With Brit + Co, a company devoted to simple and beautiful ways to live a more creative life, Brit Morin believes she’s tapping into a “biological urge” we all have to create…and to create a better life.
But Morin is also hyper-aware that most of us don’t have the time to do this efficiently, so she specializes in savvy shortcuts that take 30 minutes or less. She’s also an evangelizer of the technology—apps, gadgets, tips and tricks—that can help.
We sat down with her not too long ago and asked about her favorite stuff: her current obsessions (3D printing), favorite places to shop (Etsy, Anthropologie, J Crew, Quirky), must-read print magazines (Dwell, Elle Decor, Wallpaper), productivity tips (keep a list of three things to accomplish every day), analog habits (journaling), and more.
Since the interview, Morin participated in our beta curator program, where she was among the first people to create magazines using Flipboard 2.0. We’re featuring her DIY Daily magazine now in our Living category. Check it out, then tap on the section name to see everything Morin is curating on Flipboard. Tap the subscribe button in the top left to have items from her magazines added to your Cover Stories.
It’s been an epic week here at Flipboard HQ, in sunny Palo Alto, California. The team had been working long and hard on the second generation of our product, so you can imagine the excitement when at last we were ready to raise the red curtain. As late afternoon fell on Tuesday, our office—a lofty, white, open space crammed with long, white tables—started filling with staff, family and friends. Mike McCue, the boss and co-founder, gave a speech, and the obligatory commemorative T shirts—these were slate black and featured the flip-it “+” sign—were handed out. Then we gathered in the kitchen, where a countdown clock had been set up that ticked off the time until the 6PM PST launch.
And just like that, millions of new magazine makers were born.
As you probably know by now, 2.0 makes it easy for anyone to create a magazine filled with the things they find in Flipboard—and now, on the Web at large, via the new bookmarklet. Since launch, our users have been creating a magazine per second. For us at Flipboard, it feels like a gift to see all the wonderful stuff you’re making and sharing. In fact, it’s so much fun, that we decided to use this space every Friday to call out some of the noteworthy user-created magazines we’ve found during the previous week. OK, here are a few we loved and shared during our launch week:
(Tap on the cover to open each magazine on Flipboard.)
Modern Sneaker, which is about cool sneakers:
Bees Like Honey, a great looking collection of stuff:
Ooh Rah Nation, which is about the Marine Corps:
Horizon Viewfinder, amazing pictures, from this world and that:
Nerd Girl Revenge, which focuses on all things nerdy and arty:
So that was last week. Next week, in honor of the official start of baseball season, we’re looking for the best magazines our users have created around America’s favorite pastime—teams, leagues, players and anything in-between. We’ve got some ideas, but we would rather hear from you. Please send your suggestions to staffpicks@flipboard.com.
Holy handmade handbag! Time to flex that credit card and prepare those fingers for some intense flipping: Etsy, the vibrant marketplace for handcrafted things, has been given the Flipboard treatment.
Each Etsy item is now beautifully presented within Flipboard on customized pages that contain bright photos, text about the product and a buy button that takes you to Etsy to make your purchase. Check it out in this section, which combines the Etsy blog with our favorite Etsy items.
Flip through the section or name on the section name to see a sidebar that links to 12 of Etsy’s essential categories, such as Art, Jewelry, Kids, Vintage and Wedding. Tap on any of these categories to browse scores of items. When you find something intriguing, tap to buy or press the + button to save it into a Flipboard magazine.
Now that Etsy is part of the new edition of Flipboard, there are many ways to collect and share gorgeous handmade products. You could curate a magazine around:
A theme (“Owls,” “Vintage Home”), a material (“Paper Crafts”) or a color (“Red”)
You can even add to your Etsy picks by flipping in articles, photos and videos from other sources, and you can top it all off with soundtrack from SoundCloud. (For more about how to curate on Flipboard, check out our Get Started Guide.) The possibilities are as big and creative as Etsy itself.
What’s the only thing better than Flipboard? Flipboard 2.0! It’s a major new edition, with treats for everyone from the casual reader to the power user. There’s more content than ever to enjoy, including a new partnership with Etsy. When you search, we instantly create a magazine out of your results. It’s faster, more visual, and easier to navigate.
And, for the first time, you can collect and save articles, photos, audio and video by organizing them into beautiful magazines. These can be private, or if you want to connect with like-minded enthusiasts, you can make them public and share them on Flipboard and beyond. Now everyone can be a reader and an editor.
Just tap the + button next to articles, pick a name for your magazine, add a description and start flipping. You can create as many magazines as you want—My Picks, The SF Giants, Wedding Inspiration, Things to Read Later—and draw from virtually any source on Flipboard, including what’s being shared on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud, LinkedIn and Tumblr.
We’ve also made the entire Web flippable with our new bookmarklet. Go to flip.it/bookmark and simply drag the “Flip It” button to your browser toolbar to install. From there, you can flip virtually anything you find by clicking the bookmarklet from any web page. Check out your magazine on Flipboard and you’ll see your latest “flipped” items in a print-style layout. You can also tap into any item and promote it to the cover.
If you’d like to be inspired, tap on “By Our Readers” in the Content Guide, which contains a selection of magazines from staff and friends of Flipboard who’ve been experimenting with 2.0 in our beta program. They include bloggers like Gardenista’s Michelle Slatalla, entrepreneurs like Kate Kendall, curators like Bureau of Trade’s Michael Phillips Moscowitz, small business owners like Elizabeth Leu, musicians like Linkin Park, and people with passions around graffiti, fashion, apps, horses, travel, food, kids and more. We’ll be highlighting many of them—and people like you!—in our blog in the coming weeks.
Some other highlights of 2.0:
A new, visual Content Guide. Tap the Red Ribbon and you’ll see your own table of contents, all the magazines you’ve created, Notifications and lots of other goodies for you to peruse.
Commenting on Flipboard. Inside a story, tap the source’s avatar in the lower left-hand corner, to reveal Flipboard Comments. Draw in other Flipboard users with @mentions.
Recommended Reading. In Cover Stories, you’ll find More to Read, a personalized list of things we think you’ll love, drawn from your social interactions.
Subsections in partner magazines, newspapers and websites. On the second page of tablet editions, you’ll find new sidebars listing subsections for easier navigation.
Fast section switching. Tap the section name at the top of any page to reveal related content and subsections.
Optional Facebook Open Graph integration, bringing your Flipboard activity to your Facebook page in more meaningful ways.
Finally, don’t forget to read our Community Guidelines for best practices around using the new Flipboard.
Have you ever wanted to save something awesome you found on your Flipboard? Maybe it was a beautiful place you wanted to visit, a video you were blown away by or an article you loved. Well, starting now with Flipboard 2.0, all you have to do is tap the + button to save and collect the things you love on your Flipboard. But that’s just the beginning. Let me explain.
Tapping the + will “flip” the item you’re looking at into your very own Flipboard magazine. Magazines are great for collecting the things you discover and they can be shared publicly or kept private just for you. For example, you can create a beautiful magazine full of all the places you want to explore or all the books you want to read. Here are some magazines I’ve made:
Warning. This gets addictive, especially when you start seeing other people who share your interests reading and commenting on your magazines.
Our readers are already creating some amazing magazines which you can see in your Content Guide. Just tap the red ribbon and look under “By Our Readers” for featured magazines about things like interior decorating, travel, exotic cars and world-changing ideas. You can also now search for magazines, articles, photos and videos about topics you’re interested in, flip through the results, and even subscribe to your search to keep it as an active tile on your Flipboard.
Whether you want to share your perspective with the world or just privately collect the things you find on your Flipboard, I hope you’ll love this new edition.
Do you use Flipboard on the go but have a limited mobile data plan? Good news: now you can adjust how Flipboard uses mobile data.
Go to Settings, where you’ll see the option to Reduce Data Usage in three ways: Full Data Use does not limit mobile data at all, On Demand only downloads content you select and Don’t use mobile data only downloads content when on a WiFi connection.
There are also two new ways to enable a limited Offline View. From Settings you can enable Fetch for Offline and article summaries in layout view of your Flipboard will be downloaded for offline access. You can also select specific sections you want to have available for layout view browsing offline. Access this from the menu at the top right corner within the section you want to “Fetch for Offline.”
Are you ready for the Big Dance? Sweet Sixteen? The Final Four? You bet you are—and Flipboard is here to help you follow March Madness, from the first tip off to the final buzzer.
Among the most popular sporting events in the U.S., the annual NCAA college basketball championship tournament starts on Tuesday, March 19, and ends Monday, April 8. Sixty-eight teams, playing in arenas around the country, populate America’s best-known bracket. The odds-on favorites include the Indiana Hoosiers, Gonzaga Bulldogs, Kansas Jayhawks, Duke Blue Devils, Miami Hurricanes and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas Rebels. But sports pundits say this is one of those years when no team is a slam dunk—pun intended—and virtually every team is a contender.
This year marks an important milestone for the British charity Comic Relief: it’s celebrating 25 years of raising money for causes within the UK and Africa.
Whether you plan to get involved with fundraising or simply watch the show on Friday, make sure you check out our special Comic Relief section to get the latest on what’s been happening. From “Miranda’s Mad March” to “Simon Cowell’s surprise wedding,” we’ve got it covered. Strap on your red nose, and tap the badge below to get started.
Today, Google announced it’s going to retire Google Reader. If the service has been an essential part of your media diet, don’t despair. Your Google Reader subscriptions will be safe on Flipboard.
Here’s how to ensure you’ll always be able to access your Google Reader feeds, even after July 1, when Google plans to shut down the service.
1) Create a Flipboard account. Having an account means that you can always access your favorite content, RSS feeds and social networks from different devices or from a shared device.
2) Tap on the red ribbon, tap “Accounts” and sign into your Google Reader account via Flipboard.
If you already have a Flipboard account and you have signed into your Google Reader, you don’t need to do anything. Your feeds will be saved. Even if you don’t use Google Reader, you can always add any RSS feed to your Flipboard by tapping on the red ribbon and searching for the feed.
A first-world problem: Music discovery. So much great stuff is being created, how can you possibly keep track of it all? Recommendation engines on streaming music sites such as Rhapsody and Pandora help, and so do recommendations from friends via social music sites such as Spotify and Rdio. But if you’re looking to broaden your musical horizons the old-fashioned way, you could do worse than making frequent visits to music news and review site, Pitchfork.
Pitchfork was launched in 1995 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by Ryan Schreiber, a recent high-school graduate who was interested in indie music. The site, which is known for its reviews and lists of must-hear music, has grown to over 1.5 million unique visitors a month, and sponsors music festivals in the U.S. and Europe.
Starting today, you can read Pitchfork on Flipboard, where it’s been paginated for even better readability on mobile devices. Tap on, rock out:
