adventures with an iPad: Flipboard

Back when I first got my iPad 2?all of four weeks ago?reader and fellow Blogathoner Don Gonzalez suggested that I try out Flipboard. It’s a free app for consuming media in a magazine-like format, and it seemed popular so I gave it a shot.

Wow. I’m really glad I listened to Don.

I’m still getting up to speed with Flipboard, but let me tell you how I use it: All of the online news sites, magazines and blogs I’d been struggling to keep up with? They’re loaded into Flipboard. Some of these I’ve categorized under headings like “News” and “Science,” while other sources?like Wired?are featured on my Flipboard “front page.” For the blogs I want to follow, I created categories for them in Google Reader, and then added my Google Reader to Flipboard. Same goes for online fiction sites, digital resources for writers, and progressive religion blogs.

The interface allows me to browse the different channels and categories I have set up. With one touch, I’m taken to that feed where individual stories are laid out on the screen just like you might find in a newspaper: headline and photo, with the first sentences of the article. Want to read more? Touch the story’s headline. Want to keep browsing? Just “turn the page” with a quick finger swipe.

No more trying to remember what blogs I want to visit when, or worrying about keeping bookmarks up to date in my browser?and then trying to schedule when to look at the sites themselves. It’s not a perfect solution, and there are a few kinks I’d like to see worked out, but the app is fairly intuitive to use. And it’s free. I won’t say that Flipboard has revolutionized the way I consume media, but this app has made it easier to stay abreast of what matters to me?and if you’re someone who reads as much as I do and has a similarly wide range of interests, that’s no small feat.

Creative Commons photo by AJC1.