One of the most highly anticipated apps for the Apple iPad was briefly made available to a few lucky and tech-savvy users who took advantage of what appears to have been a mistake. The Facebook app for the iPad was hidden inside an update for Facebook’s update to its own app for the Apple iPhone.

Apple made version 3.4.4 of Facebook for the iPhone available for free on its App Store on Friday. The updated version was released to address several issues and bugs reported by Facebook users when using the app on the popular Apple smart phone. No one expected to find an iPad version of Facebook concealed within. It is widely believed that developers included the iPad version as part of a universal installer that automatically detects the device it is intended for.

An iPad must first be “jailbroken” before it can run the secret Facebook app. Then the user must load version 3.4.4 of the iPhone app and manually change the UIDeviceFamily setting. A few iPad owners who were successful on running the Facebook app were very impressed with the HTML5 coding and GUI navigation system. According to first-hand accounts and screenshots posted online by a few lucky iPad owners, the Facebook app is fully optimized to take advantage of the revolutionary Apple tablet.

Online reports mention the existence of an innovative and efficient sidebar that simplifies navigation. Unlike Facebook for the iPhone, the iPad’s interface allows chat windows to remain open and persistent while the user browses around what’s happening in the rest of his social network.

Several technology news media outlets reported on the accidental event after a computer engineering student in Canada shared his discovery on the Internet social messaging service Twitter. As this release was accidental rather than official, access to Facebook from iPads has already been disabled. Facebook has not commented on the matter, although the company had recently hinted that they were working on several new exciting products.

One of the biggest features that separates Google+ from Facebook is Circles. With this feature, users can group the people they’re following by any category they come up with. Unlike Facebook, where everything the user posts goes on a single monolithic feed page that all their friends have access to, user-generated content is split among the different Circles. If the user wants to post something that is only relevant to their work contacts, they can post it without their friends and family having to see it. If they want to post a joke that might offend Aunt Louise and their boss, they can let only their Friends circle see it. Contacts on Google+ are more like Twitter than Facebook, in that you can follow a connection without necessarily being followed back, and vice versa.

Conveniently, you can add people into different circles visually, by dragging a photo of them onto a literal circle representing a category. You can remove them by dragging their photo out of the circle. When you add new content to your Stream, Google+ asks you which Circles you want to see it.

Facebook is not taking the Google+ idea of Circles sitting down. Shortly after the Google+ closed beta began, a group of Facebook engineers coded a Facebook add-on called Circle Hack in one night. However, its functionality was a bit rough, as it was indeed a hack built around Facebook’s Lists feature. Facebook has yet to directly offer a competitor to Circles.

With Apple now looking at September 2011 for debuting the latest in the iPhone series, anticipation is seriously growing for just what might be coming next to thrill and delight the ever demanding smartphone market.

Other than the usual assurances that the cleverly titled Iphone 5 will be thinner, lighter and much more exciting than it’s previous incarnations, the handset itself will carry an 8 megapixel rear facing camera that should outdo the already excellent standard currently seen on the 5 megapixel version, boosting image resolution clearly into the ‘awesome’ category.

Having an upgraded processor is pretty much a given for any type of new hardware release, and the dual-core A5 that is currently used in the iPad 2 is also promised for the new iPhone, making it even more powerful than the iPhone 4.

Rumors are, however, still rife as to whether the 5 will have a curved glass display like the newer generation of iPods carry, and possibly even a rear flash separated from the camera lens on the other side of the case to cut back on that infamous photo red-eye found on iPhone 4 images.

With Apple releasing a new version of their operating system, iOS 5 at around the same time, it is anticipated that with features such as iMessage (which is set to rival the Blackberry Messenger) and the Notification Center (designed for keeping up to date with notifications from just about every imaginable social media and email system possible) as well as a host of others that have been asked for over the years, fingers and thumbs should keep tapping and sliding over the smoothly tactile and glossy screen for a long time to come, and this new iPhone should attract even most hardened users who have so far stuck by other systems.

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2) Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars – We already knew that this popular game plays well on the iPhone 3GS and the Nintendo DS. But imagine blowing it up to twice the size.  Shootouts, explosions will be much more epic on the iPad. The touchiest GTA installment just got more crazy.

3) Madden NFL 10 – Madden on the iPhone just isn’t Madden. Those who have been playing Madden in their living rooms for years know that the mobile version of the iconic game is fun, but the screen’s a tad too small to really lay out those plays.  With the iPad, the Madden franchise will finally get a chance to play ball on the biggest portable screen yet.

4) The Sims 3 – If you’ve been looking to walk your Sim around with more precision and take in more details in this very successful adaptation, the iPad will be a good option.

5) SimCity – The iPhone version of SimCity only had one glaring problem—the screen was a tad small to do everything you wanted to do, especially if you had big sausage fingers.  The iPad’s touchscreen will probably do the game some much needed justice.  Now you can build your city with the peace of mind that you’ll be able to build roads precisely when that massive fire breaks out.

• You can choose a color for your PSN ID badge
• Photos are now displayed in a grid rather than a single column
• The friends list has been modified, based on feedback from the community

We’ve got the full list of the MacMall Black Friday deals for you, after the jump.