The iTunes App Store is becoming a trendsetter for other companies in the mobile market. With thousands of apps to choose from and over 60 million downloads total, what more could you ask for? Apparently a lot. Users still aren't satisfied with the selection of apps that Apple is letting into the App Store. Apps that are extending the functionality of some of Apple's standard offerings are being denied their chance to shine. This has resulted in a small, but talented pool of developers finding other ways to promote their apps to iPhone users.
Enter a method known as "jailbreaking". Jailbreaking your iPhone voids your warranty, but allows you access to some of the most incredible apps that won't be coming to the App Store anytime soon. Here's our top 10 picks of apps worth jailbreaking your iPhone to get.
]]> Pushr
There just aren't enough dedicated Flickr apps in the iTunes App Store. To add injury to insult, the majority of dedicated Flickr apps don't allow you to upload Flickr photos from your iPhone. In steps Pushr to fill this void! Pushr allows you to select a photo and edit a lot of the standard Flickr options. Users can edit the name, description, tags, and privacy options before uploading it their Flickr account. We're huge fans of its tagging feature because it pulls from the list of previously used tags for better convenience.
Pushr also allows you to upload multiple photos at a time, which beats emailing each photo individually. If you want to delete a photo from the list, simply swipe your finger from right to left. Our only quirk with Pushr is that you can't specify a set for images to go to. Otherwise, Pushr is the ultimate Flickr uploading tool for your iPhone.
Qik
Qik is one of the best livestreaming services available on the web. The service has recently expand its offerings of compatible handsets. Lucky for jailbreakers, Qik has recently become available on jailbroken iPhones. Since its initial release the Qik app has upgraded tremendously. You can now:
- Mute your broadcast
- Set privacy options
- Send an alert to Twitter
- Hide chat
- Set stream title
- Allow Qik to see your current location
It's still recommended to livestream with Qik over Wifi or 3G connections. Though, that's hardly something to complain about.
Flixwagon
If you're not into Qik, you may like its competitor, Flixwagon. Most of what applies to the Qik app also applies to the Flixwagon application. So we won't bore you with a rehash of the details.If you're on Flixwagon instead of Qik, you won't be left out in the cold. If only these apps were available in the App Store...
Winterboard
If you're a customization junkie like some of us here on ReadWriteWeb, then you were probably disappointed in the fact that there's very little you can do in terms of customizing the iPhone. The only customization option is the changing of the lock-screen wallpaper. Honestly, who even pays attention to that?
Winterboard is the ultimate solution for meeting your customization needs on your iPhone. There are thousands of compatible themes floating around for customizing the "real" background on your iPhone, icons, bars, keyboards, alert buttons, battery images, and tons more. The possibilities are endless with Winterboard. Quite frankly it's one of the main apps that most people do jailbreak their iPhones for. Check out the awesome theme to the right I have installed on my iPhone thanks to Winterboard.
MxTube
The iPhone's built-in Youtube app is great. Now you can watch videos all day without having to pay Apple a dime. What do you do when there's no internet connection available? You could go through the process of downloading and converting Youtube videos into the iTunes compatible format. Sounds tedious, doesn't it?
MxTube is a simple solution. With MxTube can stream Youtube videos just like you do with the standard Youtube app. MxTube also allows you to download and save these videos to your iPhone. The process is simple and entirely dependent upon your internet connection. Simply download the video you'd like to view later and that's it. You can watch all your videos directly from the MxTube app. No conversion necessary.
NES
The NES emulator app allows you to run Nintendo ROMs right from your iPhone. Trust us, there are plenty floating around the web for downloading. It's a little tricky to get these ROMs on your iPhone and also involves a bit of hacking. However, it's nothing serious enough to brick your iPhone and well worth the effort. So if you're in the mood for some old school games like Monopoly, a game that isn't available in the App Store, then the NES emulator might be worth considering jailbreaking your iPhone for.
GSphone
If you were a bigger fan of the Gameboy system, then developers have you covered with the GSphone emulator. Like the NES emulator, GSphone allows you to run ROMs for the Gameboy gaming system. All you old school Pokemon fanatics will love this one! Too bad you have to jailbreak your iPhone for it.
Snapture
For all it's worth, the iPhone's camera is really basic with no built-in editing options. Snapture changes all of that in a jiffy. This app provides a host of options and features for editing your photos. Here's a rundown of the many features you get with Snapture:
- QuickView thumbnail stack
- QuickView thumbnail enlarge
- QuickView delete
- EasyCapture
- QuickAccess
- Geotagging
- Color modes
- Multishot
- Delay timer
- Level aid
- Gesture zoom
- Auto-rotation
- Image size
- Touch zone
- Quiet mode
From easy access to photo sizing to color modes and image rotations, we know you wish you didn't have to jailbreak your iPhone to get this awesome app.
Scrobble
Fans of the Last.FM music service have something to be thrilled about. While you can only scrobble the songs that you listen to via the Last.FM app, Scrobble is an app that runs in the background and scrobbles every song you listen to via the iPod app. You can view the latest stats on how many tracks have been scrobbled and how many are left in queue by heading to your settings. It stays out of the way and works really well with the iPod app.
Cycorder
When Qik became available for the iPhone, we noted how you could use Qik as a video recorder for your iPhone. Those tips aren't obsolete, but Cycorder is a better option. Cycorder has great video recording quality ranging between 6-15 fps. We've been tipped off that for better recording quality with this app, you'll need to be in a will lit area. You can playback your videos on your iPhone or simply download them to your computer for maximum viewing pleasure. Someone tell us why this isn't in the App Store?
More to Come
The only hindrance with these apps is that you have to jailbreak your iPhone in order to get them. We really wish we didn't. The process for jailbreaking your iPhone can be pretty confusing on the first go round. However, it's relatively safe enough that if anything goes wrong you can restore your iPhone using iTunes.
The number of jailbroken apps available is tremendous, but doesn't rival the number of App Store offerings. In terms of quality apps with consistent updates, we'd rather go with jailbroken repositories Cydia and Installer 4. We're sure there are plenty more apps to look forward to like SwirlyMMS, which will make it easier for iPhone users to send MMS messages. We'll keep you posted as they come down the pipeline.