Showoffs: Flipboard And Instagram Get Together

Flipboard, the popular social magazine for iPad now includes Instagram integration and other additions, according to a message on its blog. It is also twice as fast with a cleaner layout. This is really a story of two powerhouse apps coming together for the benefit of both. For Instagram, it gives the iPhone/iPod touch photo app a position on the iPad. For Flipboard, the integration helps to separate itself from competitors like the Pulse News Reader and new Zite magazine. Plus, it isn’t all that surprising. In February, Instagram began offering a real-time API, which allows other developers to integrate its photos, tags, and locations into their own apps. According to Kevin Systrom of Instagram, speaking on the Flipboard blog:

“It’s becoming increasingly apparent that Flipboard is on the cutting edge of consuming social information on touch devices. It’s only natural, then, that Instagram’s first fully functional presence on the iPad be within Flipboard. The fact that you can now follow, like, and comment on your friends’ photos directly from your iPad makes Instagram more ubiquitous and Flipboard that much more addictive.”

With the integration, Flipboard users can subscribe to a number of Instagram feeds. These include:

Your Feed
Your Photos
Popular
People You Follow
People Following You

Flipboard has also made two additional improvements. First, it is now much faster thanks to a less clustered interface. Plus, the table of contents now includes refresh and general settings buttons. This puts more control in the hands of users. The contents page also includes a shortcut to featured content the Flipboard team recommends. This is a nice way to get certain contributors noticed, but doesn't add much for the reader, since the links are available elsewhere.

Finally, Flipboard makes it easier to search across social networks for people, topics or whatever else you find interesting. For instance, a search for my Twitter account, “nittany09” delivers tweets mentioning the name, Flickr photos, and RSS feeds.

There is much to love about the latest Flipboard update, which gives users additional tools to customize their news. The only problem is finding the time to read everything. Both Flipboard and Instagram are free and available in the App Store.