Ripdev – one of the very first big names in the iPhone jailbreak community – are apparently calling it quits on their involvement with the iPhone jailbreak arena. Ripdev are probably known best for two jailbreak applications – one that was just about universally well-liked, and one that I heard mostly negative, horror-story type reactions on.
Installer was the first jailbreak apps store – where all the original jailbreak apps could be browsed and installed from. It was the first thing installed when a jailbreak process completed and its icon on an iPhone home screen was a positive sign of a successful jailbreak. Kate was the other app they were best known for. It was a sort of mini Swiss Army Knife of springboard enhancements, and I honestly heard about it most in iPhone forum horror stories about it trashing people’s iPhones and causing full restores.
Here’s the parting statement on the Ripdev site:
It’s been a great two years, but unfortunately, the time has come for Ripdev to close its doors. There are many reasons for this, most of which we probably will never disclose (unless we are forced to). The important thing is that due to circumstances we will likely be unable to support the titles we have created over the years further. They will be perfectly operatable on the firmware versions they were created for, and you will be able to download and use them — but they will no longer be supported and updated (except for i2Reader Pro that is not being developed by us and that will be kept in sync with its App Store version). We will, of course, transfer the licenses to the new devices — just email us. Our Cydia repository will be operational until at least next year, so be assured that the products you liked and paid for will be available for you to (re)install.
Icy, our lightweight DPKG installer, is now available in source form under MIT license. You’re free to do whatever you want with it. It would be nice if someone picks up the project…
Installer has been superseded as the leading jailbreak apps store by Cydia for some time now, but even so their decision to shut things down now seems rather sudden. The guys at the iPhone in Canada site have found a little more though by checking out the page source at the Ripdev goodbye page:
Hey there, fellow page source viewer! Unfortunately, there’s nothing interesting here, other than that we are very, very sad about the fact the things turned that way. Here’s a bit of advise: don’t blindly trust your business partners – one day it may turn out that they will steal a year’s worth income of the company and create another one, leaving you without possibility to control what you have been creating for several years.
I think I’ll choose to remember Ripdev for their stellar efforts on Installer – which was the first iPhone app store and surely helped pave the way (and provided ideas) for the Apple version. I’m grateful for their contribution to the iPhone arena.
Via: Apple iPhone School and iPhone in Canada
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
{ 1 trackback }
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Rip, ripdev. They have done great work for the jb community, as you said. I hope they'll come back, eventually
Are they still supporting their iPhone App Anti-Theft framework?
Don't know. Don't think it is mentioned anywhere, but here is their site:
http://ripdev.com/
yes, we are, KaliAP will be developed and supported further at http://kaliap.com.
You must log in to post a comment.