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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."

2 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Cue the inevitable... by commodore64_love · · Score: 0, Troll

    At least Steve Jobs is merely a person, and not a member of Congress. He can't *force* me to buy his products, like a Congressman can force me to buy health insurance I don't want. In fact the only iPod in my house is one that I stole.

    Uh oh.

    I shouldna told you that.

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  2. Re:Cue the inevitable... by jo_ham · · Score: 0, Troll

    Foxnews in the sig.

    Yup. Crazy.

    Move along folks, nothing useful to read here.