Apple has done it again, again.
Their latest “Frankenstein” is called, ‘The Daily’, and while it is an online only magazine of sorts, it is really more of an electronic newspaper – and a fantastic one at that!
Now I’m sure you’re wondering how you can get your hands on this magazine/newspaper; well, there is one caveat – you have to own an iPad.
Apple released the application yesterday (2/2/11) for download in the ‘App Store’, and the first two weeks is a free trial, so you’d best to check it out quickly. After the trial period, it will cost you $0.99 cents a week or $39.99 a year to receive ‘The Daily’ delivered daily to your iPad. You can even utilize iTunes for billing, so in this way Apple makes it easy for you to subscribe.
"Thank you uncle Steve Jobs!"
I for one love it. Let me just get that out in the open. I’ve played with it now for two days and the amount of content is extraordinary, but that’s just the beginning. The interface is extremely user friendly, intuitive, and actually is overwhelming. I truly feel like I am looking at a newspaper, which looks like a magazine, but is masquerading as an interactive web site; Yahoo News, and USA Today comes to mind. The thing is, I’ve frequented all the major news, and newspaper applications, web sites, and none do what ‘The Daily’ does.
www.none.com
Which bring me to a question I’m sure you want to know the answer to:
“How is ‘The Daily’ different than any other media application(s) already out?”
‘The Daily’ is the first newspaper presumptuous enough to charge consumers for content that only exists in bits and bytes. The lone exception to this method is an online magazine by Richard Branson titled, ‘Project’. However, Branson’s application was and is child’s play when compared to all the content ‘The Daily’ is bringing to the table. His was not updated with the frequency of 'The Daily' for starters.
Here are some other features which ‘The Daily’ brings to the table:
- Over 100 pages of original news, life, entertainment, opinion, and sports
- Every single day of the year you are getting new contend – throughout the day
- Original video content
- A selection of articles read aloud
- 360 degree photos you can explore by swiping
- Immersive photography
- Interactive charts, info-graphics and clickable ‘hot spots’
- The option to save articles to read later
- Web-friendly versions of articles you can share via Twitter, Facebook, and e-mail.
- In app comments – including audio comments
- Your local weather
- Your favorite sports team’ scores, news, and feeds
- Crossword and Sudoku puzzles
As you can see, ‘The Daily’ is more of a newspaper than anything else, only it is much cooler and convenient. It’s less expensive than newspaper, eco friendly at that, and actually is less expensive than if you actually did subscribe to your local newspaper.
The first thing I did was in put my favorite teams, and what an experience that was in it of itself. I was able to get all the news, twitter information, photos, and video of my favorite team – per team. It isn’t a big cluster of information either; I can sort by team and only focus on that particular team.
In a world where time is more valuable than money, the layout capitalizes on this fact, while embracing even the laziest of individual’s by providing plenty of audio, and video for enjoyment. It’s really that good.
Final Thoughts
This app definitely gets 5 out of 5 ‘Dog Paws’ and without question is worth $0.99 cents a week, let alone the better way to go, paying $39.99 for the entire year. As a matter of fact, I just spent the last 30 minutes in the restroom on my iPad and I still did not get half way through all the content.
This is the "must own app" of 2011 - hands down!
(Images can be found at apple.com)
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