Facebook's iPad App Wants To Be Your Entertainment Hub

The Facebook iPad app has been given a revamp, though it's around the edges where the social network has focused most of its attention this time around. Flip the tablet into landscape orientation and a new column on the right shows up, which Facebook intends to use to turn the app into more of a content discovery and multiplayer gaming hub.

The new column will include events and birthdays for that date, just as is the case with the desktop browser view of Facebook. Underneath, meanwhile, it will continue to borrow from the desktop, with the trending topics section showing personalized results from across the social network.

Unlike on the desktop, however, there'll be a new trending videos section as well, with a personalized collection of clips to watch.

Facebook's pick of videos will be based on the most-shared footage across the site, filtered by those in the same general demographic. Similarly, a popular games section will include casual titles that are getting greater than average attention from friends and Facebook users in general.

The sidebar will also be where Facebook lists the most recent games the user themselves has played, including links to quickly pick up on where they left off. Developers will need to register their games – as well as integrate Facebook Login and add a demo video – if they want to have their titles show up in the new location.

Baking the functionality into the core Facebook app is perhaps at odds with some of the company's strategy with recent releases, which have favored splitting out key features into standalone software so that they get the full attention Zuckerberg & Co. believes they deserve. The new Facebook iPad app is released today for those in the US; there's no word on when it might come to the Android version, or indeed launch internationally.

SOURCE Facebook