There are certain image-heavy services that are just made for the iPad experience. Browsing sites like 500px, StumbleUpon and Tumblr are a joy, so it’s surprising that Tumblr still doesn’t have its own native iPad app.
Luckily there’s always a talented developer or two willing to jump in and fill the void, as is the case with $1.99 app TumbleOn. The iPad app makes it easy not only to keep up with posts and images from people that you follow, but also gives you an easy way to check out content from a curated selection of interesting blogs.
How the app works
After you’ve logged in with your Tumblr account, the first thing you’ll want to do is head over to the Bookmarks tab, where you can access photos from blogs you follow, under ‘My Dashboard’.
Don’t be fooled by the use of the word Dashboard though – it isn’t anything like Tumblr’s dashboard but that’s part of the reason we love it. Rather than pull in all of the posts from blogs that you follow, TumbleOn displays only photo posts. You can simply scroll through an endless grid of beautifully presented photos.
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When you open up individual posts, you can swipe through them, to view the next image. This is where we see TumbleOn become more than just an image viewer. While, granted, you can’t post new content to your Tumblr itself, you can reblog content adding your own caption to the post, as well as like posts, leave comments, save images to your iPad and share the photos via email.
TumbleOn’s Explore tab is where you can keep up with a curated list of blogs worth following, and more. You can add blogs to your bookmarks, view the list of blogs you’re following on Tumblr, check out who’s following you, and more.
Opening up individual photos from blogs that you don’t follow gives you several options, among them the option to follow the blog on Tumblr or to simply bookmark it in the TumbleOn app.
Our Verdict
TumbleOn is a slick and easy-to-use app, but most important of all, it’s beautiful.
Tumblr has become an incredible repository of stunning images and those photos really come to life on the iPad screen, particularly in the app’s full screen slideshow mode. And we’re happy to admit that we’re big fans of anything that makes it easier for us to browse big and beautiful photos!
If there is one feature that TumbleOn is desperately in need of, and frankly we were a bit surprised it was left out, is a basic search function, to search for keywords or blogs. There are a lot of great recommendations in TumbleOn’s picks, but given how it’s more convenient than ever to kick back on the sofa and find new content using your iPad, a basic search function is definitely at the top of our feature request list.
Even without the search function, the app is pretty impressive, and if you’ve been looking for a way to browse Tumblr’s photos, look no further than TumbleOn.
➤ TumbleOn
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