Cydia AppStore "Within Weeks"

Time to start jailbreaking your Mac? We kid, but that's only because Jay "saurik" Freeman—author of the popular Cydia repository that allows jailbroken iPhones to download apps they otherwise wouldn't be able to find on Apple's App Store—has decided to bring his mobile talents to the desktop world.
A Mac-based version of Cydia should be available within a few weeks, announced Freeman at the 360|MacDev conference Friday morning. And with more than 30,000 different packages currently on the mobile version of Cydia, it stands to reason that a desktop-based version of the repository could find popularity amongst those looking for third-party or open-source apps. According to Freeman, approximately 10 percent of all iPhone users—or around 10 million devices—already connect up to Cydia.
And it's not as if Apple hasn't given Freeman a bit of an edge to carve out his own space in the package management market. According to the company, app developers will be forbidden from offering in-app purchases during the initial incarnation of the company's Mac App Store. That essentially rules out demos-to-paid-versions of apps—though demos, beta versions, and promotional code are also banned from the store at first—which is a fairly common way to go about application sales with Apple's mobile App Store.
The Mac App Store itself is expected to open in late January 2011. If Freeman gets his timing right, he might very well be able to beat Apple at its own App Store game—and, better yet, you won't even have to hack your system just to get Cydia to work this time around.

[via: PCMAG]