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 dependency update should fix unc0ver battery issues

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 24, 2019

The unc0ver tool by Pwn20wnd is one of the most popular ways to jailbreak a handset running iOS 11 or 12. If you’ve used this solution before, then you’ve undoubtedly experienced what could only be described as a sudden and unexpected battery drain, even when your device sits idle. Fortunately, there’s a fix for that now.

Unc0ver co-developer Sam Bingner released an updated version of UIKit Tools Thursday morning, bringing the jailbreak dependency up to version 1.1.15-1 in the process. In a subtle Retweet by Pwn20wnd, we learn that this update should resolve battery issues experienced by unc0ver users:

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Supercharge your jailbroken iPhone’s Status Bar with Xeon

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 21, 2019

There are countless ways of customizing a jailbroken iPhone or iPad. A great place to start, especially for novices, is the Status Bar, and I say that because it’s something users will see almost everywhere throughout the mobile operating system.

Those looking for a rock-solid Status Bar customization tweak need only turn their attention to a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed Xeon by iOS developer PeterDev.

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Jailbreak tweaks of the week: Horizon, Nighthawk, and more

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 20, 2019

There have been so many interesting teasers involving the new checkm8 bootrom exploit that we seriously can’t wait to see what becomes of it, but for those who might be jailbroken on iOS 11 or iOS 12 with Chimera, Electra, or unc0ver in the meantime, we’ve put together a comprehensive list of this week’s jailbreak tweak releases for your convenience.

In this roundup, we’ll dive into things by discussing our favorite jailbreak tweak releases fist and then wrap things up with an outline the rest afterward.

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Luca Todesco teases progress on checkra1n, a checkm8-based jailbreak

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 19, 2019

Just over a week ago, well-respected hacker and security researcher Luca Todesco took to Twitter to tease an all-new custom boot logo and frame buffer concept for checkra1n, a purported jailbreak utility that would be based on the recently-released checkm8 bootrom exploit from @axi0mX. Fortunately, the teasers haven’t stopped there.

Just this weekend, the official checkra1n Twitter page teased an image of what appears to be both a seventh-generation iPod touch and an iPhone SE – each running iOS 13 – with the checkra1n jailbreak app present on the Home screen.

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Sileo v1.5.0 brings 30% speed boost, iOS 13 support, and more

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 19, 2019

Anyone enjoying a jailbreak by way of the Electra Team’s Chimera or Electra tools will want to fire up the jailbreak’s native Sileo package manager and refresh its sources this weekend.

The Sileo Team released an updated version of the Sileo package manager on Saturday, bringing it up to version 1.5.0 with significant speed boosts, preliminary support for iOS 13, and dark mode-centric aesthetic improvements. The announcement was made early this morning via Twitter:

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PhotoInfo adds image resolution and size data to the Photos app

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 19, 2019

The iPhone’s advanced photography capabilities make it incredibly easy to fill your Photo Library with images. On the other hand, iOS’ Photos app doesn’t do as great of a job of communicating file attributes as we’d like.

Given the circumstances described above, we’re particularly excited to show you a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called PhotoInfo by iOS developer shepgoba.

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Nighthawk emphasizes any jailbroken iPhone’s OLED display

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 16, 2019

Many of Apple’s latest handsets sport OLED display panels, which exhibit higher contrast ratios and deeper black colors when compared with older LCD display panels. If you’re fortunate enough to have a jailbreak on one of these devices, then there’s no doubt that you could take better advantage of your OLED display with the help of a modern jailbreak tweak.

Enter Nighthawk, a new release by iOS developer Dylan Duff that transforms many of iOS’ native blurred-background interfaces into OLED-friendly pitch-black masterpieces.

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Second unc0ver v3.7.0 public beta released to address several stability issues on A12(X)

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 27, 2020

It’s been a couple of weeks since hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd implemented full-fledged A12(X) support into the unc0ver jailbreak in the form of a public beta, and as you might come to expect from an initial public beta release, it was a buggy launch indeed.

Given the circumstances, it seemed logical that we’d see an update soon enough, and today seems to be that lucky day for those who’ve been waiting for critical bug fixes. Pwn20wnd officially launched the second unc0ver v3.7.0 public beta for testing on Monday with the following changes:

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Element Case’s Black Ops Elite case for iPhone 11 Pro looks great, but costs a small fortune

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 14, 2019

Going beyond the familiar world of traditional rubber, silicone, or TPU smartphone cases, I often find myself experimenting with substitutions that seem vastly out of the ordinary. While testing such cases for the brand-new iPhone 11 Pro, I happened upon the Element Case Black Ops Elite, which in my opinion, certainly lives up to the notion of being extraordinary.

Element Case’s Black Ops Elite case is built from a bevy of premium materials that you won’t find in most run of the mill iPhone cases, including a hard anodized aluminum frame that gets bolted into a sturdy G10 backplate, and a Dropshock-equipped TPU inner shell lined with a premium felt interior that gives your iPhone all the pampering and protection it needs.

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Customize the look and feel of your Settings app with Horizon

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 2, 2023

One of the great things about having a jailbroken iPhone or iPad is having the ability to customize the appearance of nearly any interface element. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of jailbreak tweaks that can help you do this.

If you’re just refreshing your Cydia or Sileo sources for the first time this week, then you might have noticed a particularly interesting new release under the Changes tab called Horizon by iOS developer Sirius24. This tweak effectively lets you customize the native Settings application however you want.

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Jailbreak tweaks of the week: BoardBanners12, Flow, and more

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated October 18, 2019

It’s a great time to be a jailbreaker, especially if you’re using the iOS platform. With current jailbreaks available for iOS 11 and 12, support for A12(X) readily available in public beta, and with exciting works involving the new checkm8 bootrom exploit to be released in the foreseeable future, it seems like almost anything might be possible.

With that in mind, we’d like to take a closer look at all the latest jailbreak tweaks to be released. In this piece, we’ll talk about all our favorite new tweaks first and then outline the rest afterward.

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