Users uncover Facebook for iPad hidden in iPhone app

It was right under their noses all along. Users of Apple Inc.'s popular iPad tablet computers need not look far for an app that allows them to access social networking site Facebook—it turns out, the app is hidden right beneath them, if they care long enough to look. Tech site TechCrunch reported on Monday that the code for the much-awaited Facebook iPad app is "hidden" in the Facebook app for Apple's iPhone. According to the site, much of the app is written in HTML5, a new Web code also used by Facebook in its Web application. TechCrunch said this was made possible due to a seemingly tiny update Facebook pushed to its iPhone app—version 3.4.4—which initially carried minor cosmetic and bug fixes. But TechCrunch said it turns out that the app "is carrying a payload of much greater importance than some bug fixes." It said the navigation system is "great" as it uses a left-side menu system that can be accessed by the touch of a button or the flick of the iPad screen. TechCrunch said the app also makes great use of the pop-overs (overlay menus) found in other iPad apps. "When you flip the iPad horizontally, the list of your online friends appears and you can chat with them as you do other things on Facebook. The photo-viewer aspect looks great — similar to the iPad’s own native Photos app. Places exists with a nice big map to show you all your friends around you. Etc," it said. TechCrunch also reported that a source who had previously seen the Facebook iPad app confirmed that it is indeed the app the social networking giant is planning to launch soon. But to be able to access the code that runs the iPad application, TechCrunch said users would have to do "some things you’re technically not supposed to do to your iPad," referring to jailbreaking the device, or "cracking" the iPad in order to run unauthorized 3rd-party applications. News site Computerworld, however, reported that as early as 1 PM in the US (or late evening in Manila), access to the hidden application has already been blocked by Facebook. "It appears that Facebook has disabled logins through the 'iPad' version," tweeted Marvin Bernal, a Canada-based computer engineering student who discovered how to unlock the hidden application. — JMT/RSJ, GMA News