If you haven’t already heard, Flipboard is a new iPad app making waves in the Apple fanboy community. Okay, to be fair, it is a nice concept and has some very unique features that I appreciate. However, as Robert Scoble’s review points out, there are some negative aspects to this app as well. Here’s my take on Flipboard after playing around with it for a bit last night and this morning.
First, the good points. As everyone has been pointing out, this app integrates with your Facebook and Twitter accounts, but not like every other app out there. In fact, using a unique algorithm, it pulls in updates from the most active people you are following (hence the most engaging, in theory at least). The real kicker, however, is that videos and pictures are pulled right into the app, creating a magazine style appearance. Pictures are enlarged and clickable, and videos will play right there on the page, or can be expanded to full screen. It presents for a really nice and slick UI. Finally, you can add feeds and Twitter lists to the app, and customize the content that appears on the first page as the categories.
Now, for the downside. First off, there’s been so much hoopla over the app that I was experiencing trouble getting it to update my feeds instead of displaying a “No Content” error. It seems to be working okay today, but scalability might be an issue, despite recent funding to the tune of $10.5 million. Another negative for this app is twofold: some images and pictures just don’t look good when blown up for the magazine format. Finally, while this app might be okay for the average user, power users of Facebook and/or Twitter will be disappointed to find that there is no way to squeeze in a limited number of users instead of getting updates from thousands. Although the algorithm is set up to limit this, it’s not my choice of peeps. And while I did mention the ability to import a Twitter list as a main page category, only the first four lists are show as options. So, if you have more that four lists (as I do), you won’t be able to access all of them.
So that’s my two cents on the Flipboard app. Below is their promo video. Check it out. Download it for free. Tell us what you think.
