Unfortunately, the official App Store can be restrictive and limited for some developers. With jailbreaking and Installer.app and Cydia, this allows them to create and distribute applications that can do things that the restrictive SDK wouldn’t allow them to, or Apple. I’ve used quite a number of these jailbroken apps on my iPhone and here is a wide selection of ones I have on my iPhone. These are my top Cydia applications for iPhone and iPod Touch.

BossPrefs - This is a very powerful tool and I don’t even know exactly what this app can do. I use this app to turn off data and SSH when I don’t need it. This is so it doesn’t suck up my money, and no one can hack into my device. It is also good for respringing, restarting and shutting down your iPhone, if you needed to do that for some reason. There is plenty this thing can do.

Poof - I also like Poof, which I can access through BossPrefs. It it can be a stand alone application or come with BossPrefs if you would rather it. This allows you to hide icons from the home screen. This is very handy if you want to make those pesky icons you never use or are sick of seeing disappear. You can always easily put them in view again if you need to, its not permanent, it’s just a toggle of a switch.

Cycorder - One thing the iPhone is missing, a video recording application. It can a decent enough camera for taking pictures, so why can’t it be used for video? Well with this app it can. The quality of the video is decent enough, especially for YouTube. It does on the fly compression of video and they can be played back through the app. The annoying thing is that this app doesn’t have built in export tools. You have to get into your iPhones filesystem, navigate through the directories to find all your videos. I’m sure exporting is on the list of things coming soon to the app but it is still worth giving a go.

MxTube - The YouTube app that comes with the device is great, don’t get me wrong, but most of the time I am without an internet connection. This is where MxTube comes to the rescue. It allows you to download videos and save them onto your device for offline viewing later. I use it to save some of my favourite YouTube clips in high quality so I can show people later on, without the need for any connection. It can also save on time and bandwidth too, because you will no longer have to reload that video you’re always watching or showing.

Pushr - If you take pictures regularly with the built in camera on the iPhone and you use Flickr, this is the perfect app for you. When you launch the app, it will show you the pictures you’ve taken since the last push and allow you to name and tag them and upload them to Flickr. It does it easily and the images are full resolution with all their various tags in tacked.

Qik - Use Qik or would like to stream live to the internet? If so then this app is for you. It allows you to stream using the camera on the iPhone and sends it up to Qik for everyone to see, over Wifi and 3G. This allows people to see exactly what you see, live! It is also saved on the site for further viewing after you’ve finished streaming.

WifiToggle - This adds a button on the home screen for fast connecting to Wifi. No longer do you have to go into Setting and navigate through to the Wifi menu just to get connected to the internet. With one push of a button, and a 3 second wait, you will be connected to your Wifi. It’s as simple as that. If only it had a nicer looking icon.

Five Icon Dock - The dock only lets you have 4 icons on it at a time, although there is room to squeeze one more. That is what this app does, it allows you to drag one extra icon onto the dock if you so desire. If you already have 4 apps you want down there, and lets say you just got WifiToggle, it would be handy down in the dock, but you don’t want to give up one of your other apps from down there too. This is the prefect solution to that. It may look a little strange at first, but you will get use to it, fast.

OpenSSH - This app allows you to SSH into your iPhone so you can hack it, transfer files to and from the device, or whatever you desire. If you’re going to modify system files, change the theme, install some apps then this is a must. It is also needed for some apps like Cycorder for getting videos off the device. It can also be used to backup some of the files on your iPhone. There are many reason why you could want to get into your device, and this app is a must for any of those.

Scrobbled - If you use Last.Fm, this is the app you’re looking for. This allows you to scrobble straight from the iPhone or iPod Touch. No longer will you have to sync and hope that the desktop software scrobbles your plays. This app scrobbles to the site live if you’re connected to the internet, but if you’re not don’t worry, it will scrobble all those offline plays the next time you are connected.

Veency - There are many apps, official and unofficial, that allow you to VNC into another system, but this does the opposite. This app lets you VNC into the device. From here you can control your iPhone or iPod Touch right from a computer screen. You could use this to type things on the device with a real keyboard, or to access apps when it’s away from you. This is a fun little tool to play around with.

Note: These apps are for jailbroken iPhone and iPod Touch only. All are available through Cydia.