Flipboard, one of the most popular news browsing mobile applications, launched a new version specific to Google Android tablets on Thursday. The free software, found in Google Play, is now optimized for slates of all sizes, from the 7-inch Google Nexus 7 tablet to 10.1-inch devices like Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1.
Instead of a scaled-up phone version of Flipboard, the new tablet-specific code takes advantage of larger screens with higher pixel densities. From the blog post announcing the news, here’s how the Flipboard team explains the difference:
“Like the smartphone edition, Flipboard’s Android tablet edition was made for a specific form factor. There’s still the widget for quick access to Flipboard and the ability to share to other apps, but page layouts adapt to a larger variety of screen sizes and aspect ratios. On 10-inch devices, readers can fit more tiles on their Flipboard, making it easier to quickly get to favorite content.”
Although I’ve enjoyed Flipboard on Android phones in the past, the larger screen of a tablet makes for a more immersive experience when flipping through stories in the app.
Put another way: It’s nice to have Flipboard access on a handset, but it’s more enjoyable to browse Flipboard on a tablet in my experience. In fact, when Flipboard debuted two years ago, it took advantage of the big screen on Apple’s iPad as the debut device for news. It’s nice to see the original vision of a magazine-style and sized reader find its way to Android tablets.
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