Video

The top jailbreak tweaks of 2012

A few weeks ago I published a somewhat controversial post about jailbreaking, and how its popularity is waning. This wasn't intended to be controversial, but it ended up that way, and after some thought I began to backtrack (a bit) on my stance.

The problem stemmed from the fact that I didn't do a very good job of explaining my stance. I didn't intend to say that jailbreaking was dead, my main point was just to show how innovation in the jailbreak community was being stifled by sometimes lazy developers, but mostly by Apple's efforts to stamp out jailbreaking.

While I still stand by my post, I felt that I needlessly ruffled a few feathers, and probably should have kept those thoughts to myself for the time being. When I began to work on this post — the top jailbreak tweaks of the year — it became more apparent that we actually have seen lot of innovation this year. Most of that innovation was earlier in the year, but nevertheless, there have been lots of great jailbreak tweaks to come out in the last 12 months.

Take a look inside as we cover some of this year's best jailbreak efforts from the development community. I'll also crown 2012's top jailbreak tweak of the year.

‘Fade’ dims your Home screen icons when invoking Notification Center

Fade is an extremely simple jailbreak tweak that forces the Home screen UI elements to fade when Notification Center is invoked. As you slide down Notification Center, elements like the app icons and the dock will progressively fade from view. As you slide the Notification Center pane up, the effect is reversed, and the elements fade back into view.

There are no options to setup or settings to configure, just install it and it starts working. Take a look inside as we demonstrate Fade on video...

How to enable the hidden Topography view in Google’s Maps app

Ryan Petrich is back at it again, this time with a new jailbreak tweak that enables a hidden Topography mode found in the recently released Google Maps app. The tweak, available via Cydia on his beta repo, adds a fourth option to the sidebar featured within Google maps to easily enable Topography.

As it turns out, the Topography Mode enabled via this tweak was already built into the Google Maps app from the get go. Why Google decided to keep the feature disabled in the public release is anyone's guess, but if you install this tweak, you can easily enable the option.

Check out our full video demonstration inside for more details...

Auxo now available on Cydia

Ladies and gents, it has landed. Yes, Auxo, the highly anticipated jailbreak tweak that reinvents the iOS app switcher has gone public on Cydia.

Last week we brought you an exclusive first look at the tweak in action, and needless to say, nearly 200,000 views later, many of you are looking forward to trying it out for yourselves. If you have a jailbroken iPhone running iOS 6, I'm happy to report that you can now download Auxo from Cydia's BigBoss repo for just $1.99.

This jailbreak tweak allows you to fake certain statistics on your iPhone

I've been known to give jailbreak developers a pass when it comes to developing what many deem as "worthless" tweaks, because I know that there is always someone who will find a tweak to be useful. The latest such item to teeter upon this fine line is Fake iOS 6 About — a jailbreak tweak that allows you to fake statistical information about your device.

If you've ever wanted to pretend that your device could hold a million songs, or that you reside on a carrier not available in your country, then Fake iOS 6 About is the tweak for you. In most cases, many will feel that such a tweak is worthless. I'll be totally honest with you; this time, it's hard not to agree with those sentiments.

‘Download To Newsstand’ makes it easier to identify pending downloads

It's always great to open up the App Store and find a dozen new app updates waiting for download, but downloading so many items at once presents a small issue. If you're like me and you have a ton of apps scattered around four or five pages in multiple folders, then it can be tedious to locate each app to check its download progress.

Download To Newsstand is a recently released jailbreak tweak that attempts to address this. It moves all pending downloads into the Newsstand folder for an easy to see centralized location for all pending downloads.

Auxo completely reinvigorates the iOS app switcher

Back in October we posted a tidbit on an iOS app switcher concept that was making waves across the Internet. Initially posted on The Verge forums, designer @Sentry_NC's concept was met with approval by many, including readers here on iDB.

A lot of times, though, these sorts of things never go anywhere. Concept photos and videos are nice, but rarely do they evolve into anything more than that. Well, I'm happy to tell you that Sentry's concept hasn't followed the status quo in this regard. Bent on making his concept a reality, he collaborated with developers, Jack Willis, and JamieD360, to bring the idea to fruition.

We've been fortunate enough to gain access to the final build of the real live working tweak. Auxo is its name, and changing the stock iOS app switcher for the better is the game...

Nito Installer allows you to easily install nitoTV and XBMC on a jailbroken Apple TV

Thanks to the folks over at FireCore, both jailbreaking and installing useful jailbreak apps on an Apple TV 2 is about as easy as it gets. FireCore's jailbreak tool — Seas0npass — is incredibly simple, and it's free.

Likewise, FireCore's application package — aTV Flash (black) — is extremely simple as well, though there is a charge associated with using it. Pretty much everything that you can install using aTV flash (black) can be accomplished on your own with a bit of know how, but its simplicity makes the package worth the money.

Now Kevin Bradley, better known in hacking circles as nitoTV, has created his own easy to use installer, appropriately called, nito Installer. Unlike aTV flash (black), his version is free and runs directly on an iOS device like the iPhone or iPad.

Want to see how it works? Take a look inside as we take nito Installer for a spin...

How to jailbreak iOS 6.1 beta 4

Apple seeded the 4th beta installment of iOS 6.1 just a while ago, and it's now available as both a delta update, and a direct download via Apple's developer portal.

As we always strive to do, we've taken it upon ourselves to jailbreak iOS 6.1 beta 4 as a confirmation that it can be done. Inside, we'll show you the exact steps that you need to take in order to do the same on your qualifying iOS 6 beta 4 device.

‘MapsOpener’ makes Google Maps the default Maps app on iOS

Google Maps is back on iOS, but there's just one problem -- Apple's stock maps app still remains default, so all of your maps links will open in Apple's version instead of Google's.

Thankfully, we knew it was only a matter of time before a jailbreak solution appeared to skirt around this issue. That solution is called MapsOpener -- a brand new jailbreak tweak that forces maps links to open up in Google Maps...

As expected, the Dream JB is a fake – updated

Okay, I'll bite. Again.

Yesterday I called out the developer of "Dream JB" for promising to bring a jailbreak to the iPhone 5 when he knew good and well that he couldn't fulfill that promise.

Understandably, a lot of readers were miffed that I had the audacity to dash their hopes for a jailbreak. We've waited a long time for a jailbreak for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5, so it didn't really surprise me when I was labeled a pessimist, although I was surprised a bit that my journalistic integrity was questioned. Fair enough, I was pretty positive that in due time this "jailbreak" would be exposed for what it really was.

Due time came today.

As I stated, I too wish for a jailbreak, it's in my best interest to have one...but I and many others saw through this for what it was — a fake. Now the developer has released a video showcasing his fake work. And although it's a pretty ambitious job of fakery, at the end of the day it's still fake.

Reports of an iPhone 5 jailbreak releasing on December 22nd are probably fake – updated

Over the last few weeks there's been a slight buzz about a so-called iPhone 5 jailbreak from some unknown and unproven entity. So as not to draw attention to the folks behind what is almost assuredly a hoax, we'll refrain from linking or name dropping.

The bottom line is this, if you don't see word from a respectable member of the community, a member from proven teams like the Chronic Dev Team or the iPhone Dev Team, then it's almost always fake. Please don't get hyped up over something that isn't real, only to be highly disappointed in a few weeks...