MyPad+ for iPad

MyPad+ takes Facebook’s mobile touch site, and makes it worse.

The $1 app from Loytr uses a two-paned interface, with the left navigation panel offering links to jump between the Live Feed, Groups, Friends, Notifications, and the like. On the right panel, though, MyPad+ generally just displays Web views from Facebook’s touch site for some sections (like Live Feed), and from the regular site for others (like Groups). The result is an unpleasantly inconsistent way to navigate the site, with an app that doesn’t feel very app like—you’re consistently waiting for Web pages to load. The native app interface just triggers different Web pages to load on the other side, and the experience really doesn’t feel right at all.

MyPad+’s Frankenstein monster approach is only made worse by some design sloppiness. For almost all of the sidebar links, you can tap either the icon (like a little calendar) or the text (“Events”) to load that page. With Chat and Options, however, you may only tap on the icons; tapping the next does nothing. When you do launch chat, it takes over the entire app with a full-screen Web view. In my testing, my list of available friends consistently showed up empty until I exited Chat and re-entered it a second time. Once you’re in Chat, you must scroll your friends list with two fingers. When you return to the main app, the keyboard doesn’t automatically disappear from view—though it should.

In short, MyPad+ just isn’t a very good app. It takes Facebook’s touch site and manages to make it less useful.

[ Lex Friedman is a frequent Macworld contributor.]