There was a large furore when the first jailbroken Apple devices started appearing, but this is a practice that has become increasingly popular now, so much so that it is not even considered illegal. The primary reason why someone would jailbreak their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch now is so that they can install the best apps on the device.
Cydia applications are apps and games that are available from third party sources, but not from the official Apple Store. The stringent rules and regulations that Apple practices, means that there are many developers who do not get the opportunity to sell their apps in the store. As a result of this, they congregate at other places, and the only way to make use of these is to install Cydia on your device.
When you jailbreak a device you are breaking into its root software and are changing the code so that you can carry out certain activities. People jailbreak their Apple gadgets so that they can perform customizations tasks, change the appearance of icons, get shortcuts for many activities, get access to essential Cydia apps and perform a whole host of other tasks as well.
Note: Jailbreaking your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch will nullify the warranty, so analyze the pros and cons before you go ahead and do this.
Free Cydia Apps
For iPhone 4
The Apple iPhone is the true king of the smartphone market, but there are many things that Apple does not allow one to do with iOS 4. The apps mentioned in this list can help you carry out many great tasks. Here are some of the well-known ones.
- 3G Unrestrictor
- Categories
- Cycorder
- Cylay 3.0
- Fast Photo Library
- Fast Reader
- Firewall iP
- Haptic Pro
- Infiniboard
- Installous
- Intelliscreen
- iRealSMS 3.0
- MCleaner
- MyWi
- SBSettings
- SummerBoard
- SwirlyMMS2
- Wi-Fi Sync
- WinterBoard
- Xpandr
These must haves will make your iPhone 4 so much better, and you are really missing out on a lot of fun if you do not have these apps. They can really change the appearance and the functionality of your iPhone, and this will make it stand out in a sea of identical iPhones.
For iPad
Most applications on the Apple Store for the Apple iPad are bigger versions of the iPhone applications, so you should explore Cydia apps since they offer so much more. Here are some of the best ones that you should be looking out for.
- AppLinks
- Backgrounder
- BT Stack Wii Controls
- CyDelete
- dTunes
- FakeCarrier
- Infinifolder
- Multiflow
- MxTube
- Nano
- OpenSSH
- Privacy
- Quick Dismiss
- Status Notifier
- Wiki 2 Touch
You may have to make a choice between the demo versions and the paid versions of some of these, and naturally the paid versions will offer more features. That is a call you take at your own discretion.
For iPod Touch
The Apple iPod Touch is simply an iPhone that does not make calls, so all the apps mentioned above for the iPhone are applicable for the iPod Touch as well. In addition to those, here are some more cool apps that will make your iPod Touch more personal and useful.
- BT Stack Keyboard
- Fontswap
- iBlacklist
- iFile
- iLocalis
- Insomnia
- Mobile Terminal
- My3G
- Nemus Sync
- Notifier
- PhotoShareWeb
- Poof!
- Qik
- Reflective Dock
- Respring
- Spring Flash
- Status Notify
- Toggle SSH
- Weathericon
- xdrive
There are a number of lists that you can refer to as well, for more information on Cydia apps and the paid ones as well. There are thousands of great ones to choose from, and their functionality will convert your iDevice into a far more powerful and efficient tool.