• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, August 23, 2012

Facebook on Thursday announced the release of a revamped app for the iPhone and iPad, promising twice the speed of the previous version. With the app “rebuilt from the ground up,” Facebook says users can expect faster performance when launching it, scrolling through the news feed and opening photos. While the app looks much the same, it was built with Apple's native iOS developer tools rather than HTML5.

Besides making it faster, the app now shows “likes” and comments in real time and offers updated design features such as a ripple effect when liking a post. The Facebook app has been known for being balky, so it appears the company was focused on addressing that issue with the latest update. With just a handful of ratings in the App Store so far, the new version has earned four out of five stars—the same as the prior release.