Maybe not all iPad apps can be run on the iPhone. Turns out the Netflix iPad app appears to have a native iPhone app bundled in with the iPad app, hence the ability to make it work on the iPhone and the different layout for the iPhone etc.
FSM EXCLUSIVE DEAL That’s exactly what a ModMyi user tells us. Basically he copied the iPad Netflix app and iPad mediaplayer frameworks to his iPhone, made a few plist edits and changes and got it running!
How to get Netflix.app on your iPhone:
- 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.
Why Netflix hasn’t released an iPhone client yet:
- 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)