Facebook (for iPad)

The social network, Facebook, took its sweet time getting a dedicated iPad app to market. Nearly one year since its release, the Facebook iPad app (free) has blossomed into a full-featured app, giving users almost but not quite all the functionality they can get in the Web version. The app loads much faster than it did a year ago and now includes clear and useful access to your privacy controls and other settings. Photo viewing has improved significantly as well. First-generation iPad owners, however, won't be completely satisfied, as the Facebook app doesn't properly display Timeline on the three-year old device. And the app is missing a few other features from the Web version, like the ability to edit a comment or status update after posting it, which puts some Facebook users at a clear disadvantage, namely those who intend to use their tablet as their primary computing device. (And maybe that trend isn't strong yet for tablets, but it is for smartphones in the U.S., particularly among some demographic segements.)  With a service as powerful and far-reaching as Facebook's, I would absolutely prefer to see all the core functionality on the iPad app and other mobile apps, in part because Facebook for iPad is one app you must download. You and your iPad would be lonely without it.

Design
"Visual" is the name of the game with the Facebook iPad app. Photos take the spotlight. Friends appear by their profile images, with typed names minimized. Even with location-tagged status updates, photos of your friends are pinned to a large map to point out their whereabouts. The app is more of a feast for the eyes than the fingers. While you can tap, touch, swipe, drag, pinch, and otherwise put your fingers on the app, the experience plays more to the visual senses.

Features and Navigation
The big feature worth highlighting in the Facebook iPad app is support for multiple accounts. If you manage more than one Facebook account, this feature is a huge win.

Other features largely mimic Facebook.com, which is good for consistency's sake (I value consistency, personally), but a little underwhelming if you were expecting a wholly unique experience on the iPad.

Facebook's iPad app has two top-level navigation bars: one that's blue and just has icons (friend requests, messages, notifications) and a second one that disappears when you don't need it for posting a new status, adding a photo, and checking into a venue. A right sidebar, visible in landscape orientation (it disappears in portrait mode) is dedicated to seeing whom among your friends is online now and initiating a chat with them. You can go offline and remain invisible with one tap of the gear icon.

The most important navigation bar hides off to the left and pops into view when you press the box with three horizontal lines at the upper left corner. Here you'll find virtually anything else you might need: a search bar, your own Timeline, Account Settings, Privacy & Terms, all your apps, messages, and more.

Consistent features from the website, like the news feed acting as a home page and buttons that pull up summaries of your messages and friend requests, remove any hint of a learning curve in getting to know this app. If you use Facebook, the app is amazingly intuitive.

As mentioned, there are a few features lacking, like the ability to post-hoc edit a comment or status update.

When you update your status on Facebook from the iPad app, you can include a location if you like, although you don't have to. If you do, your friends will be able to see where you are.

Photos
Images are the big draw for the Facebook iPad app. Everywhere images are used, they're prominent! The iPad app's design really pushes visuals, emphasizing faces more than names when you browse through your list of friends, for instance. It's about who you "see" more than whom you "know."

When I first used the Facebook iPad app, I found myself looking at the profiles and photo albums of friends I hadn't seen in several years, because the app drew me toward faces rather than familiar names.

Privacy
You can adjust all your privacy settings on the iPad app, and they've been simplified so that they're easier to understand than before. To its credit, Facebook has taken several steps to make privacy controls better for users, and allowing iPad users to adjust their privacy settings is one of them. 

Facebook for iPad
Regardless of how much time you actually spend on Facebook, the social network is so huge and influential that most people need it for the same reasons they need email. Other people use it, and you need it to stay in touch with them.

If you're a heavy Facebook user, the iPad app provides a new and intriguing experience, one that's visually appealing and more explorative than what the other versions of the platform have to offer. The iPad app takes advantage of some of the capabilities of the iPad in an elegant way, although I wish it would support the first-generation iPad fully and give users all the core functionality found in the website.

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