Re:Facebook’s iPad App Has Been Done Since May, But They Won...
by featherless on Monday September 26, 2011 @03:34PM
(#3040376)
I want to clarify here that feature complete and "done" are two different things. The app was not finished when it leaked and is still actively being worked on.
I also really want to emphasize that my time at Facebook was incredible and my reasons for moving on were remarkably complex, none having to do with any dislike for Facebook or ill feelings. The number of hours I put into the project were out of genuine passion for the product, not because anyone was forcing me to do so.
Re:Facebook’s iPad App Has Been Done Since May, But They Won...
by marcomonteiro on Monday September 26, 2011 @04:07PM
(#3040527)
How is this going to affect Three20 or your work on Nimbus? I'm really looking forward to seeing Nimbus develop as I've been fairly frustrated with Three20 so far. Best of luck on the new job and thank you for your contributions to the iOS community.
Re:Facebook’s iPad App Has Been Done Since May, But They Won...
by featherless on Monday September 26, 2011 @04:17PM
(#3040564)
Three20 is mostly in a bug-fixes only state right now. The fact is that the framework is complex enough that the cost of adding a new feature often outweighs the benefit. This is the main reason why I've decided to start anew with Nimbus and so far the progress has been really great.
Going forward I'm planning to dedicate a chunk of my mornings to working on Nimbus, splitting my time between going over pull requests and building new features. I love building tools to accelerate the development process of other iOS developers and plan to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.
Re:Facebook’s iPad App Has Been Done Since May, But They Won...
by cletus on Monday September 26, 2011 @03:45PM
(#3040426)
"Feature complete" is subjective. Facebook has had the option of scaling the iPhone app to the iPad resolution and releasing it with feature parity for probably at least a year.
Of course a better iPad experience comes from an app designed for that form factor but there's nothing to stop you releasing one version and then iterating on it.
So one can quite reasonably argue that Facebook has been holding back the iPad app, which raises the question of why.
I can't believe Apple doesn't want this app released given the popularity of Facebook. The original version of Ping was also integrated with Facebook that was pulled at the last minute due to "onerous terms" [1] (according to Steve Jobs).
The prima facie evidence is that there is some kind of tussle going on between Apple and Facebook. Perhaps Facebook's "onerous" terms included demands on the iTunes service and Facebook integration (which is lent more credence given Facebook's recent moves into music)? Perhaps Facebook wanted Facebook login to iTunes and other Apple properties? I don't know.
What I suspect is the iPad app is another bargaining chip.
To argue it's not "feature complete" is disingenuous. This is a subjective measure of simply deciding "that's enough".
Re:Facebook’s iPad App Has Been Done Since May, But They Won...
by aaronbrethorst on Monday September 26, 2011 @03:52PM
(#3040456)
Facebook has had the option of scaling the iPhone app to the iPad resolution and releasing it with feature parity for probably at least a year.
This is not to say that your conclusion is incorrect, but unless something significant has changed with Three20 since the last time I used it, it isn't super-usable on iPad.
Re:Facebook’s iPad App Has Been Done Since May, But They Won...
by saurik on Monday September 26, 2011 @04:18PM
(#3040570)
This is not true: the iPhone Facebook app has worked nearly perfectly on the iPad for some time now (I think almost a year, in fact). On jailbroken devices we have a hack called "FullForce" that flips the "this is an iPad-native app" flag for any app (its a new panel under Settings), and a lot of people jailbreak just so they can get a quite reasonable iPad Facebook app.
Re:Facebook’s iPad App Has Been Done Since May, But They Won...
by atmz on Tuesday September 27, 2011 @07:04AM
(#3042752)
The lack of a Facebook app for the iPhone hurts Apple more than it hurts Facebook, in my opinion. Facebook has a near-monopoly in feature-rich social networks (yes, the specifier was inserted to discount Twitter, but I believe Twitter has a very different market/userbase from Facebook and isn't in direct competition; I'd be happy to argue about it) and its most threatening competitor, Google+, probably isn't going to have a native app for iOS anytime soon.
In addition, a native app will make it actually harder for users to run Facebook apps; apps that require micropayments will be especially problematic within Apple's framework.
Is the user goodwill from releasing an iPad app worth potentially driving users away from Facebook apps? Probably not. Apple, on the other hand, lives and dies by user experience.
Re:Facebook’s iPad App Has Been Done Since May, But They Won...
by flocial on Monday September 26, 2011 @07:50PM
(#3041211)
Techcrunch seems to relish in taking a little bit of fact and embellishing it with enough drama and politics. Now when the developer in question tries to correct it he looks like he was pressured into backing off.
Facebook's iOS app has been buggy for some time. There's no reason to justify a delay unless Apple blocks them so it's plausible that management is interfering in some way.
Re:Facebook’s iPad App Has Been Done Since May, But They Won...
by ltamake on Monday September 26, 2011 @09:25PM
(#3041412)
> Techcrunch seems to relish in taking a little bit of fact and embellishing it with enough drama and politics
Welcome to the press...
And I agree, Facebook's app is bloody awful. Crashes randomly, sometimes doesn't load for unspecified reasons, and it randomly logs me out and forces me to log back in.
Re:Facebook’s iPad App Has Been Done Since May, But They Won...
by ChrisLTD on Monday September 26, 2011 @03:35PM
(#3040382)
Normally I don't think companies should focus on making tablet specific versions of their site (normal desktop pages work just fine), but Facebook relies too heavily on Javascript for the limited power of today's tablets.
Re:Facebook’s iPad App Has Been Done Since May, But They Won...
by ChrisLTD on Monday September 26, 2011 @03:56PM
(#3040479)
The AJAX content loads were slow, the action buttons were too small and easy to hit by mistake, and I don't recall pinching and zooming being smooth either.
Re:Facebook’s iPad App Has Been Done Since May, But They Won...
by hellweaver666 on Tuesday September 27, 2011 @05:49AM
(#3042586)
The worst part about the web app for me is the amount of 'mystery meat' navigation that's invisible unless you hover over it - something we don't have on Tablets.
The hover state usually appears if you click on the area, but that requires you to know that it exists first.
I also really want to emphasize that my time at Facebook was incredible and my reasons for moving on were remarkably complex, none having to do with any dislike for Facebook or ill feelings. The number of hours I put into the project were out of genuine passion for the product, not because anyone was forcing me to do so.
Going forward I'm planning to dedicate a chunk of my mornings to working on Nimbus, splitting my time between going over pull requests and building new features. I love building tools to accelerate the development process of other iOS developers and plan to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.
I'm sure you're telling the truth, but the fact that you feel you should mention it speaks volumes about Facebook & the reputations we cultivate.
Of course a better iPad experience comes from an app designed for that form factor but there's nothing to stop you releasing one version and then iterating on it.
So one can quite reasonably argue that Facebook has been holding back the iPad app, which raises the question of why.
I can't believe Apple doesn't want this app released given the popularity of Facebook. The original version of Ping was also integrated with Facebook that was pulled at the last minute due to "onerous terms" [1] (according to Steve Jobs).
The prima facie evidence is that there is some kind of tussle going on between Apple and Facebook. Perhaps Facebook's "onerous" terms included demands on the iTunes service and Facebook integration (which is lent more credence given Facebook's recent moves into music)? Perhaps Facebook wanted Facebook login to iTunes and other Apple properties? I don't know.
What I suspect is the iPad app is another bargaining chip.
To argue it's not "feature complete" is disingenuous. This is a subjective measure of simply deciding "that's enough".
[1]: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20015402-37.html
This is not to say that your conclusion is incorrect, but unless something significant has changed with Three20 since the last time I used it, it isn't super-usable on iPad.
In addition, a native app will make it actually harder for users to run Facebook apps; apps that require micropayments will be especially problematic within Apple's framework.
Is the user goodwill from releasing an iPad app worth potentially driving users away from Facebook apps? Probably not. Apple, on the other hand, lives and dies by user experience.
Facebook's iOS app has been buggy for some time. There's no reason to justify a delay unless Apple blocks them so it's plausible that management is interfering in some way.
Welcome to the press...
And I agree, Facebook's app is bloody awful. Crashes randomly, sometimes doesn't load for unspecified reasons, and it randomly logs me out and forces me to log back in.
Edit: I have an iPad version 1
The hover state usually appears if you click on the area, but that requires you to know that it exists first.
"The Facebook iPhone app is the most downloaded app of all time."
Is this really true? I don't recall seeing it at the top of the charts.