The Daily Mail has announced that it will launch a paid-for iPad app in the next few months and that its iPhone app, which has a 60-day free trial, has already been downloaded by 70,000 users, Press Gazette revealed today.

"I'm very excited by the various micro payment systems that are in the pipeline that will give us the flexibility to offer new kinds of content that we can charge for on a pay-per-view or piecemeal basis," said Mail Online's publisher Martin Clarke.

Although traffic data has not been confirmed by the ABCe, Clarke said the website attracts 50 million unique users every month. According to Press Gazette, this would mean "that a UK national newspaper is for the first time set to challenge the dominance of the BBC online," which last month reported 60 million users.

Furthermore, the Mail Online executive revealed that Facebook's referral are generating 10 percent of the traffic from the UK, MediaGuardian quoted. "The social networks are becoming increasingly important to us. If you want an engaging site, Facebook isn't a threat or a parasite but a gigantic free marketing engine," he said.

Google has revealed it will launch its own paid apps shop for Android-based shops in 18 additional countries, including Brazil, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Israel, India and Mexico, ZD Net reported.The search engine giant said developers from 20 additional countries (such as Finland, Argentina, Ireland, Denmark) could sell their apps on the Android Market as well.

"Since we launched Android and Android Market, we have seen the population of Android users and devices expand into many countries," Google stated in a blog post. "This widespread adoption has brought with it growing interest in Android Market's support for the buying and selling of paid applications in these additional countries."

According to CNet, users in these newer countries were able to start purchasing apps "over the next two weeks," Google added. Google also said that the list of countries with the Android Market will be expanded over the upcoming months.

Popular microblogging service Twitter announced the launch of a free iPad application late Wednesday night, The New York Times reported. Twitter for iPad will let users tap away messages on the 9.7 inch touchscreen while any related content (such as pictures, websites or videos) will be available in a separate window, according to MSNBC.

In a company blog post Leland Rechis, Twitter's user interface designer, stressed that Twitter for iPad makes use of the tablet's "fluid touch interface" so that users can move around information "smoothly and quickly" without the need for opening multiple windows or clicking buttons.

Since users do not know where links that are featured in the 140-character Tweets will lead to, iPad's Flipboard application takes care of the problem by copying the links and adding visual content from the site. Users can also pinch another user's Tweet to obtain more information on the author and wipe down with two fingers to look at conversation threads, Reuters says.

The Garnett Dickinson group-owned weekly The Rotherham Advertiser announced its first iPhone app for its births, marriages and deaths section, MediaGuardian reported today.

"We are the first in the UK to launch an App for the BMD section, allowing us to extend our brand to a new non-traditional newspaper audience," Nicky Holt, commercial director of the weekly, told MediaGuardian. "We are a traditional weekly newspaper group, but that hasn't prevented us from identifying opportunities in new media and technology to capitalise on a key pillar of a traditional printed product."

The app, available on iTunes, facilitates readers' search for the latest news updates and announcements in the last two months, and allows users to share news via e-mail and through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, leave comments, upload photos and also archive favourites.

The weekly has a circulation of 30,000 copies.