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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.

The Daily Launch Event Will Be Live Streamed, App Launches Today

It looks like The Daily’s launch will be live streamed on the app’s official website:

Watch at 11 a.m. Eastern Time today as News Corporation unveils The Daily, featuring special guest Eddy Cue, vice president of Internet Services from Apple. Check back later today for our full web site. The Daily will be available on the App Store starting at 12 p.m. EST.

The app will also be available later today in the App Store. Check for updates on MacStories as the launch happens. In the meantime, enjoy the countdown on thedaily.com.

Apple Confirms Verizon iPhone Available for Pre-Order Tomorrow

Press release just went out confirming that the Verizon iPhone 4 will be available for pre-order tomorrow on first come, first served basis through Apple’s online store and Verizon’s store. The Verizon iPhone 4 will be sold at $199 for the 16 GB model, $299 for the 32 GB model with a two-year contract. Sales in Apple retail stores and 2,000 Verizon Wireless stores will begin on Thursday, February 10th and 7 AM – just like AT&T did for the iPhone 4 last year.

We have seen iPhone accessories have started appearing on Verizon Wireless’ website last week, and the February 3rd pre-order date was previously reported as well.

Press release embedded below.

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QNAP’s NAS Streams Media To iOS via WiFi and 3G

If streaming music and movies remotely to iOS devices is your thing, QNAP’s latest NAS offering is something to keep an eye on. The new series, which will be available for sale later this month, comes with up to 8 TB of storage, 1.2 GHz CPU and 256 MB of RAM. Other than these interesting specs, the TS-x12 model can stream all kinds of media to iOS devices via WiFi or 3G, or to your PS3 and Xbox 360 with UPnP. Sounds pretty cool.

The Mac platform doesn’t lack media centers that through mobile companion apps can stream content to the iPhone and iPad. But if you don’t want to install apps like Plex on your Mac and you prefer having a solution like a full-featured NAS, QNAP’s upcoming products might just be what you need. [via Gizmodo]

Third Build of OS X 10.6.7 Seeded to Developers

A new build of Mac OS X 10.6.7 hit the Developer Center last night, the third one since Apple started seeding 10.6.7 to developers three weeks ago. Build 10J850 mentions, again, Mac App Store, AirPort, Bonjour, SMB and Graphics Drivers as focus areas for developers to test.

The second build of 10.6.7 was released on January 25th, and it appears that Apple is quickly issuing new builds with the same focus areas and no “known issues”.