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View .cbr comics on your iPhone
Of course there's an app for this, but I'd never even considered it. While I do occasionally read .cbr (Comic Book Archive files) on my desktop, the iPhone didn't really occur to me as a portable comic book reading device. But sure enough, there are apps for that. iComic is probably the cheapest, but I hear it's a little tough to get set up. ComicZeal is extremely popular, and just a little bit cheaper from the somewhat similar myComics. Pull Lists uses a desktop client to sync up comics for you, which is a little more than I need, but it seems like some people like it. There are actually lots of choices, it turns out -- I would have thought that the iPhone's screen was pretty small for reading comic book pages, but I'll have to give those apps a try.Or, if you're too cheap to pay a buck or two for a full app, you can even do it yourself. .cbr files are really just .jpg archives, so as this tip from a while back on the iPhone Comic Book Reader says, you can actually extract out the jpegs, and then just sync them up to your iPhone via iPhoto if you want. Three dollars really isn't that much, and any of those apps listed above will give you a little more functionality (easy flipping between pages, bookmarking, and many other features per app), but if you really want to DIY, there you go.Now it would be nice to be able to officially buy .cbr archives over the web from some of the major companies -- the closest they've come that I know of is a subscription service, but of course you've got to use their own client for that (and there's no iPhone app that I can find, though Uclick has a few apps in there for certain books). As long as reading pirated .cbr files is outlawed, only outlaws will end up reading them.
New Champions Online gameplay video, screens and writer interview surface
.msnbcLinks {font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 425px;} .msnbcLinks a {text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px;} .msnbcLinks a:link, .msnbcLinks a:visited {color: #5799db !important;} .msnbcLinks a:hover, .msnbcLinks a:active {color:#CC0000 !important;} Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy It looks like Champions Online is surfacing in some new places with a new gameplay video up on MSNBC and an interview with John Layman, the game's writer, up on Comic Book Resources. The video isn't in the best resolution, but it's enough to see that the visuals and new powers are really starting to come along. A lot of ambient lighting seems to have been added, which is making the game look much more visually appealing. We did notice some of the animations were certainly looking finished, while some weren't quite there yet. A caveat: If obsessively following MMOs-in-development for over nine years has taught us anything, it's that games often don't look "finished" until they just about ready to ship.The interview with John Layman comes with a cache of new screens, which are the first set that really make the game look good in a paused state -- something not achieved until now. As for the discussion with Layman, it's entirely worth a read if you're interested in Champions Online at all.
Championship Bull Riding bucks over to RFD HD this March
Hold onto your cattle, folks, as Championship Bull Riding is indeed making the move to RFD-TV and RFD HD in a month. Yep, the show reportedly voted as a "#1 fan favorite" on the Outdoor Channel for three consecutive years is moseying on over to another network in March -- the same one that finally landed a carriage agreement with Comcast just last week. Apparently, the move will enable the program's hours to expand, as new episodes will premiere on Wednesday nights with repeats airing just after the debut and on Saturday nights as well. Overall, the CBR will be able to produce 32 new episodes per year on RFD HD (up from 20), and you can wrangle up your pals on March 5th at 10:00PM EST to celebrate the occasion. Yeehaw![Image courtesy of Pictopia]
