Apple Thoughts: Flipboard for iPad is an Elegant Way to View Online Media

"Flipboard is a new iPad application that creates a personalized digital magazine based on you interests, and on what your friends are doing and reading on Facebook and Twitter. It may not sound like much, but it's actually really compelling."

I've had a couple of days to play with this, and I have to say: I really like it. The interface is extremely elegant, and it seems to be a natural way to look at news. I did have some initial problems with it because the Flipboard servers were apparently overloaded, but since then it has been smooth sailing.

At this point it supports Facebook, Twitter, and a few popular content providers including GigaOM, All Things D, and Boing Boing. There are also specifically designed sources that Flipboard has set up for curated content. For example, there's the FlipPhoto stream which shows you interesting photos from the net. Initially, I was wishing for a way to add my own RSS feeds, but then I figured out that I could add a section created from any of my Twitter lists. That seems a much more elegant way to add a bunch of feed sources, rather than using individual RSS feeds. Currently, you can have a total of nine sections. Flipboard is a free app, iPad only, and is available in the iTunes app store.

There's another video embedded below (found via this post at Scobleizer.com). This video is an interview with the Flipboard CEO Mike McCue. It runs a little under 30 minutes.

Has anyone else had a chance to play with this? If so, what did you like, and what didn't you like?