Flipboard launches on Android, Samsung Galaxy S III
(CBS News) Flipboard is no longer exclusive to Apple iPhones and iPads. The popular social magazine app announced Friday it is available on Android devices and will now expand to other Google products.
Flipboard becomes prominent Google+ partner
Pictures: Samsung Galaxy S III hits U.S. stores
Flipboard is a mobile app that pulls feeds from Facebook, Twitter and news sites and presents updates in a magazine format. Add Google+ and YouTube to the list of social networks now available on Flipboard.
Both Google+ and YouTube users are now able to see news feeds and interact with the services directly from Flipboard. Google+ users will also be able to post updates and comments from the app.
Earlier this week, the company made headlines when Bradley Horowitz, Google+ vice president of product management, announced that it would let Flipboard add Google's social network to the app.
The partnership suggests a big vote of confidence in Flipboard, which is the first company to have access to the Google+ application programming interface (API). An API is a set of tools that lets third-party developers write custom programs for a service.
However, the relationship is undoubtedly beneficial for both parties. Horowitz reported Monday dramatic growth on Google+. Although he did not specify how many daily users the social network has, Horowitz said it was in the "hundreds of millions."
"It reflects the fragmentation that people are feeling," Evan Doll, Flipboard co-founder told CBS News. "We're not going to live in a world where there's one social network that rules everything."
The timing of Flipboard's launch on Android raises questions of whether or not the company will expand to Windows 8 on the Microsoft Surface tablet, which launched Monday.
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"I'm sure we'll probably be on that device. The question is when. We're going to take our time to think it through and do it really well," Mike McCue, Flipboard chief executive officer, told CBS News.
Flipboard is bundled as a default app on the Samsung Galaxy S III, but will also be available for download at Google Play, Amazon Appstore and Barnes & Noble Nook store.