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When Samsung revealed its new flagship smartphone – the Galaxy S3 – on May 3rd, it announced an exclusivity deal with an app that has infuriated Android users the world over.
On May 30th the Galaxy S3 will launch in the UK with the social reading app Flipboard pre-loaded. There’s no word on when the app will become available for all other Android devices, and being a very popular iPhone app for some time, understandably many Android users want it badly.
For those who haven’t come across Flipboard before, it’s an iOS app that combines your social life with your reading life, creating a sort-of tailor-made digital magazine for you. It will show you the biggest stories from your Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as weaving in stories from Google Reader, RSS Feeds and the latest world news.
Thankfully for those Android users out there with a desire for Flipboard, a clever developer has made it available right now for pretty much any Android device – almost three weeks before it’s due to launch on the S3!
To get Flipboard on your Android phone or tablet, you can either follow this Dropbox link and download the file to a PC or Mac, and then transfer it to your device, or you can follow the link below while on your device, click Flipboard.apk on the first post, and install it directly.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25866075#post25866075
Most Android devices should recognise the file and walk you through the installation, but if yours doesn’t then you’ll need to find the file (Flipboard.apk) using either your device’s file app or by downloading Astro File Manager and finding it yourself. Once found simply tap the file to start the installation.
We’ve tested Flipboard on our HTC One X and it runs like a dream, with beautiful graphics and a smooth, fluid user interface. We’ll be testing it out on some older, less powerful devices soon to see if it will work for everyone.
If you’ve installed Flipboard let us know how it works for you, and don’t forget to say which device you have so we know what works and what may not work so well!
UPDATE:
We’ve tested Flipboard out on several Android 2.3 devices such as the HTC Desire S and Samsung Galaxy S2 and found it to work perfectly well. However, interestingly Flipboard has just pushed out an update (version 1.8.4) to fix a startup crashing issue on older devices.
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.
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