The Onion releases an iPad app on April Fools' Day - really, no kidding

Showing that Apple can definitely get its app review teams to act in a timely fashion, The Onion has had its new iPad app released into the App Store today, on April Fools' Day. And that is no joke.

The Onion Tablet is a free app from the organization that bills itself as America's Finest News Source, and frankly who can argue with that, right?

The app is fairly primitive, an RSS feed driven design, but the app contains all the stories and satirical videos from The Onion's website -- and today The Onion has it pretty easy, they don't have to do much different on April Fools' Day than they would any other day.

The Onion's lead story today is "Chicago Cubs Can't Believe They're Doing This Again" and since this is opening day for the Cubs, a team that has not won the World Series in 102 years (and counting), the story is most appropriate.

(Oh, by the way, it is raining and 40 degrees today in Chicago. And oh, by the way, the Cubs starting pitcher just blew a two run lead by giving up a grand slam to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and are now losing 4 to 2. Really, why do the Cubs bother?)

The Masters Tournament releases a companion iPad app featuring extra programming; early release offers the developers time to fix bugs before the first player tees off

For some the first sign of spring is Opening Day of the baseball season; for others it is the start of The Masters, the first of the four "majors" in golf. Played at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, the beautifully landscaped course, combined with the gentle weather means spring for many Americans, even if the temperature outside where they live is barely above 40.

The tournament itself is unique in that it is very tightly managed by the tournament organizers. The television broadcast by CBS, for instance, contains minimal commercial interruptions -- only four minutes per hour. And, of course, it is the only "major" played on the same course every year. As a result, viewers have a fondness and familiarity for the tournament missing from other majors.
With this level of tight control, it is not surprising that The Masters would release its own iPad app for the tournament and include features over and above simple scorecard and highlight videos.

The Masters Tournament iPad app costs only $1.99 and offers tons of added programming, though users will have to wait until the actual event, of course, to begin to enjoy that content.

The main event begins on Thursday, April 7, but the app will allow users to watch live streams of the players practicing starting on Monday, as well as the traditional Wednesday Par 3 Contest.

Then when the actual tournament begins, iPad owners will have access to the CBS simulcast plus addition live video from famous men Corner (holes 11, 12, and 13), as well as holes 15 and 16.

The app launched a day or so ago, well in advance of the tournament, and that was a really good idea. Already an updated app has appeared, and still there appear to be video problems with the app. Buyers can probably expect at least one more update before the tournament begins.

It would be malpractice on my part not to mention that this app seems to continue the trend of the tournament and country club of whitewashing its history. The included timeline fails to bother mentioning the tournament's practice of not including African-American players all the way up until 1975 when Lee Elder was finally allowed to play, or the fact that the first African-American member of August was not allowed in until 1990. This isn't the place to recount this history or to recount the racial attitudes of the founders of the club and tournament. Nonetheless, I felt very uncomfortable using the app when it seemed so obvious that certain things were missing from the app's Timeline (you can read more about the tournament, the country club and its founders, including Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts elsewhere online).

This app is, in the end, very much a marketing vehicle that is intended to promote the annual tournament which brings in millions for Augusta National Golf Club. Better to look at it this way, rather than as a true media app.

Time Warner Cable fires a shot across the bow

Frankly, I didn't see this coming: Time Warner Cable really does want to fight for its right to stream programming to its customers through its iPad app. Tonight they have posted a statement online similar to the statement they issued the press, but with a kicker.

It, too, states that they feel it is their right to carry and stream programming in their app:

We believe we have every right to carry programming on the iPad app. But, for the time being, we have decided to focus our iPad efforts on other enlightened programmers who understand the benefit and importance of allowing our subscribers – and their viewers – to watch their programming on any screen in their homes.

Then it ends like this:

In the meantime, we will pursue all of our legal rights against the programmers who don’t share our vision. Your enthusiasm, and the enthusiasm of the programming partners who have embraced the app – rather than those who are solely focused on finding additional ways to reach into wallets of their own viewers – has convinced us more than ever that we are on the right path. We will continue to fight to ensure that you have access to the content you pay for, no matter which screen in your home you choose to view it on.

Interesting, no?

Time Warner Cable removes channels from its iPad app

Twitter was not the only company that surrendered to pressure from outside to drastically alter their media app today: Time Warner Cable, responding to pressure from the network programmers, has pulled cable channels such as FX, Discovery Channel, MTV and others.

Time Warner Cable was one of the last of the cable or satellite providers to launch an iPad app, releasing their app about two weeks ago.

The app provided customers of the Time Warner cable service, plus their Internet services, the ability to stream programming to their tablet, as long as they were on the same WiFi network. It is definitely limited streaming -- but it was enough to get the attention of programmers who want to severely restrict their contracts to just cable TV.

But according to a statement from Time Warner Cable, the company has decided not to fight the programmers, possibly in hopes that TWC can negotiate this feature. "We believe we have every right to carry the programming on our iPad app. But, for the time being, we have decided to focus our iPad efforts on those enlightened programmers who understand the benefit and importance of allowing our subscribers--and their viewers--to watch their programming on any screen in their homes."

Clearly Time Warner is pretty upset by the attitude of the network programmers who are fighting the move to streaming. The statement issued to the media revealed a bit of frustration with their programming partners.

"We have decided to focus our iPad efforts on those enlightened programmers who understand the benefit and importance of allowing our subscribers -- and their viewers -- to watch their programming on any screen in their homes," Time Warner said in its statement.

Twitter gives in: removes QuickBar from its iPhone & iPad apps after torrents of user protests

While Twitter called it the QuickBar and included it on their iOS applications; others, though, came to call it the DickBar. Things went quickly downhill from there.

Today Twitter threw in the towel, eliminating the QuickBar from its apps.

The response from users was universally positive: "No more obnoxious trending bar = back to five star status," wrote one user in the App Store. "Thank you for removing the QuickBar! Please do not add it back," wrote another.

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← The Twitter iPhone app, sans the QuickBar.

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"Rather than continue to make changes to the QuickBar as it exists, we removed the bar from the update appearing in the App Store today," the Twitter blog announced. "We believe there are still significant benefits to increasing awareness of what’s happening outside the home timeline. Evidence of the incredibly high usage metrics for the QuickBar support this. For now, we’re going back to the drawing board to explore the best possible experience for in-app notification and discovery."

The top banner, known as the QuickBar, was introduced to Twitter's own mobile apps as a way of bringing instream advertising. But smartphone users instantly rebelled against the loss of display space. Then the term "DickBar" was coined by John Gruber of Daring Fireball in a tweet -- then came the hashtag, irate reviews in iTunes, and it was only a matter of time before Twitter relented.

Better late than never, I guess.

knowDigital study looks at The Daily, foresees possible problems for News Corp's experiment in tablet publishing

The digital media research firm knowDigital released a study of the impressions of The Daily among iPad owners. The study is one of the first publicly released of any tablet publication, let alone one as highly visible as the News Corp. launch.

knowDigital finds that iPad owners who have downloaded The Daily app perceive that superior content is to be found elsewhere online free of charge. Additionally, consumers expressed a desire for single issue sales options, as opposed to a recurring subscription.

“Our research finds that iPad users feel positively about what News Corporation has set out to accomplish with The Daily,” study author and knowDigital President Sam Milkman wrote in the company's press release.

“However, for News Corporation to convert those positive impressions into regular use and paid subscriptions from iPad users, it is going to have to address a number of concerns raised in our study.”

The study, which can be found in full in PDF form here, breaks out reactions of iPad-The Daily readers into two camps. Those who the authors identify as "tech-savvy, heavy news users" and "those who are less tech-savvy and have lower interest in gathering news content". It is the second group that appears most positive about the new digital newspaper.

"It’s not just the news; they have the gossip, they have arts and life, they have apps and the games," a respondent identified as Linda stated to the researchers.

On the other hand, a respondent identified as David told knowDigital "It's not hard-hitting, factual news, ‘cause I feel more comfortable getting that from another source. If I want to learn something new, I'm not going to go to The Daily to learn that.”

Users identified The Daily more as an "app" rather than a newspaper or magazine. I would guess this shouldn't be surprising as The Daily did not come to the iPad from a history in print.

The study also found that users had a "low awareness" that the app is updated through the day. This may be the fault of the editors, however, who could use notifications to make sure readers are aware of new content -- though this has to be used sparingly and with some forethought. I receive, for instance, notices from the NYT of budget developments in New York state, something not terribly important to me as a Midwesterner.

Research like this one from knowDigital is of incredible importance to major publishers looking to launch tablet-only publications. For the most part, publishers are still working in the dark as to what consumers expect in a tablet edition. However, it could be said that many of the issues facing The Daily could have been foreseen. First, while those in the newspaper industry, and those who are iPad enthusiasts may have been very much aware of The Daily prior to its launch, The Daily did not get much marketing support aimed at the general public.

A major marketing effort might have had to address such questions as "why is this product different, better?", "why should I subscribe to this new product?", as well as "what can I expect from this new news product?" Those who are heavy consumers of the news probably could have guess the answers to some of these questions, knowing this was a new launch from News Corp. -- but then again, the publisher may have gone into this launch hoping many iPad owners would ignore the source of the new media app, and concentrate on the app experience itself.