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.

BatteryStatus revives the old school Bluetooth device battery indicator in the Status Bar

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 16, 2018

Numerous modern Bluetooth devices report their battery levels inside of the Batteries widget found in Notification Center and to the left of the Home screen and Lock screen. On the other hand, it didn’t always work that way; Bluetooth devices used to report their battery levels in the Status Bar before Apple created this widget.

Anyone feeling nostalgic for the older Status Bar-based battery level display might enjoy a new free jailbreak tweak called BatteryStatus by iOS developer ipad_kid, as it revives this fan-favorite feature on later iterations of iOS.

G0blin RC1 jailbreak tool released for A7-A9 devices running iOS 10.3.x

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 14, 2018

While there’s been a lot of buzz in the jailbreak community lately concerning an iOS 11 jailbreak, some developers have been hard at work on alternative projects. One of those is G0blin, a jailbreak tool made by Sticktron that's aimed at A7-A9 devices running iOS 10.3.x.

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: The calm before the storm

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 14, 2018

It’s the calm before the storm in the jailbreak community as we await iOS 11 support for both Cydia and Mobile Substrate. That said, iOS 10 tweak development is stuck in somewhat of a lull as developers move forward with prepping their existing tweaks for iOS 11.

In this roundup, we’ll outline the new jailbreak tweak(s) that showed up in Cydia this week.

CoolStar releases developer-focused Electra jailbreak tool for iOS 11.0-11.1.2

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 13, 2018

Thanks to iOS developer CoolStar, there’s a new jailbreak in town for all devices running iOS 11.0-11.1.2. Coined ‘Electra,’ this tool utilizes the same open-source tfp0 exploit released by security researcher Ian Beer toward the end of last year.

Apple unexpectedly begins signing jailbreakable firmware again [update: it was just a bug]

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 10, 2018

Update: As suspected, it was just a bug and Apple has once again stopped signing older firmware versions, making it impossible to downgrade. If you were on of the few that was able to downgrade and install an earlier iOS version, you should be able to use that version without any problem.

The popular Eclipse dark mode tweak is being prepped for iOS 11

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 10, 2018

I’ve tested and used numerous jailbreak tweaks over the years, but one of my all-time favorites has been Eclipse by iOS developer Guillermo Morán (fr0st). For those who don’t already know, Eclipse provides a system-wide dark mode feature for iPhones and iPads.

Eclipse consistently receives updates with each jailbreak season, and as it would seem, iOS 11 won’t be any different. Morán took to his Twitter account this week to tease images of the next iteration of Eclipse, which he fittingly calls EclipseX.

Force3DAppShortcuts, SpotifyHistory, and other jailbreak tweaks to check out this weekend

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 7, 2018

As most of the jailbreak community patiently awaits some kind of jailbreak solution for iOS 11, there hasn’t been much activity on the iOS 10 side of things. Fortunately, projects are underway, and it’s only a matter of time before Saurik updates Cydia and Substrate for iOS 11.

In the meantime, several developers continue to produce tweaks for jailbroken iOS 10 devices, and this roundup will go over what has been released throughout the course of the past week. As usual, we’ll begin by showcasing our favorites, and then we’ll outline the rest afterward.

Saurik’s latest Reddit comment details Cydia and Mobile Substrate for iOS 11

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 6, 2018

Saurik revealed a couple of weeks ago that he was working on iOS 11 support for Cydia and Mobile Substrate, but a new comment posted on Reddit by the father of jailbreaking himself highlights that there’s a lot more going on under the hood than meets the eye.

One of the major highlights of the comment is how Saurik teamed up with a prominent developer from the jailbreak community to make all this possible. That developer wishes to remain anonymous at this point in time, but we’ll all eventually learn of his or her identity when the time is right.

No3DTouchWidgets hides app widgets from iOS’ Quick Action menus

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 5, 2018

Quick Actions are the menus accessible from the Home screen with a 3D Touch gesture on any app icon (iPhone 6s or newer). They not only contain shortcuts to vital app functions but they sometimes host widgets that summarize information from that particular app.

While some enjoy these widgets, the same can’t be said for everyone. Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t provide a way to hide these widgets from the Quick Action menus, so a new free jailbreak tweak called No3DTouchWidgets by iOS developer DGh0st was born.

SpotifyHistory adds a song history list to the Spotify Music app

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 4, 2018

Spotify is one of the most popular alternatives to Apple Music for media-streaming on iOS, but it lacks a history list for seeing what you’ve listened to in the past.

If you’ve been itching for a way to change that, then you might find a new free jailbreak tweak called SpotifyHistory by iOS developer Andreas Henriksson helpful. It brings a full-featured music history list to iOS' official Spotify Music app.

Force3DAppShortcuts enables Quick Actions on unsupported devices

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 4, 2018

Anyone with an iPhone 6s or later can access handy 3D Touch-based app features directly from their Home screen without launching the said app, but those with older devices haven’t been as lucky (until now).

A new free jailbreak tweak called Force3DAppShortcuts by iOS developer DGh0st lets you access the same Home screen-based Quick Action menus that you could typically only access on a 3D Touch-enabled device.

Tweaks of the week: AppColorBadges, tweakCompatible, and more

Anthony Bouchard ∙ December 31, 2017

There’s been a lot going on behind the scenes in the jailbreak community recently. With the release of both the H3lix and LiberiOS jailbreaks and the confirmation that Saurik would update Cydia for iOS 11, it seems like we might see another season of jailbreaking after all.

In this meantime, this post serves to provide a brief summary of all the new jailbreak tweaks released throughout the past week. As usual, we’ll begin by showcasing our favorite releases and then outline the rest afterward.