Year: 2012

PwnageTool, RedSn0w, cinject, and UltraSn0w tools updated for 5.1.1 untether capability

Jeff Benjamin ∙ June 4, 2012

The iPhone Dev Team has been mighty busy as of late, updating their popular jailbreak tools with 5.1.1 Untether compatibly using the Rocky Racoon 5.1.1 Untether. The updates include PwnageTool 5.1.1, Redsn0w 0.9.12b1, cinject 0.5.4, and UltraSn0w 1.2.7.

If you've already jailbroken your device, and everything is working fine, they suggest, as do we, that you stick with your current jailbreak. If, on the other hand, you've experienced problems with tools like Absinthe, then you may welcome the addition of these updated tools from the iPhone Dev Team. Keep in mind that the underlying jailbreak is the same across all tools; they all utilize the Rocky Racoon untether where appropriate; the only difference is the way the exploit is injected.

Take a look inside for notes from the iPhone Dev Team, as well as download locations for the new tools.

iOS 6 to bring Siri to iPad 3, here’s a mockup

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 4, 2012

Much as it has been speculated, Apple is apparently working to enable Siri on iPad by way of iOS 6, according to the inevitable people familiar with the matter. We're talking about full-blown voice assistant, not just the Dictation feature, and it will reportedly work just as you'd expect it to. Here's a mockup based on the description provided by the source...

AirPlay and apps will set iTV apart, says Brightcove CEO

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 4, 2012

Brightcove founder, chairman and CEO Jeremy Allaire shares some interesting observations regarding Apple's rumored full-blown television set that the industry is anxiously anticipating.

The biggest feature and key differentiating factor won't be the display nor industrial design for that matter. Instead, the iTV should be treated as yet another screen to run the enhanced iOS computing platform. Content?

Don't count on Apple beating cable companies to the programming punch. Instead, Allaire observes, the more than 500,000 apps and AirPlay technology are Apple's two key advantages that will help set iTV apart...

How to enable Lock screen wallpaper even when your device is charging

Jeff Benjamin ∙ June 3, 2012

ChargingBackground is a tweak that lends the ability to view wallpaper on the Lock screen even while your iOS device is charging. For some reason Apple throws up a black background whenever the device is charging, eliminating your wallpaper. ChargingBackground allows you to reclaim your device's background while it's plugged into a power source.

I'm pretty sure this tweak isn't the first on the block to do this, but sadly, the original tweak's name escapes me at the moment. Nonetheless, ChargingBackground is free, and it works. Check out our video demonstration inside...

This tweak lets you lock your device by swiping to the Spotlight page

Jeff Benjamin ∙ June 3, 2012

SpotLock is a new jailbreak tweak that allows you to lock your iPhone simply by swiping over to the place where Spotlight search normally resides. Granted, this tweak will totally eliminate the ability to use Spotlight search, but I believe the popular consensus is that many of you don't use Spotlight to begin with.

Of course, a quick press of the sleep button at the top of your iPhone is the quickest way to secure your iPhone from a software perspective, but SpotLock is an interesting way to break the monotony and switch things up a bit...

Jukebox now available on Cydia

Jeff Benjamin ∙ June 3, 2012

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auCwQQpr-Mw[/tube]

Jukebox — the Dashboard X and Notification Center compatible music widget — is now available for download on Cydia. As you no doubt saw in our walkthrough, Jukebox is an awesome music widget that can be used to directly manipulate your Music app from the convenience of your Home screen.

One of my complaints with Jukebox was that it currently only supports the stock Music app, but the good news is that support for 3rd party music apps like Pandora and Spotify is in the works. Check out our full coverage of the tweak, and be sure to head over to Cydia's BigBoss repo where it can be had for $0.99.

How to make iPad banner notifications span the full width of the screen

Jeff Benjamin ∙ June 3, 2012

Would you like to make your iPad's banner notifications span the entire width of the iPad's screen? Now you can, courtesy of a new jailbreak tweak entitled NCPad.

NCPad features no options or settings to configure, simply install it, and it begins working immediately. It won't expand the entire Notification Center width as its name might suggest, but it will increase the width of banner notifications, which in turn allows you to read more of the contents of the notification.

The top 10 iOS news of the week

Sébastien Page ∙ June 3, 2012

A new week is coming, but that doesn't mean you have to miss out on what happened last week. If you think you may have missed a few of the top stories from last week, don't sweat it, we've got you covered.

We've gathered the top 10 most popular stories from iDB last week for you to check out. As always, make sure that you're friends with us on Facebook, Google+, and that you are following us on Twitter...

aTV Flash (black) receives another awesome update

Jeff Benjamin ∙ June 2, 2012

The folks over at FireCore just can't stop releasing awesome updates to their Apple TV 2 jailbreak software. The latest update to aTV Flash (black) — version 1.6 — headlines with a new integrated subtitle download feature. This feature allows you to identify and download subtitles directly from the Apple TV, instead of going on a separate manhunt on your computer to find the files.

Along with the new subtitle feature comes support for playing DRM enabled iTunes content directly from the Apple TV. You will still need to use a username and password to authenticate, but at least now we have an option.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg as far as changes go. Aside from plenty of additional new features, there's also a host of bug fixes to keep your jailbroken Apple TV 2 running as smoothly as possible. Take a look inside for the full change log...

Here is video of the Chronic Dev Team announcing Absinthe 2.0

Jeff Benjamin ∙ June 2, 2012

If you weren't able to make it to Amsterdam for the Hack in the Box Security Conference last month, don't worry, you're not alone. The conference made headlines in the jailbreak community for being the platform for which the Chronic Dev Team would use to officially announce the release of the Absinthe 2.0 untethered jailbreak tool. Thankfully, our friends over at Redmond Pie were able to snag some awesome footage of the announcement.

If you've always wanted to put faces and voices behind some of the most influential folks in the jailbreak community, here is your opportunity to do so. Check inside for the series of videos...

iPhone 5 said to tap Broadcom BCM4330 chip for wireless file sharing with Macs

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 2, 2012

9to5Mac reports to have 'discovered' a Broadcom chip inside one of the prototypes of the next iPhone. The write-up specifically menions Broadcom's BCM4334 unit, basically a single-chip, dual-band silicon that supports 802.11n WiFi networking, Bluetooth 4.0+HS and an integrated FM radio receiver.

A successor to Broadcom's BCM4330 - itself fabbed on the 65-nanometer process and found inside the iPad 3 and iPhone 4S - the newer BCM4334 unit is built on the 40-nanometer process, resulting in significant power savings.

As a result of using this chip in the next iPhone, Apple should be able to mitigate power drain stemming from the bigger screen and LTE radios while making a thinner device overall. That's just the beginning. Read on...