The Daily for iPad updated with new feature: It crashes more frequently now
Editor's Note: One tip that may resolve the frequent crashes -- the App Store description for The Daily is now showing a note stating "Current Daily users: Please delete your current app before upgrading to 1.0.1." This is not the way that app updates are supposed to be done. C'mon, News Corp. You're doin' it wrong!
I've had a love/hate relationship with The Daily. It was a great idea for a low-priced subscription newspaper, but over time I lost interest in the type of stories offered, and the app was downright unstable. Fellow TUAW blogger Dave Caolo experienced so many crashes and suffered through slow loading of content, and he finally just gave up on the app.
A fix was posted last night that claimed to make it faster, more stable and improve the "introduction experience," whatever that means. In my testing last night and today, I can say the app crashes more than Wile E. Coyote. In several instances, the app started up and left me staring at a blank screen. Sometimes the pages showed up. Sometimes they didn't. Sometimes articles had pictures, sometimes they didn't. Apparently the way to ensure it will at least work is to first delete the app while connected to iTunes, then download the updated version and re-install it. Not exactly the "Apple experience" for app updates, is it?
While performance improvements were advertised for this version, load time on my Wi-Fi network remains at about 40 seconds. It's just too slow to be useful, and even when you are in the app, page turns aren't too snappy. I wonder if News Corporation should consider a browser based app, rather than trying to load animations, videos and all those lovely pictures (when you can see them) all at the same time?
The problem could also be alleviated by letting me decide what is downloaded. I really don't want crappy horoscopes or celebrity gossip. I'm just looking for timely and authoritative news. The Daily is neither. Too much of the content is self-promotion, like what a great job co-owned Fox Sports did on the Super Bowl broadcast. With The Daily, I'm not getting the news, and much of the time I can't even load the app. Reviews on the App Store are also pretty rough. I'm happy to pay for a news app that meets my needs, but so far, The Daily has turned into a train wreck. It's a great idea with faulty execution both in terms of content and technology. The Daily is free for now, but when News Corp. wants people to pay for this thing, I expect they will be disappointed with the response.
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Editor's Note: One tip that may resolve the frequent crashes -- the App Store description for The Daily is now showing a note stating...
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Mocking NewsCorp ... bonus hipster cred points for Mel!
I've had nothing but good experiences with this app. Sure, I don't read every article, but guess what? I don't do that with my printed newspaper, either.
Zero crashes, acceptable load times, engaging (for the most part) content ... and it's still free. Yeah, what a HORRIBLE app.
Yawn. Typical TUAW ...
"I'm just looking for timely and authoritative news..."
From NewsCorp? Oh please.
Maybe you should have some patience. Sometimes it crashed to the desktop when first loading, but more often than not it eventually loads. It's an awesome app except for the neocon owner, writers, and users/commenters.
February 08 2011 at 9:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI too was having issues with the app. Then I updated my beta 4.3 and it worked great. Not crashed since. Before it was crashing just before I finished reading the first article I chose. Everytime. But it works great now.
I am excited that there is an app like this. I can't wait to see where it goes.
I really don't get where all this News Corp. hate comes from. I would buy The Daily before I'd buy an app from CNN, NBC, etc. In fact, my only two news apps are AP Mobile (I had that for a few years just for push notifications) and FOX News (which I keep alongside AP Mobile). I don't need or want another news app.
February 08 2011 at 7:19 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThe fact you get your news from Fox is enough to know why you 'don't see where all of the hate comes from'.
February 08 2011 at 9:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIf you're implying that I'm somehow stupid for getting my news from what I've found to be the most reliable source, then you certainly have a bizarre method of judging peoples' intelligence. I would venture to say that you probably don't know as much as you think you do about much of anything.
You probably didn't even know that Missouri's governor was attacked around the same time as Tucson shootings, did you? The attacker (who was wearing a bulletproof vest) mistook a Kansas City college dean for the governor and slashed the wrong guy's throat. Didn't see that on CNN, did you? MSNBC? Anywhere?
Didn't think so.
NEVER UPGRADE APPS ON YOUR COMPUTER
In case you guys didn't know. You can always delete app from iPad (iPod or iPhone) connect to iTunes a re-install the app from your computer. By doing this you will only be using the previous working version of the app, upgrade it only after the problem has been fix. I've been doing this for years.
Since the "delete before installing" method has been the solution to several of my apps not working, and that it doesn't seem to have an data or content loss, makes me think Apple could program the iOS update function to include a developer option to delete the app first and then install, without the end user needing to know. Or perhaps every single app update should delete the app first without us needing to know.
February 08 2011 at 6:19 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThe problem is that that method would also remove things like saved games, downloaded files, etc. Sometimes removing the app works because those files you want to keep are causing the problem.
February 08 2011 at 7:17 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWhile it is a pain to have to uninstall the app before installing the upgrade, please remember this is not always the developer's fault. As an iOS developer myself I can tell you two tings that often fix installations and 90% of the time the requirement to do so has nothing to do with the developer's code:
1. Hard reset the iDevice (Fixes 99% of "weird things happening")
2. Remove and app before installing an app.
You would be surprised how often #2 has to be done during testing for new functionality to work, especially if you've been switching between debug and ad hoc modes.
The way I see it, they have one week to get it right. Start next Tuesday, it will be "pay to play." Even if it'll only cost $0.99 per week, THE DAILY has to deliver the user experience Apple users expect ALONG WITH a compelling mix of content. Sounds like a prime opportunity for someone like the Tribune Company to come up with a rival! Until then, it's a pretty experiment...
February 08 2011 at 5:30 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyOF COURSE IT HAS HOROSCOPES & GOSSIP! It's a newspaper for pete's sake. Show me a single issue of USA Today or the New York Times that doesn't have the equivalent. Saying a newspaper should only have politics or disasters is like saying a restaurant should only sell carrots and broccoli.
That being said. The Daily has royally ticked me off with it's stability issues.
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