There is a workaround I knew in making some iPhone apps iPad-compatible, however, you must remember that not all apps may run correctly with this method. I have used Fugu for several months with this purpose and I never encountered any problem.

Fugu Overview

Basically, Fugu is the graphical representation of Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) command line. SFTP works like File Transfer Protocol (FTP) only that the entire session is encrypted and it is impossible for third party to intercept that data being sent (especially password) because all of which do not have clear-text format. For more information about Fugu, you may visit its official website.

Pre-Requisites

- before you can do this tutorial, you should jailbreak your iPad.

- install OpenSSH through Cydia.

- download Fugu here.

Here’s the Workaround…

Actually, this tutorial is pretty simple and straightforward that you wouldn’t even find it difficult. However, if you are new to using iPhone or iPad, there’ll may be things you would find difficult to understand.

Step One: Make sure you connect your iPad to the same network where your computer is connected; launch Fugu if everything is set and ready.

Step Two: You will then be asked to enter information to the fields provided. For the Connect To field, enter your iPad’s IP address; for Username, enter the default which is root. You may click on ‘Connect‘ button to continue.

Step Three: You will be prompted for the password. If you haven’t changed the default password yet, you can use alpine, then click ‘Authenticate‘ to proceed.

Step Four: Now, we will go to applications folder. Click on ‘Go To‘ button at the top. Then key in /var/mobile/Applications, but make sure that ‘Remotely‘ option is selected before you click on the ‘Go‘ button. This will bring us to the directory where application files are saved.

Step Five: A list of folders or directories will be presented to you with a bunch of numbers. Unfortunately, it would be difficult to determine the right app you are looking for since the directories are named NOT bearing their own names or brands. The best thing you can do is to know the ‘Date Modified’ of the application you are looking for.

Step Six: If you already knew the folder you are up to based on its modified date, just double-click on it to enter the directory. Once inside, you’ll notice there is another folder which bears the name of the app. In this example, we will use BeejiveIM app since it is one of the applications where this guide is applicable to. Enter into the app’s directory.

Step Seven: Look for info.plist and copy it to your computer, or you can just drag it from the right pane to the left.

Step Eight: Control-click or Right-click on file you just copied and select ‘Open‘ from the menu. Doing so will let Property List Editor open the file for editing. Now click on ‘Add Child‘ button from the toolbar; name the new child as UIDeviceFamily.

Step Nine: Now Right-click on UIDeviceFamily, select ‘Value Type‘ then ‘Array‘ from the menu.

Step Ten: There is a little arrow beside UIDeviceFamily (left side), just click on it to reveal child under it. After which, add two items by clicking ‘Add Child‘ twice, this will add items 0 and 1, and set the values 1 and 2, respectively.

Step Eleven: After doing the above step, just ‘Save‘ it normally. Now, you are ready to overwrite info.plist using Fugu.

Basically, you can do the steps 8 to 10 without copying info.plist to your computer for editing. However, to make it safer for your app, it would be better to back the data up before editing; doing so will make it easier for you to retract all the changes you’ve should anything crazy happen.

Now, you can just respring your iPad or reboot it. The next time you’ll launch that specific iPhone app (for this post it’s BeejiveIM) through your iPad, it should work. Don’t hesitate to leave questions or comment if you have any.

Easy Set up

The ease of setup really surprised me. All you need to do is click the [+] in the bottom left corner of the bookmark window and a window opens (see below). In that window you only need two pieces of information, your server address and username. (You will be asked for your password when you connect for the first time.) If you have more than one destination you are uploading files to, you will want to change the nickname of the new bookmark, but it isn’t necessary; the default nickname is the server address. Additional information is needed if your going to use SFTP (recommended over FTP). The port number is the most important. If it does not connect using port 22 (the default SFTP setting), you may need to ask your web host. Some web hosts use different protocols, here is a list of options you can choose from:

• FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
• FTP/TLS (FTP secured over SSL/TLS)
• SFTP (SSH Secure File Transfer)
• WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning)
• Amazon S3
• Rackspace Cloud Files

Browser-like Ease of Use

Part of what I like about Cyberduck is the similarities to a web browser. What makes it more more like a browser than a Finder window is the bookmarking feature. If you have multiple sites or even multiple folders on the same site which you need to send files to, no problem. Each destination can have a bookmark just like you would have in Safari or Firefox. Simply click on the bookmark and the connection to that destination is opened.

Drag and Drop

To keep on pace with the simplicity Apple users are accustomed to, Cyberduck allows drag and drop functionality. Many other applications offer this in the most basic sense; these guys took it a step further by adding some Mac-like features. One of these features is spring loaded folders. I know when I am moving things from folder to folder, I really love this feature. Another super cool feature is being able to upload files without opening a connection to a server. Drag the files onto a bookmark for the destination of server you’d like the file to be uploaded to.

In the picture below, you can see there is not an option to disconnect. A connection will open for the length of the upload then disconnect again.

Synchronize

Files on the server can be synchronized with the those on your computer. You will be prompted to select the location on your computer to synchronize the files with. Cyberduck will only sync files that have changed. Whether or not they have changed is determined by the size of the files and the last time the files were modified. You will be asked to authorize actions, including what to do if there is are missing files.

Dashboard Widget

The widget is a great option for quickly uploading files to one folder. This is a great option for uploading pictures or files to a specific location on more than on occasion. When you configure the widget, you can select a path to a specific folder. This setting only affects the widget, not the main application.

Archive and Unarchive (SFTP only)

A handy feature is being able to archive and unarchive files and folders remotely on the server side after its uploaded. Being able to transfer smaller files, means faster upload times. Your remote systems must have the archiving tools tar or zip installed on their end for this to work, if they don’t it won’t be possible.

Other Integration

Cyberduck integrates really really well with many native and 3rd party apps. Spotlight, Mobile Me, Bonjour, external text editors, Applscripts, Growl and Keychain are a few. If you have a Mac and need a super simple way to upload and access your files in any of the protocols listed, Cyberduck delivers. Its like the FTP uploader Apple forgot.

How does Cyberduck compare to other uploaders you have used?

If you are really concerned about the security of your site, this is something that you really need to avoid.

In place of FTP, you can use SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) to create a secure network connection instead. When you are connected via SFTP, all your data are encrypted. Even if they are intercepted, they will only show up as garbage text on the hacker’s computer.

This tutorial teaches you how to connect to your WordPress account (or any other Web server) via a SFTP connection.

A point to note: Not all web host supports SFTP. Do check with your Web host before carrying out the steps below. If your web host does not support SFTP, maybe it’s time to consider another web host that does. Hostgator does the hosting for MTE and they support SFTP.

While there are many FTP clients that support SFTP, the one that I find it the easiest to use and is available for all platforms is Filezilla.

Download and install Filezilla client for your platform. (skip this step if you are already using Filezilla)

Open up Filezilla. Click on the first icon on the Toolbar to access the Site Manager. Alternatively, you can find the Site Manager at the menubar File->Site Manager.

Click the New Site button on the left bottom pane to create a new account.

On the right pane, enter your host name (this is usually the IP address assigned to you by your Web host). In the Port input field, enter 22 (Different web hosts have different ports for their SFTP connection, Hostgator uses port 2222. If you can’t connect with port 22, you may want to ask your web host for the port number).

Under the Servertype dropdown field, select SFTP – SSH File Transfer Protocol.

Enter your login username and password. Click Connect at the bottom to connect to your account. If everything is fine, you should see a popup window prompting you to accept the server’s public key. Click Ok to continue (You may want to save the key in your cache so that it won’t prompt you all the time). You should be connected to your account via SFTP now.

Bringing it a step further

If you are really paranoid about your security, you can use a public/private key authentication to connect to your SFTP network instead. A public/private key authentication allows you to login to your account without any password and also eliminates any chance of a brute force SSH attack.

Once again, not all web hosts allow you to generate public/private key certificate. The following example is based on Hostgator cPanel.

Log into your cPanel. Scroll down until you see the SSH/Shell Access icon.

Click on the Manage SSH keys button.

Click on the Generate a new key link.

Enter your key name and give it a password. Make sure that your password is a strong one. Click on the Generate key button.

You should now see information about your public key.

Back to the main screen, you should see that your public key is listed as not authorized. Click on the Manage Authorization link to toggle it.

Back to the SSH key management screen, download the private key to a secure folder in your computer.

In your Filezilla, go to Edit->Settings. On the left, click SFTP. On the right, click the Add KeyFile button. Navigate to where you store your private key and select it.

Once you have added the private key, click Ok to close the window.

Back to the Site manager screen, remove the password that you have saved previously. Click the Connect button. Filezilla will now authenticate the session with your private key and allow you to login to your account without any password.

That’s it.

Image credit: beefranck