Just a week into the launch of The Daily—Rupert Murdoch’s much-ballyhooed newspaper for the iPad—a new, supposedly improved version is drawing widespread complaints from users over its performance. It’s not a good sign for News Corp., which could use a hit in the digital department.
An update released Feb. 8 promises “increased performance” and “improved introduction experience,” but users are complaining that the new version is buggy, slow to load or, worse, that it crashes on launch. This update follows a barrage of problems reported by users immediately following last week’s launch.
Commenting at Apple’s App Store, one reviewer said the upgrade works if users follow instructions and download it only after the previous version is deleted. But others apparently aren’t following those directions or are having trouble anyway.
“This new version doesn’t work at all,” wrote one in a typical review. “Nothing loads and I’m left looking at a blank screen.” Another, who gave the app one out of five stars, wrote, “Buggy, slow app that crashes constantly and vapid content from Murdoch. I would give it zero stars if I could. The update fixed nothing.”
The newest version averaged two-and-a-half out of five stars across 257 ratings in the App Store. While there were some positive comments about The Daily’s content, the reviews were full of complaints about the app’s performance.
Users are also taking to Twitter to bellyache about the experience. While there are positive reviews of the content and the app to be found, the predominant sentiment is one of frustration with the app. “Attempted multiple times to use the @daily iPad app and every time it quits, even after the update,” kylekutter tweeted, adding, “Commercial did LOOK cool.”
“This 'first two weeks free' thing for The @Daily is going to bite them hard,” StrikerObi opined. “Who would pay for this after two weeks of constant app crashes?”
“@daily ever since your update, your app keeps crashing,” jamboree tweeted, tacking on the quintessential Twitter expression of displeasure: “#fail.”
Related: A Prolonged History of Murdoch's iBlunders
