We take the new “social magazine” app for a spin
Launched today, Flipboard aggregates content posted by friends on Facebook and Twitter. Instead of reading feeds and clicking on links, the well-funded app transforms the links into a magazine-style format for iPad reading. With the news sweeping the Internet, Flipboard’s server has been up and down all day, but we took it for a precursory spin to see its immediate capabilities—which includes a valuable RSS feed feature.
The brainchild of former Apple iPhone engineer Evan Doll and entrepreneur Mike McCue, the “personal social magazine” takes normal RSS feeds and configures them as a newspaper layout, showing headlines, runners and ultimately the full story. Additionally, Flipboard displays Tweets about each article and allows you to add your own comment.
When we checked out our own feed, we found the layout and interactivity to work as a functional alternative to our iPad app. Unlike others apps on the market that allow you to sync up with and still read Google Reader feeds offline (a great feature when traveling), Flipboard’s constant updating requires an online connection to access the application and its content.
The easy-to-use app (check out the video on their site) downloads for free from iTunes. Follow @flipboard on Twitter for an update on their servers and more.
