SpeedDate iPad app complicates love quest

Hello there, Jaquy. You are so hot!

(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)

Admit it! When you bought an iPad, possibly against your better financial judgment, you secretly hoped that each time you pulled the shiny new gadget out in a bus or cafe, attractive singles would flock around you to stare and say hello. If you've since found that the attention-magnet-wannabe gadget hasn't sufficiently enhanced your charm quotient, there's now an app to hopefully offset the difference.

SpeedDate.com, the site that brought its dating app to the iPhone last year, announced on Friday a version for the iPad. The company claims this is the first dating app for the iPad and hints that the device's larger screen is synonymous with a higher chance of finding a date. After all, it seems apparent that the larger screen would let you see more search results in one page than the iPhone, as well as finger-swipe through photos more conveniently.

SpeedDate says the new free app allows for instant notification alerts when e-mails or "winks" have been received and when a person of interest is online. On top of that, more detailed search filters narrow the matching process further by sorting singles based on physical attributes, lifestyle, special interests, and other criteria. You can also use the tagging feature to ensure that all of your favorite profiles are stored and easily accessible.

Hello singles! The Members tab shows a list of potential dates in one long page.

(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)

I tried downloading the app to my iPad and immediately found out that my account, which I created a year ago for my previous post on the iPhone version, couldn't be used to log in. This is interesting as it still works when I try logging in at the Web site.

To use the app I had to create another account by surrendering another e-mail address and entering a few personal details including name, birthday, and location. I went ahead with the process. The old account didn't give me much luck in the past year anyway.

Once I created a new account and was able to log in successfully, I was greeted with a long list of (supposed) singles in my vicinity who I could quickly flirt with, wink to, add to my favorites list, or even send a private message to. Trying to do what singles probably want to do most, however--view photos--proves disappointing. The pictures are all very low resolution and show up at the same size as they do on an iPhone screen. On the iPad they look tiny, and there's no zooming function to judge just how hot he or she is.