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.

The best jailbreak tweaks for iOS 12

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 26, 2019

With the public release of iOS 13 right around the corner, the iOS 12 jailbreak is set to climax very soon as security researchers shift their efforts toward the newer firmware. With that in mind, we thought we’d take this wonderful opportunity to reflect on the past year with a roundup of some of the best jailbreak tweaks ever released for pwned iOS 12 devices.

If you’re jailbroken on iOS 12 with Chimera by the Electra Team or unc0ver by Pwn20wnd, then this roundup is for you. For ease of reading, we’ll sort the following jailbreak tweaks by alphabetical order.

SwitchShades gives the iOS App Switcher a fresh coat of paint

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated June 4, 2023

The iOS App Switcher is somewhat bland out of the box, but it doesn’t have to be. A newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed SwitchShades by iOS developer AnthoPak promises to add a splash of color to the App Switcher background based on the application preview card that appears front-and-center at any given time.

As you can see in the screenshot examples above, the background color changes to match the dominant color of the app icon above the application preview cards themselves. This can be changed to colorize based on the application snapshot itself if you wanted to, or you could configure a custom color to display at all times.

FlixRatings for Netflix augments the Netflix app’s rating system

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated January 13, 2024

If you’re a cable-cutter or you simply enjoy having access to a massive library of movies and TV shows, then you probably have a subscription to Netflix. The Netflix app for iOS is particularly intuitive, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t do with some improvements.

Enter FlixRatings for Netflix, a newly released jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Joshua Seltzer that augments Netflix’s in-app rating system and integrates a legacy forward skip feature for those who miss how it used to work in a previous version of the app.

Sileo v1.3.5 released with fix for endless repository refresh bug

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 25, 2019

The Sileo Team launched an updated version of the Sileo package manager for the iOS 11-centric Electra jailbreak and the iOS 12-centric Chimera jailbreak Sunday evening, officially bringing the proprietary package manager up to version 1.3.5.

The Sileo Team announced the update via Twitter just within the past hour, noting that it would resolve an issue with repositories refreshing endlessly:

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: PhoneCaller, SafePowerOff, and more

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 25, 2019

It’s that time of the week again, and now that you can jailbreak iOS 12.4, we’ll be composing a roundup of all the latest jailbreak apps and tweaks for the convenience of those with jailbroken handsets who might be looking for new and exciting ways to trick them out.

In this roundup, we’ll be looking at all the jailbreak tweaks released from Monday, August 19th to Sunday, August 25th. As usual, we’ll kick things off by discussing our favorite releases first, and then wrap things up with an outline of the rest afterward.

Unc0ver v3.5.6 adds support for remounting and rootFS restore for A12(X) devices on iOS 12.1.3-12.4

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 24, 2019

Pwn20wnd updated the unc0ver jailbreak Saturday afternoon, officially bringing it up to version 3.5.6 with increased support for A12(X) devices running iOS 12.1.3-12.4.

As you might recall, Pwn20wnd released unc0ver v3.5.5 earlier this week with SSH support on the aforementioned device and firmware combinations, but citing a Tweet shared just this afternoon, the latest unc0ver update adds support for remounting and restoring the RootFS on those same devices:

ChimeraTV v1.3.6 released with Sock Puppet improvements and a newer iteration of nitoTV

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 23, 2019

Earlier today, the Electra Team released version 1.3.6 of the iOS 12-centric Chimera jailbreak with improvements for the Sock Puppet exploit and a fix for random crashes after jailbreaking, and as it would seem, they’ve just now pushed a similar update for the tvOS-centric ChimeraTV jailbreak.

The Electra Team announced ChimeraTV v1.3.6 via Twitter just a few minutes ago:

Chimera v1.3.6 released with Sock Puppet reliability enhancements, crash fix

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 23, 2019

An updated version of the iOS 12-centric Chimera jailbreak tool was released by the Electra Team on Friday, officially bringing it up to version 1.3.6.

The Electra Team announced the latest update early this morning via Twitter, noting that it would improve the reliability of the Sock Puppet exploit and resolve a rare crash that could occur shortly after jailbreaking a device:

SafePowerOff makes it tougher to accidentally power off your jailbroken device

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 23, 2019

If you use a modern semi-tethered jailbreak such as Chimera or unc0ver, then you probably already know the importance of keeping your device up and running for as long as possible. If your device reboots for any reason, then you’ll need to re-run the respective jailbreak app to access to your jailbreak tweaks and extensions.

Powering down your handset is easy, and as some would argue, perhaps too easy. With that in mind, iOS developer Paparajote Team has just released a new and free jailbreak tweak called SafePowerOff that can help you avert accidents and friendly pranks by your buddies.

Unc0ver v3.5.5 released with SSH support on A12(X) devices running iOS 12.1.3-12.4, bug fixes

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 22, 2019

Pwn20wnd’s unc0ver jailbreak has received lots of updates recently, mostly pertaining to bug fixes and stability improvements centric to the newfangled iOS 12.4 support that came by way of an updated Sock Puppet exploit under a week ago. But as you might’ve noticed, this didn’t initially include support for Apple’s latest handsets, such as the A12(X) variety.

Pwn20wnd changed that Thursday afternoon, at least partially, with the launch of unc0ver versions 3.5.4 and 3.5.5. Both updates were announced via Twitter:

Electra Team releases Chimera v1.3.4 w/ bug fixes, ChimeraTV 1.3.4 w/ tvOS 12.2 & 12.4 support

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 21, 2019

The Electra Team released updated versions of both the iOS-centric Chimera jailbreak tool and the tvOS-centric ChimeraTV jailbreak tool Wednesday evening, bringing both tools up to version 1.3.4 on the official Chimera download page.

The Electra Team announced these new updates just a few minutes ago via Twitter, denoting some of the changes that came with each new iteration:

Augment your jailbroken iPhone’s Caller ID with PhoneCaller

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 21, 2019

Your iPhone displays the phone number of incoming and outgoing calls, apart from certain circumstances in which that number is privatized. But if you’re like me and wish you could see more about a caller than just the phone number at first glance, then you’ll probably come to appreciate a jailbreak tweak called PhoneCaller by iOS developer Osama.

As shown in the screenshot examples above, PhoneCaller works by integrating with the popular TrueCaller app to fetch more detailed caller ID information for both incoming and outgoing phone calls. As you’ll notice, it shows the caller’s first and last name in addition to any relevant photos of that person, where applicable.