Anthony Bouchard

Anthony Bouchard joined the iDownloadBlog.com team in 2016 after originally covering Apple and iPhone jailbreak news at ModMyi.com. As an experienced editor, he brings more than 15 years’ worth of jailbreaking knowledge to our in-depth guides, opinion pieces, and news articles. His passion for device customization and user choice sparks his strong push to empower readers with the tools they need to explore and enjoy the freedom that comes with jailbreaking. Anthony blogs about not only jailbreaking, but also Apple software & accessories, drones & photography, and Nintendo gaming systems. Anthony honed his advanced technical knowledge over the years with hands-on projects ranging from gaming PC builds to engine repair mechanics. His never-ending hunger for knowledge is why you’ll always find him tinkering – tearing things apart and putting them back together to understand what makes them tick.

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: FreePIP, Emerald, KBAppDock, & more…

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 24, 2021

There have been a lot of head-turning jailbreak tweak releases lately, and if you have a pwned iOS or iPadOS 13 or 14 device at your disposal, then you’ve likely taken notice.

Today, we’ll be sharing a comprehensive roundup of all the latest jailbreak tweak releases and jailbreak-oriented news in an effort to help keep the community apprised of all the newest developments. As usual, we’ll kick things off by talking about our favorite tidbits, and then we’ll wrap things up with an outline of everything else at the end.

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FreePIP enhances Picture in Picture mode on any jailbroken iPhone or iPad

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 22, 2021

Picture in Picture mode is a handy feature that iPhone and iPad owners can fall back on whenever they find themselves in a situation where they’d like to continue watching a video while pursuing another task on their device at the same time.

Picture in Picture mode isn’t without its shortcomings, however. For example, it doesn’t work with every app, and users may feel limited by the mini player’s usability while multitasking. That’s one reason why a new and free jailbreak tweak called FreePIP by iOS developer Soh Satoh might appeal to some users.

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KBAppDock upgrades the stock keyboard on jailbroken iPhones

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 21, 2021

The keyboard is one of the most frequently-used interfaces on any iPhone, and that’s not just because it’s useful for texting, but also because it’s the one tool you use whenever you browse the web, jot down notes or reminders, or search the App Store for your favorite apps, among other things.

While it’s certainly possible to download third party keyboards from the App Store to replace iOS’ native keyboard interface, you’d be hard pressed to find anything nearly as powerful as what can be had with a jailbreak tweak. That’s because jailbreak tweaks often let you keep Apple’s wonderful native keyboard while still enabling you to augment it in ways that Apple otherwise wouldn’t permit on a stock handset.

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Substitute v2.0.7 update adds improved support for cycript

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 20, 2021

Substitute, the tweak injection and code substitution method that is commonly utilized by the unc0ver jailbreak, and in some cases even the checkra1n jailbreak, received a major revamp with the launch of v2.0 at the start of this year.

Over the last couple of weeks, Substitute has seen a slew of smaller updates comprising of bug fixes and performance improvements, and as it would seem, there are more planned updates in the pipeline.

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Apple stops signing iOS 12.5 following the release of iOS 12.5.1

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 19, 2021

Apple regularly releases software updates for the company’s many platforms, mobile and desktop alike. Interestingly, while most Apple’s software updates target either newer devices or upgrading the user experience of the company’s latest firmware iteration, a few heads turned when Apple released iOS 12.5.1 earlier this month to address a COVID-19 exposure notification bug that purportedly affected older iPhones.

Given that a software update was released, despite being for an older iteration of iOS, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Apple would soon close the signing window for what was previously the latest version of iOS 12. This happened Tuesday evening after Apple officially made the move to stop signing iOS 12.5, the predecessor of the newer iOS 12.5.1 update.

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Emerald: A new Status Bar experience that Apple needs to take notes on

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 19, 2021

Your iPhone’s Status Bar is intended to provide useful information at a glance, and while it definitely seems to have the basics covered, Apple could have went so much further in terms of implementing an immersive Status Bar-centric user experience. Given what an iPhone costs these days, wouldn’t you think they’d give this some thought?

While it seems unlikely that Apple will be upgrading the iPhone’s Status Bar any time soon, those lucky enough to have a jailbroken handset at their disposal won’t need to put up with the stock Status Bar experience any longer. Why, you ask? Just have a look at a newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed Emerald by iOS developers LaughingQuoll and thetimeloop, and all your questions will be answered.

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WidgetCustoms offers jailbroken iOS 14 users a way to personalize their widgets

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated July 8, 2021

Those using iOS or iPadOS 14 on their daily driver handset(s) are probably keenly familiar with the upgraded widget system and how it compares with the much less intuitive widget system found on iOS and iPadOS 13.

Not only can you take advantage of much more powerful widgets than ever before, but you can even choose to seat them right next to your Home Screen’s application icons if you aren’t a fan of hiding all your widgets on a specialized page. But as nice as Apple’s upgraded widget system may be on iOS & iPadOS 14 devices, one thing Apple predictably forgot to add was a mechanism for user customization.

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Jailbreak tweaks of the week: DnDSwitch, LottieNotifications, SmartVolumeMixer2, & more…

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 17, 2021

It’s already that time of the week again, and that means we’re coming back at you with another jailbreak tweak and news-oriented roundup.

In this roundup, we showcase all the latest jailbreak tweak releases from Monday, January 11th to Sunday, January 17th. We’ll begin by kicking things off with a display of our favorite releases first, and then we’ll wrap things up with an outline of the rest afterward.

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CCUptime lets jailbreakers view their handset’s current jailbreak uptime with ease

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 17, 2021

A growing trend I’m seeing lately is jailbreakers flocking to /r/jailbreak or other forms of social media to share their handset’s uptime. In essence, some jailbreakers appear to enjoy showing off their pwned handset’s stability, especially with regard to one jailbreak versus another.

One way to do this is to show off how long a particular handset has been running in a jailbroken state without needing to be re-jailbroken, as a longer uptime indicates that the handset hasn’t crashed or forcefully rebooted itself.

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DnDSwitch lets jailbreakers toggle Do Not Disturb via the ringer/silent switch

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 17, 2021

All of Apple’s iPhone models come equipped with a side-mounted ringer/silent switch that makes silencing your device’s incoming notification sounds so effortless that it can be done right from your pocket. But as we witnessed in a popular /r/jailbreak request post from this past week, a sizable portion of iPhone users would come to appreciate the ability to repurpose the ringer/silent switch as a physical Do Not Disturb toggle switch.

The aforementioned idea seemed like a good idea even to me when I read about it earlier in the week, but now that a new and free jailbreak tweak called DnDSwitch by iOS developer smokin1337 officially exists, I can genuinely say that I welcome the concept even more than I did just a few days ago when I read about it on Reddit.

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Luca Todesco teases pongoOS running on an M1-equipped Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 16, 2021

It’s not unheard of to see checkra1n team member Luca Todesco Tweeting about some sort of jaw-dropping hacking achievement. Todesco has shown time and time again that he wields magnificent hacking talents, and as of this evening, he appears to be at it again.

In a series of Tweets shared Saturday, Todesco teased multiple photographs of what appears to be pongoOS running on one of Apple’s brand-new M1 chip-equipped Macs.

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