OneManga's death and what it means for Mango

As you may already know, OneManga has been pressured by a coalition of English and Japanese manga publishers to remove all of their scanlated manga. Since Mango uses OneManga.com as its source for images, obviously this means the app will no longer have anywhere to get content from, starting August 1st.

I am still deciding on what I'll do with Mango. I may add more manga sources, however this is not a trivial task and the publishers are serious about shutting down as many sites as possible (they've already killed MangaToshokan and OneManga, while MangaVolume and MangaFox have been pressured into removing a large portion of their library). Adding another site only to have it taken down in a week means a *lot* of wasted time and coding effort.

Another option I am considering is making Mango an offline manga reader, meaning that the app will be used to read images you put on your SD card. If I go this route, I may develop an app you run on your computer, similar to iTunes, that automatically downloads and "syncs" manga you subscribe to to the phone. However this would be a lot of work and the resulting app probably wouldn't be free.

And of course the final option I'm considering is letting the app go all together. Obviously this is the least attractive option, but I've spent a year on this app and a part of me would like to stop. :/

Whatever the case, you can bookmark the Mango Facebook page to stay updated on Mango's status. The app will be broken for a week or two while I work things out, but I haven't abandoned it just yet.

What is Mango?

Mango is a free manga (Japanese comics) reader app for smartphones. Mango lets you read any series from the huge library of translated manga available over at OneManga.com, right through your phone's 3G or WiFi internet connection. Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Vampire Knight, D.Gray-man, Air Gear, and many, many more titles can be read from anywhere -- at school, on the bus, waiting in line, and with the new offline reading feature, even on a plane!

Of course, Mango is completely free, and it has absolutely no advertisements anywhere in the app. Plus, Mango has tons of helpful features to make reading manga on smaller screens more enjoyable, including auto-resizing, a magnifying glass, page preloading, touchscreen/keyboard controls, a great bookmarking system, and many more, making the Mango manga reader app the best way to read manga on your smartphone.

If you like Mango, please feel free to donate! Or, you can wait a little longer and upgrade to Mango Bankai for just $3.99, which will include even more cool stuff like MyAnimeList.net synchronization, Updated Manga Alerts, Search by Character, Browse by Artist, Genre, and New Releases, and offline manga reading!

So what are you waiting for? Download Mango today and unleash your BlackBerry's inner otaku! :]

Mango is currently only available for BlackBerry smartphones. Don't worry though, I'm hard at work on making it available to as many platforms as possible, including iPhone and iPod touch, Google Android, and Windows Mobile. Check the Mango Facebook page for more information on when the other versions of Mango will be ready.

Please support the publishers that translate your favorite manga and bring it over to the US. Buy manga volumes when they are available in your area's local bookstores. And besides, having a physical, high quality, printed book is a lot nicer than reading manga on any screen. :D

Become a fan on Facebook!

If you have a Facebook profile, why not become a fan of Mango? By doing so, you'll receive status updates on new features, development status, beta test announcements, and a lot more! You'll also have a quick, easy, and direct line of communication to the Mango developer (me), so you can let me know whenever you've got a comment, suggestion, or (hopefully not) problem.

Click the Become a Fan button below, or go to www.facebook.com/MangoApp.