Facebook has finally launched an official iPad app after months of rumors, Mashable reports.
Although the app pretty much does everything you’d expect the regular Web-based version of Facebook does, such as adding friends, posting to your wall, and looking at your friends’ photos, there are a few new features as well.
There’s also a navigation bar on the left side of the screen where your friends lists, messages, and status updates appear. You can also chat with your Facebook buddies. The standard notifications appear in the top left corner of the screen.
The best feature is the high-resolution photos, which lets you view them on the entire screen instead of just a little window. You can also play games such as “Farmville” in full-screen mode and the games will also support Facebook credits.
The app is elegantly designed. Just swipe left or right when viewing photos to navigate through a photo album. You can also pinch to zoom in and out.
Although Facebook for iPad has been one of the most anticipated iPad apps, Facebook has brought it out with surprisingly little fanfare. An earlier version was leaked in July.
The app was apparently intended to debut a the same event where the iPhone 4s was launched.
Aside from the beautifully-designed photo browsing, the app doesn’t break a whole lot of ground. But it does seem like a pleasant way to browse (or stalk) your Facebook friends’ pictures, and the fullscreen ability is something that the standard Web version has yet to support.
If you’re an iPad and Facebook addict, this app is definitely worth a download. If you like this post, you’ll also want to check out Facebook Frictionless Sharing Causes a Lot of Friction and how Facebook was sued over their new Timeline, as well as the privacy implications of the new Timeline profile system.
