Flipboard for iOS has received a number of new features in its latest update, which is available to download from the App Store today. Users can now enjoy profile pages with readership and curation statistics, as well as a new Friends category in the Content Guide. There’s also the ability to share stories via SMS.
Flipboard 2.0, which landed back in March, gave users the ability to create their own customized magazines filled with content from their favorite sources. With Flipboard 2.0.2, those are now accompanied by profile pages, which give you a window onto your readership and curation activity.
And if you’re interested in the magazines friends are creating, check out the new Friends category within the Content Guide. When you find a story you want to share with a friend who isn’t on Facebook or Twitter, and doesn’t use email (really?), then you can take advantage of the app’s new SMS sharing feature.
In addition to all of this, today’s update also adds the ability to save images to your iOS device, and improved navigation for Google Reader RSS folders — not that you’ll need it for much longer.
Download the latest Flipboard 2.0.2 update from the App Store today.
A big update today for the Flipboard app for iPhone and iPad brings new profile pages that will allow content creators to get info on their “readership and curation activity,” a new Friends category in the Content Guide, improved sharing options including SMS, and the ability to save to your camera roll by tapping on an image.
The updated app, version 2.0.2, also includes “Improved navigation for Google Reader RSS folder,” making it easier for those making the switch from Google Reader to find their content.
What’s New in Version 2.0.2
-Get a window onto your readership and curation activity with new profile pages.
-Discover magazines by friends quickly in new Friends category in the Content Guide.
-Select a social network and access options more easily in the improved share menu.
-Share magazines and stories with friends and family via SMS text messaging.
-Save images directly to your device. Tap item’s share icon, then “Save to Camera Roll.”
-Improved navigation for Google Reader RSS folders
The Financial Times is now making its content available through Flipboard, the popular reading platform that lets users draw on their social networks to assemble content from a variety of publications or create their own magazine.
The partnership, which comes a year after a similar deal between Flipboard and the New York Times, will grant full access to FT subscribers while casual visitors will be able to read a smattering of FT blog posts and cultural stories.
Rob Grimshaw, managing director of the FT.com, said by phone that the deal will involve the FT and Flipboard sharing advertising revenue, but would not disclose what the exact revenue split is. In the past, the ad splits have been a source of contention for some publishers, including Condé Nast, which pulled back its advertisements from titles like New Yorker and Wired. (A Flipboard spokesperson said the company has an “excellent relationship” with Conde and is partnering on ads for six other titles).
Grimshaw also said that the FT is exploring selling subscriptions through Flipboard, and would be willing to share some of the proceeds with the platform. This is significant because the FT made waves by leaving iTunes in part due to the 30 percent commission (or “vig,” as the Brits call it) that Apple takes from every publisher.
So why is the FT willing to partner up with Flipboard so soon after leaving Apple? Grimshaw says the difference lies in how the two platforms treat customer relationships.
“The issue is not so much a percentage, it’s the relationship between publisher and audience. Paying a 30 percent finder’s fee is okay. Paying 30 percent in perpetuity and not knowing who the customer is not okay.”
The Flipboard partnership also reflects the fact that the FT and other publishers are keen to get their stories in as many places as possible at a time when readers are consuming more and more content on mobile. As for the future role of Flipboard, which some describe as a “giant iceberg” in the way of publishers, Grimshaw had this to say:
“I think the really interesting aspect to the platform is the way they’re giving readers the ability to create a bespoke user experience. I personally think this is going to be a strong strand in publishing and consumption of news in the digital space.”
Correction: This article was updated at 2:40pm to state that Conde Nast titles had pulled ads from certain titles; Conde did not, as previously stated, break off the relationship.
Today Flipboard received a huge 2.0 update that brings a slew of new features and additions, most notably the ability to create custom magazines and share them with friends. You can assemble articles, photos, audio and video into a collage of content that Flipboard will format. It’s a big step towards putting curation in the hands of Flipboard users, and it’s implemented beautifully.
Flipboard also allows you to “flip” any webpage you stumble across on your computer with a new browser bookmarklet.
There’s a new “By Our Readers” section in the app’s Content Guide that contains magazines created by Flipboard staff and friends. The Content Guide can be found under the app’s red ribbon that now houses all of your magazines and notifications.
Tapping the source’s avatar in the lower left-hand corner of a story will now show Flipboard comments. You can interact with other users using Twitter-like @ mentions. There’s enhanced integration with Facebook and Etsy has been embedded in search.
Popular iOS news app Flipboard was updated today to version 2.0, and it brings a refreshed look, speed improvements, and the ability to create your own magazines. The UI enhancements include a more prominent search bar with improved personalize recommendations and updated sharing buttons to Twitter, Facebook and Google +.
The most notable new feature in the update is the ability to create your own custom magazines article by article. The way the feature works is: if you want to save an article that you’ve found online or within Flipboard, you bookmark it and it’s automatically added to your personalized magazine. Once you’ve finished creating your magazine, you can publish it publicly or save it privately.
Okay, 9to5mac is #1 on popular Tech sources. I can keep it on my first home screen.— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) March 27, 2013
According to TheVerge, Flipboard also announced today that it reached 50 million users.
The update to Flipboard is available today and should be available on Android next month.
What’s New in Version 2.0
★ You can now collect and save content into your own magazines, tap the new “+” button to get started.
★ Your magazines are public, but can be made private (viewable only to you).
★ Use the new bookmarklet to add items to your magazines from your browser.
★ Get Flipboard notifications when people like, comment or subscribe to your magazines.
★ Easily email or share magazines to Facebook, Twitter, G+, etc
✓ Search is now front and center on your Flipboard, with new improved results.
✓ Faster page-loading and faster flipping performance.
★ Personalized recommendations for more to add to your Flipboard.
Flipboard has carved out a niche as one of the leading news and content-consumption apps for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, with its digital-magazine look and easy user interface. Now the company wants to turn all of those content consumers into publishers as well: a new version of the app will be released today that gives users the tools to create their own topic-specific magazines. It’s a little like Pinterest merged with Tumblr, crossed with a better-looking and more social version of Google Reader.
Chief technology officer Eric Feng said in an interview prior to the launch of the new version that this is much more than just an evolution of Flipboard — it’s a major push into a whole new area, namely curation and publishing of content by individual users. “It’s one of the most ambitious efforts we have ever undertaken,” said the former CTO of Hulu. “It’s been more than 18 months since the inception of the idea, so this is a pretty big deal for us. We were originally focused on discovery and filtering of content, but now we are moving into curation in a big way.”
Flipboard has always had curated topics such as technology and sports, where the service uses a combination of human editors and algorithms — based on frequency of sharing and other metrics — to highlight specific content. In effect, the new tools allow any Flipboard user to take on the same role as an editor and create their own magazine around a topic, and share it with other users.
Reader magazines get promoted in Flipboard
In a nutshell, users with the new features (which are available only for iPhone and iPad currently, but will appear in an Android version soon, according to the company) can simply click a “plus” sign next to a blog post or article they are reading — as well as any video or audio content that appears in their stream — and add that piece of content or “flip it into” to a magazine, which will then be available to them or any other user who searches for that topic.
And Flipboard isn’t just giving users that ability within the app: the service is also launching a bookmarklet that will allow users to pull in content from anywhere on the web — whether it’s a blog post, a news website or Twitter and Facebook — and add it to their custom-created magazine. In a sense, Flipboard is trying to capitalize on the same curatorial impulse that makes people create collections about specific topics on Pinterest or re-blog photos on Tumblr, and in many ways this move is a shot across the bow of those other services.
It’s also clearly a threat to the existing publishing industry, since a Flipboard user can now create their own custom publication using the content that comes from dozens of different magazines, blogs, websites and other sources. So Flipboard is trying to bring publishers in as well and get them to create their own custom magazines — such as a magazine about the Beatles created with archival content from Rolling Stone. It has even built e-commerce functionality into the app so users can click and buy directly from within an article or ad.
But the most subversive aspect of the new features from a media-industry point of view is that they can be used by anyone — including advertisers. If an advertiser can create their own magazine by pulling in their own editorial content as well as content from other sources, and build e-commerce functionality into it, then it gives new meaning to the idea of brands as publishers and media entities.
Bringing users into the editorial process
The new version of the app will have a section called “By Our Readers” in the table of contents, which will include a mix of magazines that have been created by users on a variety of topics — a small group of beta testers (including GigaOM) have had access to this function for several months. As with the other Flipboard sections, some of the magazines that are highlighted will be chosen based on the number of times they have been shared, and others will be chosen by editors.
Like most news-aggregation and recommendation apps such as Pulse and Zite (which is owned by CNN), Flipboard users have always had the ability to share specific stories or items, but the new magazine-creation features effectively allow a user to spend some time creating a collection of content they can then share all at once. Feng used the example of an editor who is getting married soon and created an entire magazine with content about weddings.
In a way, the new version of the app also picks up where Google Reader and other RSS services left off. Instead of just passively consuming text and photos in a chronological timeline or series of folders, Flipboard turns everything into part of a magazine-style experience. According to Feng, many users have already imported their Google Reader feeds into the app, and those feeds will be available once Google sunsets the service in July.
Pulse has been one of our favorite newsreader apps for the iPad since it was released in 2010, but it’s looking for a new home.
According to a new report, LinkedIn wants to buy the maker of the iOS app Pulse, and they’re not afraid to spend big.
Liz Gannes at All Things D says that negotiations have begun between the two companies, with the current acquisition figure being somewhere between $50 million and $100 million.
Other companies like Microsoft and Yahoo have tried to strike a deal with Alphonso Labs, which makes Pulse, but those talks never went anywhere.
Alphonso Labs has raised about $10 million in funding from Redpoint Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Mayfield Fund, and others. Pulse works on a number of platforms and boasts 20 million users who read over 10 million stories per day.
In June, we told you about BlueStacks. It is a tool that allows Android apps to run on a Mac. The alpha only officially supported 17 Android apps, with Pulse and Words with Friends being the two of the more notable apps at launch, but the application has improved immensely. As Venture Beatfirst noted, BlueStacks has moved into beta this morning. It now allows users to run every Android app that the Google Play store has to offer. Some may be puzzled at the need to run a mobile application on the desktop, but it does come in use for apps like Instagram and Flipboard that have no desktop equivalent. BlueStacks reminds us a lot of Parallels or VM Ware, and it definitely becomes more useful with the added apps.
As of earlier this month, the Silicon Valley-based company passed 5 million installs on both Windows and Mac. BlueStacks also plans an even more impressive growth with partners AMD and ASUS, as TechCrunchnoted, where the software would be pre-installed on over 100 million devices. Upcoming features include an App Discovery system in the Mac app to make it easier for users to find apps. Interested? You can download the beta from BlueStacks.
Many of the writers here at Cult of Mac use Flipboard to read news, and we know many of you do too. That’s why we’re proud to unveil our new and improved Flipboard page!
We’ve been working closely with Flipboard for the past several months on a special design that fits our style here at Cult of Mac. Our Flipboard page has been tweaked and optimized to mesh with our site layout, and now Flipboard is an even better way to read Cult of Mac on the iPhone and iPad.
Our page has been engineered to fit our style.
Flipboard has lifted the curtain on our new page for everyone to check out and add to their favorites. You’ll see us featured alongside some other sites as the first round of major online publishers to join the made-for-Flipboard movement. The new Cult of Mac page can be checked out on in Flipboard by visiting this link on your iOS device, the “This Week” featured section in Flipboard, or searching for “Cult of Mac” in the app. Let us know what you think in the comments!
Also, we know many of you have been anxiously awaiting an updated mobile site for Cult of Mac, and we’re working vigorously to perfect the new layout. A completely redesigned mobile version of Cult of Mac will be rolling out soon. Stay tuned for more. Here’s a sneak peak:
As a great man once sang, there’s 57 channels and nothing on). But that was before iOS and apps came along. Now you don’t need channels. You need something like Vodio.
What’s Vodio? The simple answer is: Flipboard for video. Again. Wait, though, isn’t Flipboard the Flipboard for video? Flipboard can handle video content with the best of them, but Vodio is video and nothing else. It does a good job of showcasing stuff for you to watch. It might even find something you’re actually interested in. It’s been around for iPad for a while, but the iPhone version is relatively new.
The key feature isn’t the themed and curated “channels” of video content that you can browse using an animated grid. It’s the social connection.
Vodio works best if you plug it in to your social networks. Then it can see what your contacts/friends/followees etc are posting there, and import those videos as things to watch inside Vodio.
Rather him than me
Vodio is fast and easy to use. All the controls make sense from the start, so there’s very little learning to do. Moving from one clip to the next is simple, as is sharing a clip you’ve found with the usual list of people and networks you might want to share it with.
One thing that’s missing is search, which is a pity. It would be nice to be able to type in a search phrase and watch results inside Vodio, no matter which video site they’re hosted on. Editing your chosen channels is a little fiddly (you’ll find an editable list under “Your Vodio”, which you get to by hitting the plus button from the main grid page.
Share and share alike
If you want it to, Vodio will automatically post links to everything you watch on your Twitter feed or Facebook wall – thankfully this isn’t enabled by default, and the app makes a point of asking you in advance if you’d like to switch it on. You can say “No.”
Vodio is by no means the only app in this field, but it is a perfectly good one, and the social network integration is thoughtfully implemented.
