How about a Housepets smartphone app?

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Anthroguy101
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How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Anthroguy101 »

:idea: Perhaps something that works with Android, iPhone/iPod Touch, and possibly Blackberry and Windows Mobile 7. I know there are some good programmers in this forum. Worth a thought.
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Rojo Ninja
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Rojo Ninja »

I was thinking about that the other day! lol that would be awesome!
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Dylan
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Dylan »

It would be cool to check the comic on a phone without losing quality in a phone web browser, especially double strips, it is all pixelated on a phone.
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Dubiousity »

*Doesn't have a Smartphone*
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Typhon
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Typhon »

Dylan wrote:It would be cool to check the comic on a phone without losing quality in a phone web browser, especially double strips, it is all pixelated on a phone.
I checked housepets on my friend's iphone. Looked perfectly fine.
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Shyanne »

That would be sooo cool! ...if I had a smartphone..
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Zander
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Zander »

*Thinks about makeing the Housepets! app for iphone*
*jots down ideas*
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KEVON
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by KEVON »

I was also thinking about this. The easiest thing to do would be to just make an app that's essentially a dedicated RSS feed reader. That wouldn't be hard to do at all.... Anything else and then you're going to need to know some serious programing.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/13 ... ne_app.php

I've found that resource before with all the options someone could take to make such an app... I was seriously thinking about doing this, but maybe for a later date. I'll probably eventually seriously look into doing it if nobody else does (pending Rick's permission first.)
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Anthroguy101
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Anthroguy101 »

The app could be a paid app, if the comic is worth that much. There could also be ads on it. That money would then go to Rick so he'd a reason to continue with the comic.
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Typhon
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Typhon »

Anthroguy101 wrote:The app could be a paid app, if the comic is worth that much. There could also be ads on it. That money would then go to Rick so he'd a reason to continue with the comic.
I don't think a paid app would be a good idea. Considering this comic doesn't have as large as a fan base like something Garfield would and a lot of those fans might not have a smart phone and a lot of those fans might not want to buy an app when they could just go online on their phone and read it for free.

Sorry to burst your bubble lol.
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Anthroguy101
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Anthroguy101 »

Typhon wrote:
Anthroguy101 wrote:The app could be a paid app, if the comic is worth that much. There could also be ads on it. That money would then go to Rick so he'd a reason to continue with the comic.
I don't think a paid app would be a good idea. Considering this comic doesn't have as large as a fan base like something Garfield would and a lot of those fans might not have a smart phone and a lot of those fans might not want to buy an app when they could just go online on their phone and read it for free.

Sorry to burst your bubble lol.
That doesn't mean it can't be used for ad space (still a source of revenue for Rick). The point is to increase the comic's audience anyhow.

Aside from that, here's what we should be asking: what features should be included?
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Typhon
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Typhon »

Anthroguy101 wrote:
Typhon wrote:
Anthroguy101 wrote:The app could be a paid app, if the comic is worth that much. There could also be ads on it. That money would then go to Rick so he'd a reason to continue with the comic.
I don't think a paid app would be a good idea. Considering this comic doesn't have as large as a fan base like something Garfield would and a lot of those fans might not have a smart phone and a lot of those fans might not want to buy an app when they could just go online on their phone and read it for free.

Sorry to burst your bubble lol.
That doesn't mean it can't be used for ad space (still a source of revenue for Rick). The point is to increase the comic's audience anyhow.

Aside from that, here's what we should be asking: what features should be included?
If increasing the comic's audience is the main goal, free would be the best way to go. Giving it a price takes even more legal hurdles to overcome, and you might end up paying more than you get if sales are low.
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Anthroguy101
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Anthroguy101 »

Typhon wrote: If increasing the comic's audience is the main goal, free would be the best way to go. Giving it a price takes even more legal hurdles to overcome, and you might end up paying more than you get if sales are low.
I see your point. Do you think there should be a feature for comments and what not? Perhaps a way to get to the tags (organizing and such) as well as by date? Shouldn't there be 4 buttons on the bottom to navigate? (first, previous, next, last) So many things worth considering.
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Adzo »

The problem with making an app along these lines worthwhile would be offering some advantage over the browser, Taking iPhones for example, the browser copes pretty well, and comics saved as images look good.
A mobile version of the site would probably be a more efficient way of optimising the comic for smartphones.
An app would be cool, but wouldn't offer much more than the browser would provide.
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Anthroguy101
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Anthroguy101 »

Adzo wrote:The problem with making an app along these lines worthwhile would be offering some advantage over the browser, Taking iPhones for example, the browser copes pretty well, and comics saved as images look good.
A mobile version of the site would probably be a more efficient way of optimising the comic for smartphones.
An app would be cool, but wouldn't offer much more than the browser would provide.
If you organized the comics in an iPod sort of way I'm sure people would be interested.

Comic>
*current comic>
*arcs>
*about>
Characters>
*character 1>
-find comic with this character
*character 2>
-find comic with this character
*character 3>
-find comic with this character
*etc.>
-Find comics with this character>
Forum>

is just one way to do it.
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by ReCreate »

I actually made a mobile view of the comic site(containing the strip, comments, alt tip, title... etc) around the time I made the comment stats, but I never released it/made it public as it's technically a copyright violation/something along the lines of that.
It's a PHP script that parses all the data from the strip page, and displays it on a more minimal template that renders better on mobile devices.
I dug up some screenshots of it (rendering in firefox on a PC, though):
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Typhon
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Re: How about a Housepets smartphone app?

Post by Typhon »

ReCreate wrote:I actually made a mobile view of the comic site(containing the strip, comments, alt tip, title... etc) around the time I made the comment stats, but I never released it/made it public as it's technically a copyright violation/something along the lines of that.
It's a PHP script that parses all the data from the strip page, and displays it on a more minimal template that renders better on mobile devices.
I dug up some screenshots of it (rendering in firefox on a PC, though)
I just realize how much different peanut and grape looked back then :)

Better?
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