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June 11, 2010 8:21 PM

I jailbroke my iPod Touch. What now?

I recently jailbroke my 3rd gen iPod Touch with Spirit. It was on 3.13. I honestly have no idea what I've been doing, most of what's been messed with so far was by friends I asked for help from. I'd like to learn the basics, but I can't find any one website laying out the basics or explaining anything.

What can I do with my iPod now? What apps should I *ahem* get?

posted by hotdiggitydog to Technology (11 answers total)

You should navigate to this website where you can download... stuff. Some of the better stuff you can do are things that let you mess around with the look and feel like winterboard. The biggest difference with jailbroken apps is that they don't always show up with a nice icon and you may have to use the search feature to find them. The website and those general keywords [Cydia, saurik] should be able to get you started exploring. You can even install an app that lets you use a bluetooth keyboard with it, neato.
posted by jessamyn at 8:34 PM on June 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

The elephant in the room: there is an installer program available that makes getting pirated app store content onto the device a one-click operation. This can be useful even for honest folk: it adds an ad-hoc "try-before-you-buy" option for App Store purchases - very helpful in figuring out which of the 15 PDF readers in the store to spend money on, for example.
posted by killdevil at 9:03 PM on June 11, 2010

Wifi Sync. It's 10$, but seems totally worth it. (I haven't taken the jump yet because my iPod can't do any audio out, so I rarely sync. If/When I get an iPhone, I'll be jailbreaking it and will definitely install WiFi Sync.
posted by 47triple2 at 9:11 PM on June 11, 2010

I did mine about a week ago. Here's that elephant people are skirting around:

- Open Cydia.
- Go to add sources.
- Add http://cydia.hackulo.us/
- Install the correct AppSync package. If you're on 3.1.x firmware, install AppSync for 3.1. If you're on an iPad (3.2) install AppSync for 3.2.
- Reboot!
posted by PeterMcDermott at 12:28 AM on June 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

... or if you want to stay legal and play with the neat toys, here are some of my must have apps. Just open Cydia and search for:

SBSettings. Swipe the top and it brings down a HUD to change alot of settings like adjust volume without closing the app.

If you want to run apps in the background and not wait for iOS 4.0, download Backgrounder so you can ex: run Pandora while browsing Safari.

Backgrounder also installs, or you can install it separately Activator. It's really cool, you can define many system actions such as:
While iPod is locked while playing music, you can hold down the power button to skip the next song instead of taking your iPod out of your pocket to change song (or you can shake to play the next song as well.)

AndroidLock. Use a pattern for your lockscreen, instead of numbers.

Winterboard - a theming app. Themes are also in cydia.

MultiIconMover... select multiple icons on the springboard at once, go to a new page and hit home and it instantly moves them all... at once.
posted by glenno86 at 5:12 AM on June 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

In addition to glenno86's great suggestions, Infinidock lets you scroll the dock and add as many apps as you want to it. Music Controls lets you use the 'popup' window (double-click the home button) to control other applications besides the default music player (Pandora, Rssplayer, etc)
posted by mattholomew at 5:40 AM on June 12, 2010

After you've installed the AppSync package you can search google or a site like filestube.com or any torrent site for programs. On filestube I just search for blahname IPA. After you download it simply double click and the sync your ipod.

When I first jailbroke I googled "top 10 iphone games" and then just installed all of them.

These days I really don't play any games and my favorite reason I jailbroke is ankimini to help me with my japanese study.
posted by bindasj at 6:37 AM on June 12, 2010

I also use this app called "categories" to put all my icons/apps into folders. I found it a little tricky to use at first but man is it really nice to just look at a screen with a few folders and not have to flip through multiple screens.
posted by jessamyn at 7:07 AM on June 12, 2010

47triple2, you're not missing anything in not getting Wifi Sync. I bought it and got just one use out of it before it failed. With no change to any of the systems involved I emailed the developer and never heard back.
posted by Pamelayne at 8:13 AM on June 12, 2010

Response by poster: Is there any way to make the music player pop up with a double click regardless of whether it is playing or not? I think previous firmware made this possible but I would like this back. Also, is it possible to turn off cover flow?

Thanks for the great answers so far.
posted by hotdiggitydog at 8:21 AM on June 12, 2010

The app, from Cydia, Activator also brings up music controls, regardless. Install it, open settings up, tap on Activator, tap Anywhere, select a activation method (ex double tap home or have another cool way for bring the popup like shaking), then select iPod Controls.

Download Rotation Inhibitor to disable rotation in rotating apps. It's a SBSettings toggle, so bring up the SBSettings HUD by swiping the status bar when you want rotation inhibited (you may have to restart or respring for the icon to appear in SBSettings.)

Not sure how to disable CoverFlow without disabling everything else though.
posted by glenno86 at 9:11 AM on June 12, 2010