Robert Scoble (scobleizer) calls Flipboard a “killer app” for the iPad. I think killer app is relative. What may be a killer app for him and some thousands of other users, might be pretty boring to users like, say, my mum. Never the less, I gave Flipboard a chance, partly because it’s free and still without ads (enjoy it while it lasts).
Flipboard is like a magazine-styled app for your iPad where you flip through feeds in a rather cool way. This can be ordinary RSS feeds from sites such as Engadget or New York Times, whatever you like. This is nothing new, we already have great RSS readers such as Pulse (paid app – but I like it a lot!). The power of Flipboard is how it integrates with your social media networks, mainly Facebook and Twitter – and being a free iPad app.
It’s not going to show you a timeline of real-time status updates, instead it shows you what it thinks you are most likely to find interesting because it knows you – through your friends. I don’t know how it does it or if it’s mostly hot marketing air blowing out from the company behind the app. But no matter what, I found it to be a very interesting approach to catching up with your social media networks.
Flipboard doesn’t only show you the (max) 140 characters tweets from Twitter. If there’s a link in the tweet, it’ll show you the page and let you know who shared it. Awesome! You can then retweet it – or “like” it, if it was shared through Facebook. Obviously the app also supports video playback and in fullscreen as well.
For now, Flipboard is free but it’ll probably be ad supported in the future or maybe some kind of subscription based fees will find its way to the app. I honestly think it’s too bad this app is free, it deserves more. But hey, if it was a paid app, I doubt it would have gotten so much blogging coverage over the last day or so.
One of the bigger downsides, and I’m not going to pay for anything until this is added (I think), is the lack of Google Reader integration. I have hundreds of RSS feeds in my Google Reader from various blogs and websites. I don’t want to add the RSS feeds individually to Flipboard, I just want Flipboard to be able to pull, like, the latest feed updates from all my Google Reader feeds and show them to me in a really cool way, like it shows all the other feeds.
For now, if you’re lucky enough to own an iPad, you should check it out. Search for “Flipboard” in an App Store near you.
Here’s a video showing off Flipboard:
I’ve tried it too , it’s nice to use and I do agree with you , they need to add google reader support to it.
Just what I was thinking !
Google Reader support could really make it a killer app.
As is now, its mostly twitter eyecandy for me. Regarding Facebook, I still prefer the browser.
That looks so awesome! I think I’m going to have to get an iPad – and Flipboard – and just get used to carrying it around everywhere. It really does look to be an easier way to keep up with things and sift through all the information I seem to subscribe to.
I love this app, it really is amazing to brows trough content. The problem is, twitter and facebook still don’t work.
I hope the service will soon be fully useable.
I think killer App is a bit OTT Klaus mate. Magazines will never, ever be replaced by the iPad’s capabilities unfortunately.
I pretty much agree.
As far as free Apps go this is at the top end, maybe a bit more than you’d expect for you ‘free’, but there are some definite creases to iron out before this could be a real ‘must have’ premium App.
This IS a must have killer app; It’s a beautiful way to centralize YOUR OWN great news sources in a visually appealing way.
Thank you for the information;) i think the vid is very interesting;)
Flipboard has won rave reviews from my friends and I am using it. In fact, I can safely presume that online magazines will be the target of advertisers in the near future.