The Daily official for Feb 2 with Apple's Eddy Cue

Apple and News Corp. today fulfilled expectations and sent out invitations to the launch of The Daily. The two will unveil the iPad-specific publication at New York City's Guggenheim museum on February 2 at 11AM. Steve Jobs' medical leave has put Apple Internet Services VP Eddy Cue as Apple's co-host while News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch is still scheduled to appear.

Although the publication has officially remained a secret, nearly every detail has been made public, either by company staff or through leaks. The app-based Daily will provide multiple updates per day at a cost of 99 cents per week. The timing of the app may have hinged on support for iTunes-based subscriptions that would let customers get a discount for committing to a longer term. Other publishers besides News Corp. may still object due to the lack of subscriber info for targeted advertising, but Murdoch is widely believed to be willing to make the compromise.

Its layout is known to be heavily visual and may resemble many early tablet magazines with an emphasis on video. Talk has existed of a special 3D trick, though this may involve interactive objects and not optical 3D effects.

The project is considered a 'darling' of Murdoch, who considers tablets key to saving the news. He has actively resisted the broader move to free, ad-supported content on the web and has seen paid downloadable news as a way of steering the mainstream back to newspaper-style subscriptions. Staff for The Daily has been hand-picked from across News Corp.'s publications and has been led by the former managing editor of the New York Post, Jesse Angelo.

By Electronista Staff