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Zite Shutting Down December 7, Recommends Flipboard to Users

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News aggregator app Zite last night announced that it will no longer be functional past December 7, with the company encouraging fans to migrate their information and preferences over to similar app Flipboard before the deadline (via VentureBeat).

Flipboard acquired Zite in 2014 after a competitive few years together in the social media and news aggregation app sphere, keeping it open but slowly appropriating Zite's features and services into Flipboard. Zite has been hinting at its impending closure for a few months, but kept silent on whether or not it would continue to run in the face of the Flipboard acquisition until now.

zite-flipboard-apps-800x472.jpg
"We wanted to ensure that Zite's key functionality was available in Flipboard before asking users to migrate. Now that we've integrated all the major parts of the technology such as the topic engine, collaborative filtering algorithms and thumbs up and down voting, Zite will soon stop being available as its own app. Zite users have a few more weeks to import their preferences into Flipboard. We hope many of them will do this."
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Zite users will recieve a notification within the app, or a personalized email, of the impending closure, along with a step-by-step guide of how to migrate their data to Flipboard. All the app requires is the entry of Flipboard login information into Zite -- a Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ login will work as well -- to begin the migration process.

Similar to the newly launched Apple News, Flipboard provides customers a one-stop shop of all their prioritized daily news services. Flipboard [Direct Link] allows a bit more personalization, however, letting users construct digital magazines of favorite stories, pictures, and breaking news and share them on social media. The app was recently updated to bring full support of the larger screen on the iPad Pro, as well.

Article Link: Zite Shutting Down December 7, Recommends Flipboard to Users
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/11/20/zite-shutting-down-december-7/
Zite is (soon to be "was") GREAT!!! I'm sad to see this. In my iPad dock where only 6 (favorite) app icons can be stored, Zite got one of those spots. I've tried Flipboard many times but always felt Zite did it better. Sad to see it go.

Now, could those who can be objective (the segment that doesn't worship at the alter of Apple) who use or regularly use both Flipboard and Apple News offer some "which is best" input? I know how the "Apple is always right" crowd will feel but I'm interested in the views of those who can actually "think different:" which one is the best replacement for Zite for Zite-like functionality & usefulness? If neither, what is the new king of this particular hill? Much thanks to anyone (especially anyone objective) who chimes in with some helpful views.
 
I started with Flipboard then later found Zite. Zite was my main reader until Flipboard bought the service. Went back to Flipboard and now to Apple News. It takes work, a lot of work, to get Apple News to feed the type of data I want but now after a few months I'm good. I don't remember the other services taking as much effort.

Anyhow, we knew this was coming when they were bought. It was just a matter of time.

HobeSoundDarryl said:
Now, could those who can be objective (the segment that doesn't worship at the alter of Apple) who use or regularly use both Flipboard and Apple News offer some "which is best" input?
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I covered this a little in my general reply but you asked just about the same time I posted so I thought I would add a little more. I liked Zite a lot but its gone. Flipboard is not bad and neither is Apple News. They are different though. Generally I think Flipboard is a better service than Apple News but I have been using AN (Apple News) more since its built in to the OS and its one less extra app. I like the layout of Flipboard since they try really hard to simulate a magazine. The articles are fit into a few different repeating shapes and you flip through it like you would a magazine. AN on the other hand is based on horizontal lines on a continuous scrolling page. AN is row after row of links to stories that once open might be formatted nicely but all have a similar look on the main page.

Looks aside, AN will give you something equal to what you put into the process of finding and adding news sources, Flipboard the same. Both take time to develop and shape and remove sources you don't like. Zite felt like it did that more on my behalf. I didn't have to know or force myself to know what I wanted to read, it just gave me interesting things to read about. AN and Flipboard feel more like a service that simply looks at sources you select and feeds you everything that has been updated on those sites. Hard to explain. Zite felt like discovery of stores where AN and Flipboard feel like simple feeds. Either will be about the same, it all comes down to what style you want to view the news in. I have chosen AN simply because its built in and no worse to me than Flipboard. Not saying either is bad, just different. Hope that all makes sense.
 
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HobeSoundDarryl said:
Zite is (soon to be "was") GREAT!!! I'm sad to see this. In my iPad dock where only 6 (favorite) app icons can be stored, Zite got one of those spots. I've tried Flipboard many times but always felt Zite did it better. Sad to see it go.

Now, could those who can be objective (the segment that doesn't worship at the alter of Apple) who use or regularly use both Flipboard and Apple News offer some "which is best" input? I know how the "Apple is always right" crowd will feel but I'm interested in the views of those who can actually "think different:" which one is the best replacement for Zite for Zite-like functionality & usefulness? If neither, what is the new king of this particular hill? Much thanks to anyone (especially anyone objective) who chimes in with some helpful views.
Click to expand...

I use Feedly - I have tried to like Flipboard but I don't get the curated piece. With Zite all I did was say what I liked and Zite delivered content. Flipboard is just not as clever. And much more annoying with all the flipping flipping.........
 
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Loved Zite, don't care for Flipboard. I'll just keep using Feedly and, on occasion, Apple's News app.
 
Never even heard of this. How did it compare to Rantt? I mostly like Rantt for the personalized notifications - nothing else that I've tried has been anywhere near as good at sending me push messages for news I care about. Everything else either sends too many notifications, with a lot I don't care about, or too few.

(Disclaimer: I'm one of the co-founders and developers of Rantt.)
 
I've been a user of zite for close to 5 years and loved it so much. I'd tried flipboard but never liked it or got into it. I only found out about the acquisition a couple months ago a month of the "migrate to flipboard" at the top. At first I thought that was just an ironic coincidence or a sponsored ad or something. After debating it for a few days I decided to make the switch. Since all your data is migrated and they now use Zite's powerful news aggregation engine, flipboard is actually pretty good.
HobeSoundDarryl said:
Now, could those who can be objective (the segment that doesn't worship at the alter of Apple) who use or regularly use both Flipboard and Apple News offer some "which is best" input? I know how the "Apple is always right" crowd will feel but I'm interested in the views of those who can actually "think different:" which one is the best replacement for Zite for Zite-like functionality & usefulness? If neither, what is the new king of this particular hill? Much thanks to anyone (especially anyone objective) who chimes in with some helpful views.
Click to expand...

So I made the switch to flipboard right around the same time as iOS 9, so I've been using them about the same length of time. I gave both of them a fair shot (and spent a fair amount of time customizing my likes in both), but I end up using flipboard 90% of the time. I find it's news (now based on the zite engine) to be much more inline with what I'm interested in. AN tends to take much longer to load at times. Also, I only use them on my iPhone, but one day I tried to use AN on my iPad, just for giggles, and it didn't have ANY of my interests saved that I took a long time accumulating. I'm not sure if I did something wrong or if it was a one-off issue, but that's what happened. There are a lot of other little niggles, but bottom line is that flipboard is my go-to news now.
 
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Sad times. Zite was awesome. Never got on with Flipboard and too many other curated news apps use the ghastly Sky News as their source for UK news. I'm good for fear-mongering thanks.
 
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I made the switch a few months ago when the Zite app started to "beg" me to swap. I've since gone from using Zite every day, to using Flipboard maybe once per week. Think that says it all about the experience.

Haven't tried Apple News yet, since it's US only, but there's definitely room for someone to swoop in and compete with Flipboard, be it Apple or anyone else.
 
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Such a shame. Been using Zite since launch. Clipboard is a triumph of style over substance. News will probably become my go-to aggregator.
 
BrentT said:
Flipboard is inferior to Zite. Flipboard is a classic example of style over substance. It is harder to use but looks cooler doing it.
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My feelings exactly
Sorry to see Zite go
Tried Flipboard - don't like it
Apple News not in Canada yet.
Reeder / RSS will be my source for now.
 
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Never heard of Zite. Haven't used Flipboard in ages: hated its curation. Was planning to give Apple News a try this weekend. A couple people I trust like it, one of them was a frequent Flipboard user.
 
Never used it but have used Flipboard, but what I'd really like to see is the Apple News app come to OS X.
 
I guess the inevitable had to come, but Flipboard is just something i will not use. Like others have mentioned, its Style over substance. I mostly use News360 which is my top choice. I also use Newsify which is a nice alternate too. I may have to try Apple News again. i wish i could take my Zite preferences and move them somewhere else.
 
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