Jump to content

Cydia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Mortense (talk | contribs) at 04:08, 19 August 2012 (→Jailbreak platform: Spelling/case.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the iOS application. For the moth genus, see Cydia (genus).
Cydia
Developer(s)Jay Freeman (saurik)[1]
Initial releaseFebruary 2008; 16 years ago (2008-02)
Stable release
1.1.6 / March 31, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-03-31)
Repository
Operating systemiOS (jailbroken)
Available inEnglish, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Greek, German, Hebrew, Dutch, Polish, Swedish
TypeGraphical user interface, package manager
LicenseOpen source
Websitecydia.saurik.com

Cydia (/[invalid input: 'icon']sɪˈdi.ə/) is a software application for iOS that enables a user to find and install software packages (including apps, interface customizations, and system extensions) on a jailbroken iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Cydia is the main independent third-party digital distribution platform for software on iOS.[2] Many of the software packages available through Cydia are free, and it also includes several hundred packages for sale through the Cydia Store payment system with a commission setup similar to the App Store.[3] Most of these packages focus on providing customizations and modifications (often called "tweaks") that can only run on jailbroken devices (since the App Store is limited to distributing self-contained apps).[4]

Cydia is a graphical front end to Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) and the dpkg package management system, which means that the packages available in Cydia are provided by a decentralized system of repositories (also called sources) that list these packages.[5]

Cydia is developed by Jay Freeman (also called "saurik") and his company, SaurikIT.[1] The name "Cydia" is an allusion to the Codling Moth, with a scientific name of Cydia pomonella, which is the proverbial "worm in the apple."[6]

Purpose and function

Cydia provides a graphical user interface to jailbroken iOS users using APT repositories to install software unavailable on the App Store. Since Cydia is based on APT (ported to iOS as part of Freeman's Telesphoreo project),[5] it is a repository aggregator that avoids dependence on one host and comes with a few trusted default sources. Many stable packages are available on these repositories, and additional repositories can be easily added. This enables the iOS development scene to stay as open as possible; anyone with a server can set up, host, manage, and update their own repository and share it with the community. The default sources accept package submissions, which helps packages gain more exposure than if they were hosted on separate repositories.

Software packages are downloaded directly to an iOS device, to the same location as Apple's pre-installed applications, the /Applications directory. Jailbroken devices can also still buy and download apps normally from the official App Store.[7]

Cydia is installed during the process of jailbreaking an iOS device.[6] Jailbreaking tools (each of them supporting a specific set of devices and iOS versions) including ZiPhone, JailbreakMe, QuickPwn, redsn0w, purplera1n, blackra1n, limera1n, Greenpois0n, and Absinthe include the option to install Cydia while jailbreaking or install Cydia automatically while jailbreaking, and Cydia can also be installed by restoring a custom jailbroken firmware created by the jailbreaking tools PwnageTool, sn0wbreeze or redsn0w.

Software available through Cydia

Screenshot of a list of packages in Cydia; blue text indicates a paid package.

Some of the packages available through Cydia are standard applications, but most of the packages are extensions and modifications for the iOS interface and for apps in the iOS ecosystem. Since these software packages run on jailbroken devices, they can provide functionality outside the scope of normal applications — such as system-wide changes to the user interface, new features inserted into existing apps, customizations of button actions, extensions of networking behavior, and other "tweaks" to the system. Users install these for purposes including personalization and customization of the interface,[8] adding desired features and fixing annoyances,[9] and making development work on the device easier by providing access to the filesystem and command-line tools.[10][11] Most of the packages available through Cydia are written by independent developers.

Popular packages in Cydia include Winterboard (which lets users "skin" the iOS interface and app icons with themes),[12] MyWi (enable Wi-Fi tethering),[4] SBSettings (access settings and controls with a gesture),[13] Barrel (stylize the animated transition between SpringBoard pages),[14] and DisplayOut (display the device's screen on a connected TV or monitor).[15] Many extensions available through Cydia are based on a framework called MobileSubstrate, developed by Freeman, which makes the process of writing and maintaining system modifications easier.[6]

Since packages in Cydia are not limited by the iOS app security sandbox, journalists recommend using "the same vigilance you use when considering a program for your computer," including learning about the developer who wrote the package, before installing it.[4]

Cydia Store

In March 2009, Freeman introduced a simple, unified payment system that allows software developers to sell packages inside of Cydia (with user purchases linked to user accounts), much like the official App Store. Users may use Amazon Payments or PayPal to purchase items within Cydia.[16] The proof of payment is linked to a Google or Facebook account in case users move to a new iOS device or restore the device; users can log in and install all their previously-purchased packages without having to buy them again.[17]

Most of the packages for sale within Cydia use the Cydia Store payment system, with Cydia taking a 30% cut that includes covering PayPal fees and server costs.[18] Developers are not required to use the Cydia Store system to charge for their software; some paid packages, such as LockInfo and biteSMS, must be registered separately from the Cydia Store through the developers' own means.

iOS "signature" feature

In addition to offering software to install, in September 2009 Cydia was improved to help users have the option to downgrade (or upgrade) their device to versions of iOS not currently allowed by Apple. Cydia caches the digital signatures called SHSH blobs used by Apple to verify restores of iOS (which Apple uses to limit users to only installing the latest version of iOS).[19] Cydia's storage mechanism enables users to downgrade a device to a prior version of iOS by means of a replay attack.[20] This means, for example, that a person with a jailbroken device who upgrades to a non-jailbreakable version of iOS can choose to downgrade back to a jailbreakable version.[21]

iOS 5.0 and later versions of iOS implement an addition to the SHSH system, a random number (a cryptographic nonce) in the "APTicket", making it more difficult to perform a replay attack.[22] Versions of redsn0w after 0.9.9b9 include a way to save the APTicket so that SHSH and APTicket can be replayed later.[23]

Jailbreak platform

Using Cydia depends on having a jailbroken device. In the U.S.A., jailbreaking the iPhone was a legal grey area[24] until July 2010, when the U.S. Copyright Office declared a Digital Millennium Copyright Act exemption making jailbreaking the iPhone legal.[25] Apple policy is that jailbreaking voids the device warranty (although detecting previous jailbreaks on a restored device may be difficult or impossible), and that unauthorized software can cause the device to be less stable.[9]

Jailbreaking is normally done via applications on a computer such as redsn0w (or other tools), but a website named JailbreakMe was used for iOS 4.3.3 and jailbroke the device through the web browser on the device itself (Safari).

History

Freeman first released Cydia in February 2008 as an open-source alternative to Installer.app on iPhone OS 1.1,[26] but Cydia quickly became the most popular package manager after iPhone OS 2.0's release in July 2008.

In August 2009, Freeman said "about 4 million, or 10 percent of the 40 million iPhone and iPod Touch owners to date, have installed Cydia."[27]

In September 2010, Freeman's company, SaurikIT, LLC, announced that it had acquired Rock Your Phone, Inc. (makers of Rock.app), which made the Cydia Store the largest third-party app store for jailbroken iOS devices.[28][29]

In December 2010, Freeman announced plans to also release a Cydia Store for OS X as a supplement, not an alternative,[30] to Apple's Mac App Store.[31] However, on August 2, 2012, Freeman announced that Cydia for Mac would not be released in the near future, citing difficulties in the creation of "Substrate for Mac", a program with similar functionality to Freeman's "MobileSubstrate" for iOS. [32]

As of April 2011, Cydia had $10 million in annual revenue and 4.5 million weekly users, with $250,000 in profit after taxes annually.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b "Saurik's Homepage". Retrieved August 4, 2010.
  2. ^ Jack Loftus (September 11, 2010). "Largest iOS Jailbreak App Stores Become One After Cydia Acquires Rock". Gizmodo. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  3. ^ Yukari Iwatani Kane (March 6, 2009). "Breaking Apple's Grip on the iPhone". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 8, 2009.
  4. ^ a b c Thomas J. Fitzgerald (November 24, 2010). "Breaking Into the Smartphone (Risks Included)". New York Times. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  5. ^ a b Jay Freeman (saurik) (February 2008). "Bringing Debian APT to the iPhone". saurik.com. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  6. ^ a b c Chris Foresman (December 13, 2010). "iPhone jailbreaker set to bring Cydia to Mac OS X". Infinite Loop. Ars Technica. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  7. ^ Goodman, Danny (2010). Learning the IOS 4 SDK for JavaScript Programmers: Create Native Apps with Objective-C and Xcode. pp. 6–7. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ Adam Dachis (March 14, 2011). "How to Get the Most Out of Your Jailbroken iOS Device". Lifehacker. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  9. ^ a b Jenna Wortham (May 12, 2009). "Unofficial Software Incurs Apple's Wrath". The New York Times. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  10. ^ Zdziarski, Jonathan (2008). iPhone Open Application Development: Write Native Applications Using the Open Source Tool Chain. pp. 3–4. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  11. ^ Landau, Ted (2009). Take control of your iPhone. p. 107. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  12. ^ Christopher Breen (December 26, 2008). "The best iPhone apps not in the App Store". Macworld. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  13. ^ Mike Keller (August 26, 2009). "No App Store, No Cry: Great Apps You'll Get Only By Jailbreaking Your iPhone". Geek Tech. PCWorld. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  14. ^ Matt Brian (September 24, 2011). "Cydia and Jailbreak apps: The ecosystem, developers and increasing revenues". The Next Web. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
  15. ^ Christopher Breen (January 31, 2011). "Projecting the iPad's entire interface". Macworld. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  16. ^ Michael Rose. "Cydia Store now open for jailbreak app sales". The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  17. ^ Taimur Asad (January 20, 2011). "Cydia Adds "Manage Account" Feature, Which Shows Every App That Was Ever Purchased on Cydia". Redmond Pie. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  18. ^ a b Ian Shapira (April 6, 2011). "Once the hobby of tech geeks, iPhone jailbreaking now a lucrative industry". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  19. ^ Adam Dachis (April 25, 2011). "Save Your iDevice's SHSH to Avoid Losing the Ability to Jailbreak". Lifehacker. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  20. ^ Jay Freeman (saurik) (September 2009). "Caching Apple's Signature Server". saurik.com. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
  21. ^ Nat Futterman (May 25, 2010). "Jailbreaking the iPad: What You Need to Know". Geek Tech. PCWorld. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  22. ^ Oliver Haslam (June 27, 2011). "iOS 5 Will Halt SHSH Firmware Downgrades On iPhone, iPad, iPod touch". Redmond Pie. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
  23. ^ "redsn0w iOS5beta". iPhone Dev Blog. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  24. ^ Brian X. Chen (November 12, 2009). "Jailbreakers Battle Apple for Control of iPhone". Gadget Lab. Wired. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  25. ^ David Kravets (July 26, 2010). "U.S. Declares iPhone Jailbreaking Legal, Over Apple's Objections". Threat Level. Wired. Retrieved 2011-01-18.
  26. ^ Erica Sadun (February 28, 2008). "Debian-style installation arrives on iPhone". The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
  27. ^ Brian X. Chen (August 6, 2009). "Rejected By Apple, iPhone Developers Go Underground". Wired. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  28. ^ Steven Sande (September 12, 2010). "Alliance of the jailbreakers: Cydia acquires Rock". The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  29. ^ Jay Freeman (saurik). "Cydia += Rock Your Phone?". Cydia.
  30. ^ 8bitjay (December 20, 2010). "4 Things We Know So Far About Cydia for Mac". iSmashPhone. Retrieved August 2, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  31. ^ Steven Sande (December 10, 2010). "360 MacDev: Jay "saurik" Freeman on the jailbreak store for Mac apps". The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Retrieved December 9, 2010.
  32. ^ Cody Lee (August 2, 2012). "Saurik talks Cydia revenue model, Cydia for Mac, and more". iDownloadBlog. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cydia&oldid=508080448"