I have not only seen the future, I think I’ve touched it.

On Wednesday, media mogul Rupert Murdoch (the guy behind the New York Post, Wall Street Journal and, err, Fox News) unveiled the first “newspaper” built from the ground up for the iPad – The Daily. I downloaded it immediately of course, and spent the next half-hour or so flipping through its glossy pages, tapping and twirling its images and generally being wowed by its glorious ... multimedianess.

Come to think of it, I didn’t spend all that much time reading it. While there were a few, more traditional “long-form” hard news stories, a lot of The Daily’s content was short and snappy – perfect, really, for the iPad user who’s accustomed to getting what he wants quickly and, well, prettily.

That said, I don’t think The Daily, based on the first two issues anyway, is all form over function. But it is, let’s face it, the form that grabs you. And in this day and age, I’m not quite sure how much longer this big ol’ piece of flimsy paper is going to grab you.