Hiding things in plain sight is a pretty decent strategy unless you’re dealing with software. Facebook has just proven that to be true as TechCrunch has found the unreleased Facebook iPad app buried inside the iPhone executable, and they have torn it apart to show us the guts.
TechCrunch must have sensed something was up with the latest update to Facebook (3.4.4) as they decided it’d be a good time to take a look under the hood and see what was hiding. What they found was a fully functional version of Facebook for iPad. This app that has not only been unannounced, but an app that Facebook has long since dismissed as “unnecessary.”
Unlocking this version for yourself will require that you have a jailbroken iPad. Once you are jailbroken, you simply install iFile from Cydia. iFile lets you view your iOS device’s file system, including exploring application packages themselves.
Once you navigate to the Facebook app bundle, open up a file named “info.plist” in “Property List Viewer” and you will be able to edit some settings. The setting you are looking for is: UIDeviceFamily. Tap that setting and you’ll see that the default setting is “1”. You want to change that setting to “2” to enable the iPad version.
Once that is changed, go back to your home screen (home button) then reboot your iPad.
You have just unlocked the top secret iPad Facebook app. The app itself looks pretty impressive and well thought out. Head over to TechCrunch for an immense set of screen shots.
Source: TechCrunch
