The Daily: my goodness

So Rupert Murdoch launched "The Daily" yesterday - it's a downloadable newspaper designed for the iPad. You can get a two week free trial, and after that it's USD$1 per week.

I installed it today, and what a piece of excrement it is.

The software works ok, provided you don't like to have feedback as to what your iPad is doing. There are a few clever ideas which make it a neat screensaver if your iPad is in a dock. But the content? That's where it collapses in a heap.


The Top Stories for 2 February 2011 are:

• Egypt - riots against Mubarak
• Snow in America
• A look inside a USA maximum security prison
• A dog disco in Manhattan
• Natalie Portman is pregnant
• The Super Bowl

I'm speechless. Even if you ignore the fact that a cyclone the size of France, Germany & Switzerland, with the power of Hurricane Katrina has passed across Australia in the last 24 hours, there might just be something more to write about than a doggie dance.

If you're not bored by all this, then you can read "Gossip" or "Sports" and a few other things. Oh, and you can enter your star sign to get more crap your horoscope.

Even if you accept that this is aimed solely at the USA, does Rupert think that iPad owners (let's face it, huge Geeks) want to read any of this rubbish? They're more likely to be reading Ars Technica or TechCrunch than wondering how Natalie's doing in her pre-natal classes.

I may not have the smarts of Mr Murdoch's minions, but I predict doom.