3DBoard Versus DeepEnd – Which iPhone 3D Jailbreak Tweak Reigns Supreme?

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated February 14, 2011

When we first posted about 3DBoard — a jailbreak tweak for the iPhone that lends a 3D effect to your Home screen — we were excited. When Ryan Petrich one-upped the release of 3DBoard with his own tweak entitled DeepEnd, we were delighted.

That’s because not only was DeepEnd available first, it kept a few extra dollars in our pockets by being free. But free doesn’t necessarily mean better; after all, you get what you pay for, or do you?

Check inside for the full video evidence, as we compare these two popular iPhone jailbreak tweaks head-to-head…

I still find it interesting that just as the news broke about 3DBoard, Petrich comes out of nowhere with DeepEnd. This leads me to ask the question, who’s tweak was in development first? Quite the interesting turn of events, indeed.

One thing I do like about 3DBoard is the built-in toggle to outright disable the effect. With DeepEnd, you have to turn down each of the three sliders in order to disable it.

But, at the end of the day, the unanimous decision is in favor of DeepEnd. Not only is it free, it simply brings more to the table than 3DBoard does thus far.

I’d advise you to save your money, and go with DeepEnd. No pun intended, but it’s the deeper of the two 3D Home screen tweaks thus far.

Just a point of note: these tweaks require the iPhone 4’s gyroscope, so if you have older hardware, you’ll have to sit this one out.

Which one are you rolling with?

Tags 3D Gyroscope iPhone 4 Jailbreak Apps Tweak

50 comments

  3. DeepEnd caused weird behavior on my iPhone 4. It would freeze the touch screen and not give it. This did not happen right away, but after some time. It never gave the the 3D effect at all. The only conclusion I have is that it is incompatible with some of my other Jailbreaks.

    I also tried a cracked version of 3Dboard just to see if it produced the desired affect. That never took at all and booted in the safe mode. Deleted that fast.

    So for me right now, neither works at all.

    Disappointed. But not really that much.

  6. I got both but neither work for me with my html background. I’d rather have the html background with weather than the effect, so, so far it’s just money wasted for me. Hopefully one of them finds a way to make it work with html backgrounds.

    1. In 3DBoard’s change log, it lists “Fixes rare crash when using html wallpapers” or are you using an html widget? It still lists problems with HTML widgets

      This is for version v1.0.2-5

      1. I’m not sure I know the difference between an HTML widget and HTML background, but it still doesn’t work, so I suppose I have a widget. I only hoped 3D board would work because I thought for some reason it worked by manipulating the icons, vs deep board which I knew worked by manipulating the background (because since it was free I had already tried it). I didn’t know they did the same thing or I wouldn’t have bought 3D board until it said it did HTML widgets for sure.

  8. useless eyecandy. only appledorks would fuss over something so superficialy ‘pretty’ (I have an iPhone4 so no I am not a ‘hater’)

  9. i wasted $2,99… sometimes free is better! i hope they release a cool update. until then•DeepEnd!!!

  10. im gonna have to disagree i love 3d board more cuz it doesnt zoom in on my wallpaper which is a ios4 homescreen wallpaper and still has a nice 3d effect plus petrich just copied appocolips idea

    1. You could have a point, but they were released so close together it’s impossible to determine who copied who. The zoom isn’t a factor though, just turn zoom all the way down and you’re good.

  11. I have 3DBoard, and find that it doesn’t always play nice with themes. It states it doesn’t currently work with Parallax. Fine, I removed Parallax…for now. But I just changed to a new theme yesterday…and again…it’s not working. Save your money till it works with themes and other background apps, and also so that continues to work after a respring. 🙁

  12. I used DeepEnd and it was cool for a while, but It used up way too much RAM. When I uninstalled it, the SpringBoard ran way more efficiently and quicker.

  14. Pireted 3dboard doesn’t work,and I have an iPod touch 2g and deepend doesn’t work cuz no gyro,Im a kid so I can’t buy 3dboard…yo <3 verga

  16. Deep End doesn’t work with parallax either. You have to uninstall it. But after
    Playing with it for a while I was unimpressed. The flat looking icons have no depth and the icon shadows aren’t heavy enough to make them look like they are floating above the background. The only icons that look good have an edge to them like the folders. I decided I’d rather keep parallax and reinstalled it. Keep tweaking guys!

  17. Deep End doesn’t do anything when the phone is vertical, but 3DBoard still works when vertical. Also, Deep End seems to be jumpy, while 3DBoard is smooth. I prefer 3DBoard.

  18. Deepend had the edge with a cuple more options but I think after playing with them both I feel they are pretty shit. If deepend was smoother and consistent in movement it would be worth showing off but for me it is not lol.
    Time to remove !!!!!

  19. (Previous post clarification) by vertical, I mean when I hold my iPhone 4 in front of me so it’s veritcal and rotate it left and right.

  20. I think unless it can track your head movement instead of relying on the gyro… it would be more fun and more realistic. with the moments in the video, I see lag, interesting but not interested.

      1. Which source is giving the deepend tweak as I can only find them in repo sources, and so when I refresh my changes for updates I don’t get an update notification for deepends ‘on/off’ button update

    1. Not worth it yet. I have tried both. DeepEnd does not work for me and is in conflict with some wallpapers. 3Dboard booted up in safe mode. conflicts with some other major and more useful jailbreaks.
      Wait till some of the issues are ironed out. Unless this is the only jailbreak you have. Frankly, there are a lot more interesting jailbreaks out there for the phone that make it more useful. This is just pure eye candy. Not beneficial functionality.

  29. Jeff, you do a great job with videos! Tried both and prefer deepend. This is awesome tweak.

  31. Tried both, DeepEnd has better control and the bugs are fixed and on/off toggle added. Using it with the peacock feather adds great colors and visual effect. Useful?…not really…cool? definitely

  36. I can’t find DeepEnd in Cydia either. Im running 4.2.1, if that matters. Does anyone know how to get it?

  37. I was wondering the same thing. I jailbroke and finally remembered these apps and went to cydia and no DeepEnd. weird

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