Filed under: SXSW

Chances are, if you're reading TUAW, you most likely love all things Apple and Mac. You may also be an iPhone or iPod touch user. And, like many Apple lovers (including myself), you may also be a fan of comic books. If so, what if you want to take your comics on the road with you and don't want to lug around a huge stack of titles? Instead of having to take paper comics, what if you could digitize them and read them on your handheld?

Well, those are just the type of questions I hoped to have answered by attending the Comics on Handhelds panel at South by Southwest Interactive last week. On the panel were Douglas Edwards, CEO of UCLICK, Molly Crabapple of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School, Dave Bort, a Google/Android Engineer, Rantz Hoseley, CEO of the LongBox Group and Richard Stevens of "Diesel Sweeties" fame. The panel was moderated by comics creator and mobile comics proponent Dan Goldman.

First off, Goldman started with a definition of what comics are: stories told with words and pictures. He explained that comics can be in any form and do not have to be on paper in order to be considered "comics."

With that out of the way and hoping to provide a "common starting place," Goldman next went into a discussion of formatting comics for mobile devices and alternative delivery methods, using Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield's "FreakAngels" as an example; it works well on a mobile device despite being made originally for the printed page.

"Change in platform demands change in format," Goldman said.

Here's a short video from SXSW with DiggNation hosts Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose, where Rose goes through a laundry list of iPhone 3.0 features that will allegedly be announced tomorrow during the Apple Press Event.

This video sounds rather alcohol-fueled -- at least it appears that the audience members, who are screaming out their most-wanted features for most of the video, were rather drunk -- and Rose has a somewhat checkered past with his Apple predictions, but his description of cut & paste on the iPhone sounds quite realistic.

He also states at one point that the point of the 3.0 release is to bring the iPhone's feature set to the level of the Palm Pre. If that's the case, then we should also hear about Bluetooth tethering and integrated MMS messaging for the iPhone -- which I, for one, seriously doubt. Of course, we'll all see what's coming tomorrow, and you can get your coverage of the event here on TUAW. Note that the video contains words that may be offensive to some people.

[via Engadget]

Pangea Software have made some of the most successful and fun software for the Mac. Games like Cro-Mag Rally, Nanosaur and their most popular title, Bugdom, have propelled them into the upper echelon of Mac game developers. More recently, Pangea is making games for the iPhone and iPod touch and have, in fact, made the decision to develop for those devices exclusively.

I sat down with Pangea's CEO Brian Greenstone during SXSW to talk with him about his favorite games, making games for the iPhone and why he thinks its easier to make games for the iPhone and iPod touch.

CHRIS ULLRICH: Hey Brian, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. First question for you about games on the iPhone is why the iPhone?

BRIAN GREENSTONE: Originally I chose the iPhone because i wanted to see my games on a mobile device. For years i had been trying to get my games ported to Gameboy or something and companies would always say they would do it then it would never happen. They would just vanish.

I just wanted a mobile version of a game so the iPhone came along and I decided to do a couple games for it. I didn't care so much if we lost money, i just wanted to do it. Of course it turned out well and now it's what we do full time.

CU: You're focusing exclusively on the iPhone now?

Panels at SXSW range from touchy-feely to nuts-and-bolts. This panel was the latter. The panelists came armed with data and didn't pull punches when it came to criticism of the store or other apps.The panelists: Stephanie Morgan from ngmoco, Danielle Cassley from Aurora Feint, Raven Zachary (moderator) and Brian Greenstone from Pangea Software.

Raven Zachary is the guy responsible for the Obama campaign app, and he started off with some stats from Pinch Media around how many devices are out there: roughly 20-30 million. We don't know exact iPod touch numbers because Apple doesn't publish those, but there was a huge jump in iPod touch browser detection after the holidays.

Thus, factoring in iPhone numbers and an estimate of iPod touches, we get upwards of 20 million devices. Another interesting point: 70% of mobile browsing is done via iPhone or touch. That's a staggering amount, especially in comparison to other platforms, with Java only accounting for 8%, Windows Mobile about the same, and it goes south from there. Plus, games account for most App Store downloads, with puzzle games being the most downloaded genre.

Next up was Stephanie Morgan from ngmoco, who discussed some things we all know: the iPhone is unlike any gaming platform or handheld. She explained a sort of tiered approach to ngmoco's efforts: starting with free apps to build awareness, moving up to building a platform for good games, and ultimately expanding into the paid apps -- where the money is, of course. Stephanie did put some stats on the board, however.

For one, we found out that iPhone games don't have to be designed for McNugget-sized attention spans. According to ngmoco, the average time spent playing Rolando is over 20 minutes each time it is played. Of course, there are lots of levels in Rolando. By comparison, MazeFinger average play time was around 6 minutes.

To find out about Aurora Feint's asynchronous gameplay efforts and Pangea sales numbers, keep reading.