The Daily’s Gadget Guide was created with technophiles in mind, but even though the iPad app is probably The Daily’s best effort to date, I still found its content fell short of must-have reading material.
Gadget Guide does offer quite a few products — more than 200, in fact — and the price points are varied, which means, yes, in theory, there’s something for everyone. The Daily also hired British illustrator Matthew Lyons to give the app a retro-yet-futuristic spin to the category splash pages. Intermixed with the product pages — and quite a few advertisements — are brief essays by blog Paleofuture’s Matt Novak ruminating on tech that never was. These snippets give Gadget Guide a twist, but I don’t know how much users will really get out of their incorporation.
Gadget Guide only works in landscape mode, which I found frustrating. Most of the sections open with vignette scenes, and with a tap you’ll see the recommended items for purchase highlighted. I kept trying to tap directly on these pop-ups for more information, but they aren’t actual links. Instead, you’ll need to swipe down for more information. It’s worth going through each of these product pages as they contain accessory items that are often more fun (bacon-flavored floss!) than the primary products, but with so much buried in pages, and no available search function, users will need to spend a lot of time with this app to make sure they don’t miss anything — and I’m not sure Gadget Guide is worth the effort.
If you do find an item worthy of gifting (to others or to yourself), there are purchase links that will open retailer sites for your spending pleasure. Gadget Guide also provides a sharing option, but strangely only via email.
