Comics [$0.99 - iTunes link] serves as both an iPhone formatted comic book store and reader. (Think iTunes but for comics). comiXology was kind enough to give us a preview of the app, which will be officially announced tomorrow at the San Diego Comic Con, home of all things good and geeky in the ‘verse.

First, Comics costs $0.99 because it uses in-app purchases to allow you to buy paid content (more comics). Apple says “free apps stay free”, so anything using in-app purchase has to be a paid app. Hence, the minimal price. On to the app.

There are multiple ways to find comics, featured, free, top 25, and browse/search. Lots of information and a few preview images are provided for each, along with a link to buy print versions, which opens a WebView to Amazon.com with an option to move it into Safari.

A good amount of free comics available — I went immediately for Robert Kirkman’s excellent Invincible. You need to set up an account before you can download comics, but it’s fairly quick (it does ask your birthdate, presumably for age-based ratings reasons). Once you’ve set up your account, you can download away. It took me 25 seconds over Rogers 3G to get a comic. Not bad.

A tutorial walks you through the “guided” mode of comics reading, and then away you go. It took me a second to get used to the animated way in which Comics takes you through panels, but it works well. You can turn to landscape when wanted, or disable rotation if it bothers you.

Of course, there’s no Marvel (think Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man) or DC (Batman, Superman) titles to be found, and for that I blame the same kind of slow thinking that long plagued music and still plagues other media to some extent.

It does give the independents a little room to shine, however.

Note: The developers are currently reporting problems with in-app purchases and the iTunes servers behind them, but say they’re working with Apple to resolve them. In the mean time, the free comics are all working just fine.

If you’re a comics fan, and you give Comics a try, let us know how you like it!

Tons of screen caps after the break!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: Comics iPhone Comic Store and Reader

Ken Case joins us from the OmniGroup to discuss OmniFocus and all things GTD. Show notes can be found at iPhoneAlley.com/podcast. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, email us at Podcast[at]iPhoneAlley.com.

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review

The much beloved Public Radio Tuner has been updated, and now sports a new name. Public Radio Player [App Store] is your easy way to get to most of the NPR stations in the country.

This new version, which remains free, also allows you to find archived shows, like Car Talk, Speaking of Pets, Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me, Fresh Air, and many others. This allows on-demand service of your favorite Public Radio programs.

You also can get a station's current schedule when you start to stream. Some stations don't support it, but if the metadata is there you'll see it in the app.

A couple of things to note at this point: Since the app has been renamed it may not appear when you check for updates at the App Store. However, when you run the older Public Radio Tuner, it will advise you of the new app and download it, leaving your older app in place. The new app won't have your favorites, so those will have to be added in manually.

There is a search function so you can find what you want by station name, call letters, frequency, city, region or category.

I find the new version a bit sluggish, and this is reflected by many other users comments. It's a bit slow to respond on either Wi-Fi or the 3G network.

Some of the stations appear in the list without their location, so it looks like the database should be cleaned up a bit. The app also has to my eye a rather sickly green color. Not a favorite of mine, and I think many people won't be wild about it. Note: The App Store page shows different, better colors (my view) but you can't get them on the release version.

Finally, I had some problems installing this app. On first run it said 'loading' and spun a gear for more than 10 minutes. I bailed out, re-booted my iPhone and it came up fine. If you see something similar, try re-starting your device and see if it solves it.

I love the new features in this app, but it has some rough edges. Luckily it doesn't write over the original version, so you can retain your favorites. I'd like to see a quick update and bug fix for this app, but as it is, it improves on the original feature set and should make Public Radio fans happy.

Here are some screen shots:

Public Radio app updated and renamed originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Public Radio app updated and renamed originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

A side panel of a retired Apple Power Mac G3 has been turned into a clock and sold on Etsy, the online shop for hand-made and one-off crafted goods.

In its appeal of the European Commission's antitrust ruling, Intel argues that the regulator failed to consider evidence supporting the chip maker's arguments.

Mikogo, a cross-platform Web-collaboration tool, which introduced Mac support earlier this year has launched a new Web site to reflect the free application's widening use.

Amazon.com has struck a deal to buy shoe and clothing retailer Zappos.com.

Sports Illustrated has just released their own almost-porn application to the App Store. Calling it the "World's Sexiest App", you can get pictures of 20 different models, as well as a 2-minute video of each on your iPhone for just $2.99, including the likes of Brooklyn Decker and Danica Patrick. Oh yeah, and also a sports calendar for keeping track of games or something. You can get it in the App Store.

Retronyms has just released DopplerPad, a new musical instrument app for the iPhone and iPod touch. This one lets you not only play notes, but sample, cut, and mix them right on the device. It also features a very unique, futuristic interface. it looks like it will certainly take some work to get used to it, but it seems extremely feature-rich and just darn cool. Video after the break.