Apple's 'iPad App Of The Year' 2010: Flipboard (PICTURE)

Apple has announced its year-end iTunes Rewind lists celebrating the best in downloadable entertainment. Categories include music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, audiobooks and applications for both the iPhone and iPad.

Among the lengthy inventory of 2010's top iPad apps, only Flipboard was featured on the iTunes home page as the "iPad app of the year," as Business Insider noted.

Available for free (via iTunes), Flipboard extracts content from your social netoworks, reformats the content and presents it to you like a magazine.

Other apps Apple features among the year's best are Hipstamatic, Plants Vs. Zombies and Osmos, according to TechCrunch.

Take a look at a screenshot of Flipboard (below). Would you have nominated a different app as the year's best? Let us know in the comments below, then check out Apple's list of the best apps from last year.

LOOK:

Comments

[max08]

05:24 PM on 12/13/2010

Goodreader

[ScottnLaguna]

03:09 PM on 12/10/2010

Let me know when the Flash app is available for IPad

[veisalgia]

03:50 PM on 12/10/2010

No.

[blindjester]

07:13 PM on 12/12/2010

In a year or two, this discussion will sound just like beta vs VHS. Or more like OS/2 Warp vs. Windows 95.

Here's a preview.

http://toyvax.glendale.ca.us/~vance/betaphile.html

[proudloudlib]

03:09 PM on 12/10/2010

I have Flipboard, and I even use it from time to time. But the app I spend the most time on --hands down -- is Words With Friends. Sometimes I will tweet too much, but I am addicted to WWF. Have seven regular games going at all times.

[7tsgirl]

10:59 AM on 12/13/2010

same here, love words with friends

[ken mcgriff]

03:03 PM on 12/10/2010

I announce myself as the first annual recipient of the official ken mcgriff man of the year award! yay!!

[jlab]

01:59 PM on 12/10/2010

Wait, that's absolutely amazing. I can read all the boring stuff about myself as if it mattered? Finally! I'm officially a Palin!

[JV2010]

01:48 PM on 12/10/2010

Just exactly how much money does Steve Jobs give to this site every year?

[proudloudlib]

03:17 PM on 12/10/2010

It happens that HP and Apple share a demographic. No one makes you read the stories, you know. I am glad they cover Apple in depth. I am an iPad and iPhone user, but not enough of a Fanboy to go to real tech sites.

[PresidentRobertBooth]

01:17 PM on 12/10/2010

I've come to realise that the TECH section of HuffPo now only exists to promote Apple products.

[jlab]

01:59 PM on 12/10/2010

So true.

[Michael Mouton]

02:53 PM on 12/10/2010

Resistance is futile.

[plages]

01:14 PM on 12/10/2010

Just wondering if you can have Flipboard on an iPod touch?

[hellotiki]

01:12 PM on 12/10/2010

The guy on the Flipboard video is as exciting as mud.

[Rick Eriksen]

01:09 PM on 12/10/2010

Apple Saps!!!!!!

[vrDrew]

12:40 PM on 12/10/2010

Flipboard is fantastic - although with the caveat that it does really need an active Facebook and/or Twitter account to really get the most out of it.

But I think Apple is correct in naming it iPad app of the Year. It nicely sums up everything that is great about the iPad itself:

1) It looks great. You are presented with an attractive splash screen, showing "panes", each one representing a source that YOU select. Favorite sports teams. Companies. Magazines. Facebook or Twitter user. You name it. And the underlying data formats itself beautifully and seamlessly.

2) See a story you that piques your interest? click on it - and it gives you the first paragraph or two. Enough to know if you want to read the whole story.

3) If you DO decide you want more - it takes you, again seemlessly, to the website. So content producers can get the page counts, and ad revenue, they deserve.

4) Find a story you want to share - its super easy to share with your Facebook and Twitter circle.

Flipboard is a great anaolgy for the iPad itself: touch or tap on what you want. Easily explore and discover the things that interest you. Information presented gorgeously and seamlessly.

And its a Free App to boot.

[giverny98]

03:05 PM on 12/10/2010

They named it the app of the year because they make money off the content you stream into their walled garden. There's nothing altruistic about this. Do you work for Apple by any chance?

[buddhistMonkey]

09:51 AM on 12/12/2010

((( "[Apple] named it the app of the year because they make money off the content you stream into their walled garden." )))

No, actually Apple doesn't make any money from Flipboard. The app is free, and Flipboard isn't using Apple's iAds for its advertising.

((( "There's nothing altruistic about this." )))

Why does there need to be? Apple is a for-profit corporation. They picked Flipboard as their Product of the Year because it exemplifies the iPad experience, and elegant, well-written apps that take fullest advantage of the iPad's capabilities makes the iPad a more desirable product.

[Betsy Reinhard Saito]

12:04 PM on 12/10/2010

I would have picked Tap n' Scrap. www.tapnscrap.com

It's cool!

[highlyqualified]

12:03 PM on 12/10/2010

Love my iPad as much as my iMac. Use both daily for the things they do better than any alternatives.

[dems08]

12:10 PM on 12/10/2010

thinking about getting an ipad

what do you use each for?

[BevInSoCal]

01:59 PM on 12/12/2010

The iPad is kinda like an iMac, except smaller, and it has apps. I love my iPad, and it works seamlessly with my iMac (and iPhone), synching calendars and contacts and anything else I want to, really. I use my iMac or MacBook at home for larger projects, like writing a book or really big spreadsheets. I use my iPad both at home and on the road for email, surfing, weather, writing notes (that I can then send to my MacBook), and especially for displaying my husband's art to prospective galleries or buyers. It weighs about 1.5 lbs and fits into my purse. And it's a fabulous e-reader, simply wonderful. I can't say enough about it! We are up to our i's in Apple s**t in our house.

[BobSacomano]

12:02 PM on 12/10/2010

Oh boy, all of my social networks presented as a magazine.....yawn. Now when my friend Kramer has corn flakes for breakfast I'll be the first to see his message in my 'magazine'.

[heroine addict]

11:51 AM on 12/10/2010

After having tried the iPad I too it back and bought the 11inch Air instead. If anyone is considering an Air I give it 5 stars!