iOS jailbreak app, Activator shows up in App Store. It's fake though

If you’ve jailbroken your iPhone, you’ll see an iOS customization app, Activator, in the Cydia store. However, there now appears to be an app called Activator promising the same iOS customization and presenting the same screenshots as the Cydia app in the iOS App Store. The difference is that the one available in the Cydia store is free and actually does offer the customization it promises. The iOS App Store version costs $0.99 (about Rs. 57), and functions as a wallpaper-generating application at the most. Clearly, the App Store version is fake. According to iDownloadBlog, the Cydia version of the app is a popular jailbreak tweak developed by Ryan Petrich. The functions that it promises (and the App Store version rips-off) are:

• Using multitouch gestures in iPhone/iPod Touch
• Changing the way a user would access their iPhone/iPod Touch
• Assuming custom buttons or custom gestures for original buttons

Furthermore, the fake Cydia version of Activator’s description has no disclaimer stating that the application is or isn’t related to the Cydia version. Therefore, it’s wiser to be careful and not download the application. What is written in the description as a false promise is: “With this you can add new features like “shaking the iPod for traditional home button press) like wise.. There are many features like touch screen lock, touch shut down, touch reboot, touch respring, changing default buttons and changing default gestures…” The grammar in that description alone is enough to make the app sound like a scam. The developer behind the fake app is named Diep Nguyen Thi Ngoc in the App Store description and the publisher is TicTac Studio.

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Screenshots of the fake Activator in the App Store

What’s interesting is that Apple’s app approval gang let this application slip through the cracks. The functions that it promises clearly violate Apple’s terms and conditions for developers and what’s more, the app doesn’t deliver on what it promises, which is yet another violation. This is not the first time that a fake jailbreak app has come to the App Store. Last year, Winterboard, a Cydia app by Jay Freeman (saurik), which essentially provided Winter-themed customizations for iOS devices, popped up in the App Store. Of course, since it violated Apple’s terms and conditions, it shouldn’t have been there to begin with. Is Apple’s application approval department getting a little loose and lazy? If you want to use Activator, jailbreak your device and get it ’legitimately’ from the Cydia store.