Flipboard 2.0 Debuts for iOS, Adds Magazine Creation & Bookmarklet for Saving Web Content
Popular tablet and smartphone app Flipboard has updated to version 2.0, introducing a bunch of new features such as the ability to create your own personal magazines using articles found inside the app, and a Web bookmarklet that allows you to save articles from the Web into Flipboard for later viewing. As of now, the update is for iOS only.
The first thing I noticed after updating the Flipboard app is how much more responsive and quick it seems. Flipping back and forth between sections doesn’t feel as laggy as it did in previous versions of the app, and actions like opening sidebars or overlay menus are quite snappy.
That’s great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not what the Flipboard team is really excited about with this update. Flipboard has added several new features, and they’re all pretty important in terms of how the app will be used in the future.
The first is the ability to create your own magazines inside Flipboard using the content you discover inside the app. You’ll now find a plus sign (+) next to articles, photos, and audio/video files that you can press to add that particular piece of content to a magazine. It’s like creating your own notebook of sorts inside Flipboard for content you want to collect and organize. Evernote and Google Keep? You’re on notice.
Another addition to the Flipboard family is the new bookmarklet, which can be installed in your browser by visiting share.flipboard.com. Once you have the bookmarklet ready to go, you can click it anytime you’re reading an article, watching a video or viewing an image that you want to save into Flipboard to check out later. Pocket and Instapaper? You’re on notice, too!
There are some other notable features that have made their way into Flipboard 2.0. The Content Guide has gotten a makeover, for starters. Flipboard now supports in-story commenting with your Flipboard account, and you can interact with other Flipboard users by mentioning them as you might on Twitter — with a @username call. There are now subsections in Flipboard partner publications for easier navigation, and Facebook Open Graph integration that promises to help Flipboard interact with your Facebook account “in more meaningful ways.”
I’m going to play with this update heavily over the next several days and let you know how the new features might fit into your content consumption flow. In the meantime, you can grab the Flipboard update in the App Store right now.