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Tablets

Flipboard App Review

We explore the beautiful news and social media app.

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Users of iOS and Android mobile devices will absolutely love the Flipboard app to follow news and social media updates with a gorgeous interface. By making images and text appear with formatting that's more friendly to a tablet, Flipboard makes perusing user-tailored news a very rewarding experience, much like using a constantly-updating magazine.

What works well

The user interface is utterly fantastic. After you choose which subjects you'd like to follow in the news, your user-customized news will auto-populate an interface that looks very much like the Windows 8 Metro user interface, which is simple and easy to flip through. Once you've found a story or section of stories you'd like to browse, just tap the appropriate icon and flip your finger much like you would flip through a magazine to browse. You can also link your Facebook and Twitter accounts, and browse your feeds in-app.

What doesn't work so well

In addition to having a somewhat smaller library of content compared to Google Currents' massive library of stories and primary sources, non-standard image sizes are still a bit unpolished. Because there are so many news sources and so many different formats that can or can not be scaled to fit Flipboard's constraints, there are often little issues here and there like image compression, pixellation of images that are too small, or even poor formatting in some news stories. Thankfully this isn't the norm, but it's still a drag when you want to read a story that doesn't fit the app's formatting and this is definitely far worse on the new iPad.

Is it worth the download?

If you want a good interface to read periodical stories much like you would a magazine, and you don't like the Google Currents app for whatever reason, Flipboard is a fantastic app. That being said, those looking for content over appearance will probably want to dive into the Google Currents app instead. If you're looking for a neat new way to browse news on your tablet, Flipboard is probably one of the best out there. Flipboard can be found in Apple's App Store, and now in the Play Store for Android.

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