And the Winners are...
Thought we were done with our extensive coverage of 2009’s best Cydia apps? We were just scratching the surface. We’ve now taken the 2009’s best of list and added 6 additional apps, bringing up the total to 10 amazing Cydia apps you can’t live without. If you’re ready, here are the winners for the best apps of 2010 (thus far):
Installous
Installous once again has wowed us with its ability to be so much more than a simple app repository. Due to the overwhelming number of pirates on the previous Appulo.us server, the app now uses a better, harder, faster, stronger server that’s much, much, much more user and network friendly. Browsing and downloading apps is now easier than ever on your 3G phone. Again, we caution you to watch out for apps that are just pirated versions of App Store apps. Rather, use Installous to get those apps that are gone now from the App Store or couldn’t make it on there in the first place (like those with adult content).
Note: The install process remains the same, you need to add the hackulo.us repository to Cydia. Simply go into Cydia, navigate over to Manage, then click on Sources, and click Edit in the top right hand corner, then Add on the top left corner, once you’ve clicked add, type in “Cydia.hackulo.us” into the http repository screen. Then tap on Add Source and it’ll give you a message about piracy. Click OK on the message and download Installous through this new repo!
Cycorder
Cycorder is a little less pivotal this time around because 3GS users already know what it’s like to have a good video camera on the phone. Nevertheless, Cycorder is a tremendous app for those of us who still live just fine with our 3G iPhones. Cycorder records video just as well as it did last year and has added a few bug fixes since the writing of this article last August. Today you’ll find a much easier-to-use app as well as one that’s a bit more flexible in terms of shooting.
The ability to SSH into the phone and extract the videos remains a huge draw for those amateur videographers without video-camera equipped iPhones.
Note: REMEMBER TO FILM YOUR VIDEOS IN HORIZONTAL MODE! If you don’t, you’ll have to change the orientation of the videos in a very roundabout way.
Wi-Fi Sync
Wi-Fi Sync is a new app we're adding to the list for 2010 - a real must-see-it-to-believe it app. All it requires is that both your iPhone and PC with iTunes installed be on the same network together. Once you have the app downloaded and the required program running on your PC (with either Mac OSX or Windows 7), the software interfaces with your iPhone a single time and pairs it with your PC - much the way a Bluetooth device would be paired with its counterpart.
Once both devices are paired and ready, the software on the PC tricks your computer into thinking your iPhone is hooked up to it via USB. Then it proceeds to sync wirelessly through your network. The retail price for the app is $9.99, which may seem a bit steep, but considering that many of the iPhone users I've met don't ever hook up their iPhones to their PCs, but rather to chargers, this idea of wirelessly syncing your files, photos, videos, and music is something quite extraordinary, that Apple might want to look into in their next iOS update. Total Transparency: I ran the app using my new iPhone 4 and it ran quite well and fast - your mileage may vary when it comes to earlier iOS devices.
Cylay 3.0
In 2009 I cast off Cylay because of Apple’s new MobileMe service that can find your phone for you without need for any jailbreaking. However, in the months since then, it has come to light that MobileMe isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, so I’m changing sides here and recommending you stick with Cylay for your security needs.
Cylay functions as essentially an all-in-one security app (minus a firewall – see next page) to ensure your phone is safe and in your possession at all times. Cylay doesn’t really bring new features to the table, but it is an incredible app that no one should be walking around without.
Categories
Categories is a pivotal app for those of us that want a little more organization out of our phones. Categories allows the user to “wrangle” the icons on the various home screens into a self-contained folder that can then launch those programs. The idea works as well as it is ingenious – that is to say incredibly well.
Games, Jailbreak, and “Useless System Apps” currently populate my 2 home screens. And while Categories is useful for separating and launching individual apps, I would still recommend launching more intensive apps outside of the folder browser.
SwirlyMMS2
MMS is a recent feature of the iPhone that has made a big splash in the tech community because it was something that EVERY other phone out there was capable of doing. Thankfully, MMS is now available on any and all text messages you send out. However, this still eats into your 200 message limit if that’s something still limiting you on your account.
Fundamentally, Swirly is a better text messaging utility than BiteSMS, but the interface is a little less user friendly than Bite’s, requiring a bit more of an iPhone geek’s touch to work appropriately. However, unlike BiteSMS, the license is valid forever.
SBSettings
SBSettings is an essential (and totally free) application. Right after you jailbreak, after OpenSSH, this should be the second app you download off Cydia. SBSettings overlays a menu that contains the basic functions of the system “options” menus. This overlay menu is easily accessed by swiping the bar at the top of the screen with the time and contains things like Brightness, 3G, Wi-Fi, and other switches to turn things on and off.
Bar none, this app is the most useful thing inside Cydia for your daily use of the phone. Especially being able to control brightness inside ANY application will show you that your jailbreak was not in vain.
MCleaner
MCleaner is basically the iBlacklist app for the iPhone, but a bit more sophisticated. Unfortunately, unlike last year when a vast majority of the apps on the store were free, MCleaner too is not free. However, you can give it a 15 day trial and see if it is for you. What it basically does is MCleaner creates blacklists and whitelists of callers that you can decide upon. Then, you can even choose how the phone will ignore a blacklisted caller for instance.
Several other security features make this an incredible app as well, even though it is a bit on the pricey side ($11.99). You can fake data instead of showing the network you typed in a wrong password, SMS previews on the lockscreen can be disabled as well, and even SMS can be filtered to prevent annoying people from contacting you.
3G Unrestrictor
Other paid apps are cool to have if you need them, but 3G Unrestrictor is a relatively cheap ($3) app that is vital if you’re ever going to take your iPhone into the “Unlimited” plan you actually purchased it for. In 2009, I advised you to get VOIPover3G, that app has been discontinued and has been replaced by a bevy of 3G restriction-lifting apps. 3G Unrestrictor continues to be the cheapest and best of the best.
What this app does is it enables you to access the 3G network for things the iPhone would normally block by tricking it into thinking that it is operating over Wi-Fi. This means that you can make Skype calls out on the middle of the highway, or watch videos over Slingbox while waiting in the doctor’s office that doesn’t have Wi-Fi. Personally, lifting the 10 Mb limits on the App Store and iTunes respectively is awesome – because now larger podcast downloads are just clicks away.
Firewall iP
Firewall iP works for you in ways that I didn’t think would be possible on an iPhone. Basically, Firewall iP functions as Zonealarm would on the PC but on your iPhone, allowing through traffic and blocking traffic just as a real firewall would. For those that jailbreak often and download a lot online, a decent firewall is great protection on a PC, but it seems like it’s quickly becoming essential on the iPhone as well.
Block your incoming and outgoing connections on an app-by-app basis with an interface similar to the one found on SBSettings. It's all integrated and works amazingly well.
