How to Facebook on the iPad: Five free apps (screenshots)

Aside from the default red color scheme, Facely HD looks and feels a lot like the standard Facebook client. The menu items are grouped along the top, and the app includes standard Facebook features such as messaging, chat, and the ability to post a photo on your wall or a friend's.

Your wall on Facely HD shows your status updates, posts from friends, and comments you've made on friends' walls, but comments on posts on your wall aren't visible until you click on the comment button. Also visible: a large banner ad at the bottom of the screen.

FriendCaster offers a polished design and slick functionality. When you click on a link in your news feed, for example, it expands to allow you to access the content right there within the app.

We're going streaming! FriendCaster's FriendStream offers a wholly unique way to peruse your news feed. And as an added bonus, the banner ad disappears when you choose to "stream."

Friendly's layout isn't the most enticing, but it's fairly feature rich, letting you post photos on your wall (but not your friends'), apply Photo Booth-like effects to photos, and access messages and chat.

Friendly separates birthday notifications from the rest, providing a chronological list of your aging friends.

Crisp columns and a clean layout highlight MyPad's interface. Your news feed runs down the right column, with menu options to the left and a banner ad below.

When you click on a link in your news feed, MyPad shrinks the first two columns, making room for a third, which you then swipe to get rid of. It's an excellent use of the iPad's touch-screen interface.

MyPad also makes use of the iPad's capability to rotate into landscape mode. The columns widen to fill out the screen.

Flipboard puts your Facebook news feed in a magazine layout. You can flip through page after page by swiping on the screen. Tapping on a photo or a video opens it in a pop-up window. It's a more passive way, however, to enjoy Facebook. You can't access your messages, notifications, or chat, for example. It's great for Facebook lurkers.

A simple activity such as posting a status update looks elaborate in Flipboard.