How to access localhost from device
If you are on the same wifi network, you could use your computer ip address. Otherwise, if you want to be able to access your node app from every wifi network, you could use Ngrok.
It will expose your address on a public URL
Remote Access a PhoneGap App
You were probably on the right track with the web server idea.
I am not sure how well the various solutions are supported in PhoneGap, but I would think you could use some sort of WebSockets implementation for the bi-directional communication between the iPhone and iPad apps.
Sencha ExtJs Ajax Store not loading in XCode
According to this answer, in XCode an Ajax call to load a local file will fail, so I guess this cannot work.
jsonp callback not firing from iPhone simulator with PhoneGap
Have you added your server to whitelist?
http://docs.phonegap.com/en/1.9.0/guide_whitelist_index.md.html
iOS
Details
Open Cordova.plist. In Xcode, it is found at AppName/Supporting
Files/Cordova.plist In the directory, it is found at
AppName/Cordova.plist Add a new String value under the ExternalHosts
key. We recommend using Xcode to avoid editing raw XML. Domain
protocols (e.g. http:// and https://) are not supported by iOS.
Detect if running inside PhoneGap/ Cordova
In local file and mobile website deviceready won't fire as it is a PhoneGap specific event. so u can set your IsRunningOnPhoneGap flag in the device ready event.
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