The iPad Is A Premium Device, So Give It A Premium Experience For Facebook
Premium Facebook Browser ($1.99) by Nam Kennic is what the developers call the "most advanced native Facebook app for the iPad."
So does it live up to it's claim? Let's find out.
On opening the app, you'll be asked to enter your Facebook email and password in a simple account and password field. However, when I attempted to log in this way, I was unable to get in. Fortunately, there is the alternative method to sign in to the app, using the Facebook Connect box that you're probably very familiar with from other apps. Logging in this way worked for me.
A brief tutorial should be shown, which will guide you through the basics of the app. FPremium makes use of the large screen space of the iPad and the touch controls, as it should. Because of this, the experience of using Facebook on your iPad is pretty amazing.
Once you're in, you're immediately taken to view your own profile, and there will be a navigation menu on the left hand side in both portrait and landscape modes. Each new view will open up a tab in the app, of which you can navigate between either on the right hand side (landscape mode) or bottom (portrait mode).
In the navigation bar, the views are split between the top and bottom halves. The top will consist of your own information (Profile, Photos, Video, Notes, and Connections), while the bottom will have all of the stuff for your network (News Feed, Friends, Groups, Pages, Events, Messages, Checkins, and Search). Your currently selected view will be highlighted in orange for both the navigation and tab bars.
In the profile view, you get to view profile picture, name with latest update, image strip (landscape only), biography and information, and wall posts. If you're on your own, you can update your status, share a link, upload a photo, or even checkin with FPremium. Tapping any of the sections like "Favorite Music" will bring up a list of links to Facebook pages of the corresponding items. Viewing photos in the image strip can be done by tapping on the image. A simple tap-and-hold will give you the option to Like or Save Image.
For the other sections of your profile tabs (Photos, Videos, Notes), the interface is beautiful and intuitive. Even if you don't go through the tutorial, the way to navigate in these sections is pretty simple. I don't use Notes on Facebook very often, but I absolutely fell in love with the interface.
Your notes are displayed as sheets of lined notepad paper, with the bottom curled, on a clean white background. The top section features graph paper, and the entire look is topped off by that orange fabric bookmark at the top left corner. The title and first few lines of the note will be displayed, and you can see how long ago you wrote the note displayed at the bottom.
My only problem here is that the font seems to be ... Comic-Sans? I thought we were past those times! I'd rather have Marker Felt over Comic-Sans. I also realized that the app uses too many fonts--each section seems to have a different font. I would like to see the developers pick one or two fonts and stick with it throughout the app for consistency.
The News Feed is where you probably spend most of your time, if you're anything like me. There's a slim bar at the top that you can use to switch between Top News and the News Feed, and other filters like Status Updates, Photos, Links, pages you admin, lists, and more. If you don't like the slim bar, you can tap the section name at the top and get a drop down menu instead.
Double-tapping on an item in the News Feed view will bring up a menu that gives you the options of Liking, Commenting, or even Translating. You can even view other comments, but for some reason the app doesn't show who else "likes" an item. Videos can be played immediately by tapping on them twice--once to open it up, and another to start playing the video. Links will open up in an in-app browser.
The Friends, Groups, Pages, and Events views will give you a visual grid view of the specific item. In Friends, you can also manage your requests, favorites, friend lists, and even people you have un-friended from within the app. Groups allows you to manage group invites and your favorite groups. In Pages, you can also view the pages you are an admin of, as well as favorites. Events will also show Favorite Events and Birthdays.
The Messages view is where you will view all of your Facebook mail. Each thread is displayed in what looks like an airmail envelope, which I found to be a nice touch. You will see who sent it, when they sent it, subject line, and a line or two of the message. If any message is unread, it will have a tape in the corner. You can view Sent messages and even page updates.
Checkins will show a map with all of your checkins displayed by pins, and even display your current location as a blue dot if you allow it. You can switch between My Checkins, Friends' Checkins, and Nearby Places to checkin right now.
Of course, you can Search Facebook as well. The search option will allow you to go through People, Pages, Groups, or Events. Just like the Facebook web app, search will only occur when you hit "Search," so no real-time searching is permitted. The Search function can also be found in the other views, like Friends, Events, Messages, and more.
On any view, you can pull the screen up to refresh the data. I also noticed that the app will automatically refresh itself every couple of minutes. Unfortunately, there are no settings for the app, at least that I know of, so you can't control how often it refreshes.
Multiple accounts are supported, and you can easily and quickly switch accounts.
I found this to be a very powerful and great Facebook app for my iPad. Personally, I like the dark theme, but I am pretty sure that others out there may not. I think it would be nice if the developers add a light theme for those that may find the dark theme difficult to read with. Adjusting the refresh rate would be great too.
The biggest thing that is missing though, is Facebook chat. Other apps I've used can include this feature, so I hope that FPremium can as well. If Chat was in the app, it would definitely be all you need on the iPad.
FPremium is a great Facebook app and very feature-rich. If you can do it on Facebook, then this app will most likely let you do it.
For $1.99, this is a Facebook app that is definitely worth trying on your iPad. There are plenty of features, and you can learn about them all from Nam Kennic's website.
