That's about to change, though, if a report proves correct. The newspaper says that .

If so, it will be quite a course correction for Facebook. As recently as November 2010, CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared that to explain his company's lack of a dedicated app for the tablet. Either the iPad's either become more mobile, or Zuckerberg's become less short-sighted. And it's about time.--

Despite some strengths, those ; even the best ones like pale in comparison to Facebook's iPhone app's functionality. And many do little more than skin Facebook's --which, while admittedly good, still isn't a native app.

If Facebook is finally ready to release an iPad app, I have a clearer sense of what I want that app to do, after testing many of those third-party apps on my iPad. I'd like Facebook to recreate its successful pseudo-home screen navigation on the iPad, because I think it works brilliantly on the iPhone. Those icons on the iPhone make it easy to jump to specific sections--your News Feed, your profile, Places, Chat--and to bookmark specific pages, too. Bringing that functionality to the iPad makes good sense; no third-party has yet emulated it well.

And, of course, the app should make scrolling through your News Feed painless: auto-updating as you scroll down, with easy access to tapping Like or adding a comment.