Flipboard

Platform iPhone 3GS and up, iTouch 3 or later, and iPad. OS: iOS 4 or later.The Basics Flipboard, the most social of these aggregation tools, harnesses the power of social media by using your friend lists to populate your feeds. It allows you to reply and comment on Tweets and lets you access from inside the app your Twitter, Facebook, and other social feeds.Look and Feel When it launched in July 2010, Flipboard's claim to fame was that it was the first to bring a magazine-like feel to the tablet. The app has garnered multiple awards for it's beautiful interface.Open Flipboard and you'll see a full-screen carousel of images and headlines from stories in your feed. The word "Flip" with an arrow links you to your feeds.Once you swipe past the main screen, you see your customized news screen. There are rows of images and labels that represent your subscriptions. Tapping on an image brings you to a screen with headlines and introductory story content. At the bottom, a timeline tells you how old the content of your feed is. The articles screen is nicely divided. The source appears at top. The middle displays the story text. The bottom of the screen indicates the number of pages in the story, with icons for social media sharing.How It Works To get started with Flipboard, log into Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and any other feeds you want to connect to. Flipboard scans those feeds and populates the app with news and links posted by your friends.You can also add content from sources such as Salon, Rolling Stone, and Wired. A unique feature of Flipboard is its comprehensive search function. Search for "education," for example, to generate a results list with several types of sources, including blogs and Tumblr sites; Twitter feeds; Facebook pages; Flickr groups; and Instagram users. Browse the results and add as desired to your selection of feeds.One other social capability: you can retweet and reply to Twitter posts and users. You can also post a Tweet while inside Flipboard, giving the app the potential of becoming your Twitter client.For Teachers, Librarians, and Students Teachers and librarians can show students the highly effective Flipboard search feature as a tool for collecting and analyzing materials for research projects.