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Tumblr launches its long-awaited app for iPad

Tumblr launches its long-awaited app for iPad

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TUMBLR FOR IPAD screen
TUMBLR FOR IPAD screen

At long last, Tumblr has just pushed out an update to its iOS app which adds full compatibility with the iPad and iPad mini. Tumblr built for the big screen includes sleek sidebar navigation buttons, a new radial menu for composing posts, and of course "native" elements that make posts load a whole lot faster. Like its iPhone counterpart, the app is incredibly responsive and includes all the same bells and whistles, like being able to hold the reblog button for quick reblogs, and pinch and zoom to examine pictures.

Tumblr for iPad screenshots

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There are also some iPad-exclusive elements here like landscape support, the aforementioned radial menu for posting, and a persistent navigational sidebar that's with you no matter where you go. So why'd the app take so long to hit iPad? The app only took a few weeks to create, Irace says, but that's thanks to the months Tumblr already spent this summer updating its iPhone app to native iOS code. "Once we had all those building blocks in place, we were ready to go for iPad," developer Bryan Irace says. "It hasn't been something that fell on deaf ears. All of us at Tumblr really wanted it too."

After playing with the updated app for a few minutes, it's pretty obvious that Tumblr was built to be touched (and in the case of GIFs, scrubbed) on a big screen. The new app especially stands out when you compare it side by side with Tumblr.com in the iPad's browser, which is OK for browsing but isn't great for posting new content. "Tumblr is such a visual medium so this was a natural evolution," Irace says. "It's just beautiful to scroll through your dashboard at a high resolution that puts an emphasis on the work photographers and animators are doing."