When catching up on the news stories missed while sleeping, it can sometimes involve visiting multiple websites or checking our email newsletters. This can make the task time consuming to find reputable news stories to read while enjoying breakfast or commuting to work. However, Flipboard, an application that collects news stories and presents them in a magazine format, makes reading the news a lot easier. Flipboard was originally created as an iPad application, due to its magazine concept. However, now the application is available for iPhone. Does the application fit in well on an iPhone? Read our review to find out.
Interface and Design
The interface of Flipboard is meant to feel like a magazine. You can flip through all of your saved categories to see the top news stories. Each category, on the pages, has an image related to the news story included in the respective section. To flip through all of your saved categories, simply flip your finger. For the news junkie, like me, you are restricted to four of these pages (six channels a page). If you have more news categories, you can click “Show [#] more”. When clicking on an article, the pages mechanism continues to be implemented. Most news stories include at least one image. To enlarge, click on the respective image. You can pinch to zoom, however, aside from that there are no controls or features regarding images. The top of the article has more options that we will go more into detail on later in this article.
Social Networking + News
Flipboard is all about news stories. For many individuals in social networking, the latest in breaking news is discovered through sites like Twitter and Facebook. Flipboard offers the option to add sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and more. There is also the option to post to the connected social network. To do so, click the red search tab, and then click the compose button. When reading an article, there are even more social media options available. You can re-tweet an article by clicking the arrows at the very top of an article. You can also click the star to favorite it on Twitter. The share button allows you to share the link across social networking sites and email. For news providers on social networking websites, you can access their profiles by clicking the “social card”. This will show their latest tweet, Twitter name, and more.
Settings Galore
The settings in Flipboard is amazing, an experience in and of itself. By using the search tool, you can search a variety of Twitter accounts, recommended pages, Tumblr blogs, and other social media results. You can click “Your Flipboard” to control all of your chosen websites and Flipboard categories. By clicking accounts, you have the ability to add and edit all of the connected accounts you have added. You can also sign up and sign in to your personalized Flipboard account. The “this week” tab shows all of the recommended content providers to add to your Flipboard. The recommended topics are based on the week, for example, this week, there are more holiday themes included. In addition, the “this week” tab includes exclusive Flipboard content, including the section “Inside Flipboard”.
The Experience
Flipboard’s main objective is to make gathering news a lot easier. Using Flipboard has allowed me to make my mornings a lot less about finding the news and a lot more about reading the news. In addition, Flipboard encourages sharing news. The social networking features in Flipboard offer seamless sharing. In addition, articles in Flipboard are made in a way that allows the reader to have a consistent interface for each article. This makes it not only have a magazine feel, but also a more polished look as well.
Strengths and Faults
There is much strength with Flipboard. The concept is amazing, allowing you to move on with your day after grabbing news stories. The social media integration makes the news more personal as well. There isn’t a distinction between news from social networking updates and from content creators, giving both an even play field. However, Flipboard is something that takes some getting used to. To the average user, it’s all they need for their Internet satisfaction. The heavy users like myself will still find themselves opening the Twitter or Facebook applications from time to time. This isn’t a fault of Flipboard, but more of the individual’s need for a familiar interface when looking at Twitter or Facebook for example. This is only the beginning for Flipboard for iPhone; I can see a lot of growth for this company.
Ari Simon has been a writer with Make Tech Easier since August 2011. Ari loves anything related to technology and social media. When Ari isn’t working, he enjoys traveling and trying out the latest tech gadget.
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