Apple has lately named social-network reading app Flipboard (iTunes page) its “iPad App of the Year” for 2010. Big news for the company, whose app proved so popular on launch that its servers melted down in a matter of minutes, but not a big surprise. As I said of it in my review, the app is one of the prettiest things I’ve seen for the iPad, and I always recommend it to iPad owners I help over the phone in my tech-support day job.
As Jay Yarow said on Business Insider:
From a higher level, it’s also illustrative of how Apple thinks about the iPad. Flipboard is an app that translates the web into something unique for iPad users. That’s exactly what Apple wants.
And consider what it might mean that the “iPad App of the Year” is all about reading, socially. Maybe the iPad isn’t meant only for reading, but it can change and enhance the reading experience in ways that more limited single-purpose readers can’t—making reading more social, and making social networks more about reading.
