Here’s a basic walkthrough to help you navigate through and get the most out of Cydia.

NOTE: This only works on jailbroken phones, see our 3G Jailkbreak Tutorials for Mac Users & Windows Users.

1. Click the spiffy new Cydia icon on your Springboard

You’ll see loading while it updates the sources and loads the welcome screen.

2. Upgrade Cydia

From here if you haven’t run Cydia in a while, or this is your first time running, you may get a notice about ‘Essential upgrades’. These are upgrades to the Cydia application itself that may be required for installing new packages and apps:

• Press Upgrade Essential
• Press Confirm to begin the download and install
• Wait for Complete and press Close Window
• Press the home key, and then re-open Cydia to continue

NOTE: After installing essential upgrades, it’s always a good idea to restart Cydia to make sure the new packages are reloaded. Repeat Step 1 to open Cydia again (though you probably already guessed that).

3. Update Applications

If you’ve installed applications previously you may see a numbered notification next to the “Changes” menu. This indicates that there are updates available for currently installed applications. For our walkthrough I’ll update the NES emulator I downloaded a couple of days ago.

To update applications:

• Press Changes
• Press Upgrade All (#) [top right of screen]
• Press Confirm to begin download and installation

You’ll notice on the last shot that NES has disappeared from the list and the notification
(red 1) on the changes option has been removed.

NOTE: Changes also contains applications that have recently been added or changed, this is a good place to go to find new applications on a regular basis.

4. Installing New Applications

Let’s install something new. I love Pac-Man, and it just so happens that the developer of Mac-Man, a great Pac-Man clone, is available on Cydia under the games category.

To install an application:

• Press Install [on the bottom]
• Browse through categories to Games
• Press Macman
• Press Install on top right
• Press Confirm to begin the download and installation

You will see it run through a series of steps . . . Downloading . . . Preparing . . . Complete.

• Press Close Window

Now Macman is successfully installed, you should be able to hit your home key, wait for your homescreen to refresh, and a tempting new Macman icon will be waiting for you.

Let’s go eat some ghosts!

5. Removing or Reinstalling Applications

Ok, so now you have an application installed, but you don’t really want to play it anymore. Removing it is as simple as a few taps:

• Open Cydia again
• Press Manage
• Scroll and find Macman
• Press Macman
• Press Modify [top right of the screen]
• Press Remove (you could reinstall if you were having issues with the application, like it wouldn’t start)
• Press Confirm to begin removing the app
• Once you see Complete, press home and the Macman icon should be gone

6. Searching for Applications

One of my favorite features of Cydia is Searching.

I can find an app without having to go through countless categories because I can’t remember where it was located:

• Press Search
• Type part of the application name or description in the search box at top

The list is filtered as you type, and all matching applications are shown. Select one to install and follow step 4 above.

Remember a lot of applications you might have seen in Installer.app previously are not yet available because the developers haven’t updated them to work on the new 2.0 software.

Check the Changes section in Cydia daily for updates. Three new applications have shown up just in the time it has taken me to write this tutorial!

A few of my favorite apps already available on Cydia:

MiM (Make it Mine) by Erica Sadun
MiM lets you customize the carrier name on the top left of the phone. You’ll notice in the screenshots above mine has my screenname “w1kedZ.”

NES
NES is a fully functional Nintendo emulator. It loads ROM files that can be found in various places on the internet. It’s great for showing off or if you really love games like Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda.

BossPrefs
BossPrefs is a great app by BigBoss that lets you easily turn on and off different features of the iPhone. Currently, the version for the 2.0 software is only really useful for turning on and off SSH if you have installed the OpenSSH package from Cydia. It also contains Poof which will allow you to hide/show icons on the homescreen; a useful feature if you are like me and don’t want the original Stocks Icon on your Springboard because you never use it.

Related Posts

• Review: Cydia 2.0 vs Installer 4.0
• Installer 4.0 Beta Leaked
• Update: Installer 4.0 (Screenshots)
• Installer 4.0 Coming Soon
• Veency Demo: VNC Server for iPhone (Video)

What is Cydia?

If you’ve just used one of the new Pwnage options and now have a shiny new jailbroken iPhone running the 2.0 software, then you might be asking yourself, “What is Cydia?”

You might also be asking yourself, “Where is Installer?,” but rest assured it is coming soon. Until then, let’s explain Cydia.

Cydia was created by Jay Freeman (saurik), as an alternative to Installer. It took what Installer started and improved on it. It’s open source and gives developers much more flexibility when publishing their apps.

But why is Cydia on your SpringBoard and not Installer?

Well the 2.0 software introduces many changes to the developer’s toolchain, which means that applications written for 1.1.4 and below will not run on 2.0 firmware without being updated and recompiled. At the time PwnageTool was released, Installer itself had not been ported to the 2.0 software, and therefore cannot run on it yet.

Until the developers of Installer (RiP Dev) finish updating the application, it will not run on the new 2.0 iPhone/iPod Touch software. In the meantime, Cydia is your sole method of package installation.

Now you’re probably saying, “But Installer had so many more apps than Cydia.”

The reason there are so few apps (specifically games and customization utilities) in Cydia, is the same reason there is no Installer on the iPhone yet.

These apps haven’t been updated by the individual developers. Cydia will only display apps that can run on your iPhone, and as the individual developers update their apps, they will appear in Cydia as well, so check back frequently.

Apps are being updated on a daily, if not hourly, basis. My favorite app, the NES emulator, is already available. I mean, be honest, the only reason we jailbreak in the first place is to play Super Mario Bros., right?

Installer 4.0 appears to address many of the shortcomings of the original Installer.app, the very issues that sparked saurik to develop Cydia.

Some things the new Installer is said to include, according to RiP Dev, are ‘dependencies’. This means if an app requires another app or package to be installed, it will automatically download the other packages and install them (as long as they are available).

Installer 4.0 will also be fully multi-threaded, so now you can refresh sources, browse packages, and install packages all at the same time; no more waiting for the “refreshing sources” message at the bottom of the screen to go away (sometimes 10 or 15 minutes later).

But the largest improvement that Installer 4.0 will boast is using sqlite database. Previously it used PLIST files which had to be fully downloaded every time sources were refreshed. Some of these files were rather large (700kb to 1mb for larger sources), putting a strain on the webservers hosting the files. Now we just get information added or removed since our last refresh. This will also make searching and startup muchimproved.

Whether your preference is the new Installer 4.0 or Cydia, rest assured they will both play nicely together. Some developers will only package their apps in an Installer repository, and some will only put theirs in Cydia, and of course some will publish to both. No matter what the developer’s preference you will be able to run Cydia, Installer, and AppStore all on your iPhone with no problems.

Related Posts

• How to Use Cydia: A Walkthrough
• Installer 4.0 Beta Leaked
• Update: Installer 4.0 (Screenshots)
• Installer 4.0 Coming Soon
• Icy v1.1 Released by RiP Dev