Hacked Netflix iPad App Works On The iPhone

Netflix is one of the best iPad applications available as of right now. Unfortunately for those of us who don't have an iPad, we dont get the luxury of having a Netflix app on our iPhones, at least not until now. This weekend a ModMyI reader named Knisitruck, showed the world that it is possible to run the app on a jailbroken iPhone. Getting the app loaded up and working properly is surprisingly simple.

All you really need to do is extract and make minor changes to the Netflix .app file, borrow the iPad's MediaPlayer.framework folder, change a few permissions and you're pretty much good to go. If you are feeling adventerous and want to follow more specific instructions on how to do this, read the message sent in by the ModMyI tipster himself below:

To do this yourself

• Get app from iTunes, locate/rename ipa to zip and extract.
• Go into the .app file, located at /appname/Payload/appname.app, (show package contents) and open the info.plist
• Edit all references of OS version to show iphoneos3.1.2 (or your respective version). Save and close, done there.

Now, just copied over SSH (with permissions repair and a respring) this will show up on the phone. With Netflix though, it required the mediaplayer frameworks from the iPad. So:

• SSH, get the mediaplayer frameworks folder from an iPad, located at /System/Library/Frameworks/MediaPlayer.framework
• Copy that to the same location on an iPhone (I'd suggest backing up the original from your phone just in case). Change permissions to 755 recursive for directories, and then go inside the folder and change the individual file permissions to 644. (Or just recursive 755 to all files/folders on the MediaPlayer.framework folder)

Now the mediaplayer frameworks are in place, all that's left is a manual install of the app.

• SSH, go to /private/var/stash/Applications
• Copy the appname.app file there and change permissions. (I used 777 recursive for simplicity's sake, but I'm sure the normal 775 would work).
• Launch and have fun.

That's about it. The way I found out that I needed the frameworks file was from a crash report.

Although he got the app up and working with full functionality, there are some drawbacks. The battery being the largest drawback and occasional app crashes. More on this can be found in another message from the same user with pictures attached below:

As a follow up to the pic I sent you, I wasn't able to get the app working at that time. I needed the mediaplayer frameworks from an iPad [/System/Library/Frameworks/MediaPlayer.framework], thanks to one of your forum members, I was able to get that. Then, it still wouldn't work. Noticing my winterboard theme was overriding the mediaplayer layout I disabled it, retried the app and viola, it worked! All that had to be changed was a couple lines in the applications info.plist file and the mediaplayer frameworks, along with a manual install/permissions. (My other apps requiring mediaplayer still run fine.)

But, having said that, I see why Netflix hasn't released an iPhone client yet. Reasons why:

• Huge battery drain - 25% of battery for around 15min of streaming, drains pretty quick while browsing the app as well.
• Crashing - I suspect memory is the issue here, and also probably because it's made for another device. Happened when browsing too fast through the app(lots of clicks).
• 3G Speed - Takes forever to load the app and to start streaming (does work though)

I have attached pics, my camera has a dead battery with a lost charger so no video. Movie pics were some random movie at the top of the list. My phone is an iPhone 3G running 3.1.2(Jailbroken). What this means? Most, if not all, iPad specific apps can be ran on iPhone.