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Underground App Store Courts the Jailbroken
PainMeds writes "Apple's stepped-up and controversial rejections are helping to foster competition in the app store marketplace. According to an article by Wired, developers aren't taking AppStore rejection lying down, but are turning to the hacking community's repository system for the iPhone to launch an app store of their own. The 4-month-old Cydia store is yielding notably higher sales for a few application developers than Apple's AppStore, and is reportedly running on over 4 million Apple iPhone devices, with perhaps 350,000 connected at any one time. In this store, developers are distributing applications they've written that push the limits of Apple's normal AppStore policies, with software to add file downloads to Safari, trick applications into thinking they're on Wi-Fi (for VoIP), and enhance other types functionality. You'll also find the popular Google Voice application, which was recently rejected by Apple. Third party application development has been around since 2007, when the iPhone was originally introduced, and became so popular that O'Reilly Media published a book geared toward writing applications before an SDK was available. The Cydia store acts as both a free package repository and commercial storefront to third-party developers."
And there goes Apple's monopoly. I can't say this is a bad thing, it gives users another option, without severely damaging Apple.
Laughter is the best medicine, except if you have a broken rib.
Normally Apple is on a totally different playing field from any competition... Not here, and it will be interesting to see how they deal with this. :) I am betting lawyers and politicians.
the revolution!
now we just need some anti-apple slogans. and no, "microsoft" doesn't count.
weinersmith
Those that hack or pirate always have it better. No DRM, no restrictions on what software you can install, no need for physical media and the list goes on. Being a nice customer simply doesn't pay anymore these days.
right...
...just as they arrested that guy who was illegally modifying PS3s without Sony's permission. We cannot allow people to have control over their own property.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Posts from the ostensibly-libertarian about how much safer and nicer it is firmly under steve's thumb...
but I'm glad that someone is challenging them in this way. If you're going to have a device that is touted as one of the most powerful and useful, don't stifle the development community by rejecting the better applications they send your way.
Software programmers are free thinkers. They don't like being told what to do by a monolithic entity trying to hold all the cards and write all the game's rules.
i'm surprised the soviet union didn't come up with the "walled garden" phrase.
THL phish sticks
If you haven't jailbroken yours yet, you haven't lived.
call me FOSS im the boss with the sauce and the source
Undoubtedly Apple will fight this to the ends of the Earth, but it really is needed.
Although you can't really blame Apple for denying Google Voice and similar apps since they really have rhyme or reason in their vetting process. It seems like a thousand monkey on a thousand typewriters approving apps.
It's nice to see these great apps finding a home, although since it is more lax the risks start to go up.
In the end the consumer wins, anyone not inclined to go outside the comfort zone of Apple's store gets a good selection of applications that are backed by Apple. The rest of us get more variety.
Cydia has been around longer than 4 months. Prior to that there were other "App stores" as well. All for the jail broken.
If you can't compete, litigate. It's the American way!
It amazes me how often the details in these stories are completely wrong...
"You'll also find the popular Google Voice application, which was recently rejected by Apple."
You won't find the Google Voice app which was recently rejected ANYWHERE in Cydia. Do you honestly think Google, who are practically partners on the iPhone considering the Apple/Google relationship as well as the phone coming with Google Maps and Youtube baked in, would turn to releasing software in Cydia?
What you WILL find in Cydia is the GV Mobile app which was approved and added to the App Store and later pulled. This IS NOT the Google Voice app that was recently rejected, it's a completely different app that was written by a 3rd party.
I don't think it's too much to ask for a technology site to not get huge details wrong in their writeups. :-/
That the company trumpeting how 1984 wouldn't be like 1984 was the company to most make it like 1984?
Do you really think Apple is upset that individuals are adding attractions to their hardware? This is the best of both worlds for Apple. These guerrilla outfits open up new markets for the iPhone while Apple still gets to pretend they run a clean shop and are adhering to their AT&T contract.
I like the idea of free choice when it comes to what I run on my phone. And I'm in serious need of adblock on the phone (c'mon apple, the 3G pipe is small, I don't want to waste time downloading that crap). But the thing that keeps me from jailbraking my phone is:
1) primarily it's a phone and it's got to be reliable. I'm not going to do anything to reduce the already marginal reliability of the cell network.
2) Once jailbroken it's a constant game of cat and mouse when it comes to updates. I don't want to have to research every system patch and update to see when it's ok to use it and how. This goes back to point 1, it's an appliance for me, with extra functionality I can strap on. It's not a cutting edge geeky plaything because that would hose up the core functionality that I need (the phone part)
So in this regard, I look at android and think that the grass is a bit greener over there. But there's a lot of reasons to stay with the iPhone if you aren't butthurt over someone else telling you what you can do with the shiny.
Sheldon
What I find most amazing about this whole thing is that Jobs keeps repeating the same mistakes that made Apple the #2 computer maker in the world (as opposed to #1). Apple computers have always had this 'elitest' mentality, more expensive, insufficient quantity of freely available applications due to a closed hardware standard. Meanwhile the IBM compatible cleaned up not due to superior product but openly replaceable components and a variety of applications that could be traded, installed, hacked, improved, etc. . . . .
I personally couldn't care less about the iPhone, but I do own a touch and the ability to use a variety of "non-blessed" apps makes it a more useful device as there is a greater variety of things that CAN be done with it. Remember the old BBS days? You could cruise the different file download areas and oh all the wonderful little trinkets you could find and do with your pc? My touch is starting to become the same way. A truly easy to use portable computer.
*sigh* will Apple ever learn?
Apple, AT&T and other cell phone companies have yet to realize that imposing unreasonable restrictions on your own customers -- on a physical object your customers *bought* -- defies common sense.
People who own a physical piece of equipment should be able to use their equipment in any way that doesn't break the law or hurt others.
Some protections of the manufacturer are understandable, but they must be within reason. The more unreasonable the restrictions, the less legitimate they seem in the eyes of customers. The less legitimate they seem, the less guilt people feel for breaking the restrictions. The less guilty people feel, the more the "undesired" actions become mainstream (hence the jailbroken iPhone App Store). Plus, if they're extremely unreasonable, the FCC might just step in and void them.
In short, when dealing with consumers, being draconian as a company (a.) makes your product less valuable and (b.) reduces or eliminates goodwill customers have towards you. Apple needs to realize that you simply can't force people to do exactly what you want.
Duh.
The Institute of Incomplete Research has determined that 9 of out 10
http://apple.eatspoop.com/ - why can't apple just treat the iphone like a computer? i'll stick with my broadband card until this gets resolved 2 or 3 years down the road.
Litigation is merely competition by other means.
(With apologies to Clausewitz...)
The Google Voice app is NOT available on Cydia. GV Mobile (not a Google product) is available, but it doesn't integrate well with the iPhone's contact list. GV mobile is a far cry from any native app that Google would have released for the iPhone.
Facts have a liberal bias.
Whoops accidently modded the wrong thing.
My addiction: Arguing with idiots. AKA Slashdot!
http://thebigboss.org/why-jailbreak-iphone/
The apps interfaces are so amazing compared to the boring vanilla apps. check qtwitter or sbsettings for examples.
Good for them. Apple needs to be told that once I pay for it that it's my iPhone and I'll use it as I please without their nanny-state anti-competitive meddling.
Apple may be the source of many new, good, and original ideas, but they aren't the only source of them. If it doesn't damage the AT&T system -- or any other carrier I chose to give my business to with my iPhone -- (and tethering and VOIP don't damage the under-provisioned AT&T system since I pay for the right to transport my bits) then I should be able to do it. The rest are just stupid restrictions designed with the sole purpose of ripping me off even worse than you're already ripping me off.
Quit trying to hold back and prevent the rest of us from being able to benefit from the advances in technology with your old voice business model.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Unfortunately, that is true. For a jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch can be trivially enabled to pirate App Store (the official Apple one) apps. Jailbreaking won't get you the ability to install pirated apps, but it's trivial to do it (basically you enable a new repository, which involves maybe 5 or 6 taps and a bit of typing, then another 4 taps or so to install the required tool).
The only interesting thing is, considering how easy it is to pirate real App Store apps, how long until Cydia gets locked down to prevent people from doing the same to its paid apps? RIght now it isn't much of a problem because the vast majority of Cydia apps are free...
apt-get has it right IMO:
Ubuntu (or debian?) blessed apps are categorized as such. If someone only wants such blessed (and signed) apps, they can limit their search to that space. If you want to take chances, you can open up to the 'multi-verse' of apt-get where stuff is placed, but not blessed. You lose the sense that someone has inspected the code and found it ok, but you gain the ability to get things that didn't seek/get such a blessing if you want it.
Congratulations, you just won the prize for buying into AT&T's Propaganda Campaign against jailbreaking your phone.
Oh, pleeeese don't do that! You'll break the network if you do that!
The number of contradictions in AT&T's public position on this (no Sling media, but yes MLB streaming; no VOIP here, but yes on other AT&T phones...) are too numerous to enumerate here, so I'll put it in simple terms: It's about the money, Stupid, and screw you!
In fact, if anything, AT&T is doing more damage to their own network by causing people go to alternate sources for their software where said software may not be as well reviewed and corrected as in the App Store.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Sith Lord: "I will make it legal!" (Welcome to the dark side, Mr. Jobs. But maybe the Jedi will return and feed whoever is behind this to a slowly digesting sandworm...)
Very insightful, and I'd Mod you to +6 if I could. However, I make the case that Amazon.com is currently duking it out with Apple over the top position in the 1984 mentality race of late.
Then again, if Amazon deleted 1984 off of the Kindle reader software on your iPhone then it all comes together and I can see the Big Picture now.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
...how hard is a jailbroken device to maintain over time? I understand the initial process is fairly simple, but with most hacks maintenance and keeping it hacked can be difficult (witness hackintoshes when OS updates come out, Tivos when the kernel is updated, etc). Can anyone comment on how hard it would be for an "average user" to not only set this up, but keep it running over time?
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
Don't forget that Apple installed this to disable your apps though...
and I am a PC. :)
The real question is: Does Apple really want to learn?
It's hard to be 'elitest' and #1 at the same time. In fact, I think that they're mutually exclusive. Evidence over all these years seems conclusive that Steve Jobs has exactly the computer company that he always wanted to have...
...and that this vision means that the rest of us don't matter in relationship to that vision. It's simply take-it-or-leave-it -- you don't get to pick and choose.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I am an Obama supporter that actually knew what "Change" he wanted, and was quite happy about it too! you might not agree with me, but don't assume all obama supporters blindly supported him without checking the facts
And I think you are completely WRONG there. This is completely about money and that's why Apple is only selling through AT&T. In the beginning they had a limited number of iPhones available to sell. AT&T offered the most amount of kickback from the subscribers in return for an exclusive market. That deal wouldn't exist if the iPhone could run on any system. But in this process Apple has made the same mistakes that they make far too often.
TYPICAL APPLE MISTAKE #1: Apple believes that people only value what they have to pay through the nose for. This opens them up to cheaper competition in the same way that the superior Betamax system lost out to the cheaper VHS.
TYPICAL APPLE MISTAKE #2: While Apple fiddled around trying to get their act together they left open a huge window of opportunity for cheaper competitors to move into the field they had invented. Hello, Android!
TYPICAL APPLE MISTAKE #3: Refusal to learn from Mistakes #1 & #2.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Did you even read the article? You missed the whole point entirely!
Furthermore, we don't care WHAT network is providing the service for the phone; it has no relevance at all this conversation (even if you did think that jailbreaking and unlocking were the same thing). Apple will always be against jailbreaking, PERIOD.
The jailbreak accomplishes more than allowing you to go to your own Carrier; as is clearly demonstrated by this whole topic; it allows you to things you fundamentally CAN'T do without being jail broken.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong here; but it sounds to me like without the jailbreak the only place for getting Apps, be it for the iPhone or the iPod touch would be the 'apple store'. This jailbreak allows you to go to a different SOURCE that apple doesnt control.
Apple's interest in preventing jailbreak is because they have and always have tried to maintain a vertical monopoly on their platform. If you don't buy things from their app store they will claim they lose an immeasureable amount of money becuase it decreases liquidity of the marketspace, reduces traffic (ad revenue), reduces sales (directly), etc etc. Or in otherwords, it creates competition and creates an actual open market.
"Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny" ~Frank Zappa
EdelFactor
I know, it's bad to reply to oneself. I just wanted to add that when I look at that 1984 ad, I can't help but imagine all these people marching as being Apple fans following the voice of the company, telling them they are one people, one will, one resolve, one cause, that they shall prevail, etc.
I know this can be applied to any fanatics, but in this case the irony is too much.
Very insightful, and I'd Mod you to +6 if I could. However, I make the case that Amazon.com is currently duking it out with Apple over the top position in the 1984 mentality race of late. Then again, if Amazon deleted 1984 off of the Kindle reader software on your iPhone then it all comes together and I can see the Big Picture now.
Damn... and I thought we'd always been at war with Amazon.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Perhaps is so exceedingly wealthy that he has enough cash just sitting in the bank to pay for whatever medical care he needs, and then some?
That's close to what has been called a "health savings account plan". It's cheap in part because of its sky-high deductible.
I say exactly the same thing about people who voted for Obama
And they probably say the exact same thing about you. Or maybe they understand Obama's policies and realize that they really are in their best interest?
re: your sig: Why should Obama apologize to Crowley? Crowley made a mistake, and Obama said so.
"Mistake" number 1 would be valid if the iPhone wasn't an enormous runaway success, unlike consumer Betamax (which was developed into Betacam by Sony, who then held a practical monopoly on the broadcast format throughout the early 90s and upto today with DigiBeta, only really starting to properly diverge with the advent of competing HD formats from Panasonic - Sony never licenced Beta, which is why it failed "commercially", but it also meant that Betacam reigned supreme in the $10,000+ proVCR edit/ENG/studio market.
If Sony had licenced Beta from the outset then VHS probably would have existed, but then who knows how the pro market would have turned out. There was also a third format involved in that war - Phillips Video 2000, which offered better image quality and double sided video tapes, but was too expensive. Sony ended up in Apple's position like JVC ended up in the IBM compatible position - one sells very expensive VCRs that can cost upwards of $50,000 each, the other sells VCRs that cost $30 and break often, but who cares, they're only $30.
"Mistake" 2 isn't really a mistake - it was inevitable that competitors would rush in to fill the perceived (or actual) gaps in Apple's offering, and also seek to duplicate everything the iPhone does. Apple was nowhere close to the first smartphone provider, nor were they they first mp3 player provider, yet they are the market leaders in both areas, and the benchmark by which all others in the arena are judged. The new smartphone offerings from several companies look exactly like iPhones - funny that they all look like that now - why didn't they look like that before?
Apple isn't "fooling around" and missing an opportunity that Android is filling in - they simply didn't want to (or were not contractually obliged to) take part in. If you want a hackable smartphone, Android is it. If you want Apple's user experience (sold as such from the get go - it's not like they are hiding the fact), then there's the iPhone.
I fail to see how mistake 3 is a mistake - Apple are making money hand over fist, and they literally cannot make iPods and iPhones fast enough, despite all the "mistakes" they seem to be making. Despite cheaper iPhone alternatives from Samsung and Nokia, iPhones are still selling like hot cakes. Despite many, many, many cheaper iPod alternatives, iPods are selling like hot cakes. The only serious competitor to the iPod is the iPhone. No worries about marketshare erosion there.
Apple had no choice when it went to the phone carriers first time out with their new phone. The ROKR (or whatever it was called) was a flop, and they wanted into the market properly with the new and untested iPhone - into a segment of the celluar market that is traditionally harder to sell (smartphones). They needed a carrier, and you can be damn sure that access to that particular game is hard work. In order to get favourable access, I have no doubt they had to take a pretty unfavourable deal (the exclusivity with AT&T) that they are unhappy about (check the WWDC comments regarding AT&T, live on stage). Now it's clear the iPhone is a *massive* success, their bargaining position has changed and they can get better terms, or lose the exclusivity deal entirely. Everyone wants an iPhone (or more accurately, an enormous, statistically and massively profitable portion of the consumer base) wants an iPhone, so whoever has it on their network can make a shedload of money. It doesn't matter to Apple who that is, but the more customers they have (and the carriers are their customers here), the more they can sell.
I am an Obama supporter that actually knew what "Change" he wanted, and was quite happy about it too!
Could you enumerate this "Change" that you wanted and received.
It would be very interesting to know.
Congratulations, you just won the prize for buying into AT&T's Propaganda Campaign against jailbreaking your phone.
You missed the point. If his wife goes into labor and he NEEDS to receive the phone call he can't be worried about missing it because some jailbroken application prevents the signal from getting to his phone from the nearest tower. If his boss needs to contact him to put out a fire with a downed server, he can't be in the middle of a half-broken "reset phone settings" procedure because he was updating his phone firmware to the latest and greatest and the instructions on the internet didn't work.
I'm not saying that these things won't happen anyway... but using the device as intended by the manufacturer will decrease the chances of that and INCREASE the overall reliability of the device. Otherwise... he'd have to get a second phone to use as a phone to backup his iPhone which is used as a mobile internet enabled application device.
Support the 30 Hour Work Week!!!
Again Jailbreaking (OS) != Unlocking (Carrier)
I jailbroke my iPod Touch last week, and am now thinking what I might do with the results.
Personally, I agree to disagree with Apple on this one. I think the world would be a better place if Apple would lighten up a bit. I think the world is already a better place, thanks to Apple's technology. They provide developer access to anybody who asks nicely and gives them a little bit of money. Jailbreaking just gives a little bit more access.
Since the "security" is so easily broken, does it really matter? Is it still security?
...laura
This also leads to a possible way for Apple's to shut down sites that help with jailbreaking...
The jailbreaking sites definitely discourage pirating. If Apple tries to pull DMCA anti-circumvention crap, it will be interesting. I really hope Apple tries it; the U.S. has started handing out jail time for installing mod-chips(without any piracy involved) and this could create a tipping point to bring the law back into balance.
...Underground App Store Courts the Jailbroken. In Soviet Russia, the Court Stores the Jailbroken.... YOU! - fuckit.
I have 2 iphones. None of them on ATT (both on t-mobile prepaid). I would have NEVER gotten to be an ATT customer at "$90 a month" since I pay $100/yr on each phone. Don't need more. ATT never really lost that line of revenue (well, they did loose the $200/yr, if they had a decent prepaid plan and if they were not accomplices to the NSA illegal wiretapping).
Thanks to the Magnusson-Moss act, if you installed a third party air filter, hood or aftermarket headlights, for Ford won't be able to void your warranty on the transmission, for example. Warranty shouldn't be voided just because you opened the (software) hood, unless it can be proven that your changes caused the problem.
A president with enumerable brain cells. And no, I did not mean innumerable.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
I knew this all sounded familiar. Make it pretty and easy to do things but only the AOL^H^H^HApple way and everyone will be happy.
We all remember how well that worked out for AOL, don't we?
re: your sig: Why should Obama apologize to Crowley? Crowley made a mistake, and Obama said so.
I hope thats an attempt at humor. It failed (miserably), just like the race card Gates played (stupidly) and has since capitulated from.
As far as I can tell, Android is open and people can develop all they want on it, without needing to jailbreak their devices and risk bricking their handset. Why don't frustrated IPhone developers just switch to Android?
And if you're using a computer for mission critical work you probably don't want to install unnecessary software on it either. That's not a justification for the manufacturer to preemptively make that decision for you.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
Ah yes, the old bush-is-a-moron argument. We've grown so fond of hearing that...
Q: Who owns the hardware and my capability to use it?
A: I do, yet it may be found that the hardware is a service lent to me in a 1-time purchase of its rent, and is not a valid muniment of title to prove allodium to this dispute in a fee simple ownership. Alas, Apple and the service provider have retained ownership over the hardware, thereby proving nothing was sold or was a conditional sale disguised as a phone. I may consider a CB Radio with a TTY and active Channel Moderation software to better discipline complementary peers to area-based message and torrent sorting functions to a repeater with a gateway to a DNS and web proxy. What then, oh Apple and ATT? What then would I need ICANN for to do if all I need is a Beowulf Cluster and God?
Q: Who owns the software and my capability to use it?
A: Apple owns the software, Apple disguses the software as a service, I rent the software, and my person is qualified by Apple on the extent of using the software by means of Court through the User Interface with emphasis on original rights management not facilitated through Digital Rights Managemement(tm).
Q: Who owns the service and my capability to use it?
A: Apple on my behalf through Contract has volunteered my use of ATT's network service into their form by a single Contract. The range of use is not to the capability of the command-set but is artificial based on moral guidlines provided in the software lent through Digitial Rights Management(tm) and its administrators from time to time.
It used to pay, when businesses just made devices, not services, and when they sold their devices, the hacks/uses that their customers came up with would only make their product sell more.
Now, devices are pushing proprietary formats, proprietary software, proprietary services, all of which cannot inter-operate with other devices. One thing that is clear: businesses want to sell wallet leashes.
Twinstiq, game news
"Except that I am on comcast and I can get to all three of those sites."
You are on slashdot and you don't get the point.