hacksugar: Wireless iTunes syncing makes it to jailbroken iPhones

Cables, schmables. Why occupy valuable USB slots when you can make iTunes data fly magically over virtual intertubes to and from your home computer? New to the jailbreak world, Wi-Fi Sync introduces over-the-air sync to iPhone devices.

The application works like this: you install a client app on your desktop computer (10.5 and 10.6 Mac only at this time), which you can download for free from the Wi-Fi Sync website. Then, run the $9.99 Wi-Fi Sync application on your iPhone. Your phone will appear in iTunes' sources list as a connected device. You can then sync your device, just as if it were plugged in at a standard USB port.

Unfortunately, the iPad is not yet supported, but developer Greg Hughes promises he is working on that. "I'm hoping to have it ready within the next 2 months. It'll be a free update, and depending on the release of OS 4.0, I might time it to coincide with 4.0 compatibility," he told TUAW. "I'm also working on Windows support."

So why is Wi-Fi Sync not in the App Store? After all, it doesn't seem to break any of the standard App Store rules. It doesn't use private APIs and it doesn't bypass any Apple restrictions on the iPhone. How did it end up being relegated to Cydia?

Hughes told TUAW that he submitted the application in late April but didn't hear back until now. "Apple called me yesterday and said it was being rejected. I had a good conversation with the guy there. He said it reached a very high level of escalation within the company, but they had to say 'no'." The rep was apologetic but there was nothing more to be done.

But the best part of the whole story? The rep asked Hughes to send along his CV. Apple may have given Hughes' app thumbs down, but clearly they were impressed by his development ingenuity. Said Hughes, "It was cool to hear that from someone at Apple." For the record, Hughes is just 19 years old.

Wi-Fi Sync is currently available from the Cydia store for $9.99. It can be installed on jailbroken iPhones and iPod touch units to allow over-the-air syncing with iTunes.

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[Thanks, Optimo]