Flip through Craigslist like a newspaper with Lifelike Craig HD on the iPad

If you’ve ever wanted to treat Craigslist like the newspaper classifieds that it helped kill, Lifelike Craig HD for the iPad is the ideal app for you.

Developed by Lifelike Apps, Craig HD is a gorgeous remix of Craigslist’s content into a newspaper-style interface. It’s not only a well-designed Craigslist app, it’s also one of the best looking iPad apps we’ve come across. That’s why we’ve chosen it for VentureBeat’s Mobile App Spotlight, which highlights new and interesting apps.

With Lifelike Craig HD, you can browse any Craigslist section, in any city, as you normally would. When you jump into a section, the app displays Craigslist posts like typical classified entries. Jump into an individual post, and it gives you existing posts on a convenient scrolling bar at the side of the page. You can share posts with friends, drop them onto a map, and reply to them from within the app. The app also allows you to search for posts as usual from within Craigslist sections, and it lets you sort and filter posts as you see fit.

After playing around with the app for a few days now, it has quickly become my preferred way of viewing Craigslist. Browsing the site is still faster on a PC, but Craigslist’s barebones design is just plain boring. With Lifelike Craig HD, Craigslist becomes a more visually rich, and ultimately enjoyable, destination.

The app regularly retails for $1.99, but it’s currently a steal this week for $0.99 on the iTunes Store.

Likelike App’s Dotan Saguy said that they chose to go for the unique newspaper interface after seeing a slew of other Craigslist apps that just look like databases. Saguy previously developed a mobile app tool called MockApp that offers developers tips for designing for mobile interfaces, which he created to familiarize himself with mobile design. Likelike App’s other offerings, Lifelike Alarm Clock and Weather for the iPhone and iPad, also focus heavily on design.

The company is a joint venture between Saguy and Postindustria, a Ukrainian mobile development firm.

The Intel AppUp developer program is sponsoring VentureBeat’s Mobile App Spotlight. However, VentureBeat’s editorial staff selects apps for the program according to its customary editorial standards, without input from Intel.