'Delayed' Facebook iPad app claims lead coder casualty

The release of a Facebook iPad app remains in stasis despite the fact that it has been worked on for the best part of a year. Now a lead developer at the social network has quit the firm and vented his frustrations about the delay. Jeff Verkoeyen initially wrote on his blog, as spotted by TechCrunch, that he had ditched his …

[Steve X]

Junior programmer?

If I quit my job every time I finished a program and then found that the project had been cancelled, I'd have to set up a tent outside the JobCenter.

[I'm Brian and so's my wife]

Just goes to show that even the tech-aware among us have been known to blurt out too much on t'interwebs.

[Mick Sheppard]

Beta forever

I guess the change will be that at Google the software will be released just be in perpetual beta

[Anonymous Coward]

And now the database on his website has crashed.....

[Liam2885]

+1

First FB users start moving over to Google, now FB staff appear to be following

[NoneSuch]

One could imagine removal of reference to the iPad in his blog was due to Apple lawyer interventions. However, we all know how Apple resists such knee jerk reactions.

[Anonymous Coward]

FAYCbuuk

Probably as well as people (NoneSuch) posting here can resist knee jerk reactions ;-)

[Drefsab]

meh

Wow so all this fuss to create an app lets you access something the perfectly functional web browser on the same device does? Is this just another case of people trying to make apps for things that they can do just as well if not better in the browser?

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the harm

So Facebook releases an iPad app with presumably feature parity with their current iPhone app. Makes sense. Not sure why anyone would delay the release because they want more FB integration with the OS. Maybe FB is holding the iPad app hostage as a negotiating chip with Apple?

I'm unclear on how FB integration with the OS is helpful anyway. Even on Windows Phone and various flavors of Android that supposedly have deep FB integration, all I ever see is people using the FB app. It's not that hard to get to the app and use it, just one tap. Not sure how 'integration' is supposed to make that better.

[Mark 65]

Indeed, I do not desire the integration of this piffling Gen Y attention deficit shite. Leave it as an app I can happily leave off of my phone.

[Anonymous Coward]

Or..

..as the iPhone app actually contains the iPad app hidden away inside, just download the FaceFoward app from Cydia to activate it!

[Jacqui]

privacy issues

My guess is that the app has security or privacy issues.

Its release would probably be almost instantly followed by a list of security holes or reports of how it silently logs where you are or what else you are running.

[Steve Davies 3]

Deeper integtation into IOS5

Apple" "you want what?"

rolls around on the floor laughing like a Policeman.

Apple guy1 says after the meeting to his boss

"Did they really think we would let them have access to all that neat stuff we collect about our users?"

Boss smiles.

"Do they think we were born yesterday."

Ok, ok. I know.

[Andrew Jones 2]

If I were a betting man....

I would assume that Facebook are running scared of Google.

There are more Android users every day than there are iPhone users this is now fact.

Facebook ruined their relationship with Google over the contacts issue and Facebook have publicly tried to wipe the floor with Google - and failed.

Deeper integration into the OS probably means things like - sharing a webpage directly to Facebook, taking a photo with the camera and sharing it directly to Facebook.

Because of the Intents system on Android this is already possible without having to have deep integration - but Facebook are obviously relying on the fact that the easier it is to post something to Facebook direct from the phone - the more people will use it.

Now though they are probably assuming (as am I) that Ice Cream Sandwich will likely feature Google+ integration directly into the OS - this would likely mean that a good 60-70% of Ice Cream Sandwich users would share to Google+ over Facebook.

It's really funny actually - if Facebook wanted to keep Android users - using the service - all they have to do is release an app that works, is not overly slow to do anything with, works on a low bandwidth connection - and most importantly - the core part of Facebook....... GIVES ME A NOTIFICATION WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS!

The Twitter app and the G+ app both manage (in the most part) to deliver a realtime notification when something happens. Facebook for some reason over the course of the life of the application have never managed this :/

[Buzzword]

Wasn't the new Facebook iPad app going to be purely HTML5-based? And presumably that means it can't work with deep iOS APIs, so features such as syncing your Facebook contacts with your iPhone contact book can't be replicated. That might be what the dispute with Apple was about.

Other sources claim that Apple and Facebook will jointly announce something at the Apple event on October 4th.

[CyberCod]

I for one hope Apple keeps it off of there. From an anthropological standpoint, it will be interesting to see the choices of a couple million idiots trying to choose between their Facecrack, and their Jesus phone.

[Anonymous Coward]

We all know the reason for the delay.

It's going to be a headline feature for iPad3...

They don't want people knowing it's been sat around and finished for upto a year waiting for the hardware...

This is typical of the way Apple feeds crumbs to it's idiot buyers.