Exclusive interview with CocoaNuts, creators of populars tweaks for Cydia [originale in inglese]
22 febbraio 2012 da Andrea Zanoli in Cydia
Over the recent past Team Cocoanuts, known pr tweaks for the development ofCydia, has been responsible for releasing beta versions of its popular tweaks such as Youtube and Celeste making them compatible with iPhone OS 5.
Meladevice did a nice conversation with the team, asking various questions about their work and talking in general also the world’s jailbreak and Apple, the conversation that has proved very interesting, we can see it together.
1. now you have released the beta version you are testing with users, you can plan a time for the final release?
Yes, but we can’t really announce a release date. The reason is sometimes (all the time) bugs appear in the last minute and you’re forced to delay. Then everyone gets angry at you. This is why we released a beta, that way everyone can see what we are doing, and that building a high quality product takes time and a lot of work.
2. What do you think of the jailbreak and the possibility that it is recognized legal?
I think we will get another DMCA exemption this year. It looks like Apple did not even bother to submit comments this time, who knows, maybe they decided this is a losing fight after all? 
3. jailbreak is seen by the majority of users as a means for piracy?
We don’t support any form of piracy obviously, but yes it is, there’s no point in denying it. At the same time, we’ve found that people who jailbreak will still pay for quality products even on “unofficial” stores like the Cydia Store.
My personal opinion on the matter is that most people pirate because they are unable to pay; either because they do not have a credit card, or they are too young, or both. I remember being in similar situations many years back, so I understand the predicament. Another problem is that people don’t want to spend too much money on dozens of apps and games they might only use once or twice. There is this false sense of need, that we need to install every possible app and game available. I myself have only 4 or 5 apps installed on my iPhone, and about as many tweaks. If you put it in perspective, 99% of apps and tweaks will cost you less than the price of a pizza, but nobody ever thinks $10 is too much to spend on pizza… The only difference is, that pizza will last you a day, but that app or tweak can last you many years. Of course if I wanted to install 200 things on my iPhone, that would be very costly, but my point is that these kinds of excesses are just not necessary.
People complain about the lack of free trials; honestly I don’t see where the problem is. If you don’t like a product you can always get a refund. That way you get your money back, and the developer does not have to go through hell building a time-limited licensing mechanism. It is insanely difficult to do these things correctly, and it is very difficult to monitor tampering with system date and time, especially if you’re an app that’s not running all the time. The end result usually involves many frustrated paying customers with software that does not work as intended.
4. what do you expect from the next iPhone 5 and the upcoming versions of iOS?
I can tell you we’re excited about new language features in Objective-C, but I don’t think most people will find that exciting ;P. The media will tell you that we’re getting a new processor, new screen, new design. I’ll give the media the benefit of the doubt here, since none of these predictions are crazy.
5. why did you specialize in applications for cydia and not for appstore?
Because Cydia is awesome! App Store is just too limiting. Even though there are probably 180 million more potential customers, we’re not here to make the most sales, we want to make useful software. Cydia Store allows us to distribute tweaks that add features to your device and improve your experience. Our focus is on bringing many important features from the desktop to iOS devices; things like being able to download files from Safari with Safari Download Manager, or being able to save mail attachments with AttachmentSaver, or transferring files over standard Bluetooth using Celeste. We also enjoy working on products that improve user experience. For instance, back in 2009 we released YourTube, which was an extension to the built-in YouTube app that added full download capability. Last year we released Gremlin, which allows you to import your media into iPod and have it sync back to your desktop iTunes. We also released MarkRead, because when you have a hundred unread emails in your Mail app you need a way to quickly mark them all read and get rid of the pesky badge on your home screen. None of these things would have been possible on the App Store.
6. what are your plans for this 2012, you can give us some rumors about some new work to which you are thinking?
We’re planning on getting or maintaining iOS5 support for all of our tweaks for starters. We’re also planning on launching 5 new tweaks before the summer, and I can tell you they are all going to be insanely useful. I can also tell you at least two of them will be free, and the theme this year is products that save you time and money.
we take this opportunity to thank the Team Cocoanuts for the interesting interview.
