Flipboard Launches as the iPad’s Social Media Magazine

By: Ben Parr

With backing from several heavy hitters and an acquisition, Flipboard has kicked off its quest to become the new and vibrant way you browse your social media streams.

Flipboard, which is now available in the iPad app store, is a start-up that calls itself the “world’s first social magazine.” It connects to your social media accounts — primarily Facebook () and Twitter () — and utilizes that information to create an interface that will feel familiar if you’re a magazine lover. It officially launches today.

Flipboard takes popular news sources (specifically the ones you choose) as well as your Twitter and Facebook feed to provide to create a unique web browsing experience. Moving through the interface is a simple as flipping the page. Items shared on Facebook are suddenly turned into magazine articles and multimedia is immediately made front-and-center.

Here’s an example of what you might find simply browsing through your Twitter and Facebook feeds via Flipboard:

Coinciding with the Flipboard launch are two big announcements: first, the startup has raised $10.5 million in a Series A round including KPCB, Index Ventures, The Chernin Group, Jack Dorsey (Twitter’s creator), Dustin Moskovitz (Facebook’s co-founder) and Aston Kutcher.

Second, it has acquired Ellerdale, a real-time web intelligence startup, and made co-founder Arthur van Hoff its CTO. Ellerdale’s semantic analysts technology will help Flipboard choose and organize the most relevant stories for the readers.

I am thoroughly impressed from our first run with Flipboard. It is simply gorgeous and a pleasure to browse. I could the app open for hours just watching my feeds pass by. If I wanted to scan the key news from my social networks, this is the way I would want to do it.

Would you use an app like this to browse your social media feeds? Let us know what you think of the app in the comments.

Meghan McCain posted this Boobtastic (PIC) on Twitter

imgur.com — The photo was re-hosted in the event she decided to delete it, but this picture was tweeted by Megan McCain to tell the world about her "spontaneous" (she used the quotation marks) night in with a book, a webcam and her breasts pushed together.

Woman Kills Self to Avoid Eviction, Tweets Just Before Death

By Eric Barton

Heather Newnam's photo from her Twitter account.

Here's a story that brings home just how morbid this housing crisis can be: Heather Newnam of Tamarac shot herself yesterday instead of letting cops evict her for failing to pay her rent.

It's a depressing tale, but perhaps what's more depressing is reading what amounts to Newnam's final public words on her Twitter account. Writing under the name rsangel04, bits of Newnam's life played out in her posts. Then she seemed to foretell her own death in this final post at 7:04 p.m. on June 24. She sent this from her cell phone:

Rich get richer, poor get poorer, families on the street, govt doesn't care. God bless the usa, but can He save it?

What's even sadder is that previous posts seem to show Newnam in a better place, talking about going to the tattoo convention and watching the TV show Rescue Me. The day before that last message, she wrote:

five minutes til Rescue Me, Woo Hoo! then bed, Im beat

Newnam's photo from Facebook.

A few days before that, she tweets about having a tooth pulled and using tequila to kill the pain. She writes about hating Florida, wonders what tattoo she should get next, and talks about watching her husband play a videogame.

The site gives only a few clues about the financial state she's in, like this post from June 3:

this working shit sucks! When do I get to hit the lotto?

According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, Newnam shot herself at 1 p.m. yesterday when a real estate agent, a locksmith, and movers showed up at the home at 6902 NW 79th St. in Tamarac. Newnam told them she needed to secure her dogs before they could come in. Then they heard a gunshot. The SWAT team showed up, and at 4 p.m., they found her dead.

Details of her life are also played out on her Facebook page, where she writes that she worked in sales for Success Resource Group in Oakland Park. Her profile describes a woman who lived a happy life before Monday. In the line for her favorite quote, she wrote:

""I live to love, and laugh alot, and that's all I need"

Tony Hawk Skates The White House

Tony Hawk Skates The Halls Of The White House / courtesy twitpic

We were following the twitter stream of @tonyhawk today and came across this twitpic of Tony doing a manual down the halls of the white house. It appears that Tony was at the White House today for Cnn’s First Fathers event. Apparantly Ashtun Kutcher sent this tweet to Tony which basically called him out to skateboard in the white house.

With the permission of the White House officials, Tony Hawk skated the grand foyer and the nearby Old Executive Office Building. Hawk also sent out a few other tweets from today like “The Prez addressing all of us fathers before we split up to visit DC charities,” and “D Wade & Etan T make me feel short.”

Ashton Kutcher dares Tony Hawk To Skateboard in the White House

I’m Aware It Is Hot Outside, But WTF

Benny Gold captured this bit of summertime, and Plug1 sent it my way with the subject line:

im aware it is hot outside, but wtf is going on in the mish today? is it like 150 degrees? is this mid-day walk of shame?

Link.

San Francisco's current heat wave has some ladies throwing dignity out the window in the name of cooling off. This lovely walk of shame was caught on camera in the Mission District yesterday.