Reading on your iPad? Two Must-Have Apps and One Must-Have Griffin Accessory Make It Easier
Wandering through our analytics this morning, I noticed that more than half of you (about 52%) arrive via iPad. While we try to avoid sweeping generalizations, I think it’s safe to say that the iPad makes consuming the universe of information available online much, much more palatable. There are two apps and a Griffin accessory in particular make me feel like a freaking news-digesting mentat when I use the iPad. Make sure you read all the way to the end for a super-amazingly great deal.
It’s everything that every newsreading app, website and service ever wanted to be. Built to work like a magazine. More than 150,000 reviews in the App Store and a 4.5-star lifetime rating. More awards for design and usability than you can shake a stick at, so I won’t bore you with a feature breakdown. Here, however, are Flipboard’s Key Three features that make it so amazing:
- 1. Crisp, clean layout
- 2. Sensible, intuitive use of animations
- 3. Total, complete integration of Multi-Touch gestures … tap to open a story, pinch to close, return to the page you were viewing
Pocket
Think of Pocket as Flipboard’s super-capable archivist and sidekick. Pocket integrates with Flipboard’s Read Later function so you can send interesting articles off to be remembered and reread later.
I find it super-useful in filing away stuff I find online that I want to share here and on my personal blog. Key Three for Pocket:
- 1. Clean layout that mirrors the magazine page conceit used with Flipboard
- 2. Crazy connected with support for most popular note-taking and sharing platforms makes blogging and tweeting content easier
- 3. Cross-platform availability; read my Pocketed stuff on my iPad, iPhone or laptop at work.
Loop
If my iPad is the new newspaper, then our Loop is the must-have tool for reading at the breakfast table.
- 1. Holds my iPad 3 in an Intellicase (FULL DISCLOSURE: The Loop was designed to hold an original iPad. When using Loop with an iPad 2 or iPad 3, make sure you’re using a case.)
- 2. Accommodates my original iPad and iPad 3 (in an Intellicase case) in portrait or landscape orientation
- 3. Grippy rubber stays put on the tabletop
Using the three together, I can digest new items from 25 feeds in about the time it takes me to finish my morning PBJ and cup of coffee. And when I get to work, Pocket’s collected those pieces I want to share with you or my co-workers.
Flipboard and Pocket are free downloads from the App Store. And while we can’t give away Loops, we can knock 50% off the price of one. As a special blog-readers-only treat, click here, then enter the code LOOP50 to save 50% and get a Loop for 15 bucks (which is waaaay cheaper than you’ll find it most anywhere on the internet.) Hurry, though, as the deal ends at midnight on Friday, 15 June 2012.
Your turn
What do you think? Is Flipboard a great newsreader? Or the greatest newsreader?