I’m not normally one for hacks — ICS on Samsung Galaxy S II a perfect exception— but when it comes to Flipboard I will do whatever takes to get it on Android. And thankfully it doesn’t require much to get the most famous news reader of all (and previously only available to iOS users) onto your Android device.
Thanks to a post on xda-developers, you can easily install Flipboard too, and join your iOS friends in enjoying the slickest presentation around (Vanity Fair, The Verge, The Atlantic, are among my favorites, and they’re Flipboard-formatted).
I used the instructions below to install Flipboard on a Samsung Galaxy S II. Everything went without a hitch. In fact, as a confirmed news junkie, it’s about as good as it gets; the interface is – as you’ve no doubt heard so many times already – beautiful, articles load fast, and text is easy to read. Flipboard is simply best-in-class (for straight up news I’d recommend News360), and CEO Mike McCue and his team deserve whatever liquidity event is sure to soon follow.
How to install Flipboard for Android
Download the .apk file (2.3MB) from the xda-developers forum, and install it. That’s it. One step.
The only prerequisite is ensuring that “Unknown sources” is checked under settings (Applications). This will allow installation of non-Market (i.e. Google Play) applications.
I also installed Flipboard on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. The app is identical. In other words, it’s not optimized for tablets, and looks (and even runs) best on an Android smartphone. Still, it does work, and if you don’t mind super large fonts, it is usable, but no where close to the Flipboard experience on the iPad. Nevertheless, I’m not complaining.
One of today’s cover stories that caught my attention: Underwater Hotel planned for Dubai. And, not to be outdone: 13-Year-Old Girl Invents Lollipops That Cure Hiccups. It’s hard to keep up these days.
If you’ve been living off the grid, or perhaps transplanted yourself to an urban 1950s cult and think a flipboard is made of wood or cardboard, click through here to get the full hands-on review. And welcome to 2012 y’all.
