The Daily Gets an Update: It's Still a Disaster, But At Least it Loads
The Daily, News Corp.’s much hyped and buggy iPad-only newspaper just got a much-needed update. Even though the launch of The Daily was delayed by months, the first version of the app quickly turned out to be extremely buggy (I couldn’t even start it for the last few days) and quite a disaster when it came to usability. Today’s update does little to fix any of the usability problems, but at least the app loads again.
Interestingly, the release notes also point out that current users should delete the app before upgrading. Chances are that few of The Daily’s readers will actually see this note. I am not sure what the repercussions of not deleting the app are (I had actually just uninstalled the app just before the update appeared), but it’s probably best to follow these instructions. Of course, even if you never get the app to run again, you can always use this web-based index to read the main stories.
But at Least it Loads…
There is no point in repeating all the issues with the design and content we and others have found with the app. Suffice to say, today’s update does nothing to alleviate these concerns. On the positive side, though, as the release notes on iTunes note, today’s update brings “improved performance and stability.” Indeed, the app does feel somewhat more responsive – though it still feels very sluggish – and hasn’t crashed yet.
On the negative side, though, the compression artifacts that made the carousel view anything but attractive are even more pronounced now (maybe in an effort to improve its speed without having to actually change any code). Of course, delivering a new edition still takes far too long and the updates the news team sometimes pushes during the day still aren’t highlighted in any shape or form.
So while it’s good to see that the tech team at The Daily quickly fixed some of the problems with the app, today’s update does little to address any of the real concerns most of us had with the original paper. It’s still light on hard news stories and trapped in old-school newspaper thinking. Unless the team fixes the glaring usability issues and actually pushes out real news stories (instead of horoscopes and stories about how guys like cats), it’s hard to see how News Corp. can recoup its investment here once the ad-supported free version expires and readers will be forced to pay a subscription fee.
