As Jeremy posted earlier, Apple wiped the iTunes App Store clean of all traces of Google Voice, both the official Google version and third party clients like GV Voice. (Rumor has it at the behest of AT&T)

GV Voice, however, didn’t take their removal lying down. Nope, they (meaning developer Sean Kovacs) picked themselves right up, marched over to Cydia, and promptly made themselves available for Jailbreak.

And, weirdly, it’s getting to the point that we’re wondering if this isn’t “the plan” all along.

Apple provides a closed appliance with strict and nebulously enforced rules for its App Store, placating carriers, and making a device so simple it’s become the first true consumer smartphone success. At the same time, Jailbreak provides a de facto “expert” or “pro” version of the iPhone for those willing (and able) to do the work, at no training or support cost to Apple, and with complete deniability in terms of carrier and media agreements.

Whether we think Apple and/or AT&T are evil, Google is competitive, or whatever, with GV Mobile, Qik, and all the other apps available via Jailbreak, are iPhone users actually getting the best of both worlds…?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

GV Mobile Brings Google Voice to iPhone… via Cydia for Jailbreak

The developer of Cydia, Jay Freeman, wants to take his creation to the next level. Freeman wants to turn the jailbroken app manager into a direct competitor of Apple’s official App Store. For anyone not familiar with Cydia, what it does is act as a jailbroken application gateway. Every single jailbroken application out there is found via Cydia.

Currently, there are paid apps within Cydia but they require the use of Paypal and unlocking keys. Those are all set up by the developers of the apps themselves. Having an organized jailbreak apps “app store” would be ideal but it could also give Apple the nudge to really start going after the jailbreaking community. It wasn’t long ago Apple claimed jailbreaking to be illegal.

According to Gizmodo, Freeman has already hired a lawyer. And TiPb thinks its for good reason… Now we all wait for a official response from Apple…

[Ed: We might have already seen the game plan in Apple vs. Psystar and the "John Doe" filings which may target the Hackintosh community -- Rene).

[Via Gizmodo]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Cydia Developer Starting App Store For Jailbroken iPhone Apps

A few weeks back we introduced you to a little Jailbreak app called xGPS. This is the first app available to bring turn-by-turn directions to your iPhone. It has just been updated to version 1.2 and seems to be much more polished overall. The biggest improvement is this version is of course, voice instructions support. To those of you who have not interested in Jailbreaking, are you tempted now?

Everybody would say: Finally! Yes, xGPS 1.2 has been released. The version has been sent to the MMI repository and will be available within some hours. It should be in everybody’s Cydia as the MMI repository is installed by default. Just do a refresh within some hours and xGPS should pop up. This version of xGPS has required us a lot of hours of work. We have tried to bring the most advanced and stable navigation software for the iPhone / iPod touch. However, even if we have made our best, you have to keep in mind that this software is free but not bug free. If you experience such a bug feel free to ask in the forum but do not say “It doesn’t work, it’s crappy”.

It’s important to remember, this application is only available to those of you who are Jailbroken. For all of the details be sure to stop by the xGPS Blog!

[Thanks to all of you who sent this in!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

xGPS 1.2 For Jailbroken iPhones Now Available

You really have to love Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park:

“We’re always in favor of people downloading. It’s how a lot of people see the show. And it’s never hurt us. We’ve done nothing but be successful with the show. How could you ever get mad about somebody who wants to see your stuff?”

Well Apple drops the ball yet again with the official South Park app in the App store… and yet again a 3rd party picks up the slack. South Park Mobile is available via Cydia and if you are not jailbroken, check out www.southparkmobile.net on your iPhone. What this app allows you to do is stream full episodes of South Park for your viewing pleasure right on your iPhone. Every single episode, from every single season is available for you to stream. Keep in mind this is not something official from Mr. Stone and Mr. Parker but it’s the best we currently have available to us.

*You must be on firmware 2.2+ in order for this Jailbreak App to work.

[Thanks to Jaun for the tip!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: South Park Mobile for iPhone Jailbreak

A new application, Backgrounder, is now available for jailbroken phones! This allows you to run official App Store apps in the background. Yes, you can now listen to music while you are in your favorite App Store app!

With Backgrounder, you don’t have to log into a secure shell session. You don’t have to perform black magic. You just press and hold the home key while running any application. After a few seconds, the Backgrounding Enabled pop-up appears. Release the home button and go about your business. Backgrounder automatically returns you to SpringBoard. To quit the background application, re-launch it from SpringBoard, then press and hold Home until the Backgrounding Disabled pop-up appears.

Why Apple has not allowed apps to run in the background is beyond me. At first I thought that maybe the iPhone couldn’t handle a few apps running at the same time so Apple rightfully did not allow it… well after trying this new app, which is only available to jailbreakers via Cydia, it is more than obvious that the iPhone indeed can handle apps running in the background.

So Apple when will you learn if you don’t give us what we want, we eventually just take it…

So are you finally going to jailbreak your phone now? We’ve got step by step instructions up to Jailbreak the iPhone 3G for both Mac OS X and Windows PC users, and for the original iPhone 2G. Jailbreakers UNITE!!! Argh!!!!

[Via Ars Technica]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Need a Reason to Jailbreak? Backgrounder App is Now Available!

If you have been missing that all-important video recorder functionality for your iPhone, look no further than Cycorder. Now before you get all excited let me first say the only way you will be able to get this app is to have a jailbroken phone along with Cydia.

Jay Freeman, the author of other jailbroken apps such as Cydia and Winterboard, released Cycorder. It does have ads, but I can assure they do not get in your way. Just keep in mind these ads are keeping this app free for all of us.

Cycorder’s video is shockingly decent for a cell phone video recorder. Recording in .mov format, Cycorder gets anywhere from 7-15 frames per second. It did not support audio when it was first released, but it does now. An update has just been released and it finally supports audio, though this clip does not contain any.

To get Cycorder simply go into Cydia and you will see it on the “Featured Packages” list on the front page. Download and enjoy!

Video and screenshot, after the break!

[Thanks for the tip Art!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

The Free iPhone Video Recorder – Cycorder

This is fun. It’s like a game of cat and mouse between Apple firmware and the jailbreaking community, Apple launches an update and the iPhone-dev team works feverishly to jailbreak said update. This time, they are said to be putting the finishing touches on PwnageTool 2.0.2 which will be able to jailbreak the “snappier” 2.0.1.

Excited much? Well, there still won’t be Installer.app because Installer 4 isn’t ready for the primetime yet but a new version of Cydia will be there so you can still get some apps. There still is a lot of catching up to do on developing jailbroken apps and it still won’t unlock the iPhone 3G, but all in due time. We’ll follow up with a link to PwnageTool 2.0.2 when it is released.

ReadVia

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

PwnageTool 2.0.2 to be Released Today