

Facebook for iPad - themichael
http://www.facebook.com/mobile/ipad

======
credo
Apple's app sandboxing and privacy protection means that 'Facebook for iPad'
will not be able to mine as much user data as Facebook would like.

I suspect that this was the main reason why Facebook wanted users to use the
browser instead of a native app (and why the app is being launched more than
18 months after the iPad was first launched)

However, the proliferation of native 3rd party apps meant that users weren't
using the browser to get to Facebook and that may have led Facebook to finally
decide to release the app.

 _[edit1: To the downvoters - I didn't say that sandboxing provides 100%
privacy protection. However, it does prevent Facebook from knowing which other
sites you've visited, it prevents them from telling search engines who you are
etc.]

[edit2: To Xuzz and others: login to facebook on your iPad browser, log into a
website that collaborates with Facebook, you'll see that Facebook is aware
your visit to the website. This won't happen when you're logged into the app
(instead of being logged in on Safari)

Regardless of the downvotes, this is a matter of fact.(in fact, it was
recently discovered that Facebook can track some of your web-browsing even if
you had logged out)

Btw I made no assertions about "attacks" and I have no interest in debating
emotional outburts such as "Please stop assuming everything Facebook does is
out to personally attack you or your data"._

~~~
Me1000
> However, the proliferation of native 3rd party apps meant that users weren't
> using the browser to get to Facebook and that may have led Facebook to
> finally decide to release the app.

or it could just be that the Safari on the iPad doesn't let you upload photos
to the largest photo sharing website out there (Facebook).

I suspect the reason it took 18 months is because Facebook was waiting to
figure out where the iPad fits into the ecosystem.

~~~
megablast
I don't think your reason makes any sense. If it was true, where do you think
they ended up with it?

Facebook was deliberately dragging its heals for some reason, maybe partly due
to not wanting to help Apple's platform anymore than they have to.

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ceejayoz
Maybe they'll start working on making the iPhone version less buggy now. The
last six months have seen it become increasingly unstable.

~~~
Me1000
<http://m.facebook.com> got a nice update today too. Adding that to the home
screen will probably solve most of your complaints. With the caveat that you
won't be able to upload pictures.

~~~
smackfu
Facebook has a nice strategy for their iPhone app. It mainly displays web
views, so they can have the flexibility of a web site without having to go
through an Apple review every time they update their features. And as a side-
effect other mobile browsers benefit from the same work.

Edit: And now after playing with the new iPhone version, they replaced even
more of the app with web views. At this point, it's essentially the same as
m.facebook.com but with custom handlers for the Status / Photo / Check In
buttons that allow for location awareness and photo uploading.

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Bud
Um, the app may be out, but this sure is a sloppy launch.

Don't announce it and provide a link to it til you check that the link
actually works, Zuck!

Sheesh.

~~~
schraeds
I read that Apple and Facebook were planning on announcing the app and
possibly other things at the iPhone event last week but that Apple "went dark"
after learning of Steve Job's health over the weekend.

If that's the case a soft, muted launch would be more understandable
especially considering direct competitor Samsung/Google postponed their launch
indefinitely.

~~~
jonursenbach
They didn't post it indefinitely. They postponed it till the 27th.

[http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/10/07/samsung-and-
google-t...](http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/10/07/samsung-and-google-to-
regroup-for-october-27-galaxy-nexus-launch-in-the-uk/)

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emehrkay
Would this be the "safest" way to use Facebook? Lets say that my iPad had no
Facebook cookies and I installed this app, signed in, switches to a browser
and started browsing. Is faceebook still tracking my every move?

Just curious.

~~~
ceejayoz
The iPhone app passes you through Facebook's web interface whenever you click
an offsite link. There may be enough to track you via that.

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geoffhill
Wow, and so soon after Jeff Verkoeyen left.
<http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/26/facebook-ipad-app-saga/>

~~~
rjd
I have no sympathy for that guy. Seems like he had a disconnect between the
importance of his work and the greater strategy of the company, having a
whinge over people putting his work on the back burner is very immature.

~~~
paulgb
Company strategy or not, putting your all into something that never ships is a
frustrating experience. Jeff presumably never expected his personal venting to
be covered by TechCrunch.

~~~
rjd
Indeed it is, its a very common thread in my life and I'd say for a lot of
readers here. It something you get used to and you learn to deal with, its
called maturing, hence why I said it was an immature thing to do.

I don't go around bad mouthing the people paying my bills over my own ego.

~~~
ugh
I’m sorry but I can’t see how what he did was bad mouthing. He was honest.

~~~
joesb
It's not mutually exclusive.

~~~
ugh
I wasn’t claiming that. It was honest but nice enough to not be bad mouthing.

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gurkendoktor
In comparison to Friendly, it is a bit less convenient for shared iPads. You
have to enter your password every time you use a different account, and it
always shows Facebook in the system language, not the user's language.

It's not a huge deal, but I find it really interesting to observe multi-user
support on the iPad. Mostly because I think there is a huge disconnect between
what "pundit" bloggers say about it and how every iPad I know is being used.

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aculver
I really like the design of this landing page a lot. Very clean. It's a subtle
touch, but the reflection on the iPad is more muted than you typically see for
this sort of display (including what you'll see from Apple at
<http://www.apple.com/ipad/> .)

------
ethank
I don't understand why there is no feature parity between the different
platforms? I rely on the "lists" feature (both the AI generated and my own
generated ones) for filtering the wall.

The iPhone app implements it in a spotty fashion (half the time custom lists
show, and half the time they don't), but the iPad app doesn't have support for
them?

I get the desire for agility and keeping a startup vibe internally, even as
the company gets very large, but some quality control would be excellent.

To be clear: I think FB is showing a huge turnaround in this aspect with the
new oGraph verbs and timeline, but this app just... doesn't smell test well.

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reaganing
Seems like it's finally gone live. The App Store page is showing version 4.0
and iPad screenshots now.

<http://itunes.apple.com/app/facebook/id284882215>

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senthilnayagam
The one reason I still use the iPhone version was when I wanted to upload my
photos , browser don't allows you to do this. The Facebook app UI is so
antique, after seeing the super UI you see on iPad apps and also on 2x the
fonts looked so awkward

After getting the iPad camera kit, it was feeling even more horrible, thank
god the new iPad app is getting launched, will have one less reason to c

~~~
ceejayoz
I'm rather baffled that Apple hasn't hooked `<input type="file" />` into iOS
Safari. Seems like it'd be an easy enough thing to do.

~~~
Terretta
It works from iOS iCab.

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high5ths
I don't know about the rest of you but when I try to get this app I just end
up with the iPhone version (last updated 6 September 2011).

~~~
bennesvig
Same. They must have submitted it, but it hasn't gone live yet.

~~~
cstross
It's certainly not gone live here in the UK yet (it's iPhone/iTouch only,
version 3.5 as before). Is it in the US app store yet?

~~~
reaganing
I'm in the US and just downloaded it, got the old iPhone version in a small
window, as always. Very annoying.

~~~
StringyBob
Installed on a UK account. Still listed under iphone apps in the store,
although with the 'dual use' symbol, but is now v4.0 according to the app
config settings.

Crashed every time after startup just after showing a fullscreen facebook
logo. Deleting and reinstalling the app got it working. Probably some cache
problems from having the iphone version previously installed...

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raminf
Just a heads-up. If you had the iPhone version already installed on an iPad
and do an update you'll get the new universal version. That one is pretty
crashy right at the startup screen.

Deleting and reinstalling it from scratch seems to solve the problem. Nice
looking app.

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mrbill
I had to completely remove and reinstall the Facebook app from scratch on both
my Verizon iPhone 4 (4.2.7) and my wifi-only iPad 1 (iOS 5 GM) to get it to
work. The iPhone just sat and "pinwheeled" for 4-5 minutes, and the iPad would
dump back to Springboard on launch.

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gdilla
So, with more and more users using some mobile device as an access point to
their computing experiences, how does it help FB to have ad-free, FB credits
free apps? I mean, I would rather have ad free experiences and I don't care
for FB apps much. Just wondering..

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pieter
Nice to see the names of the Sofa guys show up in those screenshots!

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wavephorm
I just installed it, and this is definitely not designed for iPad. It's an
iPhone resolution app that you'd have to run at 2X to fill the iPad screen.

~~~
efnx
This happened to me too. The 'Get the App' button on facebook actually links
you to the iPhone app. Funky.

~~~
reaganing
The app is supposed to be "universal" and display the proper one for your
device, but yeah, it's not actually gone live on the App Store yet it seems.

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dotBen
F' these guys. Really.

There's nothing here that's orientated around doing what's best for the user
_(C'mon Zuck, I thought that was your mantra)_ -

* we know from Jeff Verkoeyen that this app has been V1 ready for some time

* the delay was so Apple and Facebook could do some biz-dev shenanigans - that ultimately broke down

* now this has been 'launched' in some slap-dash, careless manner.

Facebook for iPad may be the most anticipated/demanded app for iPad but if
that means Facebook feels it can get complacent and use it as some (failed)
bargaining chip with Apple then I refuse to want to be the pawns in the middle
of all this.

Not downloading, not using, chalking this up as another reason to be done with
Facebook and it's Empire.

~~~
coderdude
Some of this anti-Facebook stuff is just over the top. I feel like it's the
mid-90s and people just started drawing horns on Bill Gates.

~~~
dotBen
Coderdude (I like HackerThings, btw). I'm not anti Facebook. I'm just tired of
the complacency the company is showing towards it's users (and FB app
developers) at the moment.

More than happy to trade karma to express my view, neg vote away...

~~~
coderdude
Thanks Ben, I'm glad you like it.

