In the article “Always on: Libraries in a world of permanent connectivity, Lorcan Dempsey explores how mobile communications lead to “a general diffusion of networking capacity through the fabric of our lives” (2009). From mobile phones to netbooks to game consoles, people are jumping from one internet access point to another throughout the day- whichever best suits their needs from moment to moment. Dempsey points out that “communication patterns alter consumption patterns, and that “as the interaction experience moves to multiple different kinds of device…the expectation is to get to relevance more quickly, to do a small number of things well, to understand individual needs” (2009).
These changed expectations have majorly affected the way many people get their news. As much as I love sitting down to the Sunday New York Times crossword with my cup of coffee, the rest of the newspaper no longer suits my information needs. It’s unwieldy, and fairly expensive, considering most online newspapers are completely free. And with the popularity of the iPad and the slew of other tablets that are being introduced, we are no longer tied to our desktop computers or even need to power up our laptops to reed our news/RSS feeds/tweets/etc; we can do so conveniently with a number of cool apps. I’m going to highlight two iPad content aggregation apps here, Flipboard and Editions.
Flipboard:
Rated #1 App of 2010 by Apple itself, Flipboard is an ultra-popular app which aggregates news websites, blogs, and social media. You can read your Facebook Twitter, Flickr, and even Google Reader feeds, along with many news articles, which you can browse by category. It has a slick, magazine-style interface that you “flip” through like pages, which is more appealing (at least to me) than a traditional website interface. The pages all load ultra quick because of it’s clean text, which is one of it’s major assets. Its social media integration is the best I’ve seen, and in some cases is better than on the original sites; when someone shares a link on Twitter, for example, a previous automatically comes up…majorly useful when looking for relevant and interesting information. And you can post/comment directly from Flipboard itself. And because iPads are great for images, the app is perfect for viewing Flickr photostreams. I highly recommend it!
Editions:
Dempsey states that “resources will be increasingly socialized, personalized, and location-aware” (2009). While Flipboard excels at making reading the “news” more social, Editions strong point is personalization and location-based news. Released by AOL this month, I admit I was cynical from the get go because of the company’s reputation, but I think it is a strong challenger to Flipboard for news content, as it customizes the articles you see based on what categories you’re interested in or not- Local News (which it determines from your postal code, Technology, Music, Sports, etc. You can also rate articles, and it will further customize, similar to Netflix. It’s also super simple to add feeds. A major drawback is that it does not display Facebook or Twitter feeds, so it’s not as comprehensive of an aggregator as Flipbook. Also, to view each article, blog, etc., it links you to the original site, so it takes longer to load and isn’t optimized for reading it on a tablet like Flipbook’s minimalist design. I would recommend it for news, but without social media integration I don’t think I’ll be switching any time soon; still, a good effort.
References:
Dempsey L. (2009). Always on: libraries in a world of permanent connectivity. First Monday, 14, 1-5. Retrieved from http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/2291/2070
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