Yes, I know. It’s been awhile.

But we really have been busy over here, you know, getting ready for another BloomsDay. Last year at this time we had just started playing around with twitter and shining up all our big words and brass bells for presenting the project at the International James Joyce Conference in Buffalo, NY. That was fun, and a great way to get a project like this rolling, but this year we’ve been keeping kind of quiet as we get ready for something pretty special. Something we’ve planning for some time now:

The iPad.

As I write this note, Josh and our wonderful friends at Bunsen Tech have just completed the first version of our ULYSSES “SEEN” app, and it is now sitting, ready, available, and FREE, at the iTunes store. I myself have been waiting for this for a long time.

You can see the iPad App in action here.

Everything you’ve seen us do with this website, hell, everything since we first came up with the idea for the thing, has been made in anticipation of the new tablet devices. For a long time now I’ve thought that the interesting frontier for publishing was going come when we had a truly portable reading device. One that would allow readers to move through the “Z axis” of a book and into its annotations or tangential info without carrying a sack full of reference material. Joyce’s work is a perfect case example, of course. Now, with the tablet and its touchscreen feature, you can move from text to annotation cleanly all in one place. If you’ve enjoyed our handling of the novel through the comic and through the Readers’ Guide, well, this new iPad app is the way they’re really meant to work. I’m really happy to see, even in this first and somewhat cautious iteration, the thing we’ve been dreaming of doing for years now. If you own an iPad, or know someone who does, please take a minute to see how it works and give us some feedback.

In the app you’ll find the same features available on the website, just configured somewhat differently to make a new and interesting interface.  You’ll find the comic, the Readers’ Guide behind each comic page,  translations for foreign phrases and  a “Dramatis Personae” for figuring out who’s who. If you’ve got a wifi connection, there’s a chance to engage in the discussion from the Readers’ Guide and move deeper into our website for Joycean facts.

A good way to start discovering the novel without having to carry five or ten other pounds of annotation in your book bag. And interactive and, as it stands, free-on-line.

Why wouldn’t you want one?

Oh, and what can we do for you next?

–Rob