 2012. The comics were co-created with filmmaker Mark Osborne, and published by Simpsons creator Matt Groening’s publisher Bongo Comics.

The comics tell a “secret other worldly narrative” behind Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto album.

The post Coldplay Mylo Xyloto comics released digitally as iBooks appeared first on The Appside.

Digital comics store/app ComiXology has spoken out about the ban referred to by the comic’s author Brian K. Vaughan, explaining that it, rather than Apple, decided the issue shouldn’t be made available on iOS.

“As a partner of Apple, we have an obligation to respect its policies for apps and the books offered in apps,” writes CEO David Steinberger. “Based on our understanding of those policies, we believed that Saga #12 could not be made available in our app, and so we did not release it today.”

He goes on to stress that “we did not interpret the content in question as involving any particular sexual orientation, and frankly that would have been a completely irrelevant consideration under any circumstance”.

So what now? It seems the issue WILL be making its way onto the App Store after all.

“After hearing from Apple this morning, we can say that our interpretation of its policies was mistaken. You’ll be glad to know that Saga #12 will be available on our App Store app soon.”

It makes for an interesting snapshot of the apps ecosystem: a gatekeeper (ComiXology) taking decisions based on the anticipated reaction of another gatekeeper (Apple), which may not always be correct.

The post Apple cleared by ComiXology in SAGA comic censorship row appeared first on The Appside.

Author Brian K. Vaughan has blogged about the issue. “Unfortunately, because of two postage stamp-sized images of gay sex, Apple is banning tomorrow’s SAGA #12 from being sold through any iOS apps,” he writes.

“This is a drag, especially because our book has featured what I would consider much more graphic imagery in the past, but there you go. [Illustrator] Fiona and I could always edit the images in question, but everything we put into the book is there to advance our story, not (just) to shock or titillate, so we’re not changing shit.”

Fans are being advised to get the issue through other means, whether physically from shops, or digitally on non-Apple devices or from website distributors.

The news comes shortly after Apple removed satirical iPad game Sweatshop HD from the App Store, and rejected topical news game Endgame: Syria.

Apple has always made it clear that it will reject apps and content that it finds unacceptable, although its definition has been left deliberately vague in its App Store guidelines:

“We will reject Apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court justice once said, ‘I’ll know it when I see it’. And we think that you will also know it when you cross it.”

There are two problems with the latest case though. First, as Vaughan points out in his blog post, the line appears to be different for e-books in the iBooks store: “If all else fails, you might be able to find SAGA #12 in Apple’s iBookstore, which apparently sometimes allows more adult material to be sold than through its apps. Crazy, right?” he writes.

Second, though, is the point he makes about “much more graphic imagery” in SAGA comics having made it through Apple’s censors in the past. If Apple is treating images of gay sex differently to images of heterosexual sex, it doesn’t look good at all for a company claiming to be at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts.

It should be noted that Apple has yet to comment publicly on this case to put its side of the story.

The post Apple under fire for ‘banning’ digital edition of SAGA comic appeared first on The Appside.

“As one of the leading e-book reading devices, we know the importance of being compatible to Amazon products, especially Kindle Fire,” the company’s president and founder Alexander Vaschenko explained in a statement. Narr8 is also embracing the freemium model, according to VentureBeat, introducing updates to its iPad and Android apps that include in-app purchasing. Users can read the first two episodes of every Narr8 series for free, then pay to unlock the rest.

The company has its own digital currency, Narrs, with $0.99 buying 100 Narrs. These, in turn, can be exchanges for one new episode.

The post Narr8 heads to Kindle Fire appeared first on The Appside.

The DeviantArt site now has a dedicated Motion section, where visitors can peruse the 12 Motion Books available on the MadeFire iOS app. (Madefire Motion Books are the company’s attempt to drag the comic into the 21st Century, using apps and devices like the iPad). DeviantArt users can also sign up for access to Madefire’s Motion Book Tool, enabled them to make and sell their own digital comics.

“Soon you’ll be able to build and read your own Madefire books all on one platform,” Madefire’s Liam Sharp writes on the company’s blog. “Fan/ artist/ publisher – the same. And also within one domain. We don’t know where this next stage will take us – we’re pioneers! Nobody has seen these mountains before, let alone what’s on the other side of them! – But we DO know it’s one hell of an exciting endeavour to be undertaking.”

The post Madefire hooks up with DeviantArt for digital comic book publishing appeared first on The Appside.

The company has set a goal of $80,000 to create a digital comics reader (The Reader), a comics creator with its own open-source format (The Maker) and a back-end technology to deliver these comics (The Storm).

The Reader will work as a web widget and desktop app, as well as via apps for iOS and Android.

The Maker will come as a plug-in for InDesign and as a standalone app, both of which will output comics in a Comics Thing proprietary format, in a hybrid of HTML5 and native code.

The Storm, meanwhile, is Comics Thing’s cloud engine. Purchases will be store locally but also in the cloud, where they can be re-downloaded at any time.

The post Want to back ‘the iTunes of comics’? Then get to IndieGoGo now appeared first on The Appside.

The app itself is free, although users must subscribe to Marvel Unlimited for $10 a month / $60 a year to access the 13,000 odd comics in the service’s archive. Members can also choose up to six comics at a time to read offline.

The news follows Marvel launching an HTML5 web app in early 2011, offering a mixture of free and paid comics.

The post Marvel launches iOS app for Unlimited subscription service appeared first on The Appside.

Submit, which launched in open beta in October 2012, allows independent comic book creators to sell their work, if approved. Creators simply submit their comic or graphic novel;  Comixology will transform the work with its Guided View reading technology and make it available on its digital comics platform, which includes iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire and Windows 8 apps, and a bespoke web store.

Creators and Comixology split all profits equally, with creators maintaining full ownership of their work.

The platform launches with 34 indie comic creators already on board.

The post Comixology Submit launches out of beta appeared first on The Appside.

The twist: the speech bubbles are blank. Children tap on the bubbles to review choices about the dialogue and storyline, and find out at the end whether they were right.

At launch, there are free demos of comics for The Archduke and the Black Hand Gang, The Dambusters and The Murder of Thomas Becket, with Rasputin, Pearl Harbour and The Gunpowder Plot to come.

The demos are free, but each full comic costs £1.99 via in-app purchase.

The post UK startup Comics In The Classroom debuts iPad app appeared first on The Appside.