ComicGlass [ComicReader‪]‬ 12+

Love this app, have used it for years and I can’t recommend it enough. However, I do think this could be an even better app if they added the ability to access your Apple Files folder to download your files from there.

This app was critically acclaimed several years ago, around 2014. Having the features ComicGlass seemingly suggests back in 2014 would have made it a killer app, and it has. Now most of the features are completely broken, and I’m afraid the dev is no longer interested in maintaining the app alive.

One of the notable feature that is no longer stable is its network-related streaming and downloading feature. Back in 2014, iTunes was still strong; and most files would have been transferred over wires. In 2020, we expect our wireless network to handle most of troublesome background works, and we have made our preferences to streaming, instead of downloading. Now, does ComicGlass pull through? No. WebDAV is a mess; it crashes constantly. Its server side app also crashes constantly. No need to mention SMB or FTP. Moreover, server side app was not necessary to make in the first place; Mac has been supporting SMB for quite a time. What this app needs is maintenance.

Most apps of this caliber would have made a paid-upgrade version or subscription-like payments to keep the project afloat. Seeing how there has never been one mentioned, –perhaps Japanese dev website has some info on the matter– I can only imagine this app was simply thrown off the bus.

I bought this app 5 years ago and it’s still getting fixes and updates for new hardware without any additional requests for money. That alone makes this app worth buying.

It also also has a feature I believe is still unique - it supports using a local server (including a simple PC file share) to stream your content from a single location. So you can store your collection on a device with lots of storage and not have to fill up your mobile device. This is brilliant!