How To Make iPhone Apps Run On Your iPad

Posted by Geronimo Boosh on May 21, 2010 · Leave a Comment

The iPhone and the and iPad both run the same operating system. Does that make the iPad a large iPhone ? In some ways, yes. Here we are going to explore how to make iPhone apps to fill up that big iPad screen.

The people who tinker with the iPhone operating system are ingenious little creatures. They know how to do their programming with a certain effective precision. Take for instance the people who created the “Free Spirit” software. It is easy and jailbreaks the iPad. It also works with iPhones running versions 3.1.2, 3.1.3, and 3.2. You will need to be careful not to crash or otherwise cause any errors after using this software to jailbreak an iPad. But, as advertised, you will have a jailbroken iPad and can proceed to the next step of making iPhone apps run on it.

After your iPad is jailbroken and you see the Cydia icon on the home screen, get the OpenSSH program from Cydia. Install an FTP program into your iPad also. FTP stands for “File Transfer Protocol” and there are many free versions online. One is the “NCFTP” program. It is a command line FTP client and a free download. Another is called “Cyberduck” and yet another is called “Transmit”. Whichever you choose is up to you. Now you are ready for the last steps that bring you the ability to put an iPhone app onto an iPad. If you do not yet have iPhone apps in your iPad, install them.

Every iPad application is stored in the location “/var/mobile/Applications”. Every app also has a folder name similar to “F1DCF4E2-0D72-4720-BCF1-F914B5208F55″. You will be looking for a specific file named “info.plist” inside these folders. Use the FTP software to extract the “info.plist” file to your Apple computer. Once you do, open the file in your computer ( it is a text file ) with another text-editor app like “Textmate” or something with the same abilities. Look for this string of commands :
<key>UIDeviceFamily</key>

<array>

</array>

If you have it in the file great, just add <integer>2</integer> in between the <integer>1</integer> and the </array>, and you are done with that info.plist file. If you do not have the above in your file, add it yourself with the group below :
<key>UIDeviceFamily</key>

<array>

</array>
and you are done with that info.plist file. Upload this back to the original location you got it from in your iPad, and you are completely done. You will need to repeat the above, the downloading, the changing of the info.plist file, and the re-uploading back to the iPad for every iPhone app you have installed in your iPad. You can copy and paste the code from this page if you like.

After uploading all the adjusted “info.plist” files back to your iPad, restart your iPad and you will have iPhone apps that work without pixellation. Not every iPhone app will work, but many will. If you feel brave and liked adding text to your application files, good for you. There are more features available by using more codes to help you do more things with your iPad.