The Top 10 Cydia Apps of 2011

We covered your favorite Cydia applications in 2009, then we made some changes for 2010, but finally, in 2011, we refresh everything. New pictures, new descriptions, and new Cydia apps for your perusing pleasure. In 2011, iOS is scheduled to hit the iPad 2, iPhone 5, and next-gen iPod Touch, and for that we have you covered on what jailbreak apps to use. Now's the perfect time to jailbreak with the new GreenPois0n RL5 Beta, so get that iOS 4.2.1 device jailbroken and read on, we've got the Cydia apps you've been craving.

For returning fans, we've removed four apps from our list because of redundancy with the iOS4 update - no longer do you need "Categories" to create folders or "Cycorder" to record video, and the old "Firewall iP" app has been replaced with a more useful Grooveshark app, the same was done to the "SwirlyMMS" app.

 Installous is a one-of-a-kind app for iPhone and iPad, it provides unparalleled opportunity to download old apps and apps that the real app store wouldn't allow. New for 2011 is a better search engine built into the app that doesn't rely on the old, slow Appulo.us repository of apps (as a matter of fact, Appulo shut its doors not too long ago). On the iPad particularly, multitasking with the Installous app works incredibly well to search, download and find the IPA files that you know and love. The new Installous works off of a surprisingly fast engine on either iPhone or iPad and manages to bring a cohesive "App Store"-like experience to your hacked apps. Installous is definitely one of the best Cydia apps available.

Note: The install process remains the same, you need to add the hackulo.us repository to Cydia. Simply go into Cydia, navigate over to Manage, then click on Sources, and click Edit in the top right hand corner, then Add on the top left corner, once you’ve clicked add, type in “Cydia.hackulo.us” into the http repository screen. Then tap on Add Source and it’ll give you a message about piracy. Click OK on the message and download Installous through this new repo!

 Grooveshark, need I say more? One of the most popular music streaming sites online brings its wares to the iPhone exclusively through jailbreaking. For those who need a primer on Grooveshark, the online service that's totally free for desktop users brings iTunes-like music search to the cloud. Users upload songs to the web server and then you can search through them for practically any song imaginable, even obscure ones.

When it comes to the mobile service though, it really boils down to how you feel about the $9 monthly fee for using the app. Because of the 3G connection, it's possible to stream any and all songs to the iPhone while you're out on the road. This could mean that you could queue up all the songs you'd normally keep on your iPhone/iPod from the cloud directly to your phone. The subscription is a high price to pay for many, but try it out, see if it works for you, I enjoyed it quite a bit and keep a subscription going for queuing up songs at parties and during long car rides. NOTE: To Install the Grooveshark app, just search in the normal Cydia Repository for "Grooveshark".

 After many long years of waiting and anticipation, XBMC finally brought their amazing Media Center app to the iPhone and iPad, and it works quite well. Rather than bringing a skimpy mobile version of XBMC, their dev team decided to bring the full experience to the iOS devices. The app loads in a reasonable amount of time and has all the add-ons and skins found in the original.

On the front end, the app looks great and plays videos like VLC media player would on your iOS device. It's nice to be able to enable scrapers and information for all your movies and TV shows right there on your iPhone/Pad. TV Shows, Movies, Photos, and Music all streaming to your iDevice also work well and attach to your existing network infrastructure.

The install process is rather simple, just follow the instructions posted at: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Install_XBMC_on_iPhone/iPad and you'll be ready to go.

 Unlike SwirlyMMS from last years' top ten Cydia apps list, iRealSMS comes with a hefty price tag of around $12, but is worth it when you consider the amount of features iRealSMS brings to the table. Android features come to the iPhone with this update, in particular pictures for contacts on your phone and QuickReply.

Quickly replying to text messages is something that you don't realize you need until you have the app in place and working. No longer will pop-ups intrude your apps only to have you switch back to the texting app in order to respond. But much more than that, iReal provides much needed SMS privacy settings, searching, forwarding, and folders for your texts.

If QuickReply is all you need, however, there is a much cheaper (~$3) app in the store that has solely this feature. This way, you get the best feature of iRealSMS without needing to pay full price for it.

Check out page two for another six great Cydia applications.