As you may or may not know, an English version of the seiyuu magazine Pick-up Voice was released for iPhone/iPad a little while ago. Search for the Pick-up Voice Mobile in the app store/news stand and you should find it. The app itself is free, but you will need to pay a subscription fee or buy the individual issues to be able to read them.
My biggest problem with this app is actually the News Stand app itself. I had never used it before, but it annoys me to no end. When I first bought vol.1 I couldn't find it anywhere, so I had to choose download again. I didn't want to stream, so I downloaded the issue but if you close the app or your phone goes into standby mode the download stops and you'll have start over. Ugh. Eventually I managed to download it though. Next problem: if you switch into standby mode while reading the app closes and you'll have to manually select it again and manually browse to the page you were at again. Great (=_=;;).
Reading on an iPhone is slightly impractical but definitely possible. You'll have to zoom and scroll a bit to be able to read everything but it is not too bad. I imagine that it would be easier to read on an iPad. On the other had, I kind of wonder how it looks on an iPad. If I zoom a bit too much on my iPhone the image becomes pixilated pretty fast, so I was wondering how it looks on an iPad (If anyone has one and downloaded this, please let me know!) But once again: I feel blessed just because this exists.
I am really happy that they decided to release this, and I hope that they will continue to release more Issues in English. It really isn't that expensive, so I hope that everyone will support and buy this so that the publishers are encouraged to keep this up and maybe even release more stuff in a similar way!
Aww~ IOS users always gets the coolest things, I want an Android version! >_<;;
ReplyDeleteSorry (>.<)
DeleteHopefully they'll release an Android version too!
It was also my first time using the Newsstand app, so I was surprised myself that putting the device on standby stops the download. It was irritating; I had to turn off the standby mode as I can't watch over it as it finishes...
ReplyDeleteBut once it finished downloading, I was really happy; it was nice to read the magazine in English~
It is quite ok to read in a small screen (I only have an iPod touch). I think my only peeve about the magazine is that only the text is scalable, zooming in completely makes the images kind of blurred/pixelated...but then again, who am I to complain? It's in English! That in itself is a great thing!
I hope they'll be able to release more issues! (^w^)
Haha, my thoughts were EXACTLY the same. Slightly flawed or not, I am happy it exists xD
DeleteI agree with Laura Lanford! I have an android, so it'd be so nice to have a droid version >.<
ReplyDeleteThanks for telling us about this app!!! It's about time I put my ipad's newsstand to good use!!
ReplyDelete