Perhaps this should be a bit of a hint at just how badly iPad users want a fully functional Facebook app on their tablet PCs. While the Facebook for iPhone app has been around for a little while now, there is yet to be a truly, Facebook approved app that doesn’t have some sort of shortcoming. Sure there are plenty of different iPad apps that purport to allow you to access Facebook on the iPad, but all of those don’t quite offer the kind of Facebook experience you can have on your laptop or desktop browser and that is getting the goat of several iPad users.
It appears that iPad user don’t need to fear and that their wait will soon be over as users of the iPhone Facebook app have recently found that there is also an iPad app hidden in the programming of the iPhone app and that apparently particular bit of programming can actually be accessed with a fairly easy tweak. According to multiple sources, this would actually be the easiest little hack yet of an iPhone or iPad app as all you have to do is switch over the UIDeviceFamily setting to 2 and the app will suddenly be seen as a native iPad app.
There are of course several drawbacks to this particular approach as doing something like this certainly qualifies as going beyond what the original programming language intended. This is a big no-no for Apple and because of this, in order to change the language that way you will need a jail broken iPad in order to view the app. On the other hand, there are plenty of people out there who feel as though there are already enough good reasons to jailbreak their iOS devices and this just adds one more.
One blogger, who has been working with the “new” app after he discovered the original “bug””, MG Ziegler of TechCrunch says that this particular workaround isn’t a matter of simply getting around the design, but that the design was clearly meant to eventually have an iPad app. Siegler is on record as saying that the navigation using the iPad is “great” and that the photos that are viewable in the app are really sharp and clear, adding fuel to the fire that this was the framework for a new iPad app, even before it was discovered.
Of course, if you have an iPad and you want to get the unofficial, official Facebook app, you would be well served to do it quickly. If you feel like jailbeaking is something you’ve always wanted to try and this particular app is pushing you over the edge, get it done fast because these kinds of workarounds are usually pretty short lived once they are known on a wide scale and this particular little glitch is certainly well known as the web has been abuzz since it was first found out. Apple and Facebook are probably both going to have a problem with this particular little bug and will most likely be working fast to get it sealed up.
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