Official Facebook, Flipboard and NFL apps to come to Windows 8

Windows 8 is about to get a nice little boost that will endear it to users. It has been revealed that official versions of Facebook, Flipboard and NFL are about to make their way to Windows 8 as well as Windows RT. 

At the Developer Build Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the arrival of these apps to Windows 8 and RT. He mentioned that Microsoft believes developers are doing a great job on the platform since the number of apps “that are coming into the store is phenomenal”.

Ballmer said that as far as Facebook goes, the social network has focused on connecting people across various platforms for the longest time and now the new app will be an _“exciting way to enhance that vision”._

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Flipboard promptly updated its blog that confirmed that the app will indeed be coming to Windows later this year. “Flipboard will be custom-made for this new platform, allowing Windows users to read, create and share magazines on virtually any topic imaginable,” the team wrote in the blog. It also published an eight second video about the application. While it doesn’t quite reveal much, the video gets into the application from the infamous Start screen of Windows 8.

Ballmer also mentioned that the company had “recently struck a deal with the NFL to bring its content and applications to a broad set of Microsoft devices, including all Windows tablets and PCs.”

The existence of these applications was revealed at the Conference where an Acer Iconia W3 8-inch tablet was seen running these apps on the new Windows 8.1 update. The Facebook and Flipboard apps will be built by the companies themselves. There is no word on when the apps will hit the Store except a vague mention of “later this year” by Flipboard.