I had heard quite a bit about Flipboard before but it was not until I saw it listed in Time’s (1) ’50 Best Inventions of 2010’ a couple of weeks ago that I became truly intrigued.
The top technology inventions include iPad, Flipboard, Looxcie, Kickstarter, Square and Sony’s Alpha A55 Camera. Being an avid iPad user and a daily train-commuter (on, often, wi-fi-enabled trains), (2) Flipboard seemed to be a perfect fit for me. I decided to give it a go!
Flipboard offers iPad users an alternative to browsing the web and accessing all types of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It turns your social streams and information feeds into social ‘magazines’ while allowing you to respond and interact from the app itself.
You can flip through the many pages of 'news' with your finger. At any time, you can tap on one photo or news item to make it full-screen – you can even view video directly on the app. In that view, you can comment on articles, reply to the original poster via Twitter or, if you're looking through links from Facebook, hit the all-important 'like' button.
Downloading it ( (3) from Apple’s App Store) and getting used to its user-friendly and intuitive interface was extremely easy. Loading the streams for the first time was a bit of a pain – I was at an airport connected via Boingo, I did not have any trouble running other internet-based apps or browsing the web but the streams just would not load! Having said this, once I overcame this first hurdle – by connecting at home - it has been easy sailing. In fact, by combining the resources in Kindle, iBook and Flipboard, my iPad is now my preferred media for reading! At the bottom I have included a few screenshots of the application.
What are the major pros and cons?
Pros:
1) Aggregates news, images, video, shared links and social networking updates.
2) Easy to setup and use – extremely user-friendly and simple interface.
3) Magazine-style page layouts with beautiful use of photos and white spaces, make reading easy and attractive.
4) The app has its own set of curated hubs but you can also create hubs that are based entirely on Twitter lists or users. They are still beautifully presented and just as easy to read. Having said this, an improvement could be to also allow RSS feeds.
5) Absolutely free.
Cons:
1) Limits the total number of panes you can include to 21.
2) You cannot read stories when offline without an (4) Instapaper account, which you have to then (5) setup within Flipboard.
3) To avoid repetitious content on Twitter, it simply skips over duplicated links. This helps keep the content more varied and, thus, relevant but, at the same time, breaks out possible conversations among users.
4) Flipboard never seems to reveal the name of the author of a particular article, it only reveals the source.
Download it and try it out!
The top technology inventions include iPad, Flipboard, Looxcie, Kickstarter, Square and Sony’s Alpha A55 Camera. Being an avid iPad user and a daily train-commuter (on, often, wi-fi-enabled trains), (2) Flipboard seemed to be a perfect fit for me. I decided to give it a go!
Flipboard offers iPad users an alternative to browsing the web and accessing all types of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It turns your social streams and information feeds into social ‘magazines’ while allowing you to respond and interact from the app itself.
You can flip through the many pages of 'news' with your finger. At any time, you can tap on one photo or news item to make it full-screen – you can even view video directly on the app. In that view, you can comment on articles, reply to the original poster via Twitter or, if you're looking through links from Facebook, hit the all-important 'like' button.
Downloading it ( (3) from Apple’s App Store) and getting used to its user-friendly and intuitive interface was extremely easy. Loading the streams for the first time was a bit of a pain – I was at an airport connected via Boingo, I did not have any trouble running other internet-based apps or browsing the web but the streams just would not load! Having said this, once I overcame this first hurdle – by connecting at home - it has been easy sailing. In fact, by combining the resources in Kindle, iBook and Flipboard, my iPad is now my preferred media for reading! At the bottom I have included a few screenshots of the application.
What are the major pros and cons?
Pros:
1) Aggregates news, images, video, shared links and social networking updates.
2) Easy to setup and use – extremely user-friendly and simple interface.
3) Magazine-style page layouts with beautiful use of photos and white spaces, make reading easy and attractive.
4) The app has its own set of curated hubs but you can also create hubs that are based entirely on Twitter lists or users. They are still beautifully presented and just as easy to read. Having said this, an improvement could be to also allow RSS feeds.
5) Absolutely free.
Cons:
1) Limits the total number of panes you can include to 21.
2) You cannot read stories when offline without an (4) Instapaper account, which you have to then (5) setup within Flipboard.
3) To avoid repetitious content on Twitter, it simply skips over duplicated links. This helps keep the content more varied and, thus, relevant but, at the same time, breaks out possible conversations among users.
4) Flipboard never seems to reveal the name of the author of a particular article, it only reveals the source.
Download it and try it out!
Example of welcome cover - An ever-changing image (every 10 seconds or so) taken from your feeds.
Example of first set of panels - By tapping on any of them you have direct access to your accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or to your favorite news feeds
Example of Twitter content - Easy to read content. Again, just tap on the 'article' that interests you the most and read away!
RSS Feed