Top 10 best Cydia apps of the Year

There are various reasons why people jailbreak their iPod and iPads and iPhones, but if they do it they get to have access to various apps available in the Cydia store. The Cydia store is full of apps that are otherwise unavailable and of tweaks that can spice up your iPhone or other iDevice. These tweaks can not only improve the looks of your device’s screen but also offer new functionalities. In this article we’ll take a look at the best 10 such apps which might offer you a reason to jailbreak your device.

Winterboard

If you want a theming solution and one of the top ones, we recommend using Winterboard. This app was created by the same guy that created Cydia – namely Saurik. Customizing their device is one of the main reasons people opt to jailbreak their devices. Winterboard is maybe the best and most accessible option you might have in theming and it has the support of a community of designers and theme creators. There are new themes coming out for it every day so you will surely not run out of these. There are new themes available periodically, some of them truly beautiful and eye-catching.

iFile

This one is the best file manager that is available for iOS if you opt to jailbreak your device. iFile is destined for power users and it surpasses some of the limitations imposed by Apple in regards to the filesystem of the iOS operating system. You will get root control by using it and access to almost all files present in iOS’s system folders. It is comparable to having OS X’s Finder or Microsoft Windows’s Explorer on your iDevice.
iFile not only will give you access to these files but will also support a variety of them. It also integrates with Dropbox and Safari Download Manager so you will surely find it useful one way or the other. It’s the swiss army knife of file management.

Activator

We believe Activator should be integrated as a function into iOS. It works so well it’s a miracle that people did without it for so long. It’s a shortcutting app that uses gestures and shortcut management to iOS. You can set it so that by using a certain gesture you are able to unlock your device and launch an app at the same time. This is useful for when you want to call somebody and want to do so in one move: unlock the screen AND call a certain person in the same instant. You can even access system shortcuts like reset and shutdown via this small app. All the gestures can be tweaked and customized accordingly to your needs. You can start using Activator by taping into predefined gestures or tweak and modify them to maximize its potential.

BiteSMS

Some people are not truly satisfied with the default iOS Messages app. Some want to use something else and that’s where BiteSMS comes in handy. It has extra features and more options than you can handle. This is the best alternative to SMS sending if you device is already jailbroken. BiteSMS is one of the popular apps you don’t want to miss and one of the best parts about it is that it will let a user customize almost every aspect of the messaging process.

Safari Download Manager

iOS will limit what files you are able to download. You can get past this by using Safari Download Manager that will not limit you to the number of file types that Apple lets you keep. With Safari Download Manager there is almost no limit to what you can download and get to keep. Safari Download Manager works as an addon to Safari, the Apple web browser. It makes it more accessible to download and Safari Download Manager supports a lot of file types and you can even add more file types besides the ones already supported in Safari Download Manager. It also offers simultaneous downloads so you can download other things while the rest of your files keep copying in the background of Safari Download Manager.

WeeKillBackground

This is the swiss army knife of task killers of the iOS. It’s probably the app you will use the most among the ones presented here. WeeKillBackground will terminate any process you choose to kill and will do that with only one tap. You will still need to invoke the iOS task manager to terminate applications manually if you will not use WeeKillBackground. Apps running in the background consume memory and will lower your battery life. If you use apps a lot and you do so on a regular basis, you’ll probably want to install and start using WeeKillBackground. You’ll only have to pull the top drawer from the upper side of the screen and press the “Tap to close all Apps” to clean the memory of background processes with WeeKillBackground.

Zephyr

In order to multitask in iOS, by default you will have to get to the multitasking panel by double pressing the hardware Home button. If you want an easier way you will have to download and install Zephyr. It is a very popular app and it has good reasons to be liked. What it does is it will allow one to multitask through swipes. You can for example swipe upward and get the multitasking panel or you can swipe from right to left to switch from one application to the other. If you are a power user you will like Zephyr.

Springtomize 2

This app was developed by Filippo Bigarella and it is useful for when you want to customize animations, the dock, folders, your lock screen and other visual options. For example, if you want your Notification Center to have a different look, you can do so with Springtomize 2. It mimics the function of several already-present tweaks from the Cydia Store and you can get all their power by using this single app.

IntelliscreenX

If you have several accounts on social media sites and use Facebook and Twitter a lot, you will find this little app extremely useful. It will not only display information from these social networks but also SMS messages, RSS feeds and a lot more. All in one screen, at your disposal. If you iDevice is jailbroken, this is one app you don’t want to miss. It gives you your mail, calendar, Facebook, SMS, Twitter, RSS feeds and a lot more. It also supports widgets so you can beautify it to your liking. It saves you time and makes your life easier. It’s simpler to have everything in one detailed screen than having to use different apps to get to your Facebook wall or Twitter feed.

SBSettings

There are many people who’s sole purpose in jailbreaking their device was this nifty little app called SBSettings. It will allow one to access the most frequently used settings in the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch and it will do so when you swipe the screen or invoke the Notification Center in iOS 5. It will also display your recently used apps. This can be a real time-saver and this should be the first thing you install after jailbreaking your beloved iOS device. It can improve the experience of the user and get you to do things faster than by using the default iOS Settings app.

There are many apps we would have liked to include in this Top 10, but these are the best we could find. Use them, try them, test them. Most will make your overall experience with iOS better or at least more pleasant. Do talk about your favorite app in the comments section of this article.