Right after gaining a great response from the iPad and iPhone users, the Flipboard for Android is now available to download in Play Market. Previously, this app has been exclusively made available on Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone. The developer stated that this app is only optimized for the Android smartphone and for the small 7 inches Android tablet.
The app is generally similar to the iOS version for example it provides a gesture-based interface that will allow users to log in via social networks to have links aggregated by the application. When using this application you will notice the large rectangular Cover Stories panel featuring highlighted recent articles along with the smaller square panels which showcase the most recent articles from the sources to which user has subscribed. You will also see that if the article has an image, the app will display the image as a thumbnail which fronts the panel.
The Flipboard for Android has 2 significant differences from the iOS version. In this Android version, user will navigate the app’s interface by simply swiping up or down. This is really different with the iPad version as user will need to swipe horizontally to navigate. Users will also experience that it feels more natural to navigate by using their thumb when using a smartphone. Moreover, this app will only display one article block per screen whereas the iOS version will display multiple articles.
There are several useful features contained in this app namely the ability to connect Flipboard to a number of social network sites which include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, Google Reader, LinkedIn, Flickr, 500px, Sina Weibo and Renren. Also, you can save anything to read later using Instapaper, Pocket and Readability. And luckily, you can access Flipboard immediately through the widget on your own Android device. Or on the other words, this app is a good alternative to standalone RSS feed readers, exploring individual sites and following Twitter feeds and Facebook updates.
So, if you want to download and install this app on your current Android smartphone or tablet you can simply click here. The app is available to download for free and make sure that your device has been installed with at least Android 2.2 (Froyo). As the alternative download locations, you may also check the Amazon Appstore, Nook Store and Samsung Apps store to download this app freely. For the iOS-powered devices, the app is also available to download for free and you can just click here. The app requires at least iOS 4.2 or it’s compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, iPod Touch (3rd and 4th generations) and iPad tablet.
Taken as a whole, the Flipboard for Android will provide the same excitements as the iOS version and it may continue to be the popular and excellent social reader app. The positive aspects of this application are the strong social networking features, swift page-swiping, slick print-style page layouts, content partnerships with major publishers, aggregates news, pictures, video, social networking updates, and also the shared links. On the downsides, this application will not allow for offline reading without a third-party application and surely you may experience that it will be rather uncomfortable to use this app on a smaller screen of Android smartphone. [IS]
