When we launched The Rachel Maddow Show iPad app, the company gave me an iPad. At the time there was a lot of buzz about an app called FlipBoard.
Also at that time (or actually maybe all the time) I was reading a lot about "the death of the browser" (because nothing new can be introduced to the tech world without it meaning the death of something else). I was frankly having a hard time imagining how anyone was going to surf the web without a good old fashioned address bar and back button browser. And then, mostly because I had a new empty iPad and wanted to put something on it, I tried Flipboard.
At once, I showed it to everyone in the office and declared the death of the web browser.
What Flipboard does is turn a feed into a digital magazine. It breaks the information into different-sized panels, it pulls in photos where they exist in linked stories. It sometimes follows a link in the feed and renders that story within the app, so a single feed can produce a collection of content from a variety of sources. And the whole thing navigates with a very familiar and comfortable drag-of-the-finger magazine-style page turn.
And it's free.
So there's that. And I should qualify my enthusiasm by pointing out that the iPad still hasn't really caught on with me. For the most part I remain a laptop person. But the reason I mention all of this is that The Rachel Maddow Show now has a channel on Flipboard. You'll find it in the news category.
We took several of our Twitter feeds and blended them to make the channel. So you get whatever Rachel tweets through @Maddow, plus whatever comes through @MaddowBlog, which includes some links from this blog but also retweets and other links of interest. And we mixed in the @MaddowApp tweets, which ordinarily serve as a sort of real-time bibliography as you watch the show, but in the case of Flipboard (and the nightly links list) become a collection of source material for the stories covered on the Maddow show. And, because we wanted to see if we could get some more video in there, we added @MaddowAux, which is usually just meant as a means of alerting online viewers when the clip playlist has been updated, and in the Flipboard context can serve similarly, as a gateway to more show clips without dumping a stack of videos on you.
Again, this isn't a giant Twitter feed, it's an automated re-expression of all of that material in a magazine-ish iPad format.
The whole package is going to be a little thin right now because Rachel has been off and Laura (the driving force behind @MaddowBlog) has been off, so you might want to give it a week or so before you render judgment. And, if you'll forgive my lapse into techwriterliness, even if you are already satisfied with your means of Maddow Show ingestion, Flipboard is still worth a try.
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To try flipboard, I have to buy an I-Pad. An unlikely occurrence, I think. Maybe if someone gave me an IPad, that was sitting around, I might fire it up to try flip-board. Of course, someone giving me an IPad is even more unlikely. The death of the web browser is perhaps the most unlikely of all.
But then again, I'm not a "connected" person. I don't have a smart phone, I don't tweet, facebook, or Link-In.
It seems almost daily now Rachel and her staff are out of touch with the rest of the country. How the heck do they expect me to buy an IPad and I don't even have a darned job?
Heck, Rachel doesn't even "tweet" that much anyways. Its an unlikely occurrence she would even "flipboard" either. It would not surprise me if Laura actually tweets for Rachel.
Rachel tweets when she feels something is tweetworthy. Granted she's not like other pundits/celebrities who tweet a lot or with those that tweet to her, but she does tweet interesting links and information. As far as Laura tweeting for her, there's no truth to that. @Maddow is Rachel.
Do not have an iPhone or an iPad, probably never will. Still waiting for the Android Maddow app.
If Rachel is brushing her teeth I want to know about it via twitter. I'm selfish like that. If she doesn't like the "fame" she should give it up. She's still a beautiful young lady but she has been looking a little worn out lately.
Her aura has faded. She use to give off this gorgeous luminosity but now its almost non existent. Where did it go?
I've followed this lady on TV for years. I was admiring her work when their was no such thing as twitter or flipbook. I know when something is bothering her.
When she hurts, I hurt for some reason. Her pain is my kryptonite.
Trotsky, I really hope you are making an attempt at humor.
Y'all can play this "I got a secret game" all you want to. Rachel hasn't been right since her vacation a month or so ago.
that strikes me as rather counter-intuitive. i should think people who have staffers tweeting for them typically put out more of them than those who do it themselves. i think Keith Olbermann would be a exception. (i remember when he signed up, made his first tweet on air: kinda nervous, uncertain, then -- whoosh!; rocketship.)
yeah, i really hope that's an attempt at humor, otherwise, it's pretty stalkerish and contradictory to the previous comment. if she is a little off her game, i'm wouldn't be surprised after putting together DODDOW with Richard Engel for a whole year.
LOL!!!! So now I'm a stalker because I called Rachel out on her disrespect of her fans?
She brought her life into my world. "SHE" started a flip book, twitter book, Facebook, flap book, MaddowBlog and whatever WITHOUT any restraints on who follows her cyber thoughts.
If she doesn't like the fame then she should QUIT!
As far as your stalking claim, that's 99.9% defamation of internet character.
Me neither. In addition, I don't even have a cell phone. I'm not crazy about talking on the phone in the best of circumstances.
So.....I hope the browser will still be alive and kicking for a long time.
i see; you're not stalking, you're trolling. "The Trollsky"
Umm, this bears repeating, so I'll repeat it.
Rachel is not our friend/lover/confidant/secret admirer/buddy/cohort. She is a TV personality and we (collectively) are her audience. A TV PERSONALITY, as in, how she appears on the air is contrived and not her real personality.
She doesn't know us and we don't know her. We may have made her part or our emotional lives, but we are not a part of hers. As individuals she doesn't know us, owe us, need us or want us, however much we may feel that she does or however much we feel that we know, owe, need or want her.
As a AUDIENCE, as a rating number, we mean something to her and the show and the executives at MSNBC, but as INDIVIDUALS we are meaningless.
Trotsky, if you are unsatisfied with Rachel Maddow's work, then maybe you should just stop being a fan.
Being a fan doesn't mean you're owed anything. It just means you like the person's work. When you buy a painting the artist doesn't owe you anything more than the painting. When you go see a movie, the actors don't owe you anything more than the performance you saw. Just because you want more doesn't mean you're owed more.
I LOVE Flipboard - I just put it on last week.
So when are any of you coming to Google +?
Free would be a Google Chrome App. ;) No proprietary device purchasing necessary and you can have both apps and a browser.
Long live the browser.
Here, here.
I am a little confuzzled if someone doesn't mind helping me out. Who controls the information that goes into the Flipboard?
How about something for us iPhone users?
(have you ever tried to watch Game of Thrones on an iPhone? It actually kinda works!)
We already have an iPhone app.
oh, yeah - is the full 9/11 special going to be podcast?
(and why isn't Last Word available as a podcast? Why wouldn't MSNBC want to provide every possible way to deliver their news content on every platform available? Even with a few ads, it would be great to be able to see these shows in parts of the world where most cable TV is not exactly easy to get... )
I'd love to see this, if I ever get an iPad. However, I wonder if the focus on new technology has made the show abandon the "old"? I listen to TRMS via podcast. That hasn't updated since 8/31. I miss my news fix.
Flipflam. While you are screwing around with these contraptions,
the star isn't there, the show isn't getting on the web. TRMS is getting
to be TRM(no)S
Exactly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you really think about it for a second, every show on MSNBC now involves a guest host. I think there is some kind of mutiny going on. Which I'm fine with. Comcast has derailed this once fine network.
I hope they all go over to CURRENT.
I love Melissa's show. I love her critical thinking mind. However, Al needs to go. His show is all about him and his zingers. He never let's anyone speak. I actually think Jonathan Capehart should take over for Al.
I can't even watch Al's show without becoming tuned out by his zingers. Every time he says O'Bachmann I change the channel.
That's all very well for those of you wealthy enough to afford all the newest technology, but not everyone has that much disposable income.
How about some love for those of us who have yet to be lured into the Cult of Apple? Android FTW!
I am with you there, @SA.
I haven't look this up but I'm pretty confident Apple, GE, ComCast and MSNBC are in bed together derailing everything just like Fake News does. No way in heck would they help out Android.
MSNBC is big business. Heck, they even run GOP/Tea Party advertisements slamming Obama. I haven't seen it lately but they were running some kind of Chinese airline advertisement a few months ago. They were advertising foreign companies on an American network. They were advertising BUY Chinese instead of BUYING American.
I don't like what is going on with MSNBC after the ComCast jump.
That's enough Trotsky.