Month: July 2015

Cydia gains a new “restart springboard” button and linking to packages on third-party repos

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 7, 2018

Cydia 1.1.19 was released last night, and it brought with it the ability for developers to tweak the Cydia UI and interface by means of themes and Cydia Substrate tweaks. But another change happened to Cydia as well, and it isn't the result of a jailbreak tweak.

Cydia has gained a new restart springboard button—the button that appears after installing or uninstalling a tweak. The new button is of the flat variety, and matches the rest of the interface better than the old button.

Along with the new button comes the ability to link directly to packages on third-party repos. According to saurik, this feature has actually been available in Cydia for some time, but was never documented.

Review: Monowear third-party Apple Watch band

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 7, 2018

The folks over at Monowear sent me a couple of their third-party Apple Watch bands to try out. I've always been a little skeptical about third-party bands, because I worry about their quality, and whether or not they can truly match up to what Apple provided us with.

I've never tried a third-party band until now, but I can tell you that along with being inexpensive relative to what Apple's charging, these bands are high quality and have a great fit. If I was in the market for a third-party, and I just might be after trying these out for the last few days, I'd definitely give Monowear a look.

Velox 2 is now available on Cydia

Jeff Benjamin ∙ July 3, 2015

March 6, 2015. That was when I previewed Velox 2 on video. Needless to say it's been a long journey for this tweak, but it's finally available for purchase on Cydia.

Velox is a tweak that lets you access custom folders for apps that contain notifications, or access various functions pertaining to the app. Some apps, like the Settings app, feature a folder full of special functions. Other apps, apps that haven't been given special attention, simply show any available notifications.

The original Velox was easily one of my most anticipated Cydia tweaks, but in the end, it never quite lived up to the hype. That said, it's still a very popular tweak with lots of innovating features, and totally worth a look. Watch our video of Velox 2 for a reminder of what to expect.

How to master Apple Music liking system to influence ‘For You’ recommendations

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 3, 2015

Apple Music offers a section called For You which provides a personalized selection of music based on your listening habits. On the surface, it sounds great until a song you can't stand listening to anymore or an artist you really aren't a big fan of gets injected into the For You feed.

Wouldn't it be great if you could teach Apple's algorithm exactly what music you like and, more importantly, what you dislike? Thankfully there is, but it takes a bit of a learning curve to master the Apple Music recommendation system.

Here's what you need to know regarding fine-tuning For You recommendations and customizing your listening experience on Apple Music.

First dedicated Cydia tweaks appear for Cydia 1.1.19 users

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 7, 2018

Last night, saurik surprised us by releasing Cydia 1.1.19. This latest version of Cydia no longer runs as root, but as mobile. While that may seem ambiguous, this means that Cydia can now come under the influence of Cydia Substrate tweaks. In other words, developers can now produce jailbreak tweaks that work on Cydia.

Well it didn't take long before dedicated Cydia tweaks begun appearing. In fact, there are now two dedicated Cydia tweaks available for download right now...

Apple’s ‘El Capitan’ European trademark filing confusingly includes tablets

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 3, 2015

Is Apple really readying an iPad that could run both iOS and OS X? The toaster-refrigerator dilemma has been occupying the collective mind of fans who have been keeping their fingers crossed for the convergence of the Mac and iPad ever since the original iPad debuted more than five years ago.

Apple's European trademark filing for ‘El Capitan’ is certainly intriguing, to say the least, as it mentions tablets as one of the devices targeted by the desktop operating system, as revealed yesterday by Patently Apple.

TagsDock keyboard lets you quickly hashtag posts on Instagram and Vine

Lory Gil ∙ July 3, 2015

If you are an avid social network user, you've probably got a list of hashtags that you use on a regular basis. Instead of having to type out the symbol and tag, wouldn't it be nice to be able to tap a button to add your string of hashtags?

Well, now you can with TagsDock. This third-party app lets you turn your keyboard into a hashtag haven. With more than 3,000 popular hashtags in more than 100 categories, you'll never have to type out your tags again.

Analysis of ‘iPhone 6s’ logic board suggests improved NFC, 16GB base model and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 3, 2015

A leaked logic board has already offered a valuable insight into some of the many hardware enhancements in Apple's upcoming 'iPhone 6s' and 'iPhone 6s Plus' refreshes. Thus far, we have learned about Qualcomm's new baseband modem which doubles LTE download speeds, a slightly thicker enclosure to accommodate Force Touch sensors and possibly a higher-resolution Retina screen.

9to5Mac has teamed up with semiconductor experts at Chipworks in an effort to identify other chips and components based on images of an alleged iPhone 6s motherboard.

Here are their findings.

TaiG 2.3 released to include Cydia 1.1.19 and remove setreuid patch

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 7, 2018

Hot on the heels of saurik's Cydia update, TaiG has updated its jailbreak tool to include the latest version of Cydia and to remove the setreuid patch. The update, which comes in at version 2.3, can be used by those of you who aren't currently jailbroken. If you are jailbroken, then you'll be able to update to the latest version of the TaiG untether via Cydia.

Saurik releases Cydia 1.1.19, now runs as mobile instead of root

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 7, 2018

A pretty huge change just happened to Cydia. In the version just released, version 1.1.19, the installer now runs as mobile instead of root. This means that Cydia Substrate tweaks can now modify Cydia.

This is really big news. It means that not only will existing tweak modifications remain working while Cydia is open, but it potentially means that a whole new class of tweaks become available for Cydia. Don't like Cydia's UI? There could be a tweak or a theme for that!

How to fix safe mode crashes in iOS 8.4 when Activator is installed

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated June 12, 2018

You may have noticed that your device will respring into safe mode whenever the public version of Activator is installed on iOS 8.4. The problem is, many tweaks rely on Activator as a prerequisite, and Activator hasn't been updated to work with iOS 8.4 as of yet.

Does that mean that any tweak that relies on Activator is simply unusable until Ryan Petrich pushes out a public update? Not at all. Just install the Activator beta...

What tweaks are compatible with iOS 8.4? Check out this handy spreadsheet

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 7, 2018

Every day I receive at least a dozen requests for a tweak compatibility list for iOS 8.4. Instead of reinventing the wheel, someone has already performed all of the leg work creating a list.

As was done with the iOS 8.3 jailbreak, our buddies over at r/jailbreak have added a column for iOS 8.4 on their tweak compatibility spreadsheet. Instead of trying to guess which tweaks might be compatible with iOS 8.4 and which may not, you can simply look at this sheet to get a good indicator on what tweaks are currently supported, and which ones might need to be updated.