Flipboard hits v3.0, widens its scope, gets tabbed UI and social reach

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Last covered here, for v2.5, Flipboard for Windows Phone has both hit the big 3.0 and also ditched the hamburger menu - the interface is now unashamedly tabbed, and better for it, in my opinion. There's also a decent set of social upgrades - it's true that Flipboard may not 'flip' very much anymore, but it's a comprehensive news and social browser that many will love.

Here's the official changelog for v3.0:

  • Navigate your Flipboard quickly with the new Home, Following, Search, Notifications, and Profile Tabs.
  • Browse updates from everything you follow in your Home tab.
  • Now you can follow people to see what they’re flipping into magazines in your Home feed.
  • See a list of what you follow in your Following tab and dive into individual sources or topics easily.
  • Find specific topics or people to follow in the Search tab.
  • Let the Flipboard community know more about you by uploading a pic and entering a short bio in the Profile tab.
  • More bug fixes and performance improvements.

Screenshot, FlipboardScreenshot, Flipboard

Still as glossy as ever, but now there's a tabbed interface that leads users into content better than the old 'everyone hates it' hamburger menu...

Screenshot, FlipboardScreenshot, Flipboard

Within a section, the tabs disappear, replaced by the section name - you have to press 'back' to return to the full UI, which seems a little odd - at th every least you'd have expected a 'home' control or icon of some kind; (right) a wealth of social accounts can now be linked up, in order to show their timeline content in your Flipboard UI.

Screenshot, FlipboardScreenshot, Flipboard

There's a search function that works across all content layers, though it failed to find several things i was looking for, so it's not infallible; (right) all the 'traditional' Flipboard curated article feeds (magazines) are here, don't worry!

I liked this update, but a) there will always be some users who hate a change to a user interface, and b) there are a LOT of news readers of various kinds available for all mobile platforms now, with Google, Apple and Microsoft all providing first party systems (Microsoft's is (MSN) 'News') - is there still a place in the market for Flipboard in 2015? Comments welcome.

Available now for all Windows Phones, you can download Flipboard here in the Windows Phone Store.

Source / Credit: Windows Phone Store