Jailbreaking your iPhone allows you to install unauthorised apps that Apple have not yet allowed (for example unlocking or video recording).
Once you’ve jailbroken your iPhone you’ll notice a new app in your Springboard, called CYDIA. Cydia is the hackers version of the iTunes App Store. Once you open Cydia, you’ll be bombarded with the biggest list of apps EVER most of which are free. Whilst this is awesome, the sheer volume of apps makes it very hard to make educated choices on what apps to install, and it’s very easy to install totally useless apps and waste your time. So we’ve compiled a beginners guide to Cydia, 10 apps that will get you going with your jailbroken device and make your iPhone life easier and more useful in the process.
Winterboard
Winterboard is the ‘control’ app for the way your iPhone looks and sounds, once you’ve installed winterboard, you can then go back in to Cydia and choose from the plethora of themes that range from Lock Screens, to wallpapers to soundsets.
Upon installing these Themes, you won’t actually notice anything, until you go back in to Winterboard and ‘tick’ the themes ACTIVE. On hitting the home screen, the Springboard will freeze and then restart, and your new theme settings will be active.
*Featured theme at top of this article is GRADIANCE V3
iBlackList
MxTube
Simply put, MxTube is YouTube with the ability to download videos for offline viewing. This is great because it downloads the high quality streams and plays back at a higher quality than the iPhone’s native YouTube app. MxTube is in beta, and sometimes crashes, which is a little frustrating, however it’s quite possibly our favourite Jailbreak app.
SwirlyMMS
MMS Picture Messaging is not a feature of the iPhone as standard. SwirlyMMS fixes this problem and allows you to send and receive photos to any mobile that has Picture Messaging. The latest version of SwirlyMMS contains all the access settings for all networks.
Video Recorder 3G
The iPhone is remarkably good at playing back video, but sadly it lacks the processing power to record video well. iPhone Video Recorder 3G is the answer. Whilst the quality is still very blurry and at maximum records at 15 (blurry) frames a second, it’s better than nothing. Don’t bank on be able to use this to capture those special moments with clarity though. We’ll have to wait for a good camera in the next iPhone for that…
LogoMe
Select any image and LogoMe will replace the Apple logo on start up with an image of your choice. It’s a little bit of fun, and really serves no purpose, but we’re nerds and it’s fun!
Reminder (aka Notifier)
Once you’ve installed iBlackList and turned on your Notifications Privacy you will need a way to see if you have messages at a glance. This is where Reminder comes in to play. This app adds some small icons to the top bar of your iPhone and shows when you have an SMS, Mail, MMS, Missed call or IM.
KeyVib
KeyVib makes your iPhone vibrate on every key click when typing emails or SMS. Whilst it drains the battery a little bit more than usual, it makes typing that little bit more responsive. Try it out, some people love it, some people hate it.
Make It Mine
Sat, Feb 7, 2009
Apple iPhone 3G, Apple iPhone Hacks, Hacks, iPhone Software, iPhone Tips and Tricks