Free Access to 'The Daily' Extended to February 28th as Wait for iOS 4.3 Continues

[MacRumors]

As noted by Macerkopf.de [Google translation], free access to the new iPad news publication The Daily has been extended beyond the original two-week trial period, pushing the free access window out to February 28th. The change comes as we continue to await the public release of iOS 4.3, which will bring support for the in-app recurring subscriptions to be used by The Daily.

With its February 2nd debut carrying a two-week free trial from Verizon, The Daily sparked speculation that a public release of iOS 4.3, and possibly even an introduction of the next-generation iPad, would occur within that two-week period. In particular, one rumor claimed that iOS 4.3 would appear today, a move that appears unlikely to happen given that Apple's usual iOS release time of 10:00 AM Pacific Time has already passed.

Even without a release today, the broader two-week window for an iOS 4.3 is in fact rapidly drawing to a close, and this extension of free access to The Daily suggests that we may have to wait a little while longer for the software update to make its public debut.

Article Link: Free Access to 'The Daily' Extended to February 28th as Wait for iOS 4.3 Continues

 

[obeygiant]

The Daily crashes every time i use it...every time multiple times.

 

[TheYankees1903]

My guess is that iOS 4.3 is NOT released alongside the new iPad revision!

 

[sphoenix]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8C148)

Isn't the iOS 4.3 release drawing pretty close with the introuction of 5.0?

 

[Spooner83]

i thought the release was today?

 

[rdstoll]

extension of free trial more likely due to the crap content in The Daily. who wants to pay for that garbage?

 

[Cougarcat]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8C148)

Isn't the iOS 4.3 release drawing pretty close with the introuction of 5.0?

5.0 will likely be announced in March/April, but won't come until this summer.

 

[linux2mac]

i thought the release was today?

Same here. Hopefully soon.

 

[flipperman75]

I don't get it

I don't understand what the connection is between the OS and a subscription. I have to have a Facebook account to log into Facebook on my iPhone app, and that has nothing to do with the OS. How is that any different from this situation? You buy a subscription and you can see the content. If not, the app won't load the content. Why does that need an OS update?

 

[CQd44]

To those saying the content is crap:

Is it really that bad? I use the genie widget on my phone for news. How would The Daily compare?

 

[wjones]

I know for a fact that apple would sell 46.4% more next generation iPads if they included an internal ODD.

 

[Cougarcat]

I don't understand what the connection is between the OS and a subscription. I have to have a Facebook account to log into Facebook on my iPhone app, and that has nothing to do with the OS. How is that any different from this situation? You buy a subscription and you can see the content. If not, the app won't load the content. Why does that need an OS update?

This is in-app purchasing, but with subscription support. Apple is handling the billing.

 

[Kadin]

I downloaded this 2 days ago. I removed it last night. If I can't even access it on a consistent basis (read: crashes) during the trial period, I'm sure as hell not paying for it. I like the idea and design... it just needs some major work as it is.

 

[dagamer34]

I don't understand what the connection is between the OS and a subscription. I have to have a Facebook account to log into Facebook on my iPhone app, and that has nothing to do with the OS. How is that any different from this situation? You buy a subscription and you can see the content. If not, the app won't load the content. Why does that need an OS update?

APIs needed for subscription content require iOS 4.3 and it's likely the specific servers aren't ready yet.

 

[anderkh]

No connection between The Daily and iOS 4.3

I don't believe there's a connection at all. If Apple is supporting "The Daily" in this endeavor (which we know they are), they could provide any library to do anything... no OS upgrade required.

To me, the reason to extend is because the app is garbage. They wouldn't get me to pay for it right now if it were 99 cents for a year much less a week. The updates have improved the app, but if the first version was being posted by an unknown, Apple would never have approved it.

 

[Krevnik]

I don't understand what the connection is between the OS and a subscription. I have to have a Facebook account to log into Facebook on my iPhone app, and that has nothing to do with the OS. How is that any different from this situation? You buy a subscription and you can see the content. If not, the app won't load the content. Why does that need an OS update?

The Daily is depending on in-app subscription services that Apple is putting together in 4.3. Apple previously has made recurring subscriptions something you can't do with in-app purchases, and it has lead to some weird behavior (TomTom's traffic in-app purchase for example).

Apple committed to deliver 4.3 with the new APIs for The Daily, I'm surprised that this slipped like it did. I can bet that Murdoch is not a happy camper at this point, as it is eating into his ability to monetize the app.

They could always use a web service subscription routine, although with these new APIs on such a high-profile app, Apple is discouraging this sort of solution.

 

[manu chao]

I don't understand what the connection is between the OS and a subscription. I have to have a Facebook account to log into Facebook on my iPhone app, and that has nothing to do with the OS. How is that any different from this situation? You buy a subscription and you can see the content. If not, the app won't load the content. Why does that need an OS update?

Apple wants to handle ALL 'logins' that require payment to be handled via their servers and via your AppleID so they can take their 30% cut. Right now that works for in-app purchases but it does not yet work for recurrent purchases (ie, subscriptions), they have to update the OS for that.

 

[notabadname]

At 11 cents/day for the annual subscription, it's really a good value. I do get occasional crashes, but they are much more rare with the last two updates. Not enough to be an issue for me. Make sure if you updated that you deleted the original App first from your iPad and iTunes prior to installing the updated App.

 

[iPhoneCollector]

I was so exited about ios 4.3 today

 

[BC2009]

The Daily crashes every time i use it...every time multiple times.

Even the latest version? I haven't had that happen since I updated it. But then again, I still prefer the USA Today app to the daily. USA Today has done a great job at embedding video and dynamic content into their app. Only drawback is sometimes the stories taken from the web site reference stuff that you don't have in the app.

The Daily needs a more consistent page flow. For example, in USA Today I know I can swipe left-to-right to get to the next article, and swiping/scrolling up & down lets me scroll the current article. And I can tap the section icon at the top to jump to a different section each of which has its own "front page" which acts as a table of contents for that section.

The USA Today interface does not get in the way of me reading the news. To me, The Daily has too much interface to mess with and having to turn my iPad to portrait orientation get some content and then turn it back to landscape to get other content is annoying and disconcerting. I can't just prop the iPad on the table and read while eating lunch -- I have to keep picking it up.

 

[gleepskip]

I was interested in the The Daily - and reading it daily - until last week when several pieces in the SAME issue were very insulting to people who hold a different viewpoint than the writer. Reading a publication that welcomes all political perspectives and world views would be very welcome and refreshing. But, The Daily lost me by publishing pieces by writers with no sense of propriety. I don't want to waste my time anymore on it.

EDIT: Even if I were still reading it, it was laborious to skip the sections your aren't interested in. They should have added toggles so the reader could turn off Gossip, for instance.

 

[asdf542]

Why would anyone be expecting iOS 4.3 today when there hasn't even been a GM build yet?

 

[FriarNurgle]

No thanks, Murdoch.

 

[bpfesq]

The Daily crashes every time i use it...every time multiple times.

Delete the app and then re-install it. I noticed the app page in itunes has a message telling you to do that. Fixed 95% of my crashes.



I have to say, i went to The Daily with an open mind. I dispise Murdoch, but thought he loves $$ more than politics and figured i'd give it a shot. And while it isn't as bad as Fox News, it still has its eye-roll moments. I only mumble "bullshii'te" a once in a while.

Overall the content can be characterized as "meh". Couple interesting tidbits here and there, but with exception of the multi-part series pieces, The Daily is like the USA Today newspaper. Sure, you got some neat pie charts or graphs and pretty pictures, but the reporting is really really weak. It is your basic "barely scratches the surface" reporting. Like the cliff notes for news blurbs. Problem is, by the time i get around to reading The Daily, it is the evening and i'm already well aware of what is going on--so most of the "news" is OLD news. Even the tech "rumors" are 2-3 days old. So essentially i'm reading old, superficial reports on an app that crashes too much. I spend most of my time doing the Sudoku and that is it. And before the last update, it crashed 6-7 times in the 15-20 minutes i spent solving the puzzle.


I am glad they're pushing this out for a couple more weeks. I'll continue to use it in the meantime in hopes it gets better. I found the Huffington Post's app 10000% better (and its free). It has articles about all sorts of stuff--from technology, health, etc. (not just leftie politics, which i honestly don't need any more of). Its topics/op eds/etc. are waaay more hip. Can't say i'll be a purchaser of The Daily--not until it gets A LOT better.

 

[j-a-x]

Yay, more free propaganda... I mean news.
Just kidding, I couldn't resist a jab against Rupert Murdoch.

I haven't heard any complains that the content of The Daily is anything like Fox News but I have heard that it is short on news very gossip oriented.