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Marvel comics arrive in Hoopla's public library app
Comic books are a brilliant medium, but keeping up with the latest releases can be expensive. If you live in the US, it's worth checking out Hoopla; the service is supported by more than 1,500 public libraries, and offers free digital access to DC, Image and IDW titles. And starting today, another major publisher is joining the platform: Marvel. More than 250 collections and graphic novels will be available, including Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet book one — by author, journalist and comic book writer Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates — Civil War and X-Men: The Dark Pheonix Saga.
Hoopla's public library app gets Chromecast support
Hoopla, the app that lets you borrow videos, books and music from your local library digitally, has been on a roll this year when it comes to adding comics. Now, it's making a play for your living room by adding Chromecast support for videos. You'll need a public library card to access Hoopla's streaming catalog, as always, but at least you won't have to worry about late fees. Anything you borrow from Hoopla expires automatically (and yes, multiple people can view the same file at once). Digital lending isn't anything new for libraries, but usually it involves fighting with a clunky library website, rather than having everything accessible through a simple app. Hoopla currently covers 865 library systems, and its library now has more than 400,000 pieces of media.
'Sin City' and 'Hellboy' comics come to Hoopla's public library app
After adding DC and Image Comics to its public library digital-checkout service, Hoopla is back with news that Dark Horse Comics' titles are now available for all your Sin City, Hellboy and Lone Wolf and Cub reading enjoyment. The Hoopla app and service syncs with participating local libraries to offer digital versions of books, audio books, albums, movies, TV shows and of course graphic novels. If you have a library card and your local branches support it the service, you can check out digital versions of media right from your phone or browser. When your item is due back at the library, it just disappears from your account. So if you're a fan of comic books, it's probably a good idea to see if your library supports the app.
Library app lets you check out 'The Walking Dead' and other digital comics
Before it was a TV show and video game, The Walking Dead was a comic book from publisher Image Comics. It's a great series and if you're interested in catching up on the source material for the TV show, you might be in luck. The public library app, Hoopla announced today that it was partnering with Image Comics to bring The Walking Dead, Spawn and Saga to its service. Hoopla partners with local libraries to give library card holders the ability to check out digital copies of books, music, videos, audiobooks and comics. the amount of titles available for check during the month depends on the deal between Hoopla and the library. But when your check out period is up, the title automatically disappears from your iOS, Android device or Kindle tablet. It recently added a bunch of DC titles including a whole slew of Dark Knight graphic novels to its roster. So if you're library supports Hoopla and you want to supplement your watching of Fear the Walking Dead you can do so without spending any money.
Public library app Hoopla adds DC comics to its lineup
DC comics have been available digitally for a while. But while some public libraries have carried physical DC titles, you couldn't check them out digitally. Starting today, though, fans of reading comics on glowing screens will be happy to learn that DC has partnered with Hoopla to bring some of its titles to the digital version of your public library. At launch, Hoopla users will be able to borrow 25 of DC Entertainment's top titles including Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Superman: Earth One, V for Vendetta, Final Crisis and Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood. Whether you're a hardcore comic fan or just want to catch up on some of the best stories DC has ever published, it's a pretty nice list of graphic novels. Hoopla will add additional titles every week and a company spokesperson tells Engadget that it will add 200 over the course of the summer. The caveat is that you need a library card and your local library system has to support the Hoopla system and its new e-book and comic offerings.
Hoopla lets you digitally borrow almost anything from your library
Today the Hoopla service and apps added e-books and comic to its media library of audiobooks, movies, TV shows and albums. While the app has always synced with local libraries, it wasn't until today that the app was meant for reading. The new offerings will be from IDW Publishing, RosettaBooks, Chicago Review Press and others with more publishers being announced in the coming months. The reading feature includes options similar to Amazon's Whispersync with the ability to read a book across multiple devices and the options to adjust fonts, line spacing, columns and background. For comic book fans, a feature called "Action View" enlarges individual panels with a double tap for easier reading on mobile devices. "One of our main objectives for libraries is to be mobile centric," said owner and founder Jeff Jankowski.
You're too late: People are already 100 in WoW
Too bad for those of us stuck working today instead of playing video games: There are already folks at the level cap in World of Warcraft. The Warlords of Draenor expansion launched early this morning amid complaints of lag, queues, and horrifically bottlenecked quests, but that hasn't been enough to stop the truly dedicated. On my home server, which my guildies affectionately refer to as Crashridge, there appear to be no 100s roaming the world yet, but Eurogamer reports that European servers have several dozen apiece thanks to the earlier launch there. The level-capped rushers took advantage of legitimate garrison-related experience bonuses and dailies but also repeatable turn-in quests deemed exploits by Blizzard, which temp-banned and de-leveled at least one Polish player for using them as seen in this colorful video. So much for that world first!
