Flipboard, the elegant magazine-style news app popular with iOS and Android users, has finally landed on Windows Phone. The launch follows a botched roll out last week, and comes a year after Microsoft first said the app was on its way.
The arrival of such a highly regarded app will be warmly welcomed by Microsoft as it seeks to bring to WP handsets premium titles already well established on the two leading mobile platforms.
1GB of RAM required….
A year after the software launched for Windows PCs and tablets, the customizable news-reading app is now available for handsets running WP 8.1. A gigabyte of RAM is also required, so owners of phones such as the Lumia 920 and HTC One M8 are good to go. Anyone picking up the new Lumia 830 smartphone will see that Flipboard comes preloaded, with a live tile showing on the main screen.
For those with a WP handset that has less than a gigabyte of memory, Flipboard promises it’s working on a version for you too, though doesn’t say when it might hit Microsoft’s online store.
Opening the new app takes you to directly to your Cover Stories, which pulls together highlights from everything you’re following. Those familiar with Flipboard on other platforms will notice the San Francisco-based company has introduced a new user interface it’s calling ‘card scroll.’
Commenting on the new app in a video posted Thursday, Flipboard’s Eric Feng said, “Created specifically for Windows Phone, it’s fast and fluid [with] big beautiful cards to give each item its own space.”
To make it easier to begin reading an item, these cards gently lock into place as you scroll through the content.
Windows Phone apps
The WP app store is continuing to steadily grow, in summer hitting 300,000 apps. Still some considerable way behind iOS and Android in terms of choice, the arrival of another premium offering is certainly a boost for Microsoft as it seeks to attract more developers to its mobile platform.
[Flipboard for Windows Phone]
