TechCrunch reported earlier today that there was a secret iPad version of Facebook’s iOS app hidden inside its currently available iPhone version. We will show you how to get to it! Well, seeing as it clearly wasn’t designed for public use quite yet, it’s slightly tricky to access.
We are still unsure why Facebook would do this, or is it free publicity stunt, regardless this has got the tech talk flying all over the net today. There are many bugs that still need to be fixed. Bugs such as Facebook Pages crashing the app and text in certain places not being rendered properly.
How to access the iPad app
Here’s a step-by-step guide. Please bear in mind that we offer this guide for information purposes only, and you carry out the process at your own risk.
1. Ensure you’ve got the latest update of Facebook’s iPhone app on your iPad.
2. Jailbreak your iPad. Yes, this is something that not everyone will be happy doing seeing as it’s against Apple’s terms and conditions and you do this at your own risk. However, as we recently reported, JailbreakMe is a really easy way to do it (at the moment) and you can always reverse the process by reverting to your iTunes backup of your device.
3. JailBreaking via JailBreakMe will install the Cydia app store on your iPad. For the purposes of this exercise, it doesn’t matter which version of the App Store you install (you’re given three options aimed at different types of users).
4. In Cydia, search for the iFile app and install it.
5. Open iFile and navigate to var > mobile > applications > directory.
6. Open the iFile settings using the cog wheel icon at the bottom of the screen and switch ‘Application Names’ to ‘on’.
7. This will allow you to see which folders relate to which apps. Find the Facebook folder and open it. Inside that, open Facebook.app.
8. Find the ‘Info.plist’ file and tap on it. Choose ‘Property List Viewer’.
9. Find the ‘UIDeviceFamily’ option and select it.
10. Change the value here from ’1′ to ’2′ and tap ‘Done’.
11. Reboot your iPad and then open the Facebook app.