Exigency lets you dial contacts from the emergency call menu

Exigency is a new a jailbreak tweak that allows you to load up your contacts directly from the iPhone's emergency call menu. That means that it's totally possible to initiate a phone call from this menu, even when your phone is locked with a passcode.

Obviously, this isn't the type of tweak to use if your primary concern is security. If convenience is more your thing, then you may want to check out Exigency.

Accentify tints iOS chrome, no WinterBoard required

Looking for a quick and easy way to add tint to the stock iOS chrome, but don't feel like bothering with WinterBoard? If so, then an upcoming tweak from @winocm may be of interest to you.

The tweak is called Accentify, and it allows you to select from eight different and highly vibrant tints to accentuate iOS. The tint applies to multiple areas, and its vibrant colors allow for a very distinct, almost candy-like look. Take a look inside for more information.

Abstergo giveaway!

To celebrate the release of Abstergo — the notifications managing tweak from Joshua Tucker and Andrew Richardson — we're giving away five copies!

First and foremost, be sure to read our in-depth walkthrough of Abstergo to learn what it does, and how it can help you in day-to-day usage. As we noted in our walkthrough, this tweak has been in development for quite some time, and a lot of man hours have gone into perfecting it.

Secondly, be sure to check inside to find out how you can win your very own copy of Abstergo, which retails for $1.99 on Cydia's BigBoss repo. Check inside for the full list of details...

The iDownloadBlog top news stories of the week – April 21, 2013 edition

Like every Sunday, we bring you the stories that were the most popular on iDB during this past week. Whether it is a news piece, an editorial, a tutorial, a new jailbreak tweak, or an accessory review, we sum it all up in one convenient place.

If you like what you're reading, please make sure to spread the love by sharing our posts on your favorite social network.

We're usually hanging out a lot on Twitter and Facebook, more rarely on Google+.

Would you like it if Cydia looked like this? Atom: a beautiful upcoming Lock screen launcher JellyLock is an Android inspired Lock screen launcher for iOS Grabby is a new customizable camera grabber tweak Live Battery Indicator merges battery percentage with a circular icon FlatIcons: a beautiful two dimensional theme for iOS sn0wbreeze v2.9.14 released And just like that, Chat Heads are a reality on iOS Check out this new “iPhone 6″ concept video Yahoo’s new Weather iOS app looks terrific Facebook 6.0 arrives with Chat Heads, new iPad UI, revamped News Feed, stickers

Of course, don't forget to listen to the latest episode of our podcast, Let's Talk Jailbreak:

We’re social! Find iDB on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, App.net, YouTube, and in your RSS reader. Also make sure to subscribe to our new podcast!

Status Board for iPad review

The recent launch of Status Board created quite a stir in the tech world. This iPad display has turned heads all around the Internet. It is not just because the app looks good, which it does. It is also because the app is fully customizable and allows for user data input of any kind that can even be shared with others.

Status Board is a data display that allows users to see various panels of information, all on one screen. You can see tweets, calendar events, news feeds, email, and much more. You can customize graphs and tables and even make your own panel using HTML. Once you’ve created your board, you can display it on your big-screen TV using Apple TV AirPlay Mirroring or with an HDMI cable and iPad adapter. Status Board is the ultimate data collection display panel...

Apple confirms Siri remembers your data for two years

Apple has finally disclosed how long Siri keeps your personalized data collected and stored on its servers whenever you pick up your iPhone and ask her a question. In a new report published Friday, an Apple representative was quoted confirming the company keeps Siri data stored in the  cloud for two years.

Watchers often express concern over digital voice assistants such as Siri because they store users' voice clips, opening door to a potential privacy nightmare should this private data ever be compromised. Apple on its part argues it stores anonymized data, and for two years only. Other companies that collect data from users, such as the Internet giant Google and industries like telecommunications, have similar data retention policies in place...

Gemini Rue makes its way to iOS, and it feels like old times

Point-and-click adventures are beginning to make a dent in the gaming community. There have been some well-made releases within the past few months that have certainly sparked my interest. Abyss: the Wraiths of Eden HD, for example, had me sweaty palmed and stiff necked from hours of gameplay. The more often developers port desktop games to iOS, the better it is for me because I like being able to pick up and play epic adventures anywhere.

You may have already heard of Gemini Rue. It was originally created for Windows in 2011 and was just ported to iOS a week ago. The game may only be a few years old, but it has a retro design that will put you in pixilated heaven from the first beat.

Gemini Rue, for the iPhone and iPad, takes players on a noir-like adventure set on a mining planet in a future where citizens must prove their residency or be deported off world. The game’s plot develops slowly and deliberately. One false move and you’ll be pushing up daisies...

Bono: Apple’s Jony Ive is Obi-Wan of design

Time Magazine's list of the 100 most interesting people for 2013 is packed with profiles of technology leaders. Apple design guru Jony Ive is among those listed, described as a Star Wars' Obi-Wan leading a team of Jedi employees.

The thread of Apple's innovation runs through other profiles, including Samsung's CEO, who is viewed by a former executive of the iPhone maker as carrying on the tradition of Steve Jobs...

Pre-orders for Nomad 3-inch USB-to-Lightning cable open, shipping in June

The three-inch Nomad Lightning cable made waves when it was announced back in November 2012. This handy little USB-to-Lighting accessory fits your key ring and comes to the rescue when you find yourself out and about with a dying iPhone and no charger in sight.

Originally a Kickstarter project, creators Kegan & Roberto developed the Nomad according to Apple's strict requirements in order to earn the sought-after Lightning accessory certification. The Nomad cable is available for pre-order now, priced at $24.99 a pop (no shipments expected until June)...

Amazon buys Evi digital assistant, thwarts Apple partnership with Goodreads deal

Online retailer Amazon in an interesting personal assistant move has reportedly acquired Evi (pronounced ee-vee), a Cambridge, England headquartered startup that specialises in knowledge base and semantic search engine software. The company makes an iOS and Android app which uses the True Knowledge Answer engine and Nuance speech recognition platform to deliver answers to complex queries using natural language processing.

Apple's Siri also uses Nuance for voice recognition and the iPhone maker even threatened to kick Evi out of the App Store for being too similar to Siri, but later changed its mind. Amazon previously in January 2013 bought Ivona Software, a Polish-based specialist in voice technologies that competes with Nuance.

Combining Ivona and Evi could yield some interesting results, giving Apple's Siri a run for its money, even more so knowing Amazon makes tablets and is rumored to be building a smartphone...

Facebook updates iOS SDK with native Share Dialog

The social networking giant Facebook yesterday at the Mobile Developer Conference in New York City updated its software development kit (SDK) for iOS developers with a new native Share Dialog that also supports photos, akin to the iOS 6 Share Sheet feature.

It lets iOS programmers write apps which enable users to share content to Facebook without leaving the app. Previously, sharing to Facebook in non-Facebook apps used to bring up a web page.

Facebook also rebuilt the Login Dialogs across mobile and web claiming a 20 percent speed increase and introduced other changes to the SDK...

Google’s new Babel chat platform includes ‘first class iOS experience’

More details are trickling in on what to expect of Google's upcoming unified messaging platform called Babel. Google's internal documentation and code snippets discovered Wednesday indicate the Babel thing will support media transfers during chat sessions and group chatting ability. More importantly, the service will be available as a native app on both Apple's iOS and Google's own Android platform.

Of course, Babel is also going to be available on the web, as a Chrome web app and inside Gmail. The upcoming messaging platform should solve Google's instant messaging conundrum that confuses users with nearly a doze different chat service that include Talk, Gmail, Google+ Hangout, Google Voice and Chat for Drive.

Even if way overdue, Babel will unify Google's many messaging platforms into a single service. The Internet giant is likely to formally announce Babel at its upcoming Google I/O conference, which runs May 15-17 in San Francisco...