3 ms·
> Marvel Unlimited is a travesty on Android tablets I've made some big improvements to it. Due to my frustration with the Android app, I used it as a learning
by bobbyi_settv 13y ago
> Marvel Unlimited is a travesty on Android tablets
I've made some big improvements to it. Due to my frustration with the Android app, I used it as a learning opportunity to find out how to take an Android app, decompile it, modify it and recompile.
I've fixed the fact that on my tablet (Nexus 10), the pages weren't shown full screen, which made the app useless. I've fixed the issue where it sometimes falls into "two page" reading mode when switching screen orientations. I've added the ability to tap the screen edges to move back/ forward a page like in Comixology and ever reasonable CBR reader app. I've fixed some other miscellaneous bugs.
After these changes, I'm a happy user of the MU service and have been using it regularly. I just finished Deadpool Killustrated and the first six issues of Kelly Sue DeConnick's Captain Marvel.
I'd like to get my modifications to others, but I'm not sure how. I can't post the source or the apk for my modified version of the app (I call it "the All-New Marvel Unlimited") because it is a modified version of Marvel's app that I don't have the right to distribute. I've been thinking about trying to put together a project on github that would just contain diffs to turn MU into ANMU and a script to pull the apk for MU from your tablet, uninstall it from your tablet, decompile it, apply the diffs and re-install it. This would require enabling USB debugging on the tablet and having the Android SDK on your computer plus some other Android tools, which is going to make it too difficult for non-technical comic fans, even if I put a lot of work into trying to make the installer "easy" to run everywhere (including Windows). Is there a better way to handle this or any existing work I can build upon?
- cwal37 13y agoYou're doing great work it sounds like. I also have Nexus 10 (you're the first person I've ever heard or read mentioning owning one other than myself), so you understand my pain in trying to use that piece of junk. Unfortunately, while I am someone who would love, love, love to have your version of the app, I might be one of the worst people on HN to ask about how to handle/distribute it, as I'm an environmental scientist/energy economist. Python and Matlab are as far as my day-to-day programming go, although I have wanted to work on an Android app for a while.
- bobbyi_settv 13y agoYeah, the question about distribution wasn't necessarily aimed at you in particular, as much as I am hoping that someone seeing this will know something about this and have some advice. If you'd like to try my version of the app, please drop me an email at bobbyi@gmail.com . I'll send you whatever I can put together if/ when I bundle it into something redistributable. The same goes for anyone else reading this!
- annnnd 13y agoDid you try contacting the original authors? For my SW projects I would be thrilled to know about stuff that anooyed someone so much that he went into all the trouble of decompiling/fixing/recompiling. They have a chance to make their product better right here...
- bobbyi_settv 13y agoI haven't. If I have time, I would like to write a blog post explaining what bugs I have found and changes I have made. If I do, I hope I can get the relevant people to see it.