Activator

Coeus augments the Control Center interface with app and Activator shortcuts

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated June 2, 2021

Apple created iOS’ Control Center interface to be an all-in-one hub for shortcuts and toggles, but for whatever reason, the company limits the shortcut selection to a small number of native apps without so much as the seemingly necessary option to configure custom app shortcuts of the end user’s choice.

If, like me, you despise Apple’s systematic disregard for user configuration, then there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll enjoy the likes of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called Coeus by iOS developer Azzou.

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Comet brings iOS 14-inspired widgets to jailbroken iOS 13 devices

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 18, 2020

If you sat back and watched the WWDC 2020 presentation, then you would’ve witnessed Apple’s plans for the upcoming iOS & iPadOS 14 software update slated to launch this Fall. One of the features that stood out most to me was the introduction of authentic Home Screen widgets, which the jailbreak community has enjoyed for years along with several other of iOS 14’s ‘new’ features.

Jailbreakers are typically hard-pressed to partake in major software updates like iOS 14 because of the implications that doing so would have on their jailbreak eligibility. Fortunately, a newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed Comet by iOS developer Dylan West (@iOSthemem0d) brings a multitude of new widgets to jailbroken iOS 13 devices, and it certainly evokes an iOS 14-esque vibe if you know what we mean…

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ScreenFreeze thwarts snooping when handing your iPhone to someone to share a photo

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 19, 2020

It’s not uncommon at all for someone to hand their iPhone to another person. Albeit a temporary action, this happens when someone wants another person to view a photo or video, try an app or game, or assist them with a troubleshooting matter. As common as this act is, a legitimate concern is what the person will do with your iPhone after you hand it to them.

If you’re among the group of people who get paranoid about someone rifling through your personal data upon handing them your iPhone, and you're certainly not alone, then you’ll probably come to appreciate the likes of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed ScreenFreeze by iOS developer Greg0109.

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Ryan Petrich launches new Activator beta with preliminary iOS 13 support

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 12, 2020

Activator, perhaps one of the most-used extensions ever created for the jailbreak community, received a beta update this weekend to add the first official support for iOS/iPadOS 13 since the checkra1n and unc0ver jailbreak tools made pwning these versions possible. At the time of this writing,  the latest Activator beta is now version 1.9.13~beta6.

Project lead developer Ryan Petrich announced the new beta version with preliminary iOS 13 support via Twitter late last night, along with Activator’s sister extension, Flipswitch:

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Assistant+ can make Siri more powerful on jailbroken handsets

Anthony Bouchard ∙ June 21, 2019

If you have a jailbroken handset at your disposal and you feel like Siri is a bit underpowered out of the box, then you just might come to appreciate a newly-released jailbreak tweak called Assistant+ by iOS developer Zaid Elkurdi.

From what we can gather, this tweak brings a plethora of personalization options to the Siri voice assistant, empowering users to assign custom actions and responses to almost any query they can think of.

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This tweak augments Safari on iOS with new gestures and features

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated December 19, 2022

If you’re jailbroken by way of Chimera or unc0ver, then you can now take advantage of a jailbreak tweak dubbed Sleipnizer for Safari (iOS 9-12) by iOS developer r_plus to augment the usability of your handset’s native Safari web browser.

Fresh out of the box, Sleipnizer for Safari bakes a plethora of new gestures and shortcuts into Safari experience. Among those are:

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Translomatic makes it easy to translate text to other languages in almost any app

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 11, 2019

If you occasionally stumble upon a text written in another language that you don’t understand, then you might be quick to use a third-party translation service such as Google Translate to get a better idea about what’s being said. But what if you never needed to leave the app you were in?

With the help of a newly-released jailbreak tweak dubbed Translomatic by iOS developer FoxfortMobile, you can now enjoy this type of integrated experience on your jailbroken handset in almost any app you use.

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Ryan Petrich updates Activator and other vital tweak dependencies with arm64e support & more

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 29, 2019

Well-known jailbreak tweak developer Ryan Petrich made an elusive appearance in Cydia over the weekend as he updated a plethora of vital dependencies with preliminary support for arm64e devices.

Petrich maintains some of the jailbreak community’s highest-profile dependencies, including Activator, AppList, PreferenceLoader, and RocketBoostrap, among others. Many of these were included in this past weekend’s update burst.

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Add an application drawer to your jailbroken iPhone with Vesta

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 26, 2019

If you’ve ever used an Android handset before, then you might be familiar with the App Drawer where you can access any of your installed apps from one place. iOS has never sported an App Drawer-like feature out of the box, and this prompted iOS developer SparkDev to create a new jailbreak tweak called Vesta to bring one to the iOS platform.

Vesta is easily invoked with any of the built-in gestures or with Activator, and as depicted in the screenshot examples above, the Vesta interface is divided into two sections – one that displays some of your recently-used apps, and another that displays all your handset’s installed apps in one convenient place with no Home screen pages or folders to get in your way.

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These jailbreak tweaks let you record phone calls with the press of a button

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 18, 2019

Have you ever wanted to record your inbound and outbound phone calls from your iPhone? If so, then you’re not alone; in fact, this is quite possibly one of the most highly-requested features that Apple hasn’t natively implemented in the iPhone’s calling interface.

While a slightly convoluted process exists that may or may not work depending on your carrier, those with jailbroken handsets can make this process a whole lot easier by installing one of two recently-released jailbreak tweaks dubbed Call Recorder X+ (iOS 12) and Super Recorder X+ (iOS 12) by iOS developer hacx.

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HeySiri brings untethered ‘Hey Siri’ support to older devices

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 3, 2019

The latest iPhones and iPads are now so power efficient that you can effectively say “Hey Siri” whenever you want and have instant hands-free access to your virtual assistant; but that’s not the case with some of Apple’s older devices. Those such as the iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus require that you be tethered to a power source for Hey Siri to work.

Albeit inconvenient, the chips in the aforementioned devices aren’t as power-efficient as those found inside of devices today; consequently, always-on Hey Siri would have an adverse impact on your battery performance. But if battery life is no object to you, then you can forcefully-enable Hey Siri on these handsets with a free jailbreak tweak dubbed HeySiri by iOS developer Julio Verene.

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