Tag: iPhone

I Sort Of Hate Myself…

andertoons7 Comments

…but I love my new iPhone!

Iphone HomeYep, I caved. I buckled. I folded like Superman on laundry day.

I know, I wasn’t going to cancel my Verizon contract and pay $600 for a phone just for some bells and whistles, but the BlackBerry whetted my mobile web appetite and it had to be sated! SATED!

Listen, I’m not gonna go on and on about it like a million other blogs, but here’s a few quick things I like thus far:

There. Now I have to go somewhere so I can check my mail on the fly!

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Is That A BlackBerry In Your Pocket, Or Are You Happy To Not Be Paying $600 For An iPhone?

andertoons

BlackberryI’m a big Apple guy. I have two Macs, two iPods, the Hi-Fi, and assorted other Apple stuff littering the home and office.

And I really want an iPhone. But after hearing about a sloooooow internet connection, being generally wary of pricey first gen tech, and still being stuck in my Verizon contract for another year, I opted to chuck the old phone and move up to a BlackBerry.

I’ve read that RIM has actually been quite pleased with the iPhone’s release, as it’s been pushing people like me into the mobile email/web category.

Anyway, after a few weeks with the thing, I gotta say, I’m not one of those CrackBerry people, but I do love my BlackBerry.

I took it on vacation with us, and checked in on my email a few times a day. It was great; I felt like I could keep my finger on the Andertoons pulse, and my wife was ecstatic that the laptop stayed in the bag all week.

Upsides –

  • Email on the go saves me a lot of time. I’ve also read that BlackBerry users gain an extra hour a day by taking advantage of small snippets of time. You spend a minute or two checking and responding to emails while waiting in line at the bank, etc… I’ve also already had two emails that needed urgent attention. Before the BB those would have been lost revenue.
  • The phone is nice and clear, and, for the most part, the signal is good.
  • The auto-type and other features makes it easy for even a sausage-fingered giant like me to get short emails out quickly and, mostly, accurately.
  • $250 on Ebay is WAY cheaper than canceling my contract and $600 on a phone!

Downsides –

  • The wheely-clicker thingy (it’s SO not a clickwheel) on the side is kinda clunky and gets me around menus slower than I’d like. I know that there’s better options on the newer models, but I wasn’t quite ready to go whole hog on this thing.
  • The internet is only OK. (I know, I was worried about this with the iPhone, and now this?!) Still, it’s reasonably fast, but the browser? Ick…
  • I’ve only synced it with my Mac once, but I had to buy another program to do it, and so far I’ve only gotten phone numbers and emails over. The calendar will have to wait until I have more time to tinker.

So, all in all, a welcome addition to the business, and, I have to say, it makes me feel all cool and techy!

I still want an iPhone, but I’m content to wait now.

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iToons

andertoons

With the iPhone coming out tomorrow, and that big screen looking like a good place for cartoons, I thought I’d take a look at everyone’s favorite cartoon site through the eyes of Steve Jobs:

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Not too bad really, let’s look at the cartoon close up…

Iandertoons2



Nice, actually. Sideways?

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Hmm… May have to do some resizing down the line…

Anyway, looking forward to seeing how/if this thing works!

(BTW, thanks to iPhoney for the preview!)

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The Future of Gag Cartoons

andertoons

Future

Mike Lynch was kind enough to point out a really interesting post from Scott Kurtz about possible future webcomic/traditional comic hybrids. (Just keep it away from the Cylons!)

It got me thinking about the future of my own often ignored little corner of the cartoon world.

Not so much about content per se; I’m not concerned with being topical or following the current humor flavor. But delivery, marketing, technology… That’s the stuff that fascinates me most.

Myself, a number of other cartoonists, and, of course, the 800 pound monocle, have found ways to earn a living online, or, at the very least, supplement traditional revenue streams. But I’m always wondering what’s next…

That iPhone looks promising. I think it’s probably the first device of its kind that would make reading comics and cartoons on your cell easy and enjoyable. Is there a market there? Will people pay for it? Is it more of a marketing tool to get people to your site?

There’s a lot of cartoon stock houses online, and I’ve considered expanding Andertoons similarly, but how can that system be improved? More cartoonist control? More user interaction? Do I even want to go there?

What about animation? I worked in Flash for a few months to varying degrees of artistic success, but do gag cartoons translate well? Would a static image with an audio track suffice? How much animation is enough?

Got me, but I can tell you one thing, if there’s a leading edge of gag cartooning, that’s where I’m most interested in being.

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