Flipboard for Android finally received an update to version 2.0. The biggest new feature of this update is the ability to create and share personalized magazines. This feature was first introduced for iOS a couple months ago. Flipboard 2.0 also utilizes Android’s native sharing functionality. You’ll be able to save content to a Flipboard magazine from other applications such as the photo gallery or Web browser.  Once you create a magazine, you can choose to share it on social networks, through email or text message. One downside to the magazines is that some articles can’t be read in full from the Flipboard application. You’ll...

Remember my review of the task management app known as Astrid last week? Well, my timing may have been lousy. Astrid announced on their blog today that they’ve been acquired by Yahoo!, and it’s an ominous announcement. Here are the two ominous parts: Over the next 90 days, Astrid will continue to work as is, and we will no longer be accepting new premium subscriptions. To make future changes as easy as possible, we’ll be in touch with users shortly to share how to download data. And: *Note: Yahoo! will be administering refunds to eligible users who have paid for annual subscriptions, Power-Pack and Locale Plugins. I...

As promised, ComiXology began sending out emails with personalized links to individuals who asked to be notified about the continuation of the Marvel #1 promotion. The email contains a link that can only be accessed from the email address it was sent to. The recipient has 48 hours to claim their free comics (over 700 in all) before the link becomes inactive. I just got my invitation, and can tell you the process worked flawlessly. All of the eligible comics are displayed on a single page. The are separated by specific categories. The categories include Marvel Now! Avengers, Marvel Events, Marvel Zombies, Punisher, Ultimate...

  By Brian Howard Last week, following a soft-launch the week prior, Random House marched out BookScout, a Facebook app designed to link readers with books they'll like but might not have discovered on their own. The recommendation engine draws on a user's "likes"—both on one's Facebook timeline and then directly through the app. Intriguingly, BookScout is not purely a Random House recommendation engine—it'll tip readers to any book in print, regardless of whether it was published by its own imprint Knopf, Big Six rival HarperCollins, indie McSweeney's or even Amazon Publishing. Though the app's early reviews have been mixed (I've found its recommendations to...

That's the title of an article in the Cult of Mac: ... Since then, however, a handful of publications have decided to abandon their presence on iOS devices. Some are planning to build a web app as their only iOS or mobile presence. Others are looking to create deals with various news aggregators. Regardless of their plans, Apple’s terms are one of the key reasons that publishers are getting out of the App Store. Mobile industry research firm VisionMobile looked at some of the reasons that publishers, including theFinancial Times felt that abandoning a native app strategy was in their best interests. They identified three core reasons that publishers...

And speaking of e-magazines, CNN’s Fortune Magazine has broken the story that Zinio, the original e-newsstand app, is now seeking a buyer, to the tune of $50 to $100 million. CNN calls Zinio a competitor to Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s Newsstand apps, but Zinio has been around since long before the Kindle was even a twinkle in Jeff Bezos’s eye, let alone the Johnny-come-lately Newsstand app belying Steve Jobs’s claim that nobody reads anymore. We first mentioned Zinio back in 2002, as “proprietary software designed for reading magazines on tablet PCs.” It popped up again in 2004 (only available...

Interested in the read-it-later iOS app Instapaper but don’t feel like shelling out $5 for it? Our sister blog Gadgetell reports that Starbucks is offering Instapaper as its “Free App of the Week”. To get it, you have to go to a Starbucks location and pick up a card with a code to redeem for the free app. I’ve been using Instapaper a good deal lately in researching stories for this blog. I had been frustrated that Zite lacked a good way of marking articles to review (and blog) later, like the “star” option in Google Reader, and also...

Moderator, Tom Krazit, Senior Writer, paidContent/GigaOM:   Rob Malda, Chief Strategist and Editor-at-Large, Labs Team, Washington Post: Have projects on all sides of the debate.  Have apps and HTML5 and agnostic as to which to use.  Pick whatever work with the content.  If want your stuff to work everywhere then HTML5 is the way to go.  Unless have a very specific reason to go native code then will be much faster to go to HTML5.  A lot of folks will go hybrid.  Can do this if have enough employees to go native plus HTML5, but not good for start-up with few people....

Here's part of an article by Chris Walters from his BookSprung blog: Kobo’s new web app, released earlier this week, is a great first move at breaking free from Apple’s App Store extortion. Good for Kobo, I say. Unfortunately, it keeps the same design and user experience as the official Kobo app, which means it’s designed to be a storefront first, and a reading app second. Unless you’re stuck with Kobo, there are better options out there. Like Amazon’s Kindle web app from last August, the Kobo web app is really a website that can store data on your device even when...

From a tweet by @bookofjoe:   Shakespeare Readdle Free This app is designed for both iPhone and iPad Shakespeare™ is a free app with the complete works of Shakespeare (41 plays, 154 sonnets and 6 poems, including doubtful works) and a searchable concordance to find the exact word or phrase you’re looking for (with “relaxed” searching to find words close to your search term).Even though it’s free, Shakespeare for the iPad/iPhone/iPod is packed with these impressive features:• CUSTOMIZE YOUR READING EXPERIENCE by choosing from a variety of color combinations, change the font family and size, and jump around to different scenes.• QUALITY TEXTS are a top...

That's the title of an article by Jason Pontin, the editor in chief of MIT's Technology Review.  He discusses how publishers were seduced into doing apps by the iPad and how they became disappointed with the results.  But the real problem with apps was more profound. When people read news and features on electronic media, they expect stories to possess the linky-ness of the Web, but stories in apps didn't really link. The apps were, in the jargon of information technology, "walled gardens," and although sometimes beautiful, they were small, stifling gardens. For readers, none of that beauty overcame the weirdness...

Here's a great article from Engage.  At the end of the article, Robert Newman, discusses which type of magazines he thinks will survive and which will die.  Newman is the creative director of Readers Digest and former creative director of Real Simple.  He's also design director of Fortune, Entertainment Weekly, Vibe, Details and New York. Lesson 1: Let It Read Newman: You want to design something that takes full advantage of the iPad’s capabilities. People like to read on iPads. So the first thing you have to do is make the reading experience really easy and really pleasurable....