Friendly Plus for Facebook for iPad

Review of one of the most popular apps on the iPad.
Facebook as an app.
Missing App
I must say that I love using the Facebook app for iPhone. Not super feature rich but has everything you need on the go, especially useful is the Places checkin, which I use extensively.
But it does not utilise the iPad real-estate. A bit of poor form that.
Worry not though as the third party (Oecoway) application Friendly steps into the breach. There’s always an app for “that”. [snigger].
Standard functions
Here we have an interface that allows all the expected functions:

• Most Recent
• Top News
• Profile
• Friends
• Photos
• Places
• Events
• Notifications
• Messages

Some of these are limited, for example places appears to only allow you to view entries – not to set your own.
There is an ever present refresh button to so you can be super uber up to date on any page.
Status and Photos
Updating your own status is easy enough from most pages and photos can be uploaded at the same time (defaults to the “Friendly for iPad photos” album). Photos can be saved into any album though or as your Profile picture.
Advanced Features
One huge bonus is access to the account and privacy settings in Facebook. But these are accessed via an embedded browser. Still this access is appreciated, especially privacy as Facebook seem to change this so often it is hard to keep track.
Games and such are accessed similarly through the embedded browser.
Anything else?
Well, I am extremely happy using this application. The format is clear and certainly clearer than most pages on the Facebook site itself. One of the advantages of the third party apps is the ability to tweak what doesn’t work.
The menu isn’t detached from the content so scrolls off the top, a touch annoying. Also the app crashes, rarely but it does happen. The penchant shown for iOS app crashes does need to be sorted, along with the tendency for apps to forget what you’ve just typed when flipping from app to app. These aren’t unique to Friendly though.
Summary

• Review: Good app that does the job. Best I’ve tried on the iPad for Facebook. It is far more stable in the paid for version, the free version seems to stall on loading ads or something.
• Rating: Four stars (out of five)
  

• Price: £0.59
• Publisher: Oecoway
• Category: Social Networking
• Size: 3.5MB
• Version: 3.5.1
• Screenshots:

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