10 amazingly useful iPod / iPhone third party applications
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Since a few weeks I have an iPod Touch. This has got to be the most amazing hand held device I've seen in a very long time. Even in it's default configuration it's pretty awesome but what really made me want one is what you can do with it after it's been Jailbroken. When you Jailbreak your iPod Touch a world of goodness will open up for you. Not only can you install the applications that Apple reserved for the iPhone such as Google Maps, the Stocks and Weather application and most important: MobileMail but in addition to that there's a huge collection of third-party applications available for use on your iPod Touch or iPhone. In this post I've compiled a list of 3rd party applications I found most useful or cool. At the end of this post I'll also provide some pointers on how to Jailbreak your iPod touch and how to make the most out of it. What I will NOT discuss in this post is how to get the missing iPhone apps. I figured it would be unwise to discuss illegal matters in detail in this post so don't ask for it in the comments either. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to find out on your own. Search engines are your friend! Now let's have a look at the applications!
Some disclaimers and warnings
- In order to run the applications discussed in this post you need to Jailbreak your iPod / iPhone. This process may screw up your device if you don't handle responsibly. It may also void your warranty. Use the applications and the information at the bottom of this post at your own risk. I'm not responsible for any 'bricked' device!
- I don't own an iPhone. I prefer the iPod touch and a different mobile phone with proper 3G and a proper camera and I feel the iPhone and the associated mandatory mobile contract are a ripoff. Therefore: Don't ask me any iPhone related questions. I cannot answer them!
- All information in this post is current for Firmware 1.1.2 and lower. When Apple releases an update I recomend NOT updating your device without some online investigation if you care about keeping all your nice apps. Stay tuned in what's going on in the Jailbreak scene in order to find out how to make sure everything keeps working smoothly.
If you don't like the above, stop reading now. Now that we've got that out of the way, let's move on to the good stuff!
UPDATED: Added a list with some more cool apps that I really like.
1: Installer.app
Installer.app is the first application you'll install after Jailbreaking your iPod/iPhone. It's a 'must have' application as it will enable you to install / upgrade / uninstall applications with ease. Installer.app basically works like a package manager. It supports multiple package repositories which means you can add new ones as you find them, such as repo.us.to which contains some stuff you may want to take a look at if you have an iPod Touch. Even though Installer.app is still a beta application it seems to work absolutely fine. Hassle free package management for the masses!
2: Summerboard
A second application you definitely want to install as soon as you start messing around with lots of new applications is Summerboard. This application replaces Springboard and adds interesting extras such as the ability to theme your device and most important: to have multiple pages filled with application icons. Switching between these pages is as easy as dragging your finger horizontally on the screen. Summerboard features tons of configuration options to tweak the hell out of your iPod Touch / iPhone desktop. In addition to that there's a vast amount of great themes available for use with Summerboard. Another must-have application.
3: Customize
Third on my list of killer applications is Customize. Customize allows a vast amount of customization options for both the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The options range from carrier images, wifi icons, the sliders, sounds, the keypad and a lot more. The latest version also includes an option I find particularly interesting: Icon Display Order. With this option you can choose which icons appear where. It allows you to choose which icons appear at the bottom of your desktop and the ones that will appear on the first screen. With this you can put whatever applications you use mostly on the first screen. Note that there's another application that allows changing the order in which icons are displayed named rSBT. You don't need to install this application as Customize has this functionality built in.
4: MobileFinder
What can I say about MobileFinder? It's a Finder application for your iPod / iPhone! It allows easy file management on your device. File browsing, creation, deletion, moving, setting permissions, it's all there. Yep, we've got another winner!
5: Dock
Dock.app is... a dock which has been implemented in a rather nifty way. Once you've installed the app you'll see some subtle rays of sunlight in the bottom right corner of your screen. When you touch and drag starting from that corner, Dock.app allows you to quickly launch any installed application. To really understand what this means I recommend you watch the video on Dock.app's homepage. In addition this application also provides an easy way to take screenshots on your device. All screenshots in this post have been created with it. Nate, I hope you don't mind I stole your screenshot. I had no idea how to create a screenshot of the Dock with the app itself! :)
6: SysInfo
SysInfo is an application that provides system and process information. It will show you information about memory usage, system load and your hardware. Additionally it provides a very nice graphical list of processes that are currently running on your device. When tapping one of the processes SysInfo provides the ability to kill or renice the process or send a signal to it. It also provides shortcuts to reboot your device or to restart the desktop (springboard). A very useful utility indeed.
7: MobileToDoList
It's the missing application on both the iPhone and the iPod touch: a TODO list manager. MobileToDoList is exactly that. It's native, it looks as if it's an Apple preinstalled application and it does exactly what it needs to do: allow you to keep a handy dandy todo list. A definite must-have application in my humble opinion!
8: Apache and PHP
You thought it couldn't be done. Think again! Apache and PHP running on an iPod / iPhone. Your very own pocket development server! Both are available for installation through Installer.app. There's just one thing installing these two packages doesn't cover: getting them to work together. If you want PHP pages to be processed when requested in a browser, just follow the instructions on this blog post on the matter. As you can see in the screenshot it works like a charm! Note: There are more scripting languages available such as Ruby, PERL and Python. Take your pick!
9: AFP Server
Another ultra useful application for your iPod / iPhone is the AFP Server. It's an AppleTalk server which enables you to mount your device as a regular network drive. How cool is that? No SSH/FTP necessary anymore. Extremely useful indeed. I absolutely love it.
10: Mobile Terminal
I suppose the last application on this list (MobileTerminal) pretty much speaks for itself. It's Terminal.app on your mobile device. What you can do with this is probably only limited to your own imagination. You can control your device in any way you want in the root shell it provides or turn your device in a full blown hacking device by installing additional command-line tools. The sky is the limit! People without proper UNIX knowledge should probably leave this application alone as a root shell comes with great responsibility!
What else is there?
Of course the story doesn't end with these 10 applications. I figured it would be nice to add some more nice applications for you to check out if this article hasn't made you excited enough yet!
Super Mario Advance running in gpSPhone
Apollo IM
A very nice native Instant Messenger client. Currently supports AIM, MSN, ICQ and .Mac.MobileRSS
A native RSS reader application to get your daily feeds-fix on the go.NES.app
A NES (Nintendo 8bit) emulator.gpSPhone
A Gameboy Advance emulator. Pretty amazing!iRadio
Internet Radio on your iPod / iPhone! This app is still rough on the edges but the basics work. I can listen to XTC Radio London! Woo hoo!VNsea
A VNC Client. Nuff said.
The list goes on and on and new great stuff is released almost every day!
So how do I get all this stuff on my device?
- I used this Wiki page to Jailbreak my firmware 1.1.2 iPod Touch. I found the process extremely easy. Follow the instructions closely!
- If you have an iPhone, maybe this blog post may be helpful. Again: I don't have one and I'm providing this link as-is.
After installing a few packages my device complains about the disk being full!
By default all applications are installed in /Applications on a separate volume that doesn't have a lot of space. Therefore we want to move everything to the volume used for media. I performed the following operations to accomplish this:
- Create a new applications directory:
mkdir /private/var/Applications - Move everything in /Applications to the newly created directory:
mv /Applications/* /private/var/Applications - If you get a 'permission denied' on the above operation, copy the apps first:
cp -R /Applications/* /private/var/Applications - Remove the entire /Applications directory (with everything in it)
- Create a symbolic link to the new directory containing all your apps where the original applications directory used to reside:
ln -s /private/var/Applications /Applications
You can now install all the apps in the world now without ever running out of disk space.
Warning: be careful with the above! If you're not familiar with the commandline you may want to ask someone who is to do this for you. You may screw up your device's software if you're not careful. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Closing notes
As odd as it sounds, the possibility of Jailbreaking the iPod Touch and the associated ability to run 3rd party applications on it were the number one reason for me to buy an iPod Touch. It's definitely a great multimedia player without all this but you'll miss out on the true power of the device. A wealth of applications is already available and new applications are released just about every day, turning your iPod / iPhone into a portable MacOS X powerhouse. Something I definitely didn't want to miss out on.
Happy iPod/iPhone hacking!
At 02 December '07 - 04:28 Simon wrote:
What’s the use of Apache/PHP5 on a handheld though? Why would you want to test stuff on an iPod touch (since you can’t develop on it)?
At 02 December '07 - 09:21 bramn wrote:
At 02 December '07 - 09:42 Marco wrote:
What’s interesting to one person may not be interesting to someone else. I suppose my list is a bit ‘developer / hacker’ oriented which is why I decided to amend the post with a list of some less geeky apps.
By the way the Apple iPhone apps kick ass as well but reviewing those seemed a bit pointless to me.
At 16 December '07 - 02:49 Steve wrote:
At 16 December '07 - 08:49 steve wrote:
how to perform the codes…. from ipod touch itself or computer ….... to change the directory
At 17 December '07 - 19:52 Jaison Jones wrote:
At 18 December '07 - 02:10 Marco wrote:
By far the largest chunk comes from the BSD subsystem which is over 3MB.
At 21 December '07 - 11:11 Ben Ward wrote:
At 30 December '07 - 08:54 Kyle... wrote:
That would be really Helpfull…
Thanks in advance…
At 30 December '07 - 10:50 Mitch wrote:
At 31 December '07 - 08:41 D Sumner wrote:
At 02 January '08 - 16:06 Kyle... wrote:
And go to the downloads section and download the iphoneApps.rar file.
There is a video on Youtube that tells you how to install them if you dont know how…
At 02 January '08 - 18:14 Julian wrote:
At 09 January '08 - 01:41 aayan wrote:
i wanted to know whts the use of bsd subsystem
its not installed on my iphone still my phone works
and plzz can u let me know how to change d directories u talking to store apps in media space ,is it done using pc or its something done in d phone itself.
At 09 January '08 - 03:02 aayan wrote:
but how to move them into the new folder
At 11 February '08 - 14:09 nic merry wrote:
<a href="mailto:nicholasmerry4hotmail.com”>nicholasmerry4@hotmail.com i would prefere if you emailed me cause i am randomly searching the internet so if you left a comment i wouldn’t remember the site.Thnx
At 18 February '08 - 14:03 SvHalo3 wrote:
At 29 February '08 - 20:45 bob wrote:
I have a 1.1.3 ipod touch that is not jailbroken. Would you mind telling me how to jailbreak it. I would appreciate it so much!!
At 02 March '08 - 03:38 VPDJ wrote:
At 10 March '08 - 10:32 Rory Batt wrote:
At 13 March '08 - 04:55 Mart wrote:
At 25 March '08 - 14:57 henke wrote:
At 15 May '08 - 07:35 Vince wrote:
At 26 May '08 - 19:26 Cody wrote:
At 27 May '08 - 02:52 gus wrote:
Well, the first time I got this message i freaked out. I looked up how to move the applications folder, and i came acros the bigboss tools and the bigboss prefs. I forget which application does this, but one of them moves all of your downloaded files from one partition (the smaller one) to the next (the larger one for music, movies photos etc etc). I Ran the application, moved everything over and it seemed fine. I tried to open an app, and it wouldnt open. I went into my music and selected a song to listen to, clicked play, and it didnt start playing. I repeatedly tried to listen to songs and none of them would play. It seems that when I transfered all my downloaded files over to my larger partition, that all the files got corrupted. I couldnt watch videos, listen to music, run any applications or play any of my NES games! I decided o restore the ipod and start again from scratch, so I did and now its fine.
But as I said first, the message keeps popping up that i am running out of disk space. Im afraid to do anything to move all of my stuff over to the larger partition, because I dont want to lose everything again and have to start rom scratch.
Does anybody have suggestions or something to help me out with this?
cheers
gus
At 14 July '08 - 10:35 chrit wrote:
What to do? i have iphone 8Gb version 1.1.2
At 02 September '08 - 22:49 Morris wrote:
Absolutely. I saw little point in having a phone since the company I work for provides one, and especially since the iPhone here in Australia is tied to only one carrier with meagre data caps at exorbitant prices. No thanks, Optus, the Touch does all I need in a handheld – the best PDA I’ve ever seen.
At 27 October '08 - 02:02 novemberain27 wrote:
I have an ipod touch (2.1) and I have jailbroken it.
I want to install apache and php on it, but i cant find the packages in the installer (I have installer 4 beta version).
Can you please tell me which repo you got the packages from, so that i can check if i have them. I have added many repos listed on the net but havent been able to find apache/php in any of them.
Any help would be highly appreciated.
thanks
At 19 November '08 - 00:15 Alex wrote:
(Note: the programs i use are DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink 3.2 to play them and burn them.)
At 05 April '09 - 12:29 Marlo wrote: