iPhone-Bangaluru: Apps After Jailbreaking.....!

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

iBlackList serves two main purposes, primarily it allows you to create Blacklists and Whitelists for your contacts. Depending on your setup, iBlackList will allow or disallow certain contacts to get through to you. This also works for SMS messages and automatically deletes messages from contacts you don’t want to hear from.

Another feature of iBlackList is perhaps the ‘killer feature’ for us. Turning on ‘Notifications Privacy’ stops those annoying popups when you get an SMS. So you can happily leave your phone on the side without worrying about your text messages popping up, and more importantly, when playing games you wont be interrupted at that critical moment by an SMS popup!

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,

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

Make It Mine allows you to change the carrier name (or remove it totally as shown above). Also it lets you change the clock to read anything else you want it to. We like the idea of removing the Carrier name entirely, because it makes the iPhone top bar look less busy.

Poof!

Apps like ‘Stocks’ are pretty useless for everyone, and we’re not sure why Apple have included it as a basic app. However, most people would prefer it wasn’t visible. Poof! allows you to ‘hide’ apps that you don’t want to see.