I Don’t Know about You, But I Have A Facebook App on My iPad
By: Hillel Fuld
I have been using my iPad for a few months now, and all in all, I can safely say that out of all the electronic devices I own, the iPad is my favorite. Having said that, I am finding the relatively low number of iPad apps to be a little frustrating. I know 20,000 (pretty sure that is the last number I read) is a pretty decent number of apps, but compared to the number of iPhone apps, heck, compared to the number of Android apps, 20,000 is a little disappointing. Truth be told, the numbers are actually irrelevant and I have found almost everything I could possibly need among the App Store iPad section, except one thing.
I have speculated with friends and colleagues as to why Facebook has not yet released an iPad app, but no one really knows. All I know is that the iPhone Facebook app is painful to look at on the iPad, and that Facebook has released multiple updates to their iPhone app lately, but no iPad love anywhere in sight. It is actually pretty strange if you think about it. The iPad is a huge success with probably close to 5 million sold worldwide and Facebook, the largest social network as well as one of the most popular websites on the internet, still does not have an iPad app?
Whatever the case may be, many people, myself among them, did not want to sit around and wait for Facebook to get their act together, so we decided to look elsewhere. I have tried various apps that are supposed to provide the best Facebook experience on the iPad, none of them did. When I saw the Friendly among the top paid apps in the App Store, I had to try it. Its relatively high price tag of $4.99 made me hesitate a little in the hope that the Facebook app would finally be released for free. That day never came, so Friendly is was.
I downloaded Friendly, and hoped it would justify the price. I was not disappointed in the least bit. The app provides, I dare to say, a better Facebook experience than the actual Facebook app on the iPhone. It is updated with the latest features including Places, which is brand spankin new, and only shows you people’s posts, without the noise of games, puzzles, and all the other annoying distractions that come along with the Facebook experience.
The newest version also includes a limited Facebook Chat with the app displaying only some of your friends and the inability to scroll and see more. Strange, but better than nothing. Other missing features include the the option to sort friends, attach media to an update, and the big one, no option to upload pictures.
All in all, the Friendly Facebook app, I feel, was worth the money, but if you do not want to spend $4.99, your second best option is to add a shortcut to your iPad’s desktop of the Facebook Touch site and then you will have a pretty decent Web app that provides an experience almost identical to Friendly’s.
Have you tried Friendly? What did you think? Please let me know in the comments below or on Twitter here.
