Once again, I'm going to talk about iPhone. Hah, it's the only things I've written about in last few post. May be I should just turn my blog from "News" to "iPhone" blog. Well, whatever.
The iPhone is a wonderful invention isn't it? It's like a revolution. Revolution of technology, revolution of communication, revolution of platform for application and accessory development, it's all new. More and more people are trying to develop apps for iOS. Many accessory makers have developed accessories exclusively for iPhone. Again, it's kind of revolution eh! But I'm not going to boast about Apple and it's iPhone today, but I'm going to talk about Jailbreak developers and Jailbreak app developers. Let me begin.
If you are associated with Apple or iPhone or any other iDevice for that matter, I would doubt if you've not heard of jailbreaks. "Jailbreak" What a bold word isn't it? The process of being free. Free from Apple's restrictions. "You can't do this, you can't do that, this that, this that" fu*k it man. I want my phone free from this "Jail". This is my phone and I would fu*king do whatever I want to do. That's the feeling of someone who jailbreaks his iPhone.
Personally, I am a big fan of this jailbreak devs. Their community is amazing. I wonder if any other phone other than iphone has such community. A community which develops jailbreaks, unlocks, applications, themes and makes the iPhone to get the best out of it. Things Apple would never allow you to do with "your" iPhone, can be done with the help of these jailbreak devs and their applications.
When we're talking about jailbreaks, there is one thing which should not be left side. And that's Cydia. Cydia, the hub of jailbreak apps. one little thing, largest source of third-party apps for iPhone. The man behind it is - Jay Freeman aka Saurik. The one who developed Cydia and opened doors of light from the dark jail of Apple. Jailbreak app developers put their apps on Cydia and people can download them, just the way they do it on the Apple app store. There are applications, themes, tweaks, you name it. And this is the topic of my post. Top Cydia apps. Took my time to reach to the main topic yes?
Top Cydia Apps which "Rocks" Your iPhone.
In Alphabetical Order
Activator - Developed by Ryan Petrich, this app falls in System section. It is useful to do some useful task such as activating some app, open iPod controls, play/pause ipod, locking/unlocking device etc etc. Thse tasks can be performed by defining them in Activator settings. For example, you can define "Lock Device" action when you "Double Tap" on the Status Bar, or you can press "Volume Button" up to start iPod control. These settings can be define in three ways. "At Home Screen", "In Application" and "At Lock Screen" which defines what task is performed when an action is performed at the Home Screen, In Application or At the Lock Screen.
App Switcher - Way before Apple started multitasking in iOS 4.0, App Switcher was developed for switching application on iPhone. You are using an application now and want to switch to another one? Then App Switcher is there for you. Switch between app with ease. Just like App Switching Works in iOS 4.0 and later. You can switch to any app running in background with App Switcher.
Backgrounder - Backgrounder is used to send applications in... well, "Background". Multitasking in iOS 4.0 and later, pauses the app to its current state when it's running in background. When you switch to it again, you get the app at the same state when you left it. Backgrounder does the same thing, but it does not "Pauses" an app , it can make it run as its running in foreground. Then you can switch to another app with the help of App Switcher. This consumes a lot of resources but it was developed before Apple started it's multitasking for apps other than "Native" apps like Phone, Mail and iPod.
BiteSMS - There is already the default SMS application in iPhone right? So why need biteSMS? Well, the answer is simple - "More Functionality". You can receive message, and get it on screen in both the default and biteSMS, but biteSMS will allow you to reply to the msg, Call the sender, delete the msg and lot more right from the lockscreen. You get the same functions even when you're on Home Screen (Unlocked). You don't need to open the SMS app to reply to the msg or call the sender. You can use Schedule to send SMS on a pre-defined time. No need to get up at 12:00 to send an birthday message to your friend! You can also see contact pics in SMS. In latest version (5.0) of biteSMS, you can have custom ringtones for all your contacts.
Categories/CategoriesSB - Ever wanted to ove your apps in folders? Ofcource you have. If you were on iOS versions before 4.0, you can not "officially" move apps into folders. But Categories was always there. With the help of it, you can put apps in different categories of your choice. Just like moving games into Games folder, Reference apps into Reference folder and so on. CategoriesSB is an addon to Categories, which helps categories to run smoothly.
Cydget - Cydget is app for adding widgets on the lockscreen.With Cydget, you take control of your iPhone's lockscreen. You can add widgets (Cydget Addons) like Weather, HTC clock, Aquarium and a lot more. customize your lockscreen the way you want it.
Cyntact - Well this one is not a "helpful" app. But this is the tweak which will make you able to see Contact Pics in your "Contacts". Contact Pics are shown in small square left to the Contact Name. That's it. I like it though.
Flashlight - The name says it all. Flashlight is an app which will allow you to use your iPhone's max brightness to torch a bright light for you. There are many apps in Apple's app store similar to Flashlight but apple does not allow them to use the maximum brightness. When you torch Flashlight, it glows the screen brightness to its max and gives you amazing white light. Trust me, this torch is really helpful.
FontSwap - Get rid of those boring default fonts on your iPhone. With the help f FontSwap, you can swap custom fonts in the whole iPhone system. You can change notes' fonts, clock font, or the whole system fonts. There are many fonts available in Cydia to use with FontSwap.
iBlacklist - Labeled as "the true iPhone firewall" by it's dev(s), iBlacklist is a call/sms blocker for your iphone. You can simply add numbers in Blacklist and you will never hear anything from them again. iBlacklist filters numbers added to the blacklist (or whitelist) and perform the task you set. Like giving the caler "Busy Signal" or diverting him to "Voicemail". You can also set it to "Accept and Hangup".
This app is really useful for me to block those Telemarketing Callers. It also blocks SMS. So if you want to ignore someone;s SMS, you can add them into blacklist. When SMS from blacklisted number is received, it filters it and stores it in it's own memory. You don;t get to read it unless you open iBlacklist and read them. Pretty useful eh?
iBlueNova - File Sharing via bluetooth. The whole world gets it on their phone but an iPhone user does not. Why? Because Apple "thinks" that allowing filesharing via bluetooth encourages illegal activities like sharing copyrighted materials. Well, so they have blocked this functionality. But iBluenova (formerly iBluetooth) breaks this wall by allowing user to share files via bluetooth. This app works iOS <4.0. It's developer has not yet developed and released it for iOS >4.0. So if you are on iOS <4.0 you can use iBluenova to share files via bluetooth.
iCallAnnounce - What this tweak does is, to announce the name of the caller, before ringing the ringtone. This is helpful when you are busy and someone calls. You hear the name of the caller, receiving or ignoring whose call doesn't make any difference, then you can let the phone ringing.
Iconoclasm - Iconoclasm is used to crate custom layout on your springboard. Turn your springboard into a custom layout easily with iconoclasm. You can define the number of rows and columns you want. You can even create blank space between icons. Iconoclasm is most useful when you want to use themes which needs customization of springboard.
iFile - Browse all files of your iPhone. Just like you are browsing your computer. Open a folder, create new files, rename, delete or cut copy paste files. You can even search files, with the help of iFile. This is like your file browser for iPhone.
Infinifolders - One of the most popular tweak for iOS >4.0. Apple allowed moving apps into folders in iOS >4.0 but again, restriction. Apple has restricted the number of apps to 12 per folder. Infinifolders breaks this barrier and allows you to have infinite icons in your folders. Obviously I would not like to have different folders for my games which are more than 12.
Inspell - Spell Checker for iPhone. Useful mostly with iOS <4.0 where Apple did not have inbuilt spell checker and correcter. Inspell can use custom dictionaries like English, French, Dutch and many other language dictionaries. These are called Hunspell dictionaries.
Lockdown Pro - Lock your applications. Restrict unauthorized peoples from accessing your valued apps. You can create custom passwords for different apps too. Everytime you open an app, it will ask for the password. Only by entering it correcylt, you can open the app. If you are on iOS < 4.0, you can lock the whole folder(category) created by Categories. It currently does not allow locking native folders in iOS > 4.0.
LockInfo - Just like Cydget, LockInfo is useful to customize your lockscreen. Add weather, calender, Twitter, RSS, Notifications, Mail, Phone, SMS all into the lockscreen. No need to unlock the iPhone to read the MSG or Mail. Get tweets right into your lockscreen. Why open Tweeter apps? The weather addon gives you weather right on your lockscreen including six days forecast.
QuickDo - Add a bar which quickly performs task for you. You can define what action is performed when the bar is accessed in a pre-defined manner. For example, you can swipe the QuickDo bar from left to right to lock your device, from right to left to quit the running app etc. You can even take screen-shot with the help of it. There are lot more actions which can be performed. This bar is always there. No matter if you are on locksreen, homescreen or in application.
Safari Download Manager - A download manager for Safari, it allows you to download files with safari, and store them to the location you want. It manages all your downloads running currently. This is really amazing app and really useful.
SBSettings - Move your common tasks into status bar. Well not exactly in status bar but close. SBSettings is used to perform tasks from SBSettings screen. You can define how to open the SBSettings via activator. Like double taping the status bar., and it will bring SBSettings screen. From there, you can turn on 3G, Wi-Fi, Data etc with just one tap. Also see process running currently and free some memory. Add some other addons like autolock which will toggle if the device is locked automatically or not. Other add-ons are available too.
ScreenRecorer/Display Recorder - Record the iPhone screen in real time. You can record the screen with help of both these apps. Want to create a tutorial on how to change themes using winterboard? Record the whole tutorial like open winterborard, select theme, and respring, and publish it! Easy. The encoding takes time depending the duration but mostly it's worth it.
MakeItMine - This little app allows you to have custom name instead of your service provider's name or banner. If you don't like AT&T or ROGERS or Vodafone to be seen on statusbar? Change it, with MakeItMine. Just enter what string you want to appear and its there. I like this!
MyWi - Make your iPhone a WiFi hotspot and share your 3G connection with others. If you've got 3G connectivity, you can use MyWi and make your iPhone a hotspot. Other devices having WiFi in them can connect to this hotspot and browse the internet. Its useful when there is no WiFi available. Really useful.
Winterboard - Winterboard..! Used to apply themes on your iPhone. This is one of the most used app on Cydia. It alows you to select custom themes which can be downloaded from Cydia, and change the whole look of your iPhone. Just get rid of that old-school look. Have custom lockscreen, homescreen, app icons, phone keypad and lot more. If you jailbreak and don't use winterboard, shocking!
Well, this is the list of top Cydia apps. Maybe there are other better apps, but maybe I've not tried them, and maybe(!) I will try them and update this list. Until then, try these apps if you've not. If you think an app should be added to this list let me know.
Need any help? Then Ask!
Happy jailbreaking
Sayonara!
