14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter is rolling out a new mobile version of its website, specifically for the iPad, though it's probably a good option for other tablet devices as well. The new site utilizes the large space tablets provide, compared to smartphones, to offer a two-pane layout, a la Twitter.com, but is optimized for touch gestures and input.
The new site works pretty much the same in landscape and portrait view, actually, the two modes each have their strengths depending on what you need, more space for the tweet content, or more tweets in the feed.
"We've launched our HTML5 version of twitter.com for iPad. It will be rolling out to device owners over the next week or so," Twitter announced on the site.
The new site isn't available to everyone yet, so you may still see the single pane, smartphone optimized site that you get on the iPhone and Android phones.
Twitter boasts about HTML5, though it's not exactly clear what the site has to do with the emerging web standard.
The main part of the new site looks very similar to Twitter.com, except for the missing background picture of course. The feed is almost identical, though there are fewer links, having been converted to buttons suitable for touch input.
Same goes for the right pane, most links are gone, replaced by buttons, but otherwise the layout should be more than familiar.
Another change is the top navigational bar which has been replaced, again, by a menu bar enabling easy access to the direct message inbox, the @replies section, search and the profile and account settings.
Everyone is focusing on apps for smartphones and tablets, so it's great to see that the web isn't being cast aside. The Twitter tablet website is a perfect example that you don't need a native app to have a tablet-oriented experience.