Jailbreak

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: BioProtect XS, CallBar XS, LendMyPhone 2, and more

Given the massive influx of jailbreak news as of late, many are wondering what kinds of jailbreak tweaks they should install on their newly jailbroken iOS 11 or iOS 12 handset.

This roundup will encompass all the new jailbreak tweaks released from Monday, March 4th to Sunday, March 10th. Of course, we may throw a couple of other noteworthy releases inside to keep things interesting.

Video Direction Control lets rotation lock users enjoy videos in landscape orientation without fuss

The rotation lock feature on any iOS device can be extraordinarily useful, except when it’s not. More specifically, it tends to be less convenient when you watch videos because it tries to display the (usually widescreen) video in portrait orientation on your tall-displayed device, resulting in something like what you see above on the left.

Fortunately, those with jailbroken handsets can now spearhead this problem dead-on with a new free jailbreak tweak called Video Direction Control (iOS 11) by iOS developer rf00.

LendMyPhone 3 brings a full-fledged guest mode to your jailbroken iOS 13 device

Unlike Apple’s Mac lineup, the company’s iOS devices don’t offer a native ‘guest mode.’ This is a crying shame for anyone who wants to share their device with someone else while keeping the peace of mind that the other person won’t be peering through any personal data.

Fortunately, jailbreakers have long had the option of installing guest mode-centric jailbreak tweaks, and LendMyPhone 3 by iOS developers Luke Muris and Geometric Software offers one of the slickest guest mode interfaces we’ve seen yet.

Pwn20wnd pushes beta 43 of the unc0ver v3.0.0 pre-release with fix for sandbox escape error

Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd released another revision to the unc0ver v3.0.0 pre-release on Thursday with bug fixes and improvements, bringing the pre-release jailbreak tool up to beta version 43.

Pwn20wnd shared the news of the update via Twitter early this morning, noting that it would fix the sandbox error that many people were receiving on certain devices:

Colorize your iPhone’s keyboard however you want with KeyboardColorXII

It was only yesterday that we showed you a free jailbreak tweak called DarkKeysXII that could give your iPhone’s keyboard a dark makeover, but what should you do if you wanted something more colorful? If you fall into this category, then you’re in luck!

A new free release called KeyboardColorXII by iOS developer asphyxia is now available in Cydia that lets you colorize your handset’s keyboard however you’d like, whether you prefer things dark, light, or even colorful.

Unc0ver v3.0.0 pre-release can now use the machswap exploit to jailbreak A9(X) devices

Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd revised the unc0ver v3.0.0 pre-release on Wednesday to beta version 42 with some significant improvements, including full support for the new machswap exploit on A9(X) devices.

Pwn20wnd shared the news about the new version on Twitter just this afternoon, directing users to his personal GitHub repository with download links:

CallBar XS brings everyone’s favorite phone call-centric jailbreak tweak to iOS 14

If you have a jailbroken iPhone, then you should probably add Elias Limneos’ new CallBar XS jailbreak tweak to your wish list.

Just like its predecessor, CallBar XS streamlines the phone-centric functionality of your iPhone by incorporating a less intrusive incoming and outgoing phone call interface. In short, it replaces iOS’ full-screen call interface with one that’s hardly any larger than a standard notification banner, and it does so without sacrificing any functionality.

Apple stops signing iOS 12.1.1 beta 3, halting downgrades to a jailbreakable firmware

In an unfortunate turn of events this week, Apple appears to have stopped signing iOS 12.1.1 beta 3 for most or all iOS devices. Before last night, this was the last jailbreakable firmware that could still be downgraded to via iTunes since Apple closed the signing window for the official iOS 12.1.1-12.1.2 releases exactly one month ago.

Hacker an unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd confirmed the unsigning status via Twitter in the wee hours of the night, shortly following up with reports saying that it was still being signed by Apple for certain devices. As expected, a couple of high-profile individuals such as rootlessJB 3.0 developer Jake James and OsirisJailbreak12 creator GeoSn0w confirmed that the firmware wasn’t being signed for their devices:

DarkKeysXII gives your iPhone’s keyboard a dark makeover

DarkKeysXII is a new free jailbreak tweak by iOS developers Patrick Simpson and Ultra that implements a darker keyboard interface for jailbroken iPhones and iPads.

The tweak takes effect immediately after installation without the need to configure any complex options, giving you the slick darkened typing experience that you see in the screenshot examples above.

PSA: Nagging Pwn20wnd won’t make A12(X) support come any faster to unc0ver

Many enjoy jailbreaking their iPhones and iPads because it gives them more control over the aesthetic and behavior of their device. That said, it comes as no surprise that folks are thrilled to get their hands on a full-fledged jailbreak for iOS 12 on Apple’s latest handsets.

Albeit exciting, we’d like to remind the community that relentlessly begging for support on your device and hounding the experts for ETAs does not make things come any faster; in fact, it may only delay our waiting as the hackers behind our jailbreaks don’t much care for the spam and become frustrated as a result.

Add a splash of color to your Home screen’s 3D Touch shortcuts with ColorShortcuts

I often take advantage of the 3D Touch-based shortcuts on my Home screen to access vital features in my favorite apps, but I’ll be the first to admit that Apple’s native implementation of these menus looks somewhat bland out of the box.

Fortunately, a jailbreak tweak called ColorShortcuts by iOS developer Cole Cabral can fix that. Just as you might have inferred from the tweak’s name, ColorShortcuts will permit jailbreakers to colorize their 3D Touch menu shortcuts however they’d like.

Add an extra layer of security to your jailbroken iOS 12-16 device with BioProtect XS

BioProtect XS

Some people worry about their privacy more than others, and if you’re one to implement defenses on your smartphone that would be equivalent to that of a virtual Fort Knox, then you’ll probably take a liking to a jailbreak tweak called BioProtect XS by iOS developer Elias Limneos.

BioProtect was perhaps one of the most popular security tweaks ever devised for the jailbroken platform. BioProtect XS is fundamentally an iOS 12-16-compatible version of the ever-so-popular security tweak that most know and love, and it has been fully-optimized to work with both Touch ID and Face ID.