Keyboard

‘Haptic Keyboard’ tries to make your typing experience more engaging

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

Haptic Keyboard is a new jailbreak tweak that institutes haptic feedback with each press of a key on the iPhone's keyboard. Similar tweaks have appeared on Cydia in the past, but their compatibility has been spotty with recent iOS updates.

The purpose of haptic feedback, is to give the end user the sensation of actually typing on a physical keyboard, instead of a piece of smooth glass. Unfortunately, in the case of this latest version of Haptic Feedback, the idea is much better than the final execution.

DismissMyKeyboard allows you to quickly hide the iPhone’s keyboard

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

DismissMyKeyboard is a recently released jailbreak tweak for jailbroken iPhones that allows you to easily dismiss the software keyboard. While the iPad already benefits from such a feature due to the device's larger area of real estate, the iPhone's keyboard has no room for a dedicated dismiss keyboard button like you see on its larger brethren.

DismissMyKeyboard solves this issue by allowing you to perform a swipe gesture right on the keyboard in order to dismiss it. Take a look at our video walkthrough inside to see how it functions.

How to quickly access Emoji characters via the iPhone’s stock keyboard

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

QuickEmoji is a brand new jailbreak tweak that allows you to quickly access Emoji characters using the stock iOS keyboard. Normally, you'd have to switch to a dedicated Emoji keyboard to use Emoji characters, but this tweak takes on a more practical approach.

Take a look on the inside, as we show you how to access your precious Emoji characters in a more efficient manner...

SwipeType brings jailbreak tweak-like functionality to the App Store

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

SwipeType is a new note-taking application that offers up a slew of keyboard shortcuts that enable you to transcribe quicker. Functions like cut, copy, and paste, are all just a swipe away.

If this sounds familiar, that's because it is — it's extremely similar to the jailbreak tweak KBShortcuts. Except, unlike KBShortcuts, SwipeType is actually an app in the App Store...

Octopus Keyboard now available on Cydia’s BigBoss repo

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated February 25, 2013

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GCxr6NowXs[/tube]

Octopus Keyboard — the highly anticipated BlackBerry 10 keyboard tweak for jailbroken iOS devices — has finally touched down on the default BigBoss Cydia repo.

Prior to its landing on the BigBoss repo, the developer released the tweak on his own personal repo. You can check out our further analysis of Octopus Keyboard both here, and here.

Although the download is free of charge, be aware of the fact that you must purchase a $4.99 license via PayPal in order to use the tweak. Have you been waiting for Octopus Keyboard to finally appear on the default Cydia repos? If so, are you going to try it?

Octopus Keyboard now available on Cydia

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated February 25, 2013

Ladies and gentlemen, it's here. After much anticipation, Octopus Keyboard is now available on Cydia.

As we first previewed a couple of months ago, Octopus Keyboard imitates the BlackBerry 10 keyboard on iOS. Be sure to check out our video walkthrough for a high level synopsis of how it works.

Once you've done that, head over to Cydia, and add the necessary repo to download Octopus Keyboard now. Or you can wait a while for it to appear on Cydia's default BigBoss repo.

Check inside for our hands-on video walkthrough of the final version of Octopus Keyboard...

BeeKeyboard: customizable Bluetooth keyboard shortcuts are finally coming to iOS

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated February 25, 2013

Although I've entertained the idea of using my iPad as a laptop replacement on and off during my tenure with the device, I always end up reneging on the thought. One of the primary reasons for this is the utter lack of keyboard shortcut customization within iOS.

Sure, some apps have minor Bluetooth keyboard interactivity, but those are few and far between. What about the ability to customize a keyboard's shortcut settings for all apps, and for those that do support a measure of keyboard support, how about even deeper customization?

That's where BeeKeyboard comes into the picture. It's an upcoming jailbreak tweak that will allow you to create custom shortcuts and add-ons for specific apps. Finally, the external keyboard just got a lot more powerful on iOS.

Octopus Keyboard brings a BlackBerry 10 styled keyboard to the iPhone

Jeff Benjamin ∙ May 13, 2012

I may be in the minority, but I think RIM seems to be on the right track with their recently unveiled BlackBerry 10 operating system. There's nothing in it exactly groundbreaking, but at least RIM appears to be building on a solid foundation for the future.

Whether or not BlackBerry 10 is enough to save the reeling company still remains to be seen, but at the very least it's a good attempt by the Waterloo, Ontario based smartphone maker.

As a testament to how much better BlackBerry 10 is when compared to previous BlackBerry software, a jailbreak tweak has been created that actually emulates the functionality of a BlackBerry. Has that ever been done before?

Octopus Keyboard is an upcoming jailbreak tweak that seeks to bring RIM's new gesture based predictive typing to iPhone users. The tweak is still in the early stages of development, but developer, Mario Hros, was kind enough to give me sneak peak of what he's been concocting.

Take a look inside for a full video walkthrough of Octopus Keyboard in action...

‘SwipeSelection’ now available on Cydia

Jeff Benjamin ∙ May 5, 2012

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h2yrBK7MAY[/tube]

SwipeSelection — the jailbreak tweak based on Daniel Hooper's iPad keyboard editing concept — is now available on Cydia.

If you haven't seen our hands-on video and review of the tweak in action, be sure to check it out.

You can find SwipeSelection for free on Cydia's BigBoss repo, and it plays nice with both the iPad and iPhone.

Have you tried it? What do you think?

iPad text editing concept comes to life thanks to this jailbreak tweak

Jeff Benjamin ∙ May 4, 2012

When Cody posted about Daniel Hooper’s iPad keyboard demo, we had no idea that it would be as popular as it has turned out to be. Thousands of retweets later, the public has spoken out against how terrible the iPad's editing situation is. I think John Gruber summed it up best when he noted that the iPad was a great for typing, but poor for editing.

The iPad keyboard demo video was created with the hopes that Apple would respond and implement something similar in the upcoming version of iOS. There's even instructions included on the video for submitting a bug report to Apple.

Well, Apple may not listen, but someone else did. Indeed, the jailbreak community has responded in a big way. Introducing SwipeSelection — a usable realization of the original iPad concept video...

‘PictoKeyboard’ adds tons of new Unicode symbols to your iDevice

Jeff Benjamin ∙ February 24, 2012

If you're one of those people that knows what U+F8FF means, or what Option+Shift+K does, then this post is for you. For those of you who aren't aware, U+F8FF is the Unicode address for the Apple logo  (on Apple devices) that you see on a lot of Twitter profiles, etc.

PictoKeyboard is a new tweak that allows you to have a Unicode keyboard on your iDevice, making it easy to access your favorite symbols on the small screen...

Change Your iPhone’s Keyboard Layout From Qwerty to Dvorak

Cody Lee ∙ February 7, 2012

The Dvorak keyboard layout was patented in 1936 by Dr. August Dvorak (thanks Wikipedia). Proponents of the layout believe that it requires less finger motion than the traditional QWERTY style, allowing you to type faster with fewer errors.

If you happen to be a fan of the Dvorak layout, or would just like to see what it looks like, a new jailbreak tweak has just surfaced in Cydia that will install the keyboard on your iOS 5 device...