Finally, A Facebook App For iPad

Posted by Ben Harvell on May 12th, 2010
iPad App - Designed for iPad

Why isn’t there a native Facebook app for iPad yet? It’s not like the company hasn’t had the time or lacks the resources to update its existing iPhone app. For the time being, iPad users have to choose between blowing up the iPhone app to almost unusable dimensions for the larger screen or use the web app which, to be fair, is acceptable.

That said, it does seem strange that such an obvious iPad app hasn’t yet made its way to the App Store. Thank heavens then for the guys at sobees who have taken it upon themselves to put together a Facebook client for the iPad and, from our initial inspection, have done a brilliant job!

Blurring the lines between an RSS reader and Twitter client, sobees for Facebook manages all of the most commonly used sections of a Facebook account such as Status updates, links, images and video.

The interface is mapped out like the newspaper apps we’ve become accustomed to on the iPad with each section dedicated its own scrollable space. One cool feature is the Breaking News section that grabs a recent wall post or status update and positions it as a breaking news headline for your friend group. The Latest Hot Images section shows recently posted images and lets you swipe through them direct from the front page of the app.

While it takes a little time to load, the People section serves as an attractive who’s who of your Facebook friends, using their profile images as a wall of pictures. The Photos section takes a cue from the iPad’s own Photos app, grouping albums into Event-like galleries. Sadly, the pinch features in Apple’s native Photos app doesn’t feature here.

Events is one of the most handy of sobees for Facebook’s features, a simple calendar interface with small icons on each day to denote a birthday or other event. In most instances throughout the app, clicking on a friend’s profile picture brings up a neat contextual menu that offers a route direct to their profile.

Of course, sobees for Facebook isn’t just for consumption, it also allows you to update your Status, comment on videos and images and post on your friends walls. At the moment it seems you have to manually update via a small refresh button with no obvious option we’ve found to auto-refresh. That, however, is a small price to pay for an excellent app that, for the time being, is free and provides a beautiful alternative to Facebook’s web app on your iPad.


sobees lite for Facebook

iPad App - Designed for iPad
Released: 2010-05-11 :: Category: Game

FREE!

iPad Screenshots

(click to enlarge)

sobees lite for Facebook screenshot 1 sobees lite for Facebook screenshot 2 sobees lite for Facebook screenshot 3 sobees lite for Facebook screenshot 4 sobees lite for Facebook screenshot 5
Posted in: News, First Looks
Tagged With: Free, App store, Facebook, Social, Blog, Rss, Friends, IPad, Sobees
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