The Daily is a newspaper app for the iPad which has been presaged with a lot of media coverage. Not too surprisingly, it has been getting a lot of dark reviews and some schadenfreude regarding some ‘roll out’ problems. I have seen a lot of coverage about the fact that Rupert Murdoch is the motivating principle in this iPad newspaper. Since the world of Apple is a bit more on the progressive edge of things than the rest of us, the idea of giving a less than flattering review as a sort of proxy taunt at Mr. Murdoch and the rest of his media empire is to be expected…
The Daily, when seen on its own is a very flashy iPad centric basic newspaper, in that it has superficial news coverage (ala USA Today), with the de rigueur sports, weather, gossip coverage, along with a crossword puzzle, horoscopes and a Sudoku game… In the world of news this would be the equivalent of a MacDonald’s Egg McMuffin… There is nothing wrong with it, it is flashy and bright, and it is not for the hardcore news junkie…
There have been a few technical problems with the roll out of this app…in the week that I have checked it out, I have had quite a few blank screens and it shut itself off a few more times too… In context, the Flipboard app had a pretty rocky start too…
I wish that there was more coverage of this app than: a. Rupert Murdoch is an ass, and b. it crashes a lot (in the first week). These points are arguably worthwhile (to someone) but don’t give too much illumination of the product itself…
If you have an iPad, and you want a simple newspaper app (you will need to subscribe to it, just like a real newspaper), I think that it has little or no real competition…yet.
The Daily, Rupert Murdoch’s iPad newspaper, becomes Apple’s first subscription app
http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/02/the-daily-rupert-murdochs-ipad-newspaper-becomes-apples-firs
On the other hand, if you are interested in reading newspapers, and want as much information as possible I would suggest the Newspaper app. This app has access to over 4,000 newspapers all over the world. The net result is that you can read about breaking news where it is taking place instead of the increasingly fatuous American news coverage.
I have been using both of these apps, as well as a few other news apps and I still find that the Newspaper app is the one I go to when there is something I need to know. Case in point, the Egyptian coverage of the street riots in Cairo has been far less hysterical than what I have seen in or on the major news outlets (from the New York Times to Fox News).
The bottom line is that some people want access to news and others want an adjunct to their morning regimen,i.e. something to go with the morning coffee…
