The BEST RSS Feed Reader for the iPad: Flipboard

I have reviewed several RSS feed readers for the iPad and iPhone, but if I lined them all up for a contest, I would vote hands down for the latest 1.1 upgrade of Flipboard as the best RSS feed reader for the iPad.

The thing about Apple‘s tablet device is that it’s not a traditional computer. It's interface is not focused on hierarchical folders and files. It’s all about visual display of content, browsing said content, sharing it, and making the best use of cloud technology.

The developers of Flipboard seem to best understand the purpose of the iPad and they have built their application to take advantage of the iPad’s content browser.

Flipboard (iTunes Store link) got off to a very rocky start in its initial release. Though it at first received a lot of media press, the app had serious bugs and limitations. But with the recent upgrades, Flipboard addresses the most requested feature—the ability to add your Google Reader feeds to the application.

Flipboard Interface

For those of you not familiar with Flipboard, you really need to download it to appreciate its style and beauty on the iPad. Flipboard is like a huge magazine rack in which you flip through web pages, Facebook and Twitter posts, and, now with the new upgrade, Flickr.com images.

The app doesn’t open with boring folders or even a display of book icons. No, it opens with a moving slide-show of images that look like magazine covers. You can selectively change the cover by tapping on one of the tiny icons at the button of the opening display.

You proceed to your subscribed content by simply flipping the page as you would a magazine.

Select one of your subscriptions and a virtual flipping of pages opens to the posted content. In the new upgrade you can now read the full version of articles within the application, instead of having to visit the website where the article is originally posted.

After you open and read a selected article, you don’t have to close it in order to move to the next story. Simply slide it to the left and to view additional content. The downloads are smooth and fast as most good desktop web downloads.

Adding Content

Flipboard comes installed with eight subscriptions, including ones for setting up your Facebook and Twitter accounts. You will be awed by the magazine-style layout of these accounts when viewed on Flipboard.

You can customize your Flipboard with content from your favorite people, lists, and groups on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Google Reader.

So for example, after downloading your Google Reader feeds, tap the header for the section. From there you can access your shared items, favorites, and subscriptions.

You can turn individual feeds into a Flipboard section of their own by tapping the plus icon at the top-left of feed’s page. The same goes for your Flickr and Facebook accounts. You can actually make any contact in your accounts a separate RSS feed section on Flipboard.

Sharing

The initial release of Flipboard lacked significant sharing features, but not anymore. You can now share selected articles on Google Reader or post to your Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well share by email. With your Twitter selection, you can also re-tweet and post to your account from within Flipboard.

Thankfully now too, you can star content for later reading—either to your Instapaper account (set this up by opening iPad Settings app > Flipboard > Experimental > Instapaper) or Google Reader.

If you have never used Flipboard, you will quickly see after downloading it why it was named Apple’s iPad App of the Year and one of TIME’s top 50 innovations of 2010.

In my opinion, Flipboard is not just a useful reader, it’s a brilliant piece of design—with the style and grace of the iPad itself.

I’m eager to know what you think about it. Drop us a line or two.