07/20/2010. You’ve seen Twitter clients like TweetDeck or Seesmic, but you’ve never seen one like this.
You’ve seen news readers like NewsGator, Google Reader, or, even, newer ones for iPad like Pulse, but you’ve never seen one like this. You’ve seen news aggregators like Techmeme, Google News, Skygrid, Yahoo News, Hacker News, or Huffington Post, but you’ve never seen one like this. What is “this?” It’s Flipboard. 07/20/2010. 07/21/2010. Nova Spivak has been debating with me tonight about how much more efficient he feels news readers are if they stream items down like you’ll see on Twitter.com, or in social media clients like Seesmic or Tweetdeck bring.
I used to agree with him. It was hard to get me away from Seesmic or Tweetie. But now? I’m a changed man. Keep in mind that I read about 19,000 inbound on Twitter alone. I read a LOT of social media. So, I’m always looking to be more productive. I actually measured this. 07/21/2010. 07/21/2010. 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. 07/21/2010. The stealthy Kleiner Perkins-backed startup called Flipboard has now been revealed to be, as some suspected, a social application for the iPad.
The new Flipboard iPad app bills itself as a "social magazine" - that is, one which aggregates status updates, tweets, photos and articles from those you're connected to on social networking sites, like Twitter and Facebook. These updates are beautifully laid out into an easily digestible view which you can flip through with your fingers. 07/21/2010. With backing from several heavy hitters and an acquisition, Flipboard has kicked off its quest to become the new and vibrant way you browse your social media streams.
Flipboard, which is now available in the iPad app store, is a startup that calls itself the "world's first social magazine. " It connects to your social media accounts — primarily Facebook and Twitter — and utilizes that information to create an interface that will feel familiar if you're a magazine lover. It officially launches today.
Flipboard takes popular news sources (specifically the ones you choose) as well as your Twitter and Facebook feed to provide to create a unique web browsing experience. Moving through the interface is a simple as flipping the page. 07/22/2010. I’m seeing lots of tweets saying I caused Flipboard to have a bad first day.
Why? Because its servers were overwhelmed and it wasn’t letting new users sign up properly and even existing users, like me, were having trouble getting to the service and getting utility out of it. Is that my fault? Yes and no. If I were the only one hyping it and if the product didn’t resonate after I hyped it they would have only gotten a few hundred visits. What’s funny is I just hit the Twitter fail whale three times. I see on iTunes that Flipboard is getting some bad reviews because of this reliability issue. In fact, when I showed it to famous actor Ashton Kutcher he was so excited about the product (said it was “a revolution in publishing”) he turned to me and begged to be introduced to the company. The former head of MTV had the same reaction this weekend. 07/22/2010. Flipboard is a new, free application for the iPad which has one basic function: to take your social networking tools (read: Facebook and Twitter) and turn them into social "magazines.
" As you can see from the screenshots -- which are all culled from my Twitter stream -- the application is very attractive. Read on for my full impressions. After downloading Flipboard you enter your Twitter and Facebook details into separate streams, and those streams are then turned into "magazines," -- and they do, indeed look just like magazines. The attractive print-style layouts present you with pages of recents tweets, articles (pulled from the links in the tweets of those you follow), and the opportunity to respond from right within the app itself. 07/30/2010. 07/29/2010. What's it like to be one of the hottest startups in Silicon Valley?
Last month, Flipboard found out. The Palo Alto (Calif.) company makes a free application for Apple's (AAPL) iPad tablet that it calls a "social magazine. " The app automatically pulls in articles, photos, and video from online publications you select—or that your friends link to on Twitter and Facebook—and presents them in a format resembling a printed magazine. The team rang a gong to celebrate its launch at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, July 20. Glowing reviews poured in from around the world. Trouble began that very night. The team members began pulling all-nighters. 08/03/2010. I've been using the iPad since it came out in April, and I still haven't strayed from my initial impression: Apple's tablet computer is a luxury, not a necessity.
I must say, though, that I've gotten attached to using the iPad to surf the Web, browse Twitter and Facebook, and play a lot of games. (My favorites: Modern Conflict HD and Real Racing HD.) The iPad has also been a boon to my reading habits. I've purchased many e-books from Amazon's Kindle store (you can read them on the beautiful app that Amazon built for the iPad), and I've read countless magazine stories through Instapaper, the brilliant program that lets you save Web articles to your mobile devices. In the last few days, I've started using another iPad app that has changed how I consume the news. 08/10/2011. Flipboard screenshot Flipboard is a start-up that makes an iPad app that turns social media feeds into an attractive, printlike magazine.
It is also an example of the challenges of introducing a new Web product, particularly in the era of Twitter. After Flipboard was announced in the press (including on this blog) with rave reviews, it was flooded with people signing up. The result: a product that did not work. The problem has partly been a technical one. When Flipboard was introduced, people got error messages when they tried to link their Facebook and Twitter accounts to Flipboard and, the next day, Flipboard started a rolling invitation list to manage the demand. Then, a week later, some people who had signed up received an e-mail inviting them in, only to be shut down again.
One person on the Flipboard waiting list said the experience was as if the much-hyped movie “Inception” had received rave reviews and then opened only in theaters in Florida. But the bigger lesson learned, Mr. Mr.