Flipboard magazines flip to web browsers

If you are unfamiliar with Flipboard, it is a service which aggregates your favorite online news sources and social media accounts. It then displays the data in a magazine-like layout, including page-turning animations. In addition to personal use, Flipboard also allows users to create "magazines" which can be shared publicly with the world. These are an aggregate of various sources on a specific topic (skiing, cats, technology, and more). Unfortunately, people with whom you shared your magazines were required to have a Flipboard account and access the mobile app -- until today.

Flipboard announces that magazines can now be shared with anyone using a modern browser (an account is not required). "The Web magazines are supported in desktop browsers IE9+, Safari, Chrome and Firefox in 11 languages, including English, Japanese, Chinese, French and German", according to the company. Is this worth flipping out over?

Absolutely. In my testing, the magazines work brilliantly in both Chrome and Firefox. I was able to navigate the publications using my keyboard and mouse. The navigation keys allowed me to change pages one by one. Using the number keys, Flipboard jumped to the corresponding page number -- a nice touch. However, I much preferred using the scroll wheel on my mouse, which allowed me to comfortably sit back in my chair and fluidly glide through pages.

I was extremely happy to see that it also works on my Nokia Lumia 928, which uses Internet Explorer. There is no official Flipboard app for Windows Phone 8 at the moment, however, one is coming "soon". Navigating magazines in the mobile browser proved to be fast and flawless, including animations.

Sadly, creating a magazine (curating) is still an app-only affair -- users will need an iOS or Android-based device to do so. Still, this is a great first step. The creative possibilities are endless.

I would love to read magazines created by BetaNews readers. Please share your links in the comments.