When I first jailbroke my first gen iPhone, the source for 3rd party apps was through Installer (also known as AppTapp). Now, as I’ve moved on to the iPhone 3G, Installer has taken a backseat to Cydia, which has emerged as the only place to download apps.

Cydia is great but it does have some shortfalls. For example, it takes a LONG time to load (I’m beginning to think “Reloading Data” will soon be a permanent imprint on my iPhone’s screen!) at times, and when repositories are down Cydia can just stop functioning altogether. Installing and uninstalling applications can be a multi-step process that is time consuming.

Enter Stage Left: Please Welcome Icy Into Your Life

The folks that gave us the original Installer have recently introduced Icy, which essentially is Cydia but about 100x easier to use. Icy is RipDev’s take on Cydia, and their little app makes using Cydia a BREEZE! Good bye long wait times, welcome to the future of installing/removing 3rd party apps!

How to Install Icy on your Jailbroken iPhone

1. Launch Cydia. Go to Manage–>Sources–>Edit–>Add
2. Enter the following: http://apt.ripdev.com …hit Add Source afterwards.
3. Go to Sections–>Packaging–>select Icy, and install it.

4. After the install, respring and launch Icy.

Upon launching Icy, you should see a very simple layout. Categories, Sources, and Installed are your choices along the bottom (and Search in the top right corner). Go ahead and select any app to install it. You’ll soon be amazed at how well Icy works at installing a program. Try uninstalling an app and it’s equally as easy.

You can also view Icy in landscape mode. What makes Icy so quick is that sources are only refreshed when you want them to be. The app takes up minimal resources and downloads repos very quickly.

Check out the following screenshots of my installation of the CTU ringtone from 24:

…and here are some screenshots of me deleting xGPS

Icy is an awesome alternative to Cydia when you need to install/remove apps quickly and painlessly without constantly waiting for sources to refresh. Definitely give it a try and let me know what you think of it!