Has Flipboard on the iPad met its match? Based on what we have seen of Evri, the latest news-as-a-mag app on Apple’s tablet, it might have.
Flipboard dealt RSS readers on mobile devices a fearful blow by converting relatively dull updates from news websites into a much more readable flip-through magazine like format. It worked wonders, especially on the large screen of the iPad, and spawned a number of imitators, which made catching up with news similar to reading a magazine rather than browsing a website. The latest to join the digital news as a magazine party is Evri and well, we do think that it does enough to give Flipboard one heck of a challenge.
One of the biggest charms of Evri is that once you have downloaded all 5.4 MB of it from the iTunes App Store, it just gets going. You do not have to mess around giving details of RSS feeds or messing with Google Reader details – the app straight away serves a dollop of news under different categories arranged as tabs at the top of the screen, with content under different stories stacked as cards in the main part of the screen, and sub heads under the subject on the left column, again piled up as stacks of cards. Pretty cool interface, we think.
The magazine-y effect comes into play when you select a particular story – you can read different versions of it from different sites (those are the stacked cards!) and flick through them. Of course, you can share the stories of Facebook and Twitter, save full versions for later reading with Read It Later and Instapaper, and even opt to read the entire story (the app generally displays the first few paragraphs only) from within the app, of if you are crazy about Safari, within the iPad’s default browser. In a neat touch, you can also access stories about people and organisations mentioned in a story.
You can opt to “follow” different subjects and stories by clicking on a star on the top left corner of the story or the subject. And in a remarkably neat touch, if the subject you want to follow is not displayed, you can simply search for it, and once it shows up, opt to follow it. Most popular subjects, publications and topics seem to have been covered – we found options for cricket, the premier league, the iPhone, Rolling Stone and the Video Game Industry.
In most cases, when you search for a subject/story to follow, you end up getting more than one option (we had several even for cricket) and here picking and choosing actually depends on what you are looking for. But all the options we got gave us plenty to flip through and read. Yes, this is the digital magazine experience all right, with content that flows easily and fluently.
And what we genuinely loved was the fact that if you give it permission to do so, the app will also show you the stories whose links have been placed on your Facebook wall or Twitter account, pretty much as it shows the news. You have the same reading and sharing options, and even the opportunity to look up related stories. We like!
Not all is perfect with Evri, though. We do not like the fact that we cannot add or remove from the list of topics that appear as tabs on top of the page – we would have parked “Technology” way ahead of “Business”, “Entertainment” and “US & World” if we had the option. The independent minded among us also quibbled that we were pretty much at the mercy of the app as to the sources of stories that it covered – mind you, most of us were delighted at what we were getting, and if we missed a news source, we just searched it out and followed it!
There is also no auto-update option – you need to keep hitting the refresh button to get new stories. There are a few bugs too – Evri sometimes would not open to occupy the complete portion of our screen, and would be content to nestle in the left hand corner.
But honestly, we must confess we are in love with Evri. It works fast, is easy on the eye, and delivers information particularly well indeed. Flipboard competitor? We think so. Flipboard killer? Hmm…time will tell, but judging by its flying start, we would not bet against it.
Get it from: iTunes App Store
Price: Free
