New App a Day: The Daily

As announced at an event earlier this morning, News Corp's The Daily has gone live. The app, which you can download for free right now, is a mix between newspaper and magazine. After spending some time with the app, we're ready to give you our early take on what's in store.

The Daily's layout is not terribly surprising. While rumors earlier this week had it pegged as some magical app that would resemble Harry Potter's Daily Prophet, the truth is that it is more akin to iPad publications like Wired. There's a healthy dose of interactivity, but nothing that we would call bleeding edge, and there's plenty of multimedia to keep you tapping and swiping just as much as you are reading. HD video (exclusive to the app), 360-degree photos, and interactive charts and the like are standard fare for apps of this kind, but the weekly volume you'll receive is substantial, to say the least.

The app itself feels a bit like a beta version, mostly due to its sense of slowness and jitters. The cover-flow-like interface when you first boot up is noticeably shaky and not nearly as responsive as it should be. In fact, while it does give you a bird's eye view of the big stories, it's too time-consuming right now given the hiccups that always occur. You'll probably find yourself utilizing the other methods of navigation.

Beyond the mediocre first impression though, this is a really robust app. There's over 100 pages of content in the inaugural issue, and they're promising that much each and every day going forward. That's a lot. And the production quality of the pieces, as well as the variety of stories covered, should keep you entertained and informed over your morning coffee or throughout the day on breaks (especially given that they're free to update as news breaks).

Perhaps the most astounding feat is just that, unlike a monthly magazine, there is nearly as much content in a single day. The asking price will be $.99/week, or roughly $4/month, so if you value news and appreciate the journalistic style of the paper's writers, it's unlikely that you'll feel gypped. This subscription feature, of course, ushers in a new era for apps that Apple will soon unleash on other publishers, allowing a subscription model to take hold in other news and entertainment publications on iOS.

Besides the normal assortment of daily news that's the same for everyone, there are also some customization options. For instance, you can have it follow only the sports teams that you care about. There's also live weather, which could save you a trip to another dedicated weather app.

Stories can be shared as web versions with friends via Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail (minus the more interactive content, obviously), which is a nice touch and will probably help rapidly propel the app in popularity.

Throw in a daily introduction video (tap the video when a specific story is being touted to whisk you away to it) and audio recordings of many of the stories, and you really will feel like you're getting your money's worth. Of course, for the first 2 weeks, the content is free to everyone (courtesy of Verizon), so you'll have more than enough time to see if it's your taste.

We need to read more, obviously, to see if the app will rope us in for continual consumption, but given the bankroll behind the app from the likes of Murdoch and News Corp, we're sure that kinks will be ironed out and upgrades will be added in the coming weeks and months. Still, at first introduction, we walk away mildly impressed. All iPad owners should take a look during the trial period and see if it revitalizes the daily news for you.