With the iPhone and iPhone 3G jailbreak released in to the wild and ready to open read/write access to the iPhone’s filesystem from any Mac or PC, many have likely been scratching their heads as to where the AppStore alternative, Installer.app, has gone. Pwnage Tool 2.0 and WinPwn 2.0 both allow for custom firmwares to be loaded to an iPhone or iPhone 3G with custom packages (like SSH and Installer) already on-board. But, as you may, or may not, have noticed, Installer is conspicuously absent from the pre-installed package options – leaving only Cydia to do your free third-party iPhone application-bidding.
So, where’s Installer? RiP Dev, the team that brought us the first Installer application for jailbroken iPhones, has posted an update on their blog stating that Installer 4 is in development and should be available in short order. The Rip Dev team apparently kept their Installer 4 off of the 
Pwnage Tool 2.0 and its Windows counterpart in favor of fully testing the AppStore-rival to avoid any early-release snafus.
RiP Dev says that they’re in the process of hooking up the GUI front-end with their overhauled back-end. Unfortunately, that means the rest of us will have to do with Cydia and the AppStore on our jailbroken iPhones and iPhone 3Gs as we wait for Rip Dev to go live with their Installer 4.
In the meantime, take a gander at these screenshots of Installer 4’s GUI. Installer 4 looks like a much more polished version of its predecessors. And, it’s hard to not think that Installer 4 look a lot like the AppStore – or perhaps, seeing as how Installer preceded the AppStore, does the AppStore looks a lot like Installer?
[Via: RipDev]