Official Facebook iPad app coming soon?

Facebook's official iPhone app has been available for quite a long time, but it still doesn't have an iPad counterpart. That may change within the next few weeks.

The New York Times reports that "people briefed on Facebook's plans" say that the social network is intending to put out a free iPad app which has been "carefully designed and optimized for the tablet" soon:

The app has been in production at Facebook for almost a year, going through several design iterations, and is now in the final stages of testing, according to these people, who declined to be named because they were discussing confidential product plans.

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According to those who have seen the app, it has a "slick design that has been tailored for the iPad and its touchscreen interface" and goes beyond the features provided by the Facebook website itself. The app will use overhauled Facebook Chat and Facebook Groups features and allow users to shoot and upload photos using their iPad 2 devices.

In essence: It sounds like it will be like the official iPhone app, except scaled up and tailored a bit to suit the iPad's screen real-estate and feature set. 

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Oh, and there's one more thing:

In addition to the iPad app, Facebook also plans to introduce a better version of its Web site for the iPad. It is unclear when this will be unveiled, but it is not intended to compete with a Facebook iPad or iPhone application, and instead is meant “to supplement these experiences,” this person said.

Related stories:

• How Facebook's secret photo-sharing app might work
• How to turn off Facebook's creepy face recognition
• Facebook secretly made a photo-sharing iPhone app?

Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook.