The lack of an official facebook app for the iPad is supposed to weaken the sales of iPad units to heavy facebook users, but it hasn't. And a big part of the reason this is so is the abundance of third-party apps designed to allow users to easily browse and communicate via facebook.
Among this bunch, one app stands out - MyPad+.
This review is also applicable to the Twitter app for iPad. Read more to see why.
Design
The app looks like a much-improved version of the Twitter for iPad app. In fact, they look so similar that you would think they're designed by the same company. The fact is, they're not, as Twitter is officially released by Twitter inc, while MyPad is a product of relatively unknown Loytr inc,
The interface is best viewed in landscape mode. Your main dashboard is divided into up to three columns, the left-most is a menu, then a middle pane where you can view details depending on the option selected on the menu, and a third pane for more details on a selected option from the second pane.
Confusing? Not exactly. Here's a screenshot of my MyPad+.
As you can see, when I select News Feed from the left pane, the middle pane shows my facebook news feed. Once I select, say, a friend's name in the middle pane, the right pane shows up with that friend's page.
Each pane can be dragged freely, and a person's profile page is shown as a nice eye candy with some animation to spice things up.
Clicking on a link brings up a built-in browser. Clicking on photos and videos, as well as album, also brings up an internal media viewer. Good job!
Obviously, most facebook tasks can be performed within the application. You can chat with friends, exchange messages, view and upload photos and videos. In addition, you can also play one of five built-in games with friends and configure your app to access your twitter account.
Speaking of twitter, as I've said earlier, the twitter apps looks the same way, with the panes and all, but with less eye candy, so this should be an improvement of sorts.
Wishlist
I obviously love this app, but even great apps can be improved.
For this one, I wish there was a way to upload multiple photos at the same time. I know for some people, this is going to be a deal breaker. (Disclaimer: there is a chance that this is possible and it should be easy to implement. But, sadly, as of the current version I couldn't find a way to upload multiple images.)
A chat client for facebook is avaiable, which is great and good enough, but if it had the option to add other services, like YM, the app would be worth ten times its price.
Pricing
MyPad is free and ad-supported. The ad-free version, MyPad+, costs only $0.99 right now as it is on a 50% off sale.
While the ads aren't too big to distract anyone, for daily and frequent viewing, I would highly recomment paying for the plus version. Not only will it help and encourage the developer to make more apps, it will also give you the ultimate (for now) facebook experience on the iPad.
If you love facebook, it would be a mortal sin not to buy this app. Seriously.
Who will like this:
- iPad owners who has a facebook account.
Who won't:
- People who don't have an iPad
- People who don't have a facebook account. >_<
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