Facebook has finally launched its own version of the social network optimized for the iPad.
Until now, the version of Facebook that appeared on the iPad was the same as what showed up on the much smaller-sized screen of the iPhone.
This required iPad users to choose between the lesser of two evils: either use a portion of the iPad’s screen to surf Facebook, or hit a button in the top or bottom corner to expand the navigable area, thus reducing resolution.
This predicament created a market for third-party developers, namely Oceoway’s Friendly — not to be confused with Facebook acquiree friend.ly, which is a question-and-answer application.
However, users have complained that even Oceoway’s Friendly still didn’t do enough to optimize the Facebook experience for the iPad’s screen.
Now the pictures supplied by Facebook certainly make it look like the social network has addressed these issues (so much that we can almost appreciate why the app’s lead developer, former Facebook engineer Jeff Verkoyen, felt frustrated that his project didn’t go live sooner).
However, we still need to get some hands-on — make that fingertips, since that’s how you navigate on the iPad version of Facebook — time with the app before we can definitively concur that the new version improves the experience.
Additionally, Facebook has added chat and games to the iPad version, both of which aren’t available on the iPhone yet.
And whichever features of Facebook you choose as your favorites become available in the left-hand column of the screen on the iPad.
The iPad version of Facebook becomes available for download today in Apple’s App Store.
Readers,We’d love to hear from you about your experiences with using Facebook on the iPad, past and present.
Source: All Facebook
Monday, October 10, 2011