One week later with Jailbreak and App Store
After a full week of both App Store and Jailbreak Apps, here’s where I stand. There is no going back. As I said before, the iPhone without Jailbreak is not an iPhone. Though apps are only beginning to trickle in through Cydia, and hopefully Installer 4 in the near future, the apps on the App Store are just not enough. I want to do things with my phone that Apple simply won’t allow. This is what the phone builders and service providers seem to forget. It’s my phone, I paid for it. If I screw something up, so be it. That’s what a hard re-install is for.
Having said that, there are some really useful apps on the App Store, some of which I’ve already talked about in past posts. Here’s a sort of working list of what I’ve found to be fun or useful apps, both free and non-free, on the App Store (in no order).
- AIM – I know, it’s AIM, but the lack of iChat still blows my mind.
- FileMagnet – Move things to your phone without syncing. No iTunes required.
- Animals – The kids love this little app, not so much fun for me.
- PhoneSaber – Come on, it turns your phone into a Light Saber, what’s not to like.
- WeatherBug – Because the built in Weather app sucks.
- Stanza – Create books, read PDF files, download books from 1000+ library.
- Mobile News – It sounds funny, but AP did a great job on this app. Videos, photos and news, easy to use.
- Remote – Control your AppleTV
- Zenbe – I use this list program constantly. Sync against online lists, that you can edit on desktop and phone.
- Bejeweled 2 – It’s Bejeweled, what’s not to like.
- Trism – Way addictive time waster.
- Othello – Much better than Morocco, which I also play on occasion.
- Shakespeare – Come on, it’s all of Shakespeare in your pocket.
- ShuffleBoard – So much fun. Takes practice, but worth the couple of bucks.
- Twittelator – I actually prefer this one to both of the other well known Twitter apps.
- LifeGame – Don’t ask, if you don’t know what it is, it won’t matter to you.
- SportsTap – Keep up to date on all the major sports. Really useful, and up-to-date.
- YouNote – Haven’t used this one much, but what it can do is amazing, and I know I’ll use it more in the future.
- Quordy – Good time waster, makes you realize how few words you actually know.
As for Jailbreak apps, there aren’t that many yet. Most of them are command line, or utility/tweak programs. At the moment, these are the ones that I use on a regular basis:
- BossTools – fix all the bad ideas Apple came up with for partitioning the drives.
- BossPrefs – Manage SSH, Wi-Fi, Edge, 3G all from one location. Also, double tap home to bring up app.
- Flashlight – If anyone ever pays for one of these on iTunes, they need to be punched.
- OpenSSH – goes without saying.
- Numeric Battery – See your battery life as a number, not a stupid bar in the right corner.