Flipboard – iPad App of the Week

Flipboard – iPad App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive. Originally this feature focused on iPhone and iPad apps, however I have now expanded to include Mac, Windows and Android apps.

Named Apple’s iPad App of the Year and one of TIME’s top 50 innovations of 2010, Flipboard is a fast, beautiful way to flip through the news, photos and updates your friends are sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader and Flickr. See your social media in a magazine layout that is easy to scan and fun to read. Share articles and photos, comment on posts, and like or favorite anything. Customize your Flipboard with sections created from your favorite people, lists, groups and blogs on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Google Reader.

Your Flipboard is everything you care about in one place. It’s your magazine. It’s your Flipboard.

This week’s App is Flipboard.

Free

When Flipboard was first released it was hailed as the app the iPad was made for.

Robert Scoble said:

What is Flipboard? It turns your Facebook and Twitter account into something that looks like a magazine. It also lets you build a custom magazine, either by choosing from Flipboard’s pre-built curated “boards” or by importing Twitter lists. This is a very powerful and engaging way to read Twitter. You can also turn a single person’s Twitter account, or a single brand’s Twitter account, into a Flipboard. For instance, you can follow Techcrunch on Twitter with it and it will turn Techcrunch into a beautiful magazine-like interface that’s easier to read than any other reader.

Even Apple liked it a lot and called it their iPad App of the Year 2010.

Now to be honest I did quite like it, but certainly didn’t think it was that “fantastic”. It did what it did very nicely, however it couldn’t be configured to suit my specific needs. It had little support for RSS or Google Reader, so though it was worth flicking through now and again, other RSS readers seemed more useful.

The most recent update though added some new features which now make what was a good App into a really useful more innovative App.

Flipboard now syncs with Google Reader, making it much more useful if you subscribe to various different news sites and blogs.

It is now easier to view Flickr.

You can strip down what you see from your Twitter or Facebook streams.

It is now much easier to share across different networks what you are seeing on Flipboard.

Oh it seems a little faster too…

So basically the app is a different way of engaging and interacting with other sites and services. It does it in a way that is easy, simple and intuitive for most people.

It does seem a little weird that an app which emluates the page turning of a mgazine or newspaper is such a popular app for the iPad. Maybe we are all a little analogue in our own way and appreciate the ability to flip over pages….

Get Flipboard in the App Store.

3 thoughts on “Flipboard – iPad App of the Week”

  1. I recently discovered Flipboard myself, and I love it. The interesting thing is, it seems to always show stories from feeds I’ve forgotten about, as opposed to the blogs I read regularly, so I am always pleasantly surprised at what comes up. Ditto the Flickr feed

  2. Oh yes…definitely in my top 5 apps on the iPad. I love it.

    I follow several people on twitter that predominantly use it for posting links to content that’s right up my street. Instead of clicking through to read them in the browser though I now use Flipboard for that kind of consumption. I much prefer having the newspaper style interaction.

    And on the topic of interaction I do love what Flipboard has done, with some really simple but stylish touches. And that’s a good point you make about that analogue aspect. We see a lot of criticism – or at least disappointment – around the whole issue of magazines on the iPad and how they are still basically the printed product with links and videos thrown in.

    With Flipboard it works though and I think it’s because it’s YOUR content, it’s personalised. And, yeah, I think we do like that connection to traditional actions like turnng pages.

    Oh and…free!? No doubt that will change at some point but Flipboard I would happily pay for.

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