Flipboard - A Social Magazine App for iPad

Flipboard

If you guys live in a hole, go download the new Flipboard app, pretty neat. Aggregated Twitter/Facebook plus other news outlet channels into one app in a tile like UI. Not perfect and lacks a lot of customizing options that I'm sure will come but it is pretty fun to play with.

Just downloaded it, probably one of my favourite apps even though I just downloaded it.

Flipboard - A Social Magazine App for iPad






Last night, Flipboard announced the launch of their iPad app, a social magazine called Flipboard.

Designed from the ground up for iPad, Flipboard creates a magazine out of a user’s social content. Simply launch Flipboard and “flip” open the cover to get started. From the Table of Contents readers can view their sections and personalize the magazine.

Click to expand...

The content of Flipboard is populated based on the user's own accounts on Twitter and Facebook, as well as their other interests. It's also presented in a very iPad-friendly interface as shown in this promo video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2vpvEDS00o

The free iPad application does a good job collecting data and presenting it in magazine format. It's a neat concept that seems to fit into the sitting-on-the-couch lifestyle of iPad media consumption. Early usage has been a bit spotty with connection errors, though we are assuming that's related to high early demand. Flipboard is a free download and requires an iPad.

Article Link: Flipboard - A Social Magazine App for iPad

How many Social Scraping apps do we really need?

Seriously, these apps are glorified scrapers with Apple's quality UI options.

Milk that popularity while it lasts. Such apps are soon going to be fighting over scraps.

The Social Network phase is already mature.

Can we actually move into productive apps that leverage distributed networks in native apps, please?

Isn't that the guy from Square?

So downloading this. Free?! Yay.

Update: WOW. This app is so elegant and beautifully designed. This is what an iPad app should be. Not those upscaled Twitter apps. Reeder is my only other app that makes me feel like my screen is being used to its full potential other than this one (except Apple apps) — and it's free! Twitter for iPad should be, though, given the developer.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

Nice! Very impressive.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

Why free btw?

Doju said:

Isn't that the guy from Square?

So downloading this. Free?! Yay.

Click to expand...

Yes, it is.

I want an iPad just for this app. The fact that this is free is astounding. I'm sure they could get away with cahrging $2.99 at least.

Anyone given this a spin?

mdriftmeyer said:

Seriously, these apps are glorified scrapers with Apple's quality UI options.

Milk that popularity while it lasts. Such apps are soon going to be fighting over scraps.

The Social Network phase is already mature.

Can we actually move into productive apps that leverage distributed networks in native apps, please?

Click to expand...

I really don't know what you just said. Why won't people want to aggregate and beautify content in the future? Isn't that one of the most appealing prospects of a consumption-oriented device like the iPad? I also don't see what any of that has to do with maturity of the social networking market either.

And what are 'productive apps that leverage distributed networks in native apps'? That statement makes no sense. I can't tell if you want a render farm of iPads or a Citrix client or something completely different? You just strung a load of buzz words together, so far as I can make out.

You have to admit, it was a real nice promo video. Liked the music too.

I just downloaded it, and it looks good. Very good. However, I tried to add my Twitter account and got:

"Flipboard is currently over capacity. Please try adding your Twitter account later".

Wait a moment! Why is it sending my Twitter credentials to the Flipboard servers? Why can't it just store them on the device (or even better get an OAuth token)? I think their model business model may turn out to be very Facebook-esque -- I suspect they value your data and would like to know all about you.

adrian.oconnor said:

I just downloaded it, and it looks good. Very good. However, I tried to add my Twitter account and got:

"Flipboard is currently over capacity. Please try adding your Twitter account later".

Wait a moment! Why is it sending my Twitter credentials to the Flipboard servers? Why can't it just store them on the device (or even better get an OAuth token)? I think their model business model may turn out to be very Facebook-esque -- I suspect they value your data and would like to know all about you.

Click to expand...

They take all the bitly links in your twitter stream, render them out, scrape the html and get the article contents out, and place them in a magazine style format. Most of that is done on the server most likely, for a billion reasons, mainly so it doesn't have to do the same links over and over and so that you don't get a gigantic loading bar every time you open up the app and it has to process all your links.

greggy said:

You have to admit, it was a real nice promo video. Liked the music too.

Click to expand...

really? i think the guy in the video looks like he is bored or tired like hell. look at his eyes almost closing, and his slow and boring voice... he would have needed a red bull before the shoot.

SBlue1 said:

really? i think the guy in the video looks like he is bored or tired like hell. look at his eyes almost closing, and his slow and boring voice... he would have needed a red bull before the shoot.

Click to expand...

That's just how lonelysandwich is. Haven't you ever listened to You Look Nice Today or watched that Square promo vid?

Draythor said:

Yes, it is.

I want an iPad just for this app. The fact that this is free is astounding. I'm sure they could get away with cahrging $2.99 at least.

Anyone given this a spin?

Click to expand...

Many apps start their lives as free apps to reach high ranking and publicity. Then they charge. But obviously, the few dollars they might charge eventually is just one source of revenue. They might top that with iAd, they might create a franchise around these functions and their dedicated customers might represent a certain advertising value to investors in the little company, when it comes to inviting venture capital.

Step right up - give all your passwords, links to all the people you know and access to your private details to this service without thinking twice!

And for what? A few pretty screens?

Seems like people are getting dumber by the minute.

Downloaded it last night and must admit, pretty cool addition.
It's become so popular overnight, it's trending in Twitter at the moment.

mdriftmeyer said:

Seriously, these apps are glorified scrapers with Apple's quality UI options.

Milk that popularity while it lasts. Such apps are soon going to be fighting over scraps.

The Social Network phase is already mature.

Can we actually move into productive apps that leverage distributed networks in native apps, please?

Click to expand...

What do you mean "actually productive"?

I follow a large set of UI designers and iPhone developers on Twitter. The tweets and links they post have been absolutely priceless for me. And that's aint even including other twitter accounts like breaking news and trending topics. Having a new and more comfortable way to consume such data is very very appealing to a lot of people, me included.

bjoggi said:

Why free btw?

Click to expand...

Ads.

+1

I just downloaded it... Pretty cool. Kinda like if pulse and early edition had sex with social networking ;-)

bjoggi said:

Why free btw?

Click to expand...

All your personal data, and that of your friends!

Looks good

But could get the boards to load half the time I opened it.

greggy said:

You have to admit, it was a real nice promo video. Liked the music too.

Click to expand...

It was an acoustic rip off of Aphex Twin - Flim. I doubt they asked Richard D. James for the rights to use that in a video, but I guess they're not selling anything exactly.

mine says overcapacity - can't add accounts