Development status Active CEO Mike McCue (2010–) | Founded January 2010 Founders Mike McCue, Evan Doll | |
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Developer(s) Mike McCue and Evan Doll Initial release July 21, 2010; 6 years ago (2010-07-21) Stable release 4.0.2 / February 18, 2017 Operating system Type Social-network aggregation Headquarters Palo Alto, California, United States Profiles | ||
Meet flipboard
Flipboard is a news aggregation and social network aggregation company based in Palo Alto, California, with offices in New York, Vancouver and Bejiing. Its software, also known as Flipboard, was first released in July 2010. It aggregates content from social media, news feeds, photo sharing sites and other websites, presents it in magazine format, and allows users to "flip" through the articles, images and videos being shared. Readers can also save stories into Flipboard magazines. As of March 2016 the company claims there have been 28 million magazines created by users on Flipboard. The service can be accessed via web browser, or by a Flipboard application for Microsoft Windows and macOS, and via mobile apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. The client software is available at no charge and is localized in 21 languages. Its current headquarters is located at 735 Emerson St, Palo Alto, CA 94301, recently moving from a nearby building.
Contents
Evan doll co founder of flipboard explains how simplicity is one of the keys to success
History
Flipboard was originally launched for Apple Inc.'s iPad in 2010. Later that year it launched on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The company raised more than $200 million in funding from investors, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Index Ventures, Rizvi Traverse Management, and Insight Venture Partners, and an additional $50 million from JPMorgan Chase in July 2015.
On May 5, 2012, Flipboard was released for Android phones, beginning with the Samsung Galaxy S3. On May 30, 2012 a beta version of Flipboard for Android was released through its website. A final stable release of the Flipboard for Android was released on June 22, 2012 in Google Play. The Windows 8 version of the Flipboard app was also demonstrated during the Microsoft 2013 Build Conference and on the Flipboard blog with video, although no release date was given. On October 22, 2014, Flipboard for Windows 8 was rolled out to Windows Phone devices starting with the Nokia Lumia 2520.
In March 2014, Flipboard bought Zite, a magazine-style reading app, from the CNN television network. Flipboard's content filtering, topic engine and recommendations system was integrated from this acquisition. Zite was shut down on December 7, 2015.
In February 2015, Flipboard became available on the web. Up until then, Flipboard was a mobile app, only available on tablets and mobile phones. The web client provides webpage links on desktop browsers, and lacks some features of the client software.
In February 2017, Flipboard updated their mobile apps for iOS and Android to 4.0, which brought a full redesign to the application, and implemented new features such as smart magazines, which allow users to bundle different things together, such as various news sources, people, and hashtags.
Reception
The reaction to the application was mainly positive, with Techpad calling it a "killer" iPad application. Apple reviewed Flipboard positively, and named the application Apple's "iPad App of the Year" in 2010. When a new update of the software added more features such as support for Google Reader, a web-based aggregator, and content from more publishers, the app received a favorable review from the Houston Chronicle.
Censorship
On May 15, 2011, Flipboard was blocked by the Great Firewall of China. McCue said on his Twitter feed – "China has now officially blocked Flipboard".
The company then released its first edition localised for China. Beginning in February 2015, the company started self-censoring users using the application from China. The content guide for China does not include Twitter and Facebook anymore. Existing subscriptions for Twitter or Facebook are also automatically removed.
User interface
The application's user interface is designed for intuitive flipping through content. Once the feeds have been set up, the first page seen when the application is opened is a list of the subscribed content. The iPhone and Android versions have a "Cover Stories" section on the first page collating only the most recent, important items from all of the subscriptions. This is meant to be read when the user only has a short period of time for reading.