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+.

Let’s Talk iOS 075: Live on Periscope

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Episode 75 yields more Apple Watch discussion, why the Apple Watch Edition exists, Apple Watch sales strategies, fitness motivations, why Android Wear is limited on iOS, the new Steve Jobs book, and six month later with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

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The 10 best jailbreak tweaks for March 2015

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

March has been a stellar month for jailbreakers, as tons of new tweaks have arrived on the scene. But it’s not just the amount of tweaks that keeps us impressed, it’s the excellent quality.

In fact, it’s hard to remember a month that's featured so many great releases. Especially so, has the end of this month been stellar when it comes to quality. Join us, as we showcase the top 10 jailbreak tweaks for the month of March.

‘Return’ adds a recent apps launcher to Control Center

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Developer William Vabrinskas, creator of jailbreak tweaks like Boxy and InstaURL, is back with a brand new tweak that's sure to turn some heads. His new tweak is called Return, and although it's not yet available on Cydia, it should be soon.

Return allows users to access recently used apps via a launcher placed at the top of the Control Center interface. Instead of wasting the available real estate, Return makes use of the empty area above Control Center by populating it with recently used apps.

‘Cask’ brings slick animations to iOS table views

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Now that his work on Auxo seems to be finished, perhaps this means that we will begin seeing more frequent releases from Ryan Petrich? It doesn’t appear that he’s wasting any time, as Cask, a new jailbreak tweak, just recently appeared on his beta repo.

Cask is a tweak that brings animated table scrolling, inspired by Google Plus, to iOS. Although it may sound like a small thing, when you see Cask in action, you’ll realize that it causes a significant visual change. Be sure to watch our full video walkthrough of Cask in action.

Multify is now available for download and comes with a new feature

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Good news! Multify has just been released on Cydia. The highly anticipated tweak, which brings true multitasking to iOS 8, is available for purchase right now on Cydia's BigBoss repo.

Since our last review of the tweak, some new changes have been included, headlined by a new auto expanding keyboard. How does this new keyboard feature work? Watch our new hands-on video for the details.

OneHandWizard brings a slick one hand interface to iOS

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Let's face it—Reachability means well, but it's just not ideal for long-term one hand usage. This is especially so if you're using a large device like the iPhone 6 Plus. OneHandWizard is a new jailbreak tweak that solves this problem. It brings a true one hand mode to the iPhone that runs circles around any other solution that we've seen thus far.

Vex brings Control Center and Notification Center themes to iOS 8

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Vex, an upcoming jailbreak tweak that will soon be available on the BigBoss repo for $0.99, will let users add themes to both Control Center and Notification Center on iOS. The tweak, which features a host of themes for both interfaces, will even play nice with Auxo Legacy Edition once its released.

MultiDelete lets you easily delete multiple apps simultaneously

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

MultiDelete is a recently released tweak that lets you delete multiple apps at the same time. Instead of having to confirm every app deletion, MultiDelete lets you select all of the apps that you want to remove. If you need a quick way to clean up your iPhone's SpringBoard, then this is one of the fastest ways to do so.

Auxo Legacy Edition: nothing beats an original

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

The wait is over; Auxo Legacy Edition has just touched down on Cydia. For those of you that purchased Auxo 2 or Auxo 3, Auxo Legacy Edition will cost $0.99. Everyone else is asked to pay $1.99 to join in on the fun.

And fun it is.

While I liked the sequels to the original Auxo, neither of them felt as cool to me as the original version—a tweak that arguably laid the groundwork for the modern App Switcher that we enjoy today on iOS. Auxo Legacy Edition, Auxo LE hereafter, brings the well-liked card preview interface back to iOS 8 with a modern look and new features.

SetBack is a great way to revert to a preferred Home screen layout

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

One of the reasons why I've never been heavily into theme reviews is because of the time it takes to set up the theme and revert my Home screen configuration after testing. Many themes only support certain apps and app icons, hence, it requires a lot of app icon rearranging to aptly show off the theme in question.

I can't remember where I read the comment, but an iDB commenter mentioned SetBack as a possible solution to my problems. It claims to allow you to restore your SpringBoard layout with ease. Yesterday, I tried SetBack for the first time, and he was right, it is the solution that I needed, and you might like it too.

Android Wear meets the iPhone

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Over the past few days, I've been working with developer MohammadAG to test his in-progress iOS-to-Android Wear application on the LG G Watch. This application, which has a ton of potential for both jailbreakers and non-jailbreakers, allows iOS to forward notifications to Android Wear devices. In the video that follows, I showcase some of the features that are in the current version of Mohammad's new Android Wear APK.

How to troubleshoot Cydia refresh issues

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

From time to time, you may encounter a situation where Cydia will not stop "Reloading Data". This usually has something to do with a bad repo, or a repo that may be unresponsive, offline, etc. If you have a lot of third-party repos added to Cydia, then the chances of you encountering this error increase. In this post, I'll show you how to successfully troubleshoot this issue, and make it so that Cydia can successfully refresh.