I spent some time with The Daily last night, and here’s my review:
It sucks.
The idea of it doesn’t suck, but the execution sucks sucks sucks. The more I use it, the more it sucks.
The interface is just laggy enough to drive you a little nuts. One of the big strengths of iOS is responsiveness, and this app doesn’t get that. The carousel navigation thing stutters and skips and goes past where you want it to go, some pages are just black for a few seconds with no indicator that anything is happening, and then you scroll right and you’re on the weather, for some reason. There doesn’t seem to be any way to get back to yesterday’s issue without saving specific articles. There are AUDIO COMMENTS on articles, because what Internet comment threads were really missing all this time was the sound of trolls trolling.
And the content? REALLY SUCKS.
This is clearly a Rupert Murdoch vehicle. The voice is petulant snark, poorly written. The straight news pieces are dry as sawdust, and the editorial pieces are just intolerable.
For example, here’s their review of Portlandia. I haven’t seen this show, and from the clip and the preview, it looks like one fairly obvious joke told over and over again, but this review is mostly about liberals.
Armisen and Brownstein capture this familiar flavor of strident liberal logic perfectly, from its neurotic roots to its hints of hysteria.
I do think that the subscription model here will be important, and hopefully a far better publication will take advantage of it soon. Moving content subscriptions on devices like the iPad to the don’t-think-about-it price points of iTunes music, video, and apps is smart, but The Daily is not.
The show is pretty decent, about one really solid sketch per episode (the bike one killed me), but that review read like my dad’s thoughts on Wu-Tang.
They should have released this on the 16 percent of actual sales market share that is other tablets.
Except Faux News “readers” can’t figure out how to get those to work, cause they keep shaking them like a polaroid picture, thinking they’re etch-a-sketches.
The sound of trolls trolling made me smile.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Anthony. You saved me from downloading it myself.
You confirm my fears: A great idea, poorly executed, with the putrid stain of Murdoch’s editorial slant.
Too bad. The concept and price point are great. This kind of thing could easily replace most magazine content completely. And if properly done, could be a profitable model.
Fuck Rupert Murdoch. The Daily could be the best publication ever written and I wouldn’t read it. In fact, I’m pissed that I read it indirectly through the quote in this post.
That said, Portlandia is not one joke told over and over again. It’s a collection of different riffs on a theme. Personally, I think it’s great satire of liberal excess. Plus, Fred Armisen is generally fucking hilarious, and he and Carrie have good chemistry.
The Portlandia review was a bad example. Sketch comedy is not necessarily about the content (Kids in the Hall?), but about the execution. I know everybody judges things before they’ve seen them, but it’s bad journalism to just assume something is bad and then criticize The Daily for giving it a positive review. There are probably plenty of other good examples of why Murdoch’s paper sucks where you don’t have to guess wrong.
I’m not sure how one is supposed to write a review of Portlandia – a show whose whole purpose is making fun of liberals – without saying whether it does a good job of making fun liberals.
I’m betting if this same review was on Slate instead of in this Murdock rag, your interpretation would have been less sinister.
“The voice is petulant snark, poorly written. The straight news pieces are dry as sawdust, and the editorial pieces are just intolerable”.
Thanks for the chuckle.
@7 I’m betting if this same review was on Slate instead of in this Murdock rag, your interpretation would have been less sinister.
Not sure if Slate is the best example, but yes, the messenger matters when it comes to politics – a review of Portlandia coming from a liberal publication is different than the same review coming from a conservative publication.
@ 7, your comment prompted me to read the review. I have to disagree – I can’t see Slate publishing a review where the author’s obsession with liberals is so proudly on display. (If she had merely stuck with “hipsters” – and her obsession with hating hipsters was more striking to me – and not used “liberals” at all, or maybe just once, I’d agree with you.
“The voice is petulant snark, poorly written. The straight news pieces are dry as sawdust, and the editorial pieces are just intolerable”.
Wait, you sure this isn’t a review of The Stranger? 🙂
Their review of Portlandia is annoying, but (unlike Anthony Hecht) at least they watched the show before weighing in on its merits.
Idaho is the number one state for porn site subscriptions. Not because they’re the biggest porn hounds but because red staters love a business model where they get to help the rich get richer and get less for their money. Murdoch knows these people.
@12 – I didn’t weigh its merits at all. I said I’d seen clips and that was the impression I got from the clips. Relax.
What the hell did you expect? A company that lies to you made an app for a company that lies to you.
The writing is terrible. When was the last time you drove a bicycle?
And the notion that liberals aren’t laughing at the show? Right… This reminds me of the stupidity of the right who after Team America came out, and they all cheered it as a positive reflection of their views and a condomnation of liberals, when it clearly mocked both.
Your best example of the poor content is the review of a TV show that you have never watched?
Lazy.
Someone at the stranger really wrote this about another publication:
“The voice is petulant snark, poorly written. The straight news pieces are dry as sawdust, and the editorial pieces are just intolerable”.
They actually wrote that.
Let that sink in.
It took me a while to realize you weren’t talking about UW’s The Daily, which also sucks.
You’re wrong, Hecht. Dismissing the show as “one fairly obvious joke told over and over again” is weighing in on the merits. You should check it out for real. It’s actually quite funny.
@20 – I said it “looks like” that based on the clips I’ve seen. I didn’t dismiss it “as” that, I said it “looks like” that, to me, from that perspective.