Saurik

Cydia Adds the “Theme Center,” A Curated Gallery of Jailbreak Themes

Alex Heath ∙ January 24, 2011

Jay Freeman, a.k.a. saurik, has added a new feature to the king of jailbreak apps, Cydia. The "Manage Account" option was added to the Cydia home page not that long ago. This new feature allowed users to view their purchase history of jailbreak downloads through their Cydia account.

Saurik recently tweeted the news that his second new "Whole Package Index" feature for Cydia had gone live. The "Theme Center" is saurik's latest attempt at making the Cydia experience richer and easier, and we commend him.

The Theme Center can be accessed through the new "Themes" addition to the Cydia home page. In the Theme Center, users can browse retina and non-retina display themes for their jailbroken iOS device...

New ‘Manage Account’ Option Shows Up in Cydia

Jeff Benjamin ∙ January 19, 2011

When it comes to polish, there simply is no comparison between Apple's official App Store, and Cydia, the store used by those in the jailbreak community. The lack of polish is something that Cydia's creator, Saurik, is aiming to address in 2011, and this latest update gives us a nice preview of what's coming.

Placed smack in the middle of Cydia's homepage is a new 'Manage Account' option. From here you can log into your Cydia User Account, which is basically a means to authenticate purchases, not an actual account for login. The account can either be a Facebook or Google account linked to your past Cydia purchases.

At the moment there's not many options contained in the new section, but it does contain a handy list of all of your Installable Purchases. This feature will make it a lot easier to re-install all of your favorite jailbreak apps after a restore...

Why Cydia is Called Cydia

Alex Heath ∙ December 16, 2010

Cydia is a household name in the jailbreak community. Anyone who has jailbroken their iDevice has most likely used Cydia. Some of us may even know that Cydia is the brainchild of Jay "saurik" Freeman, whom most consider the father of the jailbreak.

Cydia is used by millions of people, but how many know why it has such a weird name? I mean, "Cydia?" What in the world does that mean? There has even been dispute as how to say the word "Cydia." Little do most know, there is an interesting reason for the odd title behind the icon that every jailbreaker recognizes...

More Details on Cydia for Mac

Alex Heath ∙ Updated February 6, 2016

We recently reported that the creator of Cydia, Jay "saurik" Freeman, is close to releasing an official version of Cydia for the Mac. We speculated on if it was really necessary, and if it is important enough to thrive on a desktop ecosystem.

This "Mac Cydia" would seem to be Freeman's direct attempt at the jailbreak, unfiltered version of the new Mac App Store and OS X Lion. Since the news of a Mac Cydia, there have been more details shared from Freeman himself about the goals and features of the OS X version of Cydia...

Cydia for Macs to Go Live “Within Weeks”

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated February 6, 2016

With the recently announced Mac App store on the horizon -- which brings an iOS-esque store to Mac OS X platforms -- Cydia creator Jay "Saurik" Freeman plans to strike while the iron is hot.

That could only mean one thing, a Cydia Store for Macs; let's just call it Mac Cydia for simplicity's sake. But the real question is, what use will Mac users have for a Cydia store?

Tutorial: How to Install the New Cydia for iOS 4.2

Alex Heath ∙ December 3, 2010

Cydia was recently updated to support Apple's updated API's in iOS 4.2. This particular Cydia update was quite the major overhaul, and there is no option available (yet) within Cydia to update to the newest version automatically.

Besides iOS 4.2 support, there are several long-awaited improvements in this version of Cydia.

The most noticeable improvement in this update is a huge performance boost throughout the whole application. Everything is faster. Once Cydia does the initial restructuring and downloading after you first install the update, you should notice an immediate boost in speed as you navigate the app. That means less of the dreaded loading wheel and more of actually accomplishing what you want to do...

Saurik’s TED Talk, “Even Software Should Have Screws”

Alex Heath ∙ November 9, 2010

Jay Freeman, better known as saurik, recently gave a TED talk on the philosophy of mobile software. He compared the iPhone's App Store and the jailbreak mentality to how consumers buy and modify cars. He made the case for what he has based his career on: that consumers do not want the software limitations that Apple maintains on iOS.

The first half of saurik's TED talk explains the state of the car industry, and the consumer approach to buying and modifying cars. His comparison is interesting, and it definitely merits his point about Apple's App Store philosophy...

A Quick Look at the New Cydia

Sébastien Page ∙ November 5, 2010

When Cydia acquired Rock a couple months ago, Saurik acknowledged that Cydia was in great need of a facelift, and said that Chpwn was actually working on it to make it look better. Things aren't going as fast as we'd want them to, but there is still some progress made by Chpwn.

MuscleNerd tweeted this screenshot of the new Cydia earlier. That was pretty exciting until I saw this tweet from Chpwn who basically said it was all they had done on the new Cydia for the time being...

Why I Loved Rock (and How I Could Love Cydia)

Guest Author ∙ October 8, 2010

Rock's dead. We all know this. Saurik told us that the Rock developers cut corners and did things the wrong way. Still, Rock did do a few things right that would complement Cydia well.

The Real Experiences

Rock.app was a real experience. It was snappy and clean. It had a colorful and eye-friendly theme. Most importantly, it was usable during fetches and reloads. When Rock opened, here's what happened: you view the home page, navigate a bit, while fetches occurred with a small unobtrusive status indicator. Once completed, a quick refresh interrupts you, then you're good to go. You navigate to updates and the results are preloaded. The page loads quickly, if not instantly.

Rock Your Phone is Dead. Long Live Cydia!

Sébastien Page ∙ September 13, 2010

The news fell a couple days ago that Rock Your Phone had been acquired by Cydia. This is without a doubt the biggest business move ever made in the jailbreak community, and it is a clear sign of the potential of "underground apps".

I've never been a huge fan of Rock even though it had some really neat features. We'll all remember how fast it loaded as well as its backup feature, among others. Is this going to come to Cydia now that Rock is dead?

Breaking: Cydia Acquires Rock

Sébastien Page ∙ September 10, 2010

ModMyI reports that SaurikIT LLC just acquired Rock Your Phone Inc. In other words, Cydia bought Rock. Cydia has always been the installer of choice for most of us, but Rock was slowly getting traction, especially for some of its advanced features like the ability to back up your packages.

If you didn't think the jailbreak community was a big business on its own, then it's time to think again. Just like in the App Store, there is a lot of money to be made from applications, especially for those offering a marketplace like the App Store and Cydia.

Saurik Talks About Jailbreaking

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

A few days ago we showed you a video of Saurik showing off his iPhone 4 jailbreak. New videos of Saurik showed up on YouTube and they are very interesting to anyone willing to learn more about jailbreaking.

Saurik gives us a quick history of iPhone jailbreaks and goes over the what, why and how of jailbreaking. It is definitely a must-watch!

If you're new to jailbreaking, these videos as well as these links will get you started:

What is jailbreaking? How to jailbreak your iPhone What is unlocking? How to unlock your iPhone What’s the difference between jailbreaking and unlocking? Why jailbreak your iPhone?