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Someone Brought An iPad 2 To The Daily Launch

In a room crowded with journalists and bloggers obsessed with Apple, it might not be a good idea to bring a prototype of the unreleased next-generation iPad with you. Because yes, apparently someone brought an iPad 2 at today’s launch of The Daily. The device was spotted by Reuters and, guess what, it appears to carry a front facing camera:

A Reuters eyewitness saw what appeared to be a working model of the next iPad with a front-facing camera at the top edge of the glass screen at a press conference to mark the debut of News Corp’s Daily online paper in New York on Wednesday.

A source with knowledge of the device confirmed its existence, adding that the final release model could have other features. News Corp and Apple declined to comment.

Did the working model belong to an Apple employee? If so, how can you even think of bringing one to the launch of The Daily? Or maybe Reuters saw some weird light reflection, and the “source” fooled them to think it was an iPad 2?

Now, our question is: where is the photo?

Verizon Contact Transfer App for iPhone Now Available

As noted by TiPB, Verizon has released a first version of its Contact Transfer app in the App Store. The free iPhone app, which only works with Verizon iPhones and won’t do anything on your AT&T device, can import contacts from your previous Verizon phone using the external Backup Assistant service.

This application is only for Verizon wireless users. Download the free application to transfer your contacts from your Backup Assistant device to your new device. All your contacts will be transferred to your new device with in minutes.

Backup Assistant is the service Verizon uses to let customers save their contacts in the cloud and easily restore them on any device. The iPhone version will behave just like you’d expect from a Verizon handsets, although I guess for Mac users it should be simpler to just sync their Address Book using iTunes. Or, if you’re a MobileMe subscriber, activate contact syncing over the air. Still, if you happen to have an old Verizon phone and you never backed up your contacts to the desktop, this app might help during the process.

How To Create, Manage and Renew iTunes App Subscriptions

With the launch of The Daily this morning, Apple also introduced the long-rumored subscriptions for apps, which allow you to automatically get an app’s new content as long as you pay a weekly or annual fee. At least that’s how it works with The Daily, and we have collected all the details about News Corp’s subscription implementation here.

I was curious to see how subscriptions worked on Apple’s end though, so I tried to manually activate a new 7-day subscription in The Daily to see what would happen in my iTunes account. At first I couldn’t activate a new subscription (besides the two-week free trial period offered by Verizon Wireless), so I waited a couple of hours and tried again. Inside The Daily, you can access subscription management through the Settings. Choose your subscription, confirm that you’re willing to give out your personal information like zip code, name and email to “the publisher” (in our case, The Daily Holdings), enter your Apple ID password and tap Done. In the current version of The Daily, there is no confirmation of a successful subscription. Read more

Verizon iPhone Coming to Best Buy On February 10

Best Buy just issued a statement confirming that the Verizon iPhone will be available in their stores on Feb. 10:

Best Buy today announced that the iPhone 4 from Apple on the Verizon Wireless network will be available in Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile specialty stores across the country beginning Feb. 10, the first day the device is available to the public.

The iPhone 4 is an important device for Best Buy and we are excited to help Apple and Verizon Wireless bring it to even more consumers,” said Shawn Score, president of Best Buy Mobile. “Our customers have come to expect Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores to carry the best selection of mobile phones anywhere, and offering the iPhone 4 on Verizon’s network is our latest effort to deliver on that promise.

Pre-orders of the device will start tomorrow. [via All Things Digital]

First Impressions of News Corp’s The Daily

News Corp.’s much hyped foray into an iPad exclusive digital Newspaper has just launched and it has some high expectations to live up to, not only for consumers but for Murdoch’s News Corporation which has endured a shrinking reader base and advertising revenue. Jump the break for our first impressions and a tonne of screenshots of the app.

OK well that’s it for our first impressions, undoubtedly some of us here at Macstories will in the next day or so write up an in-depth summation of our feelings towards The Daily so keep an eye on the site and our Twitter account for that!

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The Daily is Now Available in the App Store

Well the presentation over in New York regarding the launch of The Daily is underway and the actual App itself has now appeared in the App Store and is available for a monthly subscription of $0.99.

Go grab it here.

The team here at MacStories is working hard to cover this launch so keep your eyes on the site and our Twitter account, articles will be going live rapid fire and updating whilst the presentation goes on.

Check out our coverage of today’s launch of The Daily:

Full description of The Daily from iTunes and promo video embedded below. Read more

This Is What The Daily Looks Like [Updating]

Live from The Daily announcement, here’s what The Daily looks like. First screenshots below and after the break.

The app features lots of photographs and videos, social integration with Facebook and Twitter feeds inside the articles, breaking news during the day. One  cool feature that was demoed on stage was “360 photography”, which allows you to move around a scene with your fingers – it looked very impressive and immersive at the same time. The Daily comes with several sections accessible through a “carousel” interface, which is a mix of Apple’s Cover Flow and the classic bookshelf. Online video can play inline the carousel, and the process of scrolling through the sections looks very smooth.

The app is now live in the App Store. Check for our first impressions in a few minutes.

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The Daily: Everything You Need To Know About Subscriptions

The Daily

The Daily

You might be wondering where The Daily fits in with our wallets and expendable cash flow being savvy MacStories readers, and we’re glad to say the subscription plan isn’t terrible. For the price of a yearly subscription to a major newspaper, you can have The Daily on your iPad for just $0.14 a day, which works out to be $51.10 a year, or $46.76 for the remainder of this year (you’ll find updated pricing in our event coverage after the break). That’s definitely much better than the $1.00 a day figures we were hearing just weeks ago (it’s $1.00 a week), and it’s a pleasant surprise for anyone embedded in digital media. You’ll find the latest updates after the break.

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Bragging Rights: Apple Responsible For 99.4% Of All App Downloads

I’m not a fan of infographics, but remember when I said the iPhone is where the apps are at? Whatever you think of Apple’s “walled garden,” it’s responsible for 99.4% of all app downloads between Android, RIM, Symbian, WebOS, and Windows Mobile. With 27.9% of American Marketshare, Apple owns the app market.

Another interesting statistic: 83% of cellphone owners use their phones to take pictures. I bring this up specifically as Apple is the ideally the most vocal about improving their camera technologies (we’re not saying Nokia isn’t in the game), and that Android manufacturers in particular should start focusing on a component whose megapixel count often doesn’t provide comparable performance to the iPhone 4.

I recommend checking out the full infographic over at The Next Web.