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iOS 4.2 went public yesterday, but Apple is already aiming at a mid-December release for the next major update of its mobile operating system, iOS 4.3. Before we get into the details and we try to put the pieces together, it is necessary to recap all the rumors that have been going around recently about News Corp.’s upcoming iPad-only newspaper.


Last week James Murdoch confirmed News Corp. was working on an upcoming tablet-only publication, a “very exciting” project that was set to be released “soon”. Three days later, Rupert Murdoch himself told Fox Business about the app, called The Daily:
News Corp. has spent the last three months assembling a newsroom that will soon be about 100 staffers strong. The Daily will launch in beta mode sometime around Christmas, and will be introduced to the public on the iPad and other tablet devices in early 2011. It is expected to cost 99 cents a week, or about $4.25 a month. It will come out — as the name suggests — seven days a week. The operation is currently working out of the 26th floor of the News Corp. Building on Sixth Avenue in a space that looks like a veritable construction zone. The staff’s permanent home will be on the ninth floor, and they’ll move down once it’s ready.
Together with details revealed by Fox Business and WWDMedia, the Guardian reported The Daily was the result of a “collaboration that has been secretly under development in New York for several months” between Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch. We speculated that Apple’s involvement in the project might be the first step towards the implementation of iTunes recurring subscriptions for apps.
Yesterday, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber (whose sources are usually spot-on) weighed in to confirm that yes, Apple has been working with News Corp. over the launch of The Daily, and this “initiative is going to launch with a press event, with Murdoch (and perhaps other newspaper and magazine executives) joining Steve Jobs on stage”. He also wrote this won’t be a “quiet launch” at all.

This rumor coincides with another rumor according to which Apple will be holding a special media event on December 9 to announce this new subscription based content feature. John Gruber of Daring Fireball noted:
[This] initiative is going to launch with a press event, with Murdoch (and perhaps other newspaper and magazine executives) joining Steve Jobs on stage …
The date I’ve heard is December 9, but that’s a Thursday, which would be somewhat unusual for an Apple press event. My guess is that they’re telling people December 9 but it might slip back to Tuesday or Wednesday the week after.
 Via macstories.net