Jeff Benjamin

Jeff has been with iDownloadBlog since 2010, acting as resident video specialist, and tutorial expert. He earned his degree in Computer Network Systems back in 2001, but decided Cisco routers and the like just weren’t for him. Since then, he’s been heavily involved with online writing. He’s written for numerous tech and video game sites since the late 1990′s, and has a knack for explaining things in a simple, clear, and concise manner. Jeff works primarily from the east coast on his Retina Macbook Pro, and shoots video with a Canon DSLR. During downtime he likes to travel the world, visiting the various Apple Stores across the globe. You can email him at jeff [at] idownloadblog.com and follow him on Twitter @JeffBenjam or on Google+.

How to Enable Multitasking Gestures on Your iPhone With Zephyr

Yesterday we told you about chpwn's new jailbreak tweak entitled Zephyr. It's a tweak that can easily enable iPad-esque multitasking gestures on all iOS devices running iOS 5.

Inside, we personally demo how easy it is to get multitasking gestures on iOS 5. It's as simple as jailbreaking your device, and installing chpwn's excellent tweak. You don't want to miss this...

How to Jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 Untethered And Preserve Your Unlockable Baseband

Today, as we're sure you're aware of, the untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.0.1 was released. Tools like RedSn0w and packages like Corona were released to take advantage of pod2g's untethered exploit.

If you've had an iPhone 4 since launch, then it's entirely possible that you've preserved your baseband up until now for unlocking and resale value.

If your primary concern is preserving your baseband for an UltraSn0w unlock, then you'll be happy to hear that PwnageTool is back, and it packs full iOS 5.0.1 compatibility in tow...

How to Perform an Untethered Jailbreak on iOS 5.0.1 Using Windows

Jailbreaking iOS 5.0.1 is about as easy as it can get on both Mac and Windows, but Windows users might encounter a couple of hiccups along the way if you're not careful.

The main thing to remember is that RedSn0w works best on Windows when you use XP Compatibility Mode and run it as an Administrator. By following those handy suggestions, the jailbreak process on Windows is just as easy as it is on the Mac.

Check inside for a video tutorial that shows how to perform an iOS 5.0.1 untethered jailbreak on a Windows 7 machine...

AppTweeter: Easily Tweet About Your Favorite App Store Apps

The sharing option for Apple's "Tell a Friend" feature in the App Store is a bit on the limited side. With a stock iPhone, you can't even use iOS 5's Twitter integration to tell your friends about your favorite apps.

Jailbroken iPhones, on the other hand, can — thanks to a recently released jailbreak tweak by the name of AppTweeter. Check inside for the full rundown...

NowPlayingDetailInfo: Detailed Music Info For Music and 3rd Party Apps

Finding your iPhone's App Switcher music info a bit on the feeble side? If so, and your iPhone is jailbroken, try out NowPlayingDetailInfo.

This free jailbreak tweak provides detailed information about the song currently playing in your App Switcher, and it works with 3rd party apps like Spotify. Check inside for a hands-on video analysis of NowPlayingDetailInfo...

Top Jailbreak Tweaks of the Week

Welcome to our tweaks of the week. Last week you probably saw that the iPhone Dev Team released an unlock for iOS 5.0.1. That was perhaps the biggest news warranting a video, along with the Home button recalibration trick that seemed to be massively popular amongst viewers and readers.

As usual, please make sure to spread our iPhone, iPad, and iOS video instruction by sharing our posts on Twitter and Facebook.

Visit to the Steve Jobs Exhibit at the US Patent and Trademark Office

A couple of days ago, I took the opportunity to visit Alexandria, Virginia, home of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. I visited there with the intention of getting a glimpse of the Steve Jobs patent exhibit before it was scheduled to be removed in a few weeks.

It's pretty interesting to look at some of the history of Apple's patents and the people involved with those patents. The exhibit was uniquely designed to showcase 12 patents per iPhone screen; I guess you could say the patents were the "app icons" of each of the many large-scaled iPhone's that made up the exhibit.

If you won't be able to make it to the exhibit before it gets taken down, don't fret; I've captured my visit on video for you to enjoy...

pod2g Enlists Chronic Dev Team’s Help to Expedite Untethered Jailbreaks

pod2g has handed over the keys to his iOS 5 untethered jailbreak for A4 devices (which includes the iPhone 4) to the Chronic Dev Team. In doing so, he hopes to focus primarily on the A5 jailbreak, which covers the iPhone 4S and iPad 2.

Since the untethered jailbreak for pre-A5 chip devices is basically finished, this will allow pod2g to get the iPhone 4S jailbreak back up to speed. This is very good news for owners of both A4 and A5 devices, because that means that both are being heavily worked on simultaneously...

How to Recalibrate Your iPhone’s Home Button to Make it More Responsive

Sometimes the Home button on the iPhone just starts getting a little funky, a little laggy, a bit unresponsive.

Most of the time, those issues are software based, unless of course you've dropped your iPhone in water while feeding your pet fish.

For us non-fish owners, we've confirmed that a simple recalibration is usually all that's needed to fix most issues with the iPhone's Home button. Take a look at our video tutorial inside...

UnlockFX: Add New Unlock Animations to Your iPhone

UnlockFX is an upcoming jailbreak tweak that consists of over two dozen unlock animations to customize your iPhone.

The tweak includes both simple and complex animations that can be altered on the fly without the need to respring your device.

Check inside for a video sneak preview of UnlockFX in action...

OpenBackup: One of the Most Promising Jailbreak Backup Solutions on Cydia

Today I tried out OpenBackup, a new package backup solution for your jailbreak apps and tweaks. Admittedly, I was a bit skeptical. I've had my fair share of experiences with backup tools for jailbreak apps tweaks in the past, and they either don't work, or are overly complicated.

Outside of PKGBackup, I can't really recommend any backup solutions, although I have yet to try iBye (I have heard good things about that).

But even an excellent app like PKGBackup can be borderline confusing when it comes to safely backing up and restoring your Cydia tweaks. With the advent of iCloud, I held out hope that a backup tool could harness its power for backups and restores, and that's just what happened.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing OpenBackup, the first tool of its kind that utilizes iCloud for seamless backups and restores...

How to Unlock iOS 5.0.1 With UltraSn0w

UltraSn0w 1.2.5 was just released with iOS 5.0.1 support in tow for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. So, how do you make it work?

Inside, you'll find a brief tutorial that shows you how to verify if you qualify for an unlock, and how to go about unlocking your iPhone with UltraSn0w 1.2.5...