ArcticEvening Going Copenhagen - Last Chance To Get A Ticket
To continue our ArcticEvening tour around Northern Europe we will be organising an ArcticEvening in Copenhagen, Denmark on 24th June. The date is set so that it is in the eve of the awesome reboot conference.
We have still some 20 tickets or so left and you can reserve your free ticket here or at below. Go get your now!
We are going with a different format this time (no panel) and want to bring out all the best startups in the region. We have a amazing line up coming.
Here's the list of startups that will be presenting (we also might add a few extra appearances). The presentations start at 18.30 sharp(!), so be there in time.
Campfire Brings Marvel Comics to Mobiles
Campfire is a Danish startup, founded in 2007. The company offers cartoons to mobile handsets under a service called Catooz. And not just any cartoons, but licensed ones from Marvel. Campfire signed a deal with Marvel in October last year. Right now there are strips of Xmen, Spiderman, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, etc. The service is currently available in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Germany.
Campfire provides a Java client for accessing Catooz, the installing of which is smooth. The comics are distributed in multiple small packages, "chapters". Each chapter might cover around couple of pages of a physical magazine and is downloaded over-the-air. There is one free "chapter" of each comic as an introduction and a teaser to the service. You can buy more chapters easily from within the mobile client. However, the single chapters are really overpriced at EUR 2 (USD 2,69), considering you only get only a few of minutes' worth of reading, and there are apparently 6 chapters per story. The purchase process works smoothly, though: you press 'Yes' to confirm, and you'll instantly start reading the strip. The payment system appears to be implemented over Ericsson IPX, so being SMS-based might explain the high pricepoint. Luckily, Catooz also offers a basic monthly subscription at EUR 4 per month, which is much better deal. With the basic subscription you can read all comics which have been published over a month ago. There is also offer a premium subscription at EUR 8 (USD 10,70) that allows unlimited access also to the latest comics. At the present time it seems only basic is available, though.
It's also worth noticing the EULA states all purchased comics are yours for only maximum a year - and, Campfire can remove all purchased comics from the service without any compensation to customers, should any of the copyright holders request so (i.e., decide to pull out from the partnership). Nevertheless, at least you are able to keep your purchased comics even after changing phone, provided you keep the same SIM card and phone number.
I tried the Finnish version of Catooz. I have to say the translations were a bit poor - lots of spelling erros, and some bad sounding sentences. The comics look really good, though. Catooz supports phones with resolutions from 128x160 to 320x240. Campfire describes all the comics content is created or transformed from scratch into mobile. Images are hand drawn, and the process involves story writing, translating, storyboarding, drawing, colouring, scanning, rescaling, transferring to an advanced graphical technology, colouring, and finally transferring the graphics to their Java application. Catooz also offers "cinematic sound" along with the imaging, and some visual effects like flashes and shaking. The effects boost up the experience nicely. I noticed, though, the sounds work best while you are on the go, as they end quite sharply rather than smoothly fade out, giving a somewhat add-on feeling in a quiet place.
