Cydia Apps

If you are a new iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch user, you most certainly encountered a new set of terms and procedures that you are unfamiliar with, and most definitely have no idea what they mean. Things like Jailbreaking, Unlocking, Cydia are new for your, and we’ve decided to make it more simple for all of us, by writing this article that will try to explain and guide you through the things you have to know. 

What is Cydia?

Well i’ll answer that for you. Cydia is an app that makes your ordinary everyday apple idevice look like anything you want it to be, cydia can take your ordinary stock iPhone, iPod or iPad and make it look like a windows phone or even an android phone. Cydia has tons of stuff from simple tweaks like screen sliders and boot logos to more complex stuff like tweaks for springboard, tweaks for siri, call recorders. The cool stuf is that cydia is free for download and most apps, tweaks and sources are downloadable for free too. To download and install cydia you have to jailbreak your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. You cannot just download and install cydia. Cydia is not available in the Apple AppStore.

What is jailbreaking and why you would do it?

So…why do i need to jailbreak my idevice in order to install cydia? You’re asking… Apple has a strict policy regarding author rights for the apps in the app store and the safety of the users so if you have an iDevice with a stock/untouched firmware you are limited to just the AppStore for your app source (this means no cydia). In order to use the full potential of your idevice you have to gain root access. This means for you to have administrative rights on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

Can I install Cydia without Jailbreaking iOS device?

No matter what other say, this cannot be done; watch out for those that claim otherwise, since that could be a scam. Cydia can only be installed as a jailbreak option, since the vast majority of the jailbreak procedures actually give you the option to install Cydia automatically.

Sometimes Cydia is taking a long time to load; is that normal?

Often is the case that new users are unaware that they should remove the apps and tweaks they are no longer using from their iOS device. Another idea would be to install cracked cydia apps only from the best and safest cydia repositories and never use too many cydia sources, since each is indexed and checked for updates each time you start Cydia. To clear all this issues try optimizing cydia.

What are the jailbreak categories?

There are three categories of jailbreak available for use: tethered jailbreak, semi-tethered jailbreak and untethered jailbreak, each of them allowing you as a user certain degrees of freedom.
What does each kind of jailbreak means and which is the right one for me?

Undoubtedly the best kind of jailbreak is the untethered jailbreak, because it allows you as a user to restart your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch whenever you want without restrictions and with full access to all the third party apps that you have previously installed.

The semi-tethered jailbreak allows users to reboot their iOS device; however, some of the downloaded jailbreak apps may not be available for use until you plug your iOS device to your computer, full access being available afterwards.
The tethered jailbreak option limits your ability to reboot your iOS device if is not connected to your computer. Simply put, you can only reboot your Apple device when it is connected.

What tools should I use to jailbreak my iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch?

First of all, if you are unclear on the jailbreak procedure you could use a third party jailbreak service provider since if you fail the jailbreak process, you could end up bricking your device, but if you know what to do, tools like Redsn0w, Greenpois0n, Sn0wbreeze , Evasi0n and Absinthe should work out just fine.

Is Cydia safe?

The opinions on this matter are different: some say that apps downloaded from Cydia are unstable, others report crashing, and others say that there’s nothing wrong. The truth is somewhere in between: there are lots and lots of repositories out there, but as long as you do some research on each app and its compatibility before rushing to install it on your iOS device, you should be fine. Another safety measure is to install your content from trusted repositories that provide good quality.

How will I navigate the Cydia interface?

The first thing that you have to know is that you will have 5 tabs available:
 Home: here you will find account information, sponsored apps, sources F.A.Q. and settings.

 Sections: you will find here all apps divided and organized into categories. You will just have to select your category of interest and start browsing in search for your desired tweak.

 Changes: the section where you can find all the new programs and updates for your already installed tweaks. This section is updated every time you open Cydia.

 Manage: Here you can manage your installed programs, add and remove repositories and installed apps, as well as access your device’s entire storage.

 Search: If you are searching for a particular tweak and you already know its name, you can search in this tab and find it without having to go through all the repositories you have installed in your Cydia app.
What is a repository?

A repository or repo as some may call it is an online hub where the developers share their tweaks for quick access and installation. Some repositories are specialized some are not. Some are dedicated to categories like tweaks, apps, games and even ringtones.

Can you purchase apps from Cydia?

While the fact that most of the Cydia apps are available for free download, remains true, there are some that require payment in order to bring that little extra to your iOS device. While Apple is requiring you to use an iTunes Apple ID, Cydia allows users to connect using their Twitter or Facebook account, while the payments are done using Amazon gift cards or PayPal transactions. We know that this looks hard at first, but trust us on this one, it’s not.

I’m new to Cydia and I don’t know what to install first, can you help me?

While we acknowledge that there are plenty of apps and tweaks to choose from, we have compiled a list that will help you on the beginning of your journey:

 iSleepWell: a tweak that uses the hardware sensors embedded on your iOS device to detect the orientation of your device and turn off all the radios when the device is placed down on a surface. Basically your device will be in Airplane mode when you go into a meeting or if you are planning to sleep. This tweak is available in the BigBoss repository for 0.99$, and it is available for iOS 5 and above.

 ClipboardEdit: a tweak that will create a new section in your Notification Center. Text from the clipboard will be automatically read and displayed. Unfortunately, this tweak will not work with images. This tweak is available as well in the BigBoss repository, but for free.

 AssistantExtensions: it is a very handy tweak if you are an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 user, since this tweak can increase the options available when using Siri. It is based on MobileSubstrate and it allows developers and hackers to improve the extensions of this tweak. The cydia repo that you can download this tweak for free is the BigBoss repository.

 Activator v1.6.2: one of the essential tweaks that any jailbreaker should use. It is more of a key for most jailbreaks that require Activator, for you guessed it, activation methods. It is recommended that you always keep this tweak up to date. If you are uncertain of the cydia repos you can find this tweak in, simply use the Search tool we explained above.

 iLettars: a handy tweak that allows you to customize the duration of the animations and make them as slow or as fast as you want, to satisfy your visual needs. The cydia source for this tweak is ModMyi repository for $1.59.

Detailed info on  [http://www.howtoinstallcydia.org/180/download-appcake-the-installous-alternative/ installous]  can be found on the main website.