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Comment by mlchild | Hacker News Reader

A similar issue is the preponderance of hyper-image-oriented mobile app designs at the expense of content and usability. Examples that come to mind for me are Urbanspoon, Flipboard (perhaps a controversial view), the new Chef's Feed app—if I can't figure out how to navigate because I'm blitzed by so many photos, something's wrong.

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The whole point of Flipboard is to add a magazine layout to existing content. As important is the fact that Flipboard allows you to choose what content sources to apply their layout to. In this regard, it leaves the whole issue in the hands of the user, who is always right :)

I'm with you conceptually, but I don't end up using Flipboard much if at all—and I understand I'm generalizing from a minute sample, so bear with me—because I don't find it to be the best way to read anything. For news/text, Instapaper is king, and for Facebook and Twitter, I find that the Facebook app and Tweetbot win out.

Is there a type of content that you find Flipboard excels at presenting, particularly on mobile? Or that "the Pinterest layout" does, besides Pinterest?

Well, I personally agree with you, but my significant other likes to view social network content through it in certain circumstances, particularly at the end of the day after getting in bed. But that's the saving grace of Flipboard; it's there if you want it, but it's not forced onto anything.

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