A software application that is exceptionally useful or exciting. Killer apps are innovative and often represent the first of a new breed, and they are extremely successful. For example, in the late 1970s, the VisiCalc spreadsheet was the killer app for the Apple II, providing reason enough to purchase the hardware. VisiCalc was followed by Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel for the IBM PC. In the early 1990s, the Mosaic Web browser was the killer app for the Internet. It was quickly followed by Netscape and others.

I think I have witnessed the next Killer app. For sure as far as the ipad is concerned. Apple just awared it the best ipad app for 2010. However I think the potiential is much more broad. 

My daughter bought me an Ipad for Christmas and my son said I should take a look at the ipad app called “Flipboard”. I already had but it looked too boring at first glance. But on his recomendation, I gave it a second look and it is becomming my favorite application. 

What it is

The best way I can describe it is that it let’s you produce a cool looking web magazine with content that is important to you. The source of the content comes from your facebook account, flicker picturs, google rss feeds and your twitter account. Instead of a regular text feed, you get large, bold headers, bylines, columnar stories, and a ‘zine style layout complete with images. You flip pages naturally, tap stories to expand them, and even navigate to the story web pages straight from the app.It’s all gorgeous and very functional. And now, some content sites are even optimizing their pages for Flipboard viewing, making them more ‘zine like. 

The best part of Flipboard is that it is everything you care about, laid out beautifully. When you create your Flipboard account, you basically add news feeds for it to pull in. You can also bring in social networking feeds, like Facebook and Twitter, as well as your entire Google Reader feed, and read it all like a magazine. 

To me, Flipboard is just about the perfect way to consume Digital information on from the web. Allowing you easily “flip” through wall posts, tweets, and news and information. The experience is completely immersive and impressive. Interested in something you see, tap on the article blurb, and it expands to about 95% of the screen for easy reading. Where it really becomes impressive, is if there is a link or a full article attached to the blurb, it is presented in the same window just below the text that got you interested in the first place. No need to open a browser (although you have that option) be “transported” to a different app… Almost everything is seamless within Flipboard itself. 

Twitter Users

This is where I think it really shines. It took me a long time to appreciate twitter. A long time ago, I learned you should surround yourself with intelligent people. Twitter allows you to do this. But With it’s short and cryptic posts it seemed too boring. Flipboard changes all this. Now the webpages and post your twitter mentors find important is displayed in a magaine format. Very attractive, visually appealing, it draws you in and presents relevant, interesting information quickly. 

Frustrations

It does have some weakpoints. I have multiple twitter accounts. You can only have one active. If you want to see another, according to a Flipboard employee, you have to delete the active twitter account and add the new one. He said it was not hard to do, a statemen that flabbergasted me. It is like saying you just need to plug in, print, and unplug each time you want to print something. That’s crazy. Also if you have more thant one family member sharing the ipad, you are limited to only one facebook account. I think their market research leads them to the conclusion that if you give users too many options, the interface becomes cluttered and the experience deminished.