Apple’s are set to release its new iOS 5 on Oct. 12 and its iPhone 4S on Oct. 14, and Facebook is catching up with a new iOS application designed for both the iPhone and the iPad.

Facebook for iPad is the first official Facebook application for Apple’s popular tablet PCs running iOS operating system and is the same app running on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

However, there is no word regarding its compatibility with iOS 5, and Facebook’s iTunes page only says that the application is “iOS 4.0 Tested.”

The new app was rumored to arrive at F8 last month and Apple’s launch event for the iPhone 4S last week, but it was no show for both events.

Features include bigger and better photos, chat, games and apps, navigation, and notifications.

The release of the app could signal the start of better relations between Apple and Facebook. Both companies have reportedly been in talks for an extended period of time trying to resolve issues that came up last year related to disagreement about Facebook’s integration with Ping.

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Facebook’s chief technology officer, Bret Taylor, told The New York Times that the new app on the iPad is a good experience.

“We felt that the Facebook Web site on the iPad was a really good experience,” Taylor said.

He added: “We really feel that we have built an app that takes full advantage of touch, photos and chat.”

Facebook’s app joins other popular social-networking apps on the iPad including Twitter, Flipboard, and Gowalla.

Twitter, Facebook’s rival, was implemented by Apple, with the iOS 5 in a “deep integration,” with easier Tweeting. According to the company, iOS 5 makes it even easier to tweet from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Like the previous Facebook application for the iPhone the new “universal” iPhone and iPad app is free.