I’ve previously mentioned why I wouldn’t likely be subscribing to “The Daily”, but now, I’ve gone ahead and deleted it from my iPad.   Here’s why. While The Daily has had several updates that have indeed addressed a lot of the stability and performance issues that have plagued it, The Daily still fails at (what should […]
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The Final Straw For “The Daily” for iPad

Feb 12th 2011 by

Launch Event

I’ve previously mentioned why I wouldn’t likely be subscribing to “The Daily”, but now, I’ve gone ahead and deleted it from my iPad.   Here’s why.

While The Daily has had several updates that have indeed addressed a lot of the stability and performance issues that have plagued it, The Daily still fails at (what should be) its most basic task – delivering easy to read news in quantities that make it worthwhile to subscribe to.   There are still only a small handful of items per category (news, opinions, etc), and the app is still sluggish (especially in the “carousel” – which, quite frankly, is annoying and inefficient even if it worked smooth as silk; why they don’t ditch it and stick with the much better Table Of Contents is beyond me).  

I get the sense that News Corp hasn’t quite figured out how to make The Daily live up to the pre-launch hype.  Instead of some “revolutionary way to publish news” destined to kill the newspaper and other news media, it seems to me more of an experiment – one that was rushed out of the laboratory way too soon, only to be pulled back in periodically to be tweaked.   You can almost hear the “How about now?” as each new app update is released.

One of those tweaks constituted the final straw (for me).  This morning, when I tapped on the cover story (about Egyptian President Mubarak stepping down) – and without any warning – loud audio of the jubilant crowd cheering played and, quite frankly, startled me.

This breaks one of the cardinal rules of interface design.  Apps should not unexpectedly play audio, especially a category of app that you would not expect such behavior from and that might therefore be read in what are commonly considered quiet environments such as coffee shops, restaurants, work areas, etc.    Further, there are usually links in The Daily’s articles to videos; why wouldn’t the editors simply provide a link to the audio in the article?   That is what I would have expected.

I’m sorry, but this attempt at providing a “Rich Experience” crosses a line with me.   I refuse to read a publication that forces me to wear headphones or remember to mute the iPad each time, especially when so many well-behaved and free apps/news sources are available.

My whole experience with The Daily has been a pretty complete letdown – mostly for the fact that I wanted it to succeed and be that sole news source that I turned to.   Regretfully, that isn’t the case, and so, just prior to writing this article, The Daily was unceremoniously deleted from my iPad.   I almost shed a tear.

 

What is your opinion on The Daily?   Let us know in the comments section below.

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