Most probably because of all of the press and Apple store feature. The feedback I've read has been mixed. It's definitely got more use than their first app but I'm not sure it fits into my usage pattern.
I think the app looks great and has some nice imagery. It's rather unintuitive though. To read something you have to download the stories like it's Instapaper, when the categories were preinstalled in the app.
It's also confusing how to navigate, you have to swipe up to load the webpage or you can also double tap that just loads more of the story, swipe down to get back, swipe right to go to the next story and if you tap on any part of the story (Say to copy) it opens spiralling social sharing icon.
The problem for me is that Flipboard and Twitter are the only ways I really choose to consume mainstream news, barring HackerNews or Reddit. This app isn't social and has set about 10 categories, you're supposed to be able to generate others but when I typed in 'Startups' nothing happened. I think the reason they pivoted from summarising any text into articles is because you can cut an article down much easier. They're broken down with an introductory line, summary and summary paragraph.
For example: If you wanted to summarise this comment you could take the first line and the first two lines from the paragraph before this and that would be just. If Flipboard bought them and used it in their iPhone app so that before you click to read more of an article it's summarised it instead of just leaving a quote I'd be quite happy.
Their original app allowed you to paste the link of an article or any text and they'd summarise it. It didn't really work and this is trying to find a use for it. I'l be interested to see where they take it.
From a company angle they seem to be outsourcing a lot of development based on their about page. I'm not sure how scalable this is for a startup. If this second iteration doesn't work will they be able to pivot?
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It's also confusing how to navigate, you have to swipe up to load the webpage or you can also double tap that just loads more of the story, swipe down to get back, swipe right to go to the next story and if you tap on any part of the story (Say to copy) it opens spiralling social sharing icon.
The problem for me is that Flipboard and Twitter are the only ways I really choose to consume mainstream news, barring HackerNews or Reddit. This app isn't social and has set about 10 categories, you're supposed to be able to generate others but when I typed in 'Startups' nothing happened. I think the reason they pivoted from summarising any text into articles is because you can cut an article down much easier. They're broken down with an introductory line, summary and summary paragraph.
For example: If you wanted to summarise this comment you could take the first line and the first two lines from the paragraph before this and that would be just. If Flipboard bought them and used it in their iPhone app so that before you click to read more of an article it's summarised it instead of just leaving a quote I'd be quite happy.
I like the idea of summarizing the web/content and it looks like the app is just the first step towards something bigger.
From a company angle they seem to be outsourcing a lot of development based on their about page. I'm not sure how scalable this is for a startup. If this second iteration doesn't work will they be able to pivot?