Review: The New Facebook App for iPad

There was no mention of it at the F8. Apple didn't bring out a surprise guest in Mark Zuckerburg at its iPhone conference last week. Where was the much anticipated and now long overdue Facebook app for iPad that the world has been waiting for?

Well, on Monday afternoon, the app quietly arrived via a post from Facebook's own page on, you guessed it, Facebook. 

It's main integration is for the iPad, previously incompatible with the Facebook mobile app for iPhone, but it also serves as an upgrade for iPhone users. It is said that this app will also work across Android and other mobile platforms soon. 

So, I took this app for a test drive last night on my iPad, and I have continued using it this morning. At first, I did not see the point of going to this app over my web page. The functionality seemed, if anything, scaled back from the web experience. After some more time with the app, I found that it was a better over all experience for iPad Facebook-ing. 

The key difference for a user standpoint is that everything can be run through the app. If you click on an article, for example, you will be taken to the site that the article is on, but it is still framed within the Facebook borders. This will change the game for developers. Instead of creating apps that rest on your mobile device, you will now see more apps that are ingredients into Facebook's app experience. 

The new app provides great new features, including optimized photo viewing, and as mentioned above, never having to leave the app itself to visit different sites. 

That said, there are a few functionality changes that Facebook must make right now:

1) Sharing a link. The web experience lets you post a link and recognizes that you are doing so by including the article title, choosing a thumbnail or embedding the video. On the app, the link shows up raw and looks like a user error when posted. 

2) Back button or History. One of the cool new features is that you can simply slide the screen from left to right and it will take you back to the page you were on before. Unfortunately, this does now work the other way around. Clicking through to an article on a different site, still within the Facebook app framework, you can easily lose where you were on that site if you, say, accidentally flipped the screen back with your finger. I mean, you can find it again, like I had to this morning, it was just a pain to retrace my steps. 

3) Pages filters. On a 'fan' page, there is no filter to only read what the Page administrator has posted vs what everyone has posted. This was a distracting and annoying experience. You'll quickly see how much spam and nonsense other people post on your fan pages without this feature. 

4) Video chat. Through the message function, which is slick and very useable, I was surprised that I could not video chat. This would be a huge step for Facebook in the mobile space, especially considering their recent partnership with Skype. 

The new app will need some improvements, and more will likely bubble up the more people use it, but over all, the experience is quite good. I will be interested to see how the new web features, including Timeline, will integrate into the Facebook app moving forward. ~p

iPhone 4S: It’s Got Guts. Unfortunately, that’s all it has.

Today was the day we were all waiting for. 

Or was it? 

Apple launched a new iPhone today, as per reports, but it was not the iPhone 5 that has been frenzied over media outlets for the past couple of months. Instead, Apple announced an iPhone 4S, which is essentially high-powered iPhone 4. It comes with lots of cool, exciting new innovations on the inside, while on the outside, the same iPhone that we’ve had since June 2010. 

The biggest announcement today was Siri. This new feature, exclusive to the iPhone 4S, will change the way we interact with our smart phones, and eventually, all of our devices. At its core, it is first real push for commercializing Artificial Intelligence. From the video I watched, it is still in its infancy, but it works and interacts very well. Also, as I’m reminded from my Android-using friends, a similar feature has been available to them for some time.

The other new features for iPhone 4S are truly groundbreaking, including iCloud, and an 8MP camera that also shoots 1080p video. Even though one could argue that 8MP is 2-year old technology for the smart phone market, the details are commendable, like stability control, a fifth lens for sharper images, and letting in more natural light to better represent the color in your shots.  

These features come together to truly make this ‘the most amazing iPhone yet’, as the tag line says. Still, I can’t help but be disappointed in this announcement. 

Maybe it’s superficial, but for weeks I have been reading about the possibilities for the new iPhone 5 design - wider and taller screen, thin body, sleek rounded corners. I’ve seen fake pictures and pretend mock-ups of what it was going to look like. And I’ve been really excited to get my hands on one. Through that process, I convinced myself that the iPhone 4 was way too chunky, especially in comparison to, say, the new Blackberry Bold.  Not to be picky, but I’ve also been looking forward to a 10MP camera, and new battery technology to power these cool features. 

The new iPhone 5 was suppose to launch today and put Apple miles ahead of the competition - burying Blackberry, and firmly distancing itself from Android and Microsoft powered devices. This was going to be the moment to solidify and validate Apple as the most valuable company in the world. But that didn’t happened this afternoon. 

The stats that Apple shared during the KeyNote today also lead me to believe that they knew the crowd might be underwhelmed. While impressive, they came across as somewhat defensive.

• Macbook pro and iMac are the best selling noteboook and desktop in the U.S.
• There are 60 million Mac users around the world. Apple has sold 45 million iPods so far this year (ending in June).
• iPod marketshare in the U.S. is above 70%.
• iTunes users have downloaded more than 16 billion songs.
• iPhone has 5% of the Worldwide Mobile Phone market.
• More than half of all iPhones that have been sold were iPhone 4s.
• Apple has sold more than 250 million iOS devices.

Bottom line, it took guts to launch a iPhone 4S today. Unfortunately, that is all the iPhone 4S offers. Other smart phone companies, I would assume that you have about 9 months before the real iPhone 5 hits the market. Use your time wisely. ~ p