Facebook updated its iPhone application this week, posting version 2.0 on Apple's App Store for free download.

The second major version to be released since mid-July, when Apple opened the iPhone to third-party applications, Facebook now sports a full news feed, including story comments, rather than the truncated service of the original.

Also new to Facebook 2.0 are people and inbox searching, photo tagging and captioning, and posting of photos to friends' Walls. Users can now send friend requests from the iPhone, and receive message attachments.

Facebook also touted stability and performance gains in v2.0. "Above all, you'll find the app to be much faster and more stable, especially if you have a large number of friends," the company said in its App Store write-up.

User reviews on the App Store were almost unanimously upbeat. "This is the version I have been waiting for since they launched," said someone identified only as "Chase76" in a review Tuesday.

"This is how it should have been," echoed "TexasAg03."

A few, however, gave the update a thumbs down. "I was very excited for the update, but am now quite disappointed," said "antitrust311" in another review. "Upon initial install the app froze and wouldn't allow text entry, then once I logged in the app continues to display the date as one day in the future. I think they should have spent more time working the bugs out before they released this app."

Facebook can be downloaded free of charge directly to an iPhone or iPod touch running firmware 2.0 or later, or to a PC or Mac via iTunes for later syncing with the phone or music player.

In related news, millions of Facebook users are fighting the site's new design, and leaders of one recall effort are organizing a two-day boycott of the social networking service for next month.