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Two Major Cydia Hosts Shut Down as Jailbreaking Fades in Popularity (macrumors.com)
Joe Rossignol, writing for MacRumors: ModMy last week announced it has archived its default ModMyi repository on Cydia, which is essentially an alternative App Store for downloading apps, themes, tweaks, and other files on jailbroken iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices. ZodTTD/MacCiti also shut down this month, meaning that two out of three of Cydia's major default repositories are no longer active as of this month. ModMy recommends developers in the jailbreaking community use the BigBoss repository, which is one of the last major Cydia sources that remains functional. The closure of two major Cydia repositories is arguably the result of a declining interest in jailbreaking, which provides root filesystem access and allows users to modify iOS and install unapproved apps on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. When the iPhone and iPod touch were first released in 2007, jailbreaking quickly grew in popularity for both fun and practical reasons. Before the App Store, for example, it allowed users to install apps and games. Jailbreaking was even useful for something as simple as setting a wallpaper, not possible on early iOS versions.
Don't know why this is being touted as a "decline in interest" when the real story is that there hasn't been a clean useable jailbreak available for a LONG time, nothing really useable for IOS10 and nothing for IOS11, despite reports of "demos". Apple has done a good job of shutting JB'ing down, whether by patching holes, or.... I wonder if Apple pays these hackers off not to release the JB after a demo is released.
Yes IOS has offered many of the features that JB'ing used to provide, but not all... I still would JB if I could. But I can't be forever stuck on IOS8 either.
Yep.
That's the problem.
Take an older iPad where I needed to install a certain app. When I tried to install it from the App Store, it told me that the current app version was incompatible with the OS version. The OS itself couldn't be updated further.
However, there was a perfectly functional older version of the app compatible with an older iOS out there. App Store would just not allow me to download it directly.
The hack was to download it first in iTunes, flagging my account as already having downloaded it, THEN reinstall it on the iPad. Since my iTunes account was flagged, the App Store would then provide the older app.
With jailbreaking and/or ability to sideload after clicking a disclaimer, this procedure would have been much less irritating. But no, Apple WANTS to irritate you into buying a new iPad and putting your (perfectly functional) one in the landfill.
It's been a long time since I've touched iOS, but I wonder if part of it is the old JB scene moving over to Android? A lot of features I used to have to Jailbreak my phone for were readily available OOTB or in the Play Store with no need to root the device.