Facebook’s Secret iPad App Exposed [Pictures] | Hacker News Reader

Facebook’s Secret iPad App Exposed [Pictures]

techcrunch.com

44 pointstilt24 comments

As an aside, this is the most ridiculous pageview-inflating image gallery I've ever seen on a tech-tabloid site. It's not even possible to advance from one image to the next, you have to always go back to the main article!

I was just going to comment on this. I was curious to see what the new Facebook campus looks like, and it was the same way. "For sure, this is just that writer doing her job wrong," but no, MG's article does the exact same thing. How can you do a complete redesign, in this day and age, and not provide a usable image gallery?

Sadly, usable is not their primary goal.

I am really hoping that this was an oversight from their new redesign, and not an intentional thing from either them or their AOL overlords.

FWIW, this is WordPress' default behavior if you use the [gallery] shortcode to display all images attached to a post.

That said, I strongly dislike it as well, and I think they should change it.

Middle click (open in new tab). At least it's not flash or something where you can't do that. Definitely annoying though.

Maybe I am just not getting it, maybe I am in my sceptic mood or maybe I am getting sensationalist news fatigue.

It's an iPad app yes, so what? Where someone expecting that FB wouldn't do an iPad app? Why is it secret? Does it do anything remarkable?

It seems like this is news because it's FaceBook not because the app in itself is interesting.

I agree. It is not even that good a re-release of the iPhone app. I was hoping for something to keep them relevant with what google has done. This is nothing special or groundbreaking at all. I expect better from a company that has such resources both in financial as well as people.

Have you actually used it?

I am right now, and I couldn't disagree with you more.

Care to explain?

I would think it obvious: it actually works. The interface is thoughtfully laid out, navigation is leaps and bounds better than the iPhone application, and it's actually pleasant to use.

Mark Zuckerberg mentioned several times how an iPad app would be wrong, because its not really mobile or something like that and it came so incredibly late.

The second most visited site, over thousand employees and a iPad app is such a big problem. Hackathons, lockdowns, expensive Ex-Googlers, new campus and i am again totally unimpressed.

I think there is some real intrigue going on related to this. I don't really see the cost of developing a FB iPad app being the problem. I call BS that there is no demand for such an app. Didn't "unofficial" FB apps for the iPad start appearing the first week the iPad was out?

Also, IMHO touch.facebook.com and running the iPhone app on the iPad are both shitty experiences (the iPhone app less so but the low res on images and keyboard are pretty painful).

My take has been that Facebook has been reluctant to do an iPad app because that keeps their cookies out of iPad's Safari.

The app was long-awaited, and people were annoyed by Facebook's decision to not release an universal iOS application.

That's why it's news. It's not secret. That's just sensationalist reporting.

Just tried it out now and it has almost everything that the website has, but in a better and more enjoyable package. Other than for business purposes (ads and managing pages) I see no reason to use the website anymore.

Here's how you get it:

1. Jailbreak your iPad

2. Install OpenSSH and Installous through Cydia

3. Download http://fileape.com/dl/avaCHTLpuYmtodJi

4. Connect through SSH or SFTP to the IP of your iPad with user root and pass "alpine"

5. Transfer the .ipa you just downloaded to /var/mobile/Documents/Installous/Downloads

6. Open Installous, click Downloads and then you should see your Facebook .ipa without an image. Click and Install.

Hmm...installing OpenSSH but leaving your root password as the default "alpine" is a security problem, downloading copied app files from the web is sketchy, and I also wouldn't trust adding the extra repository to get Installous or installing Installous on my device.

Here's a simpler and safer process:

1) On your iPad 2 running iOS 4.3.3, or your iPad 1 running iOS 4.3 through 4.3.3: open up Safari and visit jailbreakme.com for a one-click jailbreak that also installs Cydia. You can learn more about this jailbreak at the iPhone Dev Team blog: http://blog.iphone-dev.org/post/7295551750/jailbreakme-times...

2) Open up Cydia, and on the right side of the Cydia for iPad homepage you'll see a link to FullForce, which is a free "tweak" by a reputable developer (http://twitter.com/rpetrich) who has updated it to enable the Facebook for iPad app. Install FullForce and configure it in your Settings app to apply to the Facebook for iPhone app. (I'm assuming you already have the Facebook app on your iPad. If not, you should get it from the App Store.) That's it!

Jailbreak your iPad, install Facebook for iPhone from App Store, and download FaceForward from Cydia.

You can also access the iPad version with FullForce or via editing the plist, but you will not be able to connect to Facebook due to their blocks.

It is unnecessary to download an IPA and to install it this way.

From the screenshots, you can see the photo viewer displaying a scrubber view (row of thumbnails). This strongly suggests that this app is built using Jeff Verkoeyen's Nimbus framework. If you're building (or built) apps using Three20, it'll probably be good idea to follow the Nimbus framework on Github.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/25/facebook-ipad-app-pictures/...

http://jverkoey.github.com/nimbus/interface_n_i_photo_scrubb...

https://github.com/jverkoey/nimbus

There is a plist file called Three20 in the Applications folder for Facebook. :)

Thanks to TechCrunch, Facebook no longer needs a marketing department.

Maybe someday they will refresh their Android app. The existing one is an ugly trainwreck.

It's not even that. The app is buggy and doesn't even work well. The Messages, Events, and Chat are all horribly implemented.

It's not exactly secret. Just disabled.

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