Facebook app for iPad 'riddled with bugs'

Just hours after Facebook's release of its long-awaited iPad app, users have started reporting bugs.

Some said it should have been tested better to ensure it worked properly with peripherals developed for the iPad, such as the iPad dock.

Available for free at the Apple app store, the program is actually an upgrade of the existing iPhone app, tweaked to fill the larger iPad screen.

The app comes out 18 months after the launch of the first Apple tablet.

The interface for the application lets users "pinch" the screen to zoom in and out, as well as swipe to flip through photos that fill the entire display, as with a real photo album.

iPad owners have been pondering over the lengthy wait for a proper Facebook app ever since the tablet was first launched, back in 2010.

Until now, they had a choice of whether to use a tiny iPhone-size screen in the centre of the iPad display; to download one of the apps that supported the social network but was developed by a third party, or to access Facebook through its website.

But the company did not go into any detail about why users had been forced to wait so long.

"We're releasing it now because it's done," said Bret Taylor, the firm's chief technology officer.

It was reported in September that Jeff Verkoeyen, the application's lead developer, wrote in his blog about the app's repeated delays despite it being almost finished several months ago.

But shortly after the app's release, users have started complaining of a number of bugs.

Michael Clawson wrote on Twitter that he was not able to see his pages when clicking on left panel icons.

Another user, journalist Mark Coyle, said that the app came "complete with a glaring bug".

"I have an Apple dock/keyboard, and if you put the iPad on the dock then try to comment on a post, the 'Send' button doesn't appear," he said.

"Take it off the dock - it appears. Poor testing by FB."

According to Facebook, of the 350 million people who access the social network on their mobile devices every month, about half do so through a web browser and half use applications built on their phone or tablet operating system.