That didn’t take long. Google Glass won’t be available to the general public for at least a year, and it’s already been hacked. For Apple’s iOS, “jailbreaking” refers to essentially rooting the OS to gain complete access. Developers can then use that access to create system-level tweaks that Apple won’t let in the App Store.
Android is a little different, because rooting the OS isn’t something Google discourages or combats. Since Google Glass technically runs on Android, it can be “jailbroken.” That’s exactly what Jay Freeman, better known as “saurik” in the iOS jailbreak community, has done. Freeman runs Cydia, the jailbreak app store for Apple devices, and today he turned his attention to cracking his Google Glass prototype.
If you love jailbreaking and all the little tweaks that come with it, then you’re probably very familiar with Cydia. It’s the number one place to go to if you want to find hacks for your iPhone or iPad, but it also kind of sucks at the same time.
Cydia is massively unorganized and slow when there’s a rush to jailbreak. Most people want to blame its creator, Saurik, for its weaknesses, but in a recent discussion on jailbreaking, Saurik admitted those things bug him too, but there’s not much he can do about it.
The evasion jailbreak took longer than any other iOS jailbreak to come out, but it appears that the wait was worth it for millions of iOS users.
After only four days of being available to the public, nearly 7 million iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch owners have bulldozed through Apple’s walled garden and jailbroken their devices so they can customize each and every facet of their experience.
As Apple matures iOS every year with new features, many worry that jailbreaking will lose its appeal. Are the glory days over? All signs point to no.
A highly-anticipated jailbreak called Evasi0n was unleashed yesterday for the full gambit of iOS devices, including the iPhone 5. So many people jailbroke at once that Cydia, the jailbreak alternative to the App Store, buckled under the weight for hours. Based on early traffic numbers, iOS 6 has been jailbroken by millions of users in less than two days. Evasi0n reveals that jailbreaking is far from dead.
The iOS App Store has seen unprecedented success since its launch in 2008. Apple undoubtedly boasts the largest and most vibrant app ecosystem in existence, but the App Store’s success has come at a cost.
Apple’s ‘walled garden’ approach gives the company complete control over which apps are published in the App Store. If an app doesn’t follow Apple’s playbook, it doesn’t get in. You may work for months and months on an app only to get it rejected. Publishing in the App Store can be a huge gamble. But if you get lucky, the payoff can be huge.
Aaron Ash kicked off JailbreakCon with a talk on developing for the App Store vs. Cydia, the alternative storefront for jailbreakers. Ash has an unusual perspective because he has seen incredibly success has a developer in Cydia, and he is also a developer in the App Store.
To prep for JailbreakCon this weekend, sit down with Cult of Mac and take a look back at the history of jailbreaking.
Back in 2007, Steve Jobs used a famous quote from ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky to summarize Apple’s commitment to innovation: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” That’s long been true for Apple and products like the iPhone and iPad. But for more than four years, jailbeaking has pushed the boundaries of iOS even farther.
If Apple skates to where the puck is going to be, then jailbreakers have usually already been there and left. The hackers and tinkerers that find security loopholes in Apple’s software are some of the most brilliant, innovative minds in the tech world.
We’ll be covering JailbreakCon 2012 this weekend in San Francisco, the world’s first convention dedicated solely to the jailbreak community. What better way to get ready for the future of jailbreaking than to examine the past? Let’s start from the beginning:
Meet Bodega, a storefront for Mac apps that came before Apple's own Mac App Store.
The Mac has had a vibrant, growing community of developers for many years, and Apple has continued to encourage third-party developer participation with the Mac App Store. Launched in January of 2011, the Mac App Store already boasts 10,000 apps. It’s easier then ever for developers to get their apps in front of millions of OS X users. But what if you don’t want to play by Apple’s rules? Or what you if you want your app to be seen by as many eyes as possible? Then you start to look outside the Mac App Store.
While Apple’s is great in its own ways, other storefronts are offering different —and in many ways better — experiences for app distribution and discovery. In fact, there’s a certain Mac app out there that’s been doing it well for a long time.
America’s first jailbreak convention is scheduled to take place on September 29th, 2012 at the South San Francisco Conference Center in California. The guys behind JailbreakCon, formerly known as MyGreatFest, have also announced the convention’s star-studded speaker lineup.
The creator of Cydia, the jailbreak equivalent to Apple’s App Store, will be headlining the event again. The convention kicked off in London, U.K. last year to warm reception from the rest of the jailbreak community. Expect even better things from JailbreakCon 2012!
You’d be forgiven for thinking that unauthorized iOS apps obtained from the likes of Cydia aren’t as careful with your personal data as those approved by Apple for sale in the App Store. In fact, the opposite is true. Jailbroken iOS apps respect your privacy more than those obtained from the App Store.
An update for the Corona untethered jailbreak tool has been released for all A5-based devices.
If you’re having trouble with iBooks on your newly-jailbroken iPhone 4S, you’re not alone. As with most jailbreaks, Apple’s eBook app can tend to act up and sometimes not work at all when opened on a liberated iOS device. Thanks to the most recent Corona update in Cydia, iPhone 4S jailbreakers should be able to use iBooks on the iPhone 4S. The update also addresses general stability issues for users on iOS 5.0 and is recommend for iPad 2 owners as well.
![A Jailbreaker’s Perspective On Developing For The App Store Vs. Cydia [JailbreakCon]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Screen-Shot-2012-09-30-at-4.09.39-PM.jpg "Screen Shot 2012-09-30 at 4.09.39 PM")
![The History Of Jailbreaking [Feature]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/jailbreak1.jpg "jailbreak1")
![Meet Bodega, The Awesome Mac App Store Alternative You Didn’t Know Existed [Feature]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Bodega-App-Icon.jpeg "Bodega App Icon"){kind=icon}
![The World’s First Convention For Jailbreakers Will Be In California This September [Jailbreak]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Screen-Shot-2012-03-09-at-12.19.03-PM.jpg "JailbreakCon 2012 banner")
![Jailbreak-Only Apps Respect Your Privacy More Than App Store Apps [Report]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/path1.jpeg "path-contacts-access-revoked")
