Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"While you can't fully backup and restore everything if you lose your jailbreak in a software upgrade or restore, AptBackup is a free app available in Cydia that can help alleviate the trouble of getting all your jailbreak apps back where they belong."

It won't restore your settings, but at least it will automate the re-download and installation process if you need to restore all of your apps. And it does look pretty easy to do, re-download the app and hit the restore button. Done.

"Apple this week rejected "Wi-Fi Sync," a third-party application that allows the iPhone and iPod touch to sync wirelessly with iTunes."

Perhaps Apple has plans to do this themselves, since that is the only thing that makes sense after the developer was told by an Apple rep he wasn't "specifically in violation" of the iPhone OS developer agreement. But if you have a jailbroken iPhone you are in luck, since the developer is heading over to Cydia to sell his program for $9.99 USD. You can find out more about the program at the Wi-Fi Sync website.

"If you're one of the millions of iPhone users who've jailbroken their iPhones or iPod Touches--the desktop hacking trick that allows you to use non-Apple approved apps, access the iPhone's file system, and other tweaks--you'll want to hold off on the latest software update (3.1) that Apple announced Wednesday."

Along the lines of the Pre story from Friday, the iPhone update 3.1 also gives it to the jailbreakers. This update will remove any of your programs installed via Cydia as well as the Cydia program itself. Jailbreaking seems like a pain in the you know what to me, is AT&T hated so much that the aggravation is worth sticking it to them? It wouldn't be for me, but obviously it is for some.

"Cydia has been the hub of the iPhone gray market for some time now, but developer Jay Freeman is planning on turning the jailbroken app manager into a questionably licit competitor to the App Store. Converting Cydia into a proper application store won't be complicated, and more or less amounts to Freeman adding a centralized payment service to the software. His competitive ambitions, though, aren't so subtle: He told the WSJ that "the overworking goal is to provide choice" and that he plans on match or beat Apple's commission for downloaded apps."

Sounds like a good idea. Not that I'll ever see it, of course, because I refuse to jailbreak my iPhone, but if you're into that sort of thing, this might be the door that independent developers have been waiting to open up forever. No more approval process, no more restrictive standards about what an app can do, and no more denied apps. From a developer standpoint it's a big win.

"ClearCam is the latest iPhone app to go live on Cydia, home for the jailbreak apps, and turns your 2MP photos into 4MP ones by stitching 6 normal photos into one super photo. Similar to the manner in which Gigapan created the 1474MP image of the inauguration, Occipital's ClearCam works its magic by creating a composite image using 6 iPhone photos taken in succession."

The quality of the samples is definitely impressive. I won't be jailbreaking my iPhone any time soon, though. The camera is good enough for most of my mobile phone camera picture taking needs. Note, I said good enough and not "good." There is definitely a difference!