Cydia, The Alternative App Store For Apple Devices, Now Runs 4 Android

May 14, 2013

[img]http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/cydia-substrate.jpg?w=640&h=447[/img]

[url="http://www.cydiasubstrate.com/"]Cydia[/url], a platform commonly thought of as the alternative app store for jailbroken iPhones and iPads, has just today [url="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.saurik.substrate"]arrived on Android[/url] of all places. Though Android is by its nature more open and customizable than Apple’s locked-down iOS, it now has a growing collection of apps designed for power users who root their devices – a process that’s similar in spirit to the iOS jailbreak. Cydia for Android could soon become home to some of those same tweaks in time – or at least allow developers to port them to the Android ecosystem, whether or not they’re housed in Cydia directly.

Jailbreaking an iPhone makes a lot of sense because customizing Apple’s software, including its lockscreen and homescreen, is all but impossible. However, on Android, the perception is that many of the quirks and customizations you may desire can be managed through the installation of third-party apps, ranging from Android launchers that can change everything about the device (like Facebook’s Home application, for instance) to very specific tweaks that can change the device’s default behavior.

That being said, rooting an Android phone gives users even more power to do things outside of the scope of what’s possible out of the box. In addition to being able to upgrade to newer versions of Android ahead of “official” releases, [url="http://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/316-14-Rooted-Apps-Android-Rooted-Device-Tweaks-Tips.html"]various[/url] [url="http://blog.laptopmag.com/best-apps-for-rooted-android?slide=2"]apps[/url] for rooted phones and tablets allow users to adjust CPU settings, define custom multitouch gestures, record video of their screens, undelete files, gain access to apps not offered in their country, adjust cache size, change permissions, and a host of other delightfully geeky things.