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iPad Newspaper From News Corp Rumored in January

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the if-you-can't-beat-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes "News Corp plans to launch its rumored iPad-only newspaper on January 17 according to recent reports. Dubbed the 'Daily,' the paper will reportedly make use of a new 'push' subscription feature from Apple wherein users can opt to be automatically billed for either week-long or month-long subscriptions. Once set up, a new edition of the publication will show up on user's iPads each and every morning."

45 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. What does this bring to the table by Joehonkie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How is this better than a web-based news source, even a paywalled one?

    1. Re:What does this bring to the table by spun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It makes Rupert Murdoch more money. Oh, you meant, "how is it better for the customer?" Does that actually matter?

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    2. Re:What does this bring to the table by shadowrat · · Score: 3, Interesting

      exactly. we have been able to charge people for content on the web forever. I suspect it's about finding your market though. The iPad is like a filter that extracts all the people who want to pay for stuff. the ratio of users who will pay a subscription to users who just want free stuff is likely far higher on the iPad than on the web in general.

    3. Re:What does this bring to the table by corbettw · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Um, yes it does, because if it doesn't bring something that other formats don't then no one will sign up for it. Which means Murdoch and company won't make any more money.

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
    4. Re:What does this bring to the table by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's designed specifically for the typical Apple user.

      "Oh! A way to spend more money with an Apple Product? An iPad only application where I can have my credit card billed automatically each month? A newspaper that will no doubt have articles that can be found on any decent news aggregating web site? Where do I sign up? That sounds piquant as shit!"

    5. Re:What does this bring to the table by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How is this better than a web-based news source, even a paywalled one?

      Because it will be a native app instead of the web, for one. The web is a reasonable "lowest common denominator", but really, it still sucks for UIs, no matter how many advances we've made.

      The difference between a native app and a web-page on this kind of device is massive in terms of how much nicer the native interface is -- in part because it scales up things to be more "touchable" instead of "clickable". I'm glad to finally see a reversal of this trend of "everything as a web page" -- the usability of an app designed for the multi-touch is easily an order of magnitude better than a web page. It's a completely different kind of interface than one you'd do for the web.

      They also get Apple as a distribution and billing mechanism. Which I'm sure will also benefit them. However, I don't expect that I'll be making use of the "push" subscriptions, and least of all, for anything from News Corp. There are plenty of *free* news apps that run native on the iPad (BBC, Reuters, and others). Though, I'm sure there will be a fair few people who actually subscribe to this.

      I see lots of things on the app store which you could argue is largely the same as the content on a web page. The difference being, with an app instead of a web-page, it's a far better user experience overall.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    6. Re:What does this bring to the table by characterZer0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If anybody could get it, the people who buy iPads would not want it.

      --
      Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
    7. Re:What does this bring to the table by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's designed specifically for the typical Apple user.

      You know, instead of the usual bitching and moaning about the "typical Apple user" like everybody else on Slashdot, why don't you try to actually think about this instead of just launching into the usual screed? That fact that you've been modded insightful for basically acting like a 4 year old kind of proves my point.

      I have the free BBC news app on my iPad, as well as Reuters and several others. In fact, I've never paid for an app on my iPad (or a track from iTunes for that matter) -- there's so much free stuff out there it's amazing. It's so much nicer to use than a web page, because it's a user interface that takes into account the platform it runs on.

      As I've pointed out elsewhere in this thread, the native interface of an iPad application (and, indeed I bet this would be true for an Android device or a Blackberry) is that the interface works the way you expect the interface to work on that platform. The web makes middling user interfaces at best -- a native app (for any platform) is simply going to be a better user experience.

      This isn't even about the iPad -- it's about realizing that the 15 years we've spent using the web for everything has led to really crappy user interfaces, all bound to the HTML paradigm. I'm glad to finally see the web being eclipsed by actual applications and interfaces. This will happen on Android, Microsoft, Blackberry, and every new device that comes along.

      If three months after this is released, and News Corp releases this for an Android tablet, will we be all saying how hip the Android users are because they can subscribe to the same content? Will it suddenly be cool?

      Seriously, get over the whole iPad/Apple bashing thing, and recognize that tablets (of all forms) and the like are fundamentally changing the rules and the prevalence of everything being a frigging web page. You don't have to like the iPad, but you should recognize everything you've said will apply to all new touch screen devices as they come on line and available.

      Personally, I don't see web pages going away, but I do see them not being the only way people get information or interact with software. This is just an example of that.

      Seriously, dial back the bitching about this being about Apple, and start thinking about this in the broader context of what is going to be happening in the industry over the next bunch of years. Now that touch-screen technology is becoming prevalent, you will see this kind of thing on all platforms.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    8. Re:What does this bring to the table by ByOhTek · · Score: 2

      maybe that's his goal - one more piece of evidence that online news is a bad idea?

      --
      Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
    9. Re:What does this bring to the table by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You honestly believe that when Windows finally gets around to mimicking the iPad that someone will go and provide a "MS Tablet Only Newspaper"?

      No, I honestly believe that when Microsoft finally mimics the iPad, this newpaper will be made available for it. Right now, as I understand it, neither enough people are running Windows Mobile 7, nor is the interface nearly good enough to do this.

      yet someone has decided to try it out on an Apple product, all of which have a bad rap as being overpriced for what you actually get - the Hardware is never Earth Shattering enough to justify the price

      The hardware? No. The software is actually some of the nicest I've used in years -- and that is worth the money. The iPad is some of my first exposure to Apple's stuff beyoind iTunes on my Windows machine -- and, I'm awfully tempted to add an actual Mac to the herd of computers. It's like the old pissing contest between Intel and AMD over processor speed -- if you don't write bloated software that doubles in size every year, you don't need to be constantly doubling hardware needs. It's not like I'm running a web server on the damned thing.

      I just learned the other day that in some cases you can't even activate your new iPhone without hooking it up to a computer with your iTunes.

      Can't speak to that -- in my experience, my iPods and my iPad all are designed to work with iTunes, and likely the iPhone as well. Since I've been using that for around 10 years, I actually find that convenient since all of my media is already in there. Plug it into the machine, and let iTunes sort out the intial setup -- 5 minutes later, I'm syncing music and movies.

      If you don't like it, don't buy it. But the whole "zomg, teh stupid Apple users" is getting kind of old.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    10. Re:What does this bring to the table by spun · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Fox News and Rupert Murdoch aren't libertarians, they are authoritarians. And like authoritarians everywhere, they simply use libertarians as tools. It's as if the wolves have convinced a few sheep to go out and argue to the rest of a sheep that a wolf's stomach makes the best home.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    11. Re:What does this bring to the table by chrome · · Score: 2

      but, but, but the web is the future for all applications! We'll all be running apps on the cloud from our thin clients! The network is the computer! etc etc! Don't tell me they sold me a lie.

    12. Re:What does this bring to the table by vlm · · Score: 2

      How is this better than a web-based news source, even a paywalled one?

      Its important to specify the difference between a push web app news source, which could do all kinds of cool filtering and instant access (not high latency of streaming) of attached videos, and this specific app which is probably (just guessing) designed to little more than collect more money.

      A good news app would intelligently log how interested I am in a story, based on both how long I read and what rating I give it, and then in a Bayesian way filter my news for me. Also it would provide an intelligent mixture almost like a DJ for news.

      Also it would have all linked multimedia pre-downloaded via the push. No click and wait for video, ultra high res images instantly available.

      Also it would have much better bookmarking than current websites.

      I want it location aware. If I'm reading about yet another shooting 3 blocks away I want to see it on the google maps. Or a new restaurant opening up, I want turn by turn directions from my house.

      Finally I'd want push downloaded instantly available background like relevant wikipedia articles, or if a lame journalist is misreporting on a scientific article, I want the original ARVIX paper please. Not just in the text, not a link to pop open Safari, but the actual paper right there. Not a text article paradigm, but a MIME like multimedia collection for each story.

      What we're probably going to get is a reskinned safari or ibooks plus a big bill. But I/we can dream.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    13. Re:What does this bring to the table by PCM2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The web makes middling user interfaces at best -- a native app (for any platform) is simply going to be a better user experience.

      Wait -- so the Web was a bad idea, we should abandon it, forget about HTML5 (more of the same), and go back to the days where every single information service ran on a proprietary client? I hope you're not being serious.

      When I learned that most of the so-called apps that people have on their iPhones are actually purpose-built clients designed to access a single Web site each, that's when I started to agree with the folks at Research in Motion: this whole "apps" craze is a fad.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    14. Re:What does this bring to the table by dzfoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The Internet was a terrific idea, and still is. A single, unified, fault-tolerant, common protocol for communications between networks; it's brilliant!

      The World Wide Web, on the other hand, is not The Internet. It's one of the many services implemented on the Internet. A very popular one, but hardly unique. It was a great application for what it was designed: hyper-text document sharing.

      The web as the single, unified, common interface for the consumption of multi-media and other content may not be so great. Implementing every single application as an extension of the web, in HTML and JavaScript to boot, is like hammering a square peg into a round hole. You end up with the lowest common denominator, a jack-of-all-trades user interface which is master of none.

      To illustrate this point, consider why the geek world holds its collective breath in awe when, say, Google figures out how to do real-time keystroke display of online chats using JavaScript and HTTP, when dedicated chat clients were doing this since before the web was invented. The fact that the web is just now capable of supporting services and applications that have existed for some time in many other formats, suggests that perhaps it is not the best suited medium for them.

              -dZ.

      --
      Carol vs. Ghost
      ...Can you save Christmas?
    15. Re:What does this bring to the table by Hatta · · Score: 2

      Wait -- so the Web was a bad idea, we should abandon it, forget about HTML5 (more of the same), and go back to the days where every single information service ran on a proprietary client?

      Who said anything about proprietary clients? Native clients, open protocols is the way to go. Instead of shoehorning GUI elements into HTML, let the OS do it. That's what it's for. You can choose a proprietary client if you like. Or an open source client.

      The web as a document delivery mechanism was a great idea. As an application platform it's abominable.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    16. Re:What does this bring to the table by clarkkent09 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Fox News and Rupert Murdoch aren't libertarians, they are authoritarians.
       
      I certainly wouldn't count Fox News as a libertarian channel (in what sense are they authoritarian though?) but rather as conservative both fiscally and socially, which is still closer to libertarian than any other main channels. Fox Business News is very libertarian though - see Stossel's show http://www.hulu.com/stossel and Freedom Watch, the two most libertarian shows on television. Murdoch himself has a history of being anti-socialist more than anything else. In Britain, his newspapers, The Times and The Sun, supported Tony Blair against Conservatives because he defeated the long standing Labour party far left leadership (which almost destroyed the party: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)#The_.22Wilderness_Years.22_.281979.E2.80.931997.29) and more towards the center-left.

      --
      Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
    17. Re:What does this bring to the table by spun · · Score: 2, Informative

      How is being socially conservative at all libertarian? Social conservatives want to legislate away our freedoms. That is authoritarian, not libertarian. I can understand that true fiscal conservatism is libertarian, but legislating against gays, abortion, science education, and drugs is about as far from libertarian as you can get. Not that I expect you to know what libertarianism is really about, most people who call themselves libertarians have no idea what the word really means, what the history of the movement is, or what real freedom is. Most people who claim to be libertarian are really authoritarians who want the 'freedom' to run their own little dictatorships however they please.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    18. Re:What does this bring to the table by Voyager529 · · Score: 2

      but, but, but the web is the future for all applications! We'll all be running apps on the cloud from our thin clients! The network is the computer! etc etc!

      Don't tell me they sold me a lie.

      The most hilarious part of this post is the fact that it was posted by a slashdot user with a 4-digit UID and a username of "chrome".

    19. Re:What does this bring to the table by sakshale · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I did not read anything in TFA that even implied that there were no future plans to support other platforms. Could this not be a proof of concept exercise?

      --
      For every problem there is a solution that is simple, obvious and wrong.
    20. Re:What does this bring to the table by spun · · Score: 2

      Uh, what are social conservatives FOR, then? What does it mean to be a social conservative? I thought it meant that they want to prohibit gays from marrying, they want school prayer, they want to fund teaching of creationism, forbid sodomy and oral sex, outlaw recreational drugs, carry out as many executions of criminals as possible, and basically go back to the good old days when white men were men, and everyone else did what they were told.

      Being a social conservative, as opposed to just a conservative sans modifiers, or a fiscal conservative, means that one is conservative in the social realm. Being conservative in the social realm means wanting to legislate social behavior, either returning it to the way things used to be, or keeping it as it is now.

      In any case, being socially conservative is NOT libertarian.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    21. Re:What does this bring to the table by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      I am increasingly relieved that it was Microsoft and not Apple who were the dominant company when the internet started becoming widely available to the public.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  2. minority report by Laxori666 · · Score: 2

    This reminds me of the scene in minority report where everyone carried around a digital screen instead of a newspaper. When an arrest warrant went out for the main character, seconds later all their screens were updated with a News Flash saying to look out for the guy. It's, like, the future, today!

  3. Wow! News content delivered automatically!! by Orga · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who'd have ever thought such technology was feasible. Only in the world of a closed off iPad could this possibly be any kind of news. Please let us return to five years ago when things like this weren't newsworthy.

  4. Oh goody by southpolesammy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yet another monthly recurring charge that I'll never use, nor ever get around to cancelling. At least my idle gym membership won't feel so lonely now...

    --
    Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
  5. Re:In other irrelevant news ... by bigredradio · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This has no bearing on me, as I have no desire to own an iPad, and even less desire to read a single word penned in Murdoch's cesspool.

    So you click on the slashdot article about a service you would not want on a device you don't have? Then leave a comments letting us know you don't care about it?

    --
    Flexible bare-metal recovery for Linux/UNIX
  6. Re:In other irrelevant news ... by countertrolling · · Score: 2

    This has no bearing on me...

    But it does.. People who read Fox also vote.. a dangerous combination.

    --
    For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
  7. Re:*only ipad* by bigredradio · · Score: 2

    And advertising. I seem to recall that newspapers make money on ads and not the subscriptions. That is why I can get my daily paper for $0.50. Does he think he can pay for this by subscription revenue only?

    --
    Flexible bare-metal recovery for Linux/UNIX
  8. DONOTWANT by toby · · Score: 2

    If ever a story deserved that tag, it's this one.

    --
    you had me at #!
  9. Re:Sign me up! by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Good! Straight news not re-written by desk-bound "reporters", and opinions devoid of leftist drivel.

    Unfortunately, no shortage of douchebaggery.

    --
    Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
  10. Does it have a crossword puzzle? by JThaddeus · · Score: 2

    That and a non-Murdoch paper could sell me on a iPad.

    --
    "Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love." --William Shakespeare ('Love's Labors Lost')
  11. It's from News Corp? Save yourself some money by serutan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just scrawl "Liberal Socialists Doing Scary Bad Stuff!" on the screen in permanent marker and look at it every five minutes.

    1. Re:It's from News Corp? Save yourself some money by sa1lnr · · Score: 2

      And there will be tits on page 3?

    2. Re:It's from News Corp? Save yourself some money by RightSaidFred99 · · Score: 2

      I actually listen to Fox sometimes, either for amusement or to get a different viewpoint. You're clearly about 3 years behind, the new Naughty Word is "Progressives". "Liberals" (i.e. "libruls", "libruhls") is so 20th Century.

    3. Re:It's from News Corp? Save yourself some money by radionerd · · Score: 2

      I think this is a great idea, I get to pay for my Fascist propaganda right up front!. My parakeet thinks it's a stupid idea, we still have to pay for it, and he ends up with no place to crap.

  12. Time machine by mrogers · · Score: 2, Funny
    When the iPad was first announced, I dismissed it as an insignificant device - little more than a giant phone or a netbook without a keyboard.

    How wrong I was.

    What Jobs & Co have developed is nothing less than a fucking time machine. The iPad offers to transport us back to the comfort and safety of the mid-twentieth century. A time when citizens' minds were untroubled by pornographic smut or government leaks. A time when the news was delivered to your doorstep once a day, and you were happy to pay for the privilege. A time when anyone who disagreed with the policies designed to keep them safe was quietly taken away and never heard from again.

    What next from these technological wizards? Here are my predictions:

    • The iDollar, a digital currency based on the rock-solid security of the Gold Standard.
    • The iCadillac, a car the size of a house, with stylish white-wall tires and a DRM-equipped stereo.
    • The iWife, a lifelong companion and domestic servant who will teach your iKids strict gender roles and other Apple-approved family values.
    • The iCigar, a relaxing treat for gentlemen, with no proven medical link to cancer.
    • The iMac, a dapper yet practical wrap-around raincoat, available in beige, light brown, or camel.

    I'm truly excited to be living in the future my grandparents dreamed of!

    1. Re:Time machine by mrogers · · Score: 2

      I agree, there's a sad lack of vision in America today. The whole country seems bitter and afraid. Nobody talks about principles. Of course the same's true in Europe, but I feel like we've been suffering from that disease for longer - America used to be different. Perhaps it's a symptom of post-imperial decline, which America's only just beginning to enter. Or perhaps I've fallen for the golden age myth after all - Americans must have been bitter during the Great Depression, afraid during the Cold War - why did we ever think they were different?

  13. Re:Sign me up! by truthsearch · · Score: 2, Funny

    Unfortunately for you, reality has well-known a liberal bias.

    --
    Developers: We can use your help.
  14. Curse you Rupert Murdoch! by blair1q · · Score: 5, Funny

    How the hell am I supposed to wrap a fish in that?

  15. Re:In other irrelevant news ... by blind+biker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So you click on the slashdot article about a service you would not want on a device you don't have? Then leave a comments letting us know you don't care about it?

    So? Actually, what business is that of yours? This place is designed for everyone to comment on any topic. Even if you moderate him/her to -1, you can't stop them to express a point of view. That's a good thing, not a bad one.

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
  16. Re:marketing train wreck approaching... 3.. 2... 1 by RightSaidFred99 · · Score: 2

    You underestimate the number of hipster douches that are out there.

    They are multitude.

  17. Re:*only ipad* by glueball · · Score: 2

    Those who buy Apple products, such as the iPad, tend to be younger college student types, and to draw a correlation, overwhelmingly liberal.

    I don't know what the iPad demographics are other than anecdote--they aren't just for younger people.

    But to your point--Those younger people will be growing up after buying iPads will become more conservative as they age to 30 years old. http://www.gallup.com/poll/120857/conservatives-single-largest-ideological-group.aspx

    I say it's near perfect marketing if your hypothesis of younger people buying iPads is correct and the simple Gallup demographic information is correct.

     

  18. Of course by jwietelmann · · Score: 2

    That has never stopped anyone from filling something with ads anyway.

  19. Re:In other irrelevant news ... by DragonWriter · · Score: 2

    So you click on the slashdot article about a service you would not want on a device you don't have? Then leave a comments letting us know you don't care about it?

    You click on the "Reply to this" link on an comment that apparently doesn't interest you, and passive-aggressively ask questions about the comment to which the answers are expressly stated in the comment to which you are replying.

    Your point?

  20. Re:*only ipad* by blind+monkey+3 · · Score: 2

    Does he think he can pay for this by subscription revenue only?
    What makes you think there won't be ads?

    --
    BM3