Japanese train pubs for iPad/iPhone/itouch

[cteno4]

Ok I downloaded a $2.99 copy of tetsudo omocha. It's only an iPhone size app so you have run it on the iPad as a 2x app. It's basically a scan of the magazine. The scans do go to 2x mode well and you ca. Zoom in about 250% to get a good look at even smaller pictures. At $3 for 113 pages it's quite nice to take some train mags on the road. Cheaper than buying used mags and shipping them by far, but you can't just pick them up and flip through them!

The publisher kosaido, also has a $6.99 app called diorama collection perfect manual that looks interesting and I may have to pop on as my curiosity is getting the better of me! Hs has it sold out for the print version for $14, probably another $6-8 for shipping. Again not the same feel as the print, but at one third the price may be worth it. Actually the other mag already reminded me of something interesting for a scene to make the boat haul out frames with old tires on them that they use in japan to haul out small to medium sized fishing boats with, so the $3 was with it there!

Kosaido also has a full sized book app free to load their pubs as well, but it's all in Japanese so I can't find train pubs in there...

Cheers,

Jeff

[cteno4]

Well i couldnt resist last night and went ahead and downloaded the diorama collection perfect manual. its interesting, two thirds tomytec catalog and one third pieces from rm pubs on bits and pieces of layouts and mini layouts that heavily use tomytec. has all the tomytec items up thru like the end of 2009 with nice pictures of all of them. the layout shots are the best part as there are some really nice little scenes done. not sure if it was worth the $6.99 or not, but still way cheaper than ordering a book version which i might have done...

it will be nice to have some japanese train stuff on the ipad when traveling. always nice to drool a little while on the road...

cheers

jeff

[Shashinka]

I DL'ed an issue last December and liked it, but haven';t bothered to buy any more issues. Also note there is the 2010 JR rolling stock Guide for like 4.99 on iTuens as well. I have a copy and it's pretty sweet.

[Martijn Meerts]

Shame it's all iPhone apps and not iPad/Universal... The iPad would be perfect for Japanese train magazines with their large amount of pictures =)

[cteno4]

Shame it's all iPhone apps and not iPad/Universal... The iPad would be perfect for Japanese train magazines with their large amount of pictures =)

to be fair the kosaido iphone app for the tensudo omocha and diorama collection does 2x scale well on the ipad to give full ipad resolution with 90% of the screen and also gives you full 250% enlargement. kosaido has a book app as well that is HD, but impossible to find the pubs through their system unless you read japanese!

wonder how well the jr rolling stock enlarges?

cheers

jeff

[Shashinka]

Shame it's all iPhone apps and not iPad/Universal... The iPad would be perfect for Japanese train magazines with their large amount of pictures =)

to be fair the kosaido iphone app for the tensudo omocha and diorama collection does 2x scale well on the ipad to give full ipad resolution with 90% of the screen and also gives you full 250% enlargement. kosaido has a book app as well that is HD, but impossible to find the pubs through their system unless you read japanese!

wonder how well the jr rolling stock enlarges?

cheers

jeff

Also note that the majority of the issues were released prior to that of the iPad.

[cteno4]

Im hoping they will update now with the ipad out and strong. their main reader app is universal. i bet they use the same engine to just make thier mini, individual readers.

i popped on the jr rolling stock book. nice. i now have a nice little selection of photos to drool on the ipad when flying or on the road! already found a few little detail ideas that have made the $20 on all of them worth it. usually its close to that to buy a single print pub used from japan with shipping.

cheers

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Yeah, it should be fairly easy to make iPad versions. As for finding them, maybe we should make a list with the iTunes store links to the ones we've found.

[Shashinka]

Maybe future issues will be but I don't expect that they will go back and rework existing issues. The company putting these out has a lot of other titles for iPhone out as ell at the moment, and I suspect the profit margin is not really going to justify a rework of released back issues.

[cteno4]

Actually my guess would be, once they have their app, wrapping the media is pretty simple and would expect when they do it they may go back as it just increases future sales of those old issues as well. what would be better would be to figure out how to order the media files for their reader as the media in both the iphone apps and the hd reader seem to be the same, just the reader is a more hd style app. publishers always have wanted this done on my projects with older content to keep it moving. they are use to second editions even if the content does not change.

big thing with the iapps is if they may want you to buy the new HD version separately. i havnt seen the app store have an upgrade option yet, but expect that will happen. i have a few itouch apps that i had to rebuy the HD version for the ipad.

not horrible as its pretty good in 2x only a little screen lost.

only bugger with these on the ipad in 2x is that you have to really flick the page with a long, hard stroke to get a page flip. expect this is due to the 2x, havnt tried it yet on the itouch. zoom and pan is nice and fast and smooth. it looks like the zoom goes 250% the full ipag view, but is really maybe 200% max to the bottom resolution, last bit looks to go past the bottom image resolution.

cheers

jeff

[IST]

Also note there is the 2010 JR rolling stock Guide for like 4.99 on iTuens as well. I have a copy and it's pretty sweet.

Could you tell the name of this? I tried to find it but no luck.

[Martijn Meerts]

i havnt seen the app store have an upgrade option yet, but expect that will happen. i have a few itouch apps that i had to rebuy the HD version for the ipad.

Unfortunately that's just the devs trying to earn a quick buck. You can build an iPhone app, an iPad app, or a universal app with 2 different UI's in it. Apple can't force devs to make iPad upgrades for iPhone apps.

There are also quite a few devs who actually make a universal app though.

[cteno4]

Also note there is the 2010 JR rolling stock Guide for like 4.99 on iTuens as well. I have a copy and it's pretty sweet.

Could you tell the name of this? I tried to find it but no luck.

NIPPON RETTO SHARYO ZUKAN, v4.1, Seller: Kosaido Co., Ltd (4+)

$4.99

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

i havnt seen the app store have an upgrade option yet, but expect that will happen. i have a few itouch apps that i had to rebuy the HD version for the ipad.

Unfortunately that's just the devs trying to earn a quick buck. You can build an iPhone app, an iPad app, or a universal app with 2 different UI's in it. Apple can't force devs to make iPad upgrades for iPhone apps.

There are also quite a few devs who actually make a universal app though.

Would be nice if they had a way that they could ask for a small upgrage charge if you already order something in iphone format and they come out with a ipad format. hopefully things will be more universal in the future. right now either they give it for free or you have to buy a second copy and pay full 2x. something like these japanese train pubs most of the price goes into the content, not the software, so if i would not mind paying like 99 cents to bump it to a universal app from an iphone app to help pay for the software upgrade, but would not want to pay the full $4.99 for a new universal or ipad app!

cheers,

jeff

[IST]

NIPPON RETTO SHARYO ZUKAN, v4.1, Seller: Kosaido Co., Ltd (4+)

Thank you, I bought it. :-)

[mariaclarie]

I urgently needed for Japanese train pubs for iPad/iPhone/itouch software. Thanx for sharing your knowledge. I will also gona buy it. :)

[grumbeast]

AAAARRRGGGHH!!

 of course, I had to buy some of these as soon as I saw this thread, and to be fair they do uprez on the iPad really rather nicely, the Pictures are great.

I wish I could read them, but the pictures are a real inspiration and It does give me something interesting to look at.

Are there any other j-train related (or indeed, other Japanese iPod/iPad apps that people would recommend?

Graham

[cteno4]

Ha something else to spend app money on! It has been fun looking at Japanese trains while tootling around Spain on holiday. iPad has been wonderful to travel with.

Cheers

Jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

I copied over PDF versions of "Remembering the Kanji" volume 1, 2 and 3 to my iPad, so now I can learn how to remember kanji 2 hours each day on the train =)

It does get some strange looks when people see you're learning kanji actually =)

[Martijn Meerts]

Ooh, old topic ;)

I noticed recently when going through some of the magazines optimized for the news stand feature in iOS5, that various Japanese magazines are available as well. So far no train magazines, but there is one called GIGA Hobby, which seems to have a lot of stuff on Gundam and the like.

It might very well be that rail magazines might start showing up as well at some point, would definitely be interesting.

[Dani]

I copied over PDF versions of "Remembering the Kanji" volume 1, 2 and 3 to my iPad, so now I can learn how to remember kanji 2 hours each day on the train =)

It does get some strange looks when people see you're learning kanji actually =)

I strongly suggest you ANKI. It's a spaced repetition system software (based on flashcards) to learn whatever you want, but it's perfect for kanji. I learned kanjis (and continue increasing) using at the same time "Remembering the Kanji" and ANKI. That's been the only way to put in my head all kanjis and vocabulary for Noken JLPT Level 3, now I go for level 2.

This application is free and you can download it for PC and Android. I dont't know if it's for iPhone or Apple stuff as I don't use it...

Gambatte!!!!

Dani.

[Martijn Meerts]

Looks like there are Mac and iOS versions as well. Might have to look into it once I have time to sit and learn Japanese.. My previous attempts haven't been very successful :)

Too much to do, too little time ;)