Last May, when Pinterest was still a relatively unknown entity, I reviewed the official app for iPhone, and expressed my disappointment with its shortcomings. Although there’s still no official app for iPad, alternatives are slowly launching by third parties. I took one of these options, iPad’s Pinboard for Pinterest, for a spin. Despite the growth Pinterest has seen during the past year, not much as changed when it comes to its app experience—official or not.
Pinboard for Pinterest is an average, adequate app. There’s not a lot wrong with it, but there’s also not much to rave about. It simply…exists. The app can be yours for a buck, which certainly won’t break the bank but I see little reason for you spend even that much on a Pinterest app. Why? Because Pinterest.com, when used on iPad anyway, provides a more user-friendly experience and is already free.
In Pinboard for Pinterest users are getting the website rewrapped. If the site is having issues, say, not loading anything but old-school blue hyperlinks, you’ll see exactly what you see in Safari in Pinboard for Pinterest. Browsing Pinterest in the app is identical to the Pinterest site, but repinning is where the app falls short. In Pinboard, a tap of the repin icon automatically opens the image full screen. This defeats the purpose of quick scanning images and is less than what’s available through the normal site. In the iPad version of Safari, repinning will open the pop-up repin window that you know and love from regular site use. This function occurred more slowly on my iPad than on my computer, but I don’t know why anyone would intentionally go out of their way to not use it—which is what you’ll be doing if you head to Pinboard for Pinterest.
The best thing about the app is its easy instruction for installing the Pinterest bookmarklet into iPad’s Safari. Even if Pinboard was still free to download, this isn’t anything you can’t find elsewhere on the web.
Do yourself a favor: Install the Pinterest bookmarklet to Safari and save Pinterest.com to your springboard as a bookmark. That way, you can pretend you’re using an app.
