iPhone and iPod Touch owners rejoiced when Jay Freeman released Cydia, a software installer for jailbroken iPhone OS. The Cydia store was launched on Saturday for developers to sell their apps for jailbroken iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Independent developers will now have a platform to sell their applications outside Apple's 'Walled Garden' - the App Store.
Jailbreaking is a process to enable an iPhone OS-based device to bypass the digital rights management for privilege escalation. Users can install applications that are developed by independent developers whose applications aren't available in the official App Store.
Cydia application installer already includes applications like Cycoder that turns the iPhone into a camcorder, and PdaNet, which turns the iPhone into a Wi-Fi hotspot, using the data connection.
Freeman's Cyntact is the first paid package in the Cydia Store. Cyntact shows the contact's profile picture in the contact list. However, this application faces some conflict with the IntelliScreen app.
Freeman in an interview with Wall Streen Journal said that Cydia Store "intends to charge developers no more than the commission Apple does for his site's billing services."
It has been reported that two more rival App Stores are underdevelopment of which one focuses on selling porn-themed games for the iPhone.
On the big Christmas Day box office day, Tom Cruise’s Valkyrie debuted at a disappointing number #4. This was already a movie that was re-scheduled to this big money making day due to fears about its performance. Valkryrie follows Cruise’s last flop, Lions for Lambs, which did not even break even at the box office and was one of the worst performing films of 2007. Was it Cruise’s brashness with NBC’s Matt Lauer interview or his jab at Brooke Shield’s pregnancy pills? Too political? Bad religion PR? He even recently apologized for Oprah’s couch jump.
