When Flipboard first came out for the iPad I was impressed by the user interface and thought I would use it a great deal. I didn’t. Before long I was back using Reeder to check my RSS feeds and using specific news apps to read my news.
Well an update to the Flipboard app may just change that. Among the features you will find in the new version is… Google Reader integration. That’s right, you can now add a section that delivers your Google Reader account items AND lets you share interesting items with others.
The app makes your Google Reader feeds look and feel like you are reading a magazine. The result is an experience that feels far less RSS-feedish and much more… Well… Civilized.
This is how one of my Google Reader pages looks in Flipboard. It looks and feels far more welcoming than any RSS reader I have tried. Sure you only see a few articles at a time but with the swipe of a finger you get the next page… And then the one after that.
Tap on one of the articles and you get the full piece as an overlay on top of the main page. The graphics are rendered beautifully and the text is easy to read.
Tap on the upper right corner and you get a choice of what you want to do with the article. You can share it, email a link, mark it as unread or view the full page in the browser. The options may feel a bit scarce since more RSS readers offer a far greater variety of services to which you can post but it is a good start that doesn’t leave too much lacking.
And if you want to go back to the main page you simply tap the “close” button on the upper left of the screen. Once the item is read the title is shown as faded.
In all the Flipboard update has me pretty impressed and with the price of FREE it is definitely worth a look. But be warned, if you use it for even the shortest of periods you may come back and find your favorite RSS reader feeling a bit rough around the edges.
Grab Flipboard HERE in the iTunes App Store.