Commercial Development for iPhone Take II: Caterpillar
by Eric March on February 23, 2008 at 8:39 pm
It’s been a tick since we had a brouhaha over the commercialization of apps for use on jailbroken devices (if you recall the Labyrinth fiasco), and it appears that the folks over at the unfortunately-named RiP Dev are going to resurrect the debate with the release of Caterpillar. Sporting a modular design and chiefly aimed at the iPhone, Caterpillar pimps out your iPhone with a combination of stylish and functional add-ons, including a Smart Dialer, which aims to make finding and dialing contacts easier, µCalendar to display a calendar and list of events on the lock screen, privacy features, missed call and SMS reminders, plus the ability to change the system font and add backgrounds to your springboard, with promises of more to come.
Some of this probably seems familiar to many of you, but there are a few interesting tweaks in here that would make your iPhone that much cooler. What’s most striking about this package however is not its features, but its pricing model. RiP Dev have opted to go with a subscription model with an unlimited option, starting at $20 for 6-months of usage, $35 for a one-year sub, and for “a little bit more” (a little bit being a 125% premium over the 6-month subscription) you can get the unlimited package — which I take to mean you’re just buying it outright.
Seems pretty spendy for what amounts to a small collection of somewhat handy (and in some cases duplicated) apps, but if money is no object and you’re the sort who feels like supporting development in the hacking community with your wallet, then head on over and check it out.
If nothing else, maybe the holier-than-thou software-should-be-free Moral Minority can aim their ire at someone else for a change and give Carl Lodberg a break.
(Source: MacRumors)
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Posted in Application Related
February 24th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Was wondering if this will work on the touch or has been tested on the touch by anyone?? seems like a really good product tho.
February 24th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
As far as I know, the features that are not iPhone-specific (dialer, reminders, etc.) work just fine on the Touch. It seems like a half decent product, indeed, it’s just their pricing structure that gets me.
February 25th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Thank you so much for that information. I figured you could be able to, but just wanted to make sure. I appreciate it.
April 29th, 2008 at 12:47 am
[...] first, called iToday, brings the uCalendar functionality seen in Caterpillar to your device in a much more freely availalble form, allowing you to view upcoming events straight [...]
August 5th, 2008 at 7:24 am
[...] am It seems the folks at RIP-Dev (you know, the folks who caused a stir with their Kate (formerly Caterpillar) application?) have pretty much taken over development of Installer from Nullriver and have been [...]