Flipboard
Encyclopedia
Flipboard is a social magazine application and company founded in 2010 by Mike McCue
Mike McCue
Mike McCue is a successful internet entrepreneur and a founder of Paper Software, Tellme Networks and Flipboard. Since December 2010 he has been a director of Twitter....

 and Evan Doll, based out of Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...

 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 for Apple's iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

 tablet computer. The application is designed to collect the content of social networks and other websites and present them in magazine format on the iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

. The application is designed specifically for the iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

's touch screen and allows users to "flip" through their social networking feeds and feeds from websites that have partnered with Flipboard.

Invention

According to the founders of the company, the idea for Flipboard was invented during a brainstorming session between them. During this brainstorming session, they tried to imagine what the web would look like if it were designed from scratch. The design they came up with placed emphasis on the social web and the ability to consume content in a graphical magazine-like format

Reaction

The reaction to Flipboard was mainly positive, with some calling it a "killer" iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

 app. Apple also positively reviewed Flipboard and named it Apple's iPad App of the Year in 2010. A new update of the software added more features such as support for Google Reader and content from more publishers. This update also received mostly favorable reviews.

User interface

The user interface of the application is designed for intuitive flipping through content. Once the feeds have been setup, the first page seen when the application is opened is a visual list of the content subscribed to.

Censorship

On May 15, Flipboard was blocked by China's Great firewall. Mike McCue, CEO of Flipboard, said on his Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

: "China has now officially blocked Flipboard."

External links

  • Flipboard Inc website
  • Flipboard on Twitter
  • Review by Charles Kloet for CNET.com
    CNET.com
    CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...

    , July 22, 2010
  • Review by Shane Richmond for the Daily Telegraph August 4, 2010
  • http://techpad.co.uk/content.php?sid=141 Flipboard - a killer app for the iPad, October 1 2010,
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK