Okay Geek Farm
Review - Facebook's (Hidden) iPad App (and how to enable it)
Connor Scalleat
After countless press releases and a series of public appearances, Facebook’s idolized CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made it pain stakingly obvious that he thinks the company does NOT need an iPad app and will not be releasing. Many speculations have come about as to Facebook releasing an iPad app but nothing has had an incredulous evidence, the closest we have gotten was the last Facebook press conference introducing Video Calling. Today we have something with actual alive evidence, evidence that you can actually get your hands on. Something that Facebook has reassured will never happens seems to be in the works of happening. MG Siegler states in a recent update that he pushed out that his sources state this is the version of the iPad app that Facebook plans to release.
The Finding of Facebook’s iPad App
Tech Crunch has been cited as the original source of the recent founding of the mighty companies hidden iPad app. Hide and go seek is a game that many technology news companies have been playing trying to find new features unreleased features or at least hits of them. Tech Crunch’s MG Siegler has seem to struck gold in his search, and found the companies iPad app within their iPhone app.
The Facebook App
The app itself might or might not be the official version that Facebook will be releasing, and it is still possible that this is just a prototype that got sent out, and will never be released. Although, this seems a little too expensive of a prototype for Facebook to invest it’s time and money into and not release it, especially when the user demand for an iPad app is so high. The App itself seems like something Facebook would release and I would not be surprised if we saw the app released in the next few weeks, definitely in time for the school year.
The app has not always been this way it seems in yesterday’s release of Version 3.4.4 of their iPhone app it seems that they did more then a few bug fixes, UI updates, and a fixing of the send button. Something much more the payloads of this application contained the universal binary, and the most beautiful part about this binary is you can enable it and play with the app yourself.
The Look and Feel
Facebook’s iPad feels, well, like Facebook did an iPad. The first thing you notice when you open the application is the beautiful blue gradient behind the login screen. A very relaxing and modern feel for the solid blue that we usually experience on Facebook. Whether you are an every-day user of Facebook or a designer I think you will definitely appreciate the gradients and different assortments of colors that Facebook used, the really built completely new textures for this iPad app.
Most of the app is designed using HTML5, and operates a lot like some of the unofficial Facebook iPad apps in the app store. The app itself is much like the Twitter application and has a sidebar navigation, and the main Facebook features in the top right, much like what we see in our browsers. Sidebar chat actually works on the iPad unlike their latest in-browser update, and the really cool part is you can keep chatting away while browsing your news feed. Chat loads up on the side and you can select a person to message or that person can message you and all of the chat pains will remain in the sidebar. But don’t worry if you like the full screen chat experience or like to look at messages you received when offline Facebook has a full messages screen for all of the Facebook chat gurus out there.
Taking photos has been left out of the iPad application just because it is awkward to take a picture with the iPad, a full photos pain has been designed just like the iPhone which always you to browse your photos and all of your friends recent photos. The photos are arranged exactly like they are in the official photos application on the iPad just without the flexibility you have within the official application. Just like all of the other parts of the iPad application, the design has not been neglected and the photos are balanced, have shadows, and the back drop is not just a plain white which really makes the experience quite clean and futuristic, something I am very happy to see as Facebook moves forward.
Groups have not been neglected either just as we have seen in all the latest Facebook product releases. On the left navigation bar, all of you groups that you are a member of are listed and can be interacted with fully, despite the lack of a group messaging feature.
All the other standard features are in the app including search, events, places, friends, photos, and all of your notification alerts along with push notifications. The app is pretty full featured and from a design stand point a step forward for Facebook. The app itself seems ready to go as it is now and I have yet to encounter any bugs. It is a fluid, fast paced, design oriented application that is taking the most productive route with the screen real estate provided.
How to Enable the Application
Just as a warning to enable the application you will have to jailbreak your iPad, of which will void your warranty, and an presuming damages or mishaps with the jailbreaking of your device is YOUR own responsibility and not the responsibility of Okay Geek or it’s editors (or Facebook).
- As the jailbreak will be performed at your own risk discretion is advised, although jailbreaking has become a lot simpler and can be done within seconds using JailbreakMe. (Visit JailBreakMe.com on your iPad and install Cydia)
- Once Cydia is installed on your iPad download the iFile application. (Assuming you already have the Facebook iPhone application on your iPad if not download that too.)
- After downloading iFile open it and select Disk from the devices list on the side. (Do not register iFile unless you are interested in purchasing the product)
- Once in the Disk scroll to the botto and select var / mobile / Applications / the tap the gear in the bottom left of the pane and turn on application names.
- Then find and select the Facebook folder.
- Once open select the folder Facebook.app then find the Info.plist file and select property list viewer.
- Then select the UIDeviceFamily and change the number from 1 to 2.
- Restart your iPad and you will instantly be playing the unreleased Facebook iPad application.
Overall verdict
Overall the application is a nice addition to the Facebook product line and I highly recommend downloading it, especially when it is released to the public through the universal binary. The application has a beautiful and usable design. A design that we are very familiar with after using the Twitter iPad application. Facebook has used every inch of the screen real estate provided to implement something quite useful and stable — We can’t wait to see this finished and in the App store!
