Apple

Curious about Rupert Murdoch's heavily hyped iPad publication but not in possession of said tablet? Well, thanks to an LA-based computer programmer and journalist, you can check out The Daily in its entirety on your laptop, Netbook, or PC--though you'll miss out on the tablet-specific bells and whistles.

Launched with much fanfare yesterday, the specially designed, subscription-only, multimedia "newspaper" has media observers wondering if it will turn out to be a legitimate glimpse of publishing's future or nothing more than an interesting experiment.

After the postlaunch free trial of two weeks, the pub--which is viewable … Read more

The first study results on the effectiveness of Apple's iAds are reportedly in and they appear favorable for Apple and its advertisers.

The study, obtained by Advertising Age but not publicly released, was reportedly funded by Apple and one of iAds early advertisers, Campbell's, but conducted by research firm Nielsen. The results of the study are noteworthy, especially when comparing iAds to television ads, according to AdAge. (We asked Nielsen for our look at the results but Nielsen says it's proprietary information for Apple and Campbell's.)

According to AdAge, Nielsen claims that people exposed to iAds … Read more

Verizon Wireless will begin throttling the data speeds of customers who use an "extraordinary amount" of data, according to a document posted on the company's Web site.

First reported by BGR.com, the PDF on the Verizon site says the new rules will not affect the majority of the company's customers. However, if you are a heavy data user, you should be aware that your speeds will drop.

"If you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5 percent of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds … Read more

Citing expected and "unprecedented" demand for Verizon Wireless' forthcoming iPhone 4, the carrier is asking its employees to delay purchases, according to a memo obtained by AppleInsider.

"Customers and non-customers alike have waited for years to see this product on America's most reliable wireless network. Demand will be unprecedented," Verizon Wireless Chief Operating Officer John Stratton wrote in an e-mail addressed to "U.S.-Based Management Employees. "To help ensure we meet customer demand for iPhones, Verizon is urging employees and their families to postpone purchases of the popular smartphone, whether online or … Read more

Hewlett-Packard announced today that customers can return products that use Intel's faulty Sandy Bridge chipset, following a similar announcement yesterday from Dell.

Intel said Monday that it had stopped shipments of the chipset that accompanies its Second-Generation Intel Core ("Sandy Bridge") processor due to a flaw that can affect access to a hard-disk drive, optical drive, or other device that connects to a computer using SATA technology.

Customers can "return their affected product and choose a comparable product or receive a refund," HP said today in a statement. The world's largest PC maker repeated … Read more

The first iPad-only newspaper hit the stands this morning: Rupert Murdoch's The Daily is now available in the App Store (download). It's a fascinating experiment in publishing, blending old journalism standards and new media. A spin with The Daily shows Murdoch's fondness for the old form, but in subtle ways. While this "paper" isn't anything like a traditional print daily--it's got video, audio, interactive games, and a can-can carousel view of stories--reading it does evoke the old experience of settling down with a printed broadsheet, in ways that the online versions of existing newspapers don't quite capture. Most importantly, The Daily isn't a repackager of existing online news. The Daily is a genuine, new newspaper, with its own staff and the big budget (minus the expenses of printing and distributing) that running a newsroom entails.

So this ain't no free ride. After an initial two-week free period (now on), The Daily will cost readers 99 cents a week, or $39.99 a year, payable via the new App Store subscription service. It is a fair price to pay for real journalism, much less of a blocker than paying, for example, the $100+ that another Murdoch paper, the Wall Street Journal, costs for an online-only subscription. On the other hand, the New York Times iPad app is currently free (electronic-only subscription fees have not yet been announced, or, we believe, settled on). USA Today and other media outlets such as ABC, CNN, and CBS also have free apps.

What the user gets for 14 cents an issue is--as far as we can tell from the first issue--good but not consistently great print journalism. There's a comprehensive collection of national and global news, a rich sports section, and decent commentary. There's a substantial "Gossip" section, which reinforces The Daily's tabloid aesthetic, but the section has a different design language than News, so people (like me) who don't care about this content can easily and almost subconsciously skip over it. News writing varies from impressively strong and clear (the cover story, on Egypt), to serviceable. There is a lot of content in The Daily, however there's no local news. We don't yet know if future editions of The Daily will get better and more consistent, or if writing and story selection will suffer now that the staff has only 24 hours to turn out an issue, instead of the months they had to gear up for issue one.

… Read more

Editor's note: This live event has concluded. For a brief rundown of what was announced, check out this summary post. You can also review the transcript of the live blog below or replay it in the Cover It Live module at the end of the transcript.

There hasn't been this much buzz about a News Corp. digital product since the heyday of MySpace, but we're sure that the people behind The Daily--a highly anticipated daily news publication designed for the iPad--are hoping for better long-term sustainability.

On Wednesday, after weeks of delays, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch … Read more

We can all recognize that being a politician is largely boring.

Equally, we can all recognize that the iPad exists in order to make our lives a little less boring.

So how can we possibly criticize Italian politician Simeone Di Cagno Abbrescia, who happened to have been sitting in parliament with a few scantily clad ladies on the desk in front of him? Well, to be precise, on the iPad in front of him.

The Telegraph reports that Abbrescia didn't deny the images on his iPad were, indeed, images of ladies who were scantily clad. The paper also reports that he didn't deny that the ladies who were scantily clad were scantily clad on an escort site.

Indeed, the magazine Oggi helpfully identified two of the ladies as Dollyy [sic] and Daisy, and mentioned consultation fees of 400 euros per hour, or the bargain price of 2,500 euros for a weekend.

Abbrescia, however, would like people to understand that he in no way premeditated his viewing of Daisy, or for that matter, of Dollyy. He reportedly said he simply had difficulty getting used to his iPad.… Read more

Apple is now trying to enforce an ignored but apparently existing rule that specifically targets publishers of e-book apps offered in its App Store.

In a nutshell, if the publisher gives customers the ability to buy books outside of the app, such as through its Web site, then it must also offer the ability to buy books within the app itself using Apple's in-app purchase system. Otherwise, that app would be rejected.

Of course, if the books are purchased within the app, Apple gets its standard 30 percent cut.

"We have not changed our developer terms or guidelines. … Read more