Category: News
Price: Free
TiP Rating: 4/5 stars
Release Date: July 21, 2010
Version: 1.0.1
Languages: English
Seller: Flipboard, Inc.
Rated: 4+
Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later.
Link to app opens in iTunes

App Store Description: Flipboard is the world’s first social magazine. Your Flipboard is a fast, beautiful way to flip through news, photos and updates your friends are sharing on Facebook and Twitter. And it’s an incredible place to discover fresh content from around the Twittersphere.

Flipboard brings the timeless layout of print media to social media. No more scrolling through long lists of posts and links. No more jumping back and forth between websites. Your Flipboard is everything you care about in one place. It’s your magazine. It’s your Flipboard.

Summary: Flipboard transforms your iPad into a personalized social magazine. It eliminates the need for checking separate platforms to catch up on your favorite feeds. It updates automatically, so you get the news as soon as it hits the internet. Flipboard was the talk of the internet last week, but being so popular may have made it difficult for many Flipboard users to experience all the app has to offer. With the most recent update, Flipboard is allowing syncing for Facebook and Twitter on an invite-only basis.

Review: Flipboard has discovered a way to centralize access to your social world, and organizes it into a visually-appealing format that makes staying up to date much more fun.

This free app features your personal Facebook and Twitter feeds along side your favorite websites into a sleek magazine-style display. Upon download, you will have a few hand-picked categories to browse, such as FlipTech, FlipStyle and InsideFlipboard, your look behind the scenes. From here you can explore one of the chosen sections, or you can tap an open section and choose from a number of categories that feature popular titles, including Wired, Hacker News, TED Talks, Apartment Therapy, Drawn!, The Onion and so many more.

Once you go into one of the selected sections, you are greeted by the most recent articles published under that title or category. Flipping to more articles can be done by swiping your finger just as you would to a magazine. To read an article, just tap it. Under or alongside the article is a panel showing any tweets linking that article. You can even log into Twitter and add your own tweet.

It’s difficult to see in the above image, but right below the tweets along the right side is an option to log in to Twitter. You can also Instapaper this article, or choose to read it on the web. I love having options!

While brilliant, Flipboard is lacking in a couple of areas.

1. Only 9 sections of content can be displayed at one time. I hope they add more options — if they could utilize the folders feature from iOS 4, it would be amazing. They sort of do this with their Flip features, like FlipTech. Under that section there are a number of hand-picked titles from the Flipboard staff. But if I had the ability to customize even that, I’d be one happy camper.

2. After a week I am still unable to sync my Facebook and Twitter account. With the most recent update, the ability to sync is now being offered on an invite-only basis. I find it difficult to believe that with a game-changer of an app that they didn’t expect and prepare for the demand.

3. Content is only available via wi-fi currently. So if you have 3G, don’t wander too far from your internet connection. It would be nice if it cached for offline viewing.

Regardless of a few hiccups, I’m really impressed with the idea, the interface and the content of Flipboard. I don’t NEED my twitter feed in there to enjoy the app (but it would be nice!) Flipboard offers users a one-of-a-kind reading experience. I can’t wait to see what future updates bring.

Oh, and did I mention that Flipboard is free? New iPad owners: there’s no reason this shouldn’t be the first app you download. Current owners, I expect that I had you at “world’s first social magazine.”