Activator

Gravity brings realistic gravitational physics to your jailbroken handset’s Home screen

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 1, 2019

In all the years I’ve been jailbreaking iPhones and testing jailbreak tweaks, one classic has always stood out to me in particular, and that was Conrad Kramer’s famous Graviboard. Just as the name suggests, this tweak brought real gravitational physics to your handset’s Home screen, causing all your app icons to fall in the direction of gravity.

Albeit released almost nine years ago, Graviboard was one of the coolest reasons to jailbreak an iPhone back in the day. Given the magnitude of the original tweak’s popularity, it’s unsurprising that there have been a few reincarnations since then. One of the most recent remakes to pay a viit to Cydia is Gravity by iOS developer Julio Verne.

CyPush2 brings push notification support to Cydia

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 1, 2019

If you’ve ever jailbroken an iPhone or iPad before, then you should be familiar with Cydia as it’s the flagship package manager on the jailbroken iOS platform. Despite its rock-solid stability, Cydia has always been utilitarian by nature and isn’t known for fostering creeper-comfort features. Luckily, Saurik (Jay Freeman) empowered developers to tweak the Cydia app via Cydia Substrate a few years back.

There have only been a handful of Cydia-centric jailbreak tweaks released since Saurik first opened the gates to tweaking Cydia, some of them have been godsends. One great example is CyPush2, a tweak made by iOS developer Julio Verne to bring push notification support to the Cydia app.

BigShotJb lets you capture taller screenshots more easily

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 30, 2019

I snap so many screenshots on my iOS devices each day that even the world’s most renowned mathematicians would need a calculator to keep count, but the situation is intensified when I capture tall vertical interfaces; doing so often requires snapping several screenshots that will need to be stitched together in photo-editing software afterward.

If you’ve ever been in a similar predicament, then you know what a pain this can be and you’ll be ecstatic to know there’s another way. A free jailbreak tweak dubbed BigShotJb (iOS 11) by iOS developers tapthaker and Julio Verne lets you capture tall vertical screenshots just like the one in the example above with minimal effort.

Launchtron is a side-oriented quick app launcher for jailbroken devices

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 13, 2019

iOS is an outstanding mobile operating system, but it often leaves a lot to be desired in the multitasking department, especially on the iPhone. Luckily, the jailbreak community usually has some sort of remedy for problems of this nature.

A new free jailbreak tweak called Launchtron by iOS developer Nepeta is just one of such remedies; it’s fundamentally a quick-access app launcher that you can summon from just about anywhere with a swipe. Furthermore, it can help you access apps more quickly than you could with iOS’ native App Switcher.

Improve your multitasking workflow on iPhone with EasyAccess

Anthony Bouchard ∙ December 14, 2018

You can undoubtedly multitask on an iPhone or iPad, but Apple's implementation leaves a lot to be desired. That’s why iOS developer Kane Buckthorpe released a new jailbreak tweak called EasyAccess.

As you might come to expect from the tweak’s name, EasyAccess intends to make multitasking more usable on the iOS platform. This tweak lets you perform actions in two apps at the same time and effortlessly move between apps by way of a highly-customizable dock that you can summon at any time with Activator.

Adjust each of your iPhone’s various volume levels independently with SmartVolumeMixer

Anthony Bouchard ∙ November 21, 2018

At first glance, it might seem like your iPhone has just one volume control that you can change with the volume buttons at the side of the handset, but there are actually nine different volume controls present on your handset.

It can be challenging to discern which volume control you’re adjusting when you press your device’s volume buttons, and so iOS developer midkin just launched a new jailbreak tweak called SmartVolumeMixer to make life a bit easier in this department.

Take control of iOS’s atrocious stock volume HUD with SmartVolumeControl2

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Apple publicly released iOS 12 this week, and despite all the new features baked into it, one thing that still hasn’t changed after all these years is that dreadful volume HUD that pops up any time you press either of the volume buttons.

Apple made some remarkable improvements to the video player-centric volume HUD with iOS 11, but for whatever reason, the global volume HUD lagged behind. Fortunately, a new jailbreak tweak dubbed SmartVolumeControl2 by iOS developer midkin fixes this.

Protect your Camera Roll privacy with DontSwipe

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 25, 2018

While there are times that I enjoy showing photo(s) from my iPhone’s Camera Roll to the people around me, I always worry that someone might start swiping through the rest of my pictures if given a chance.

If you feel the same way, then you may want to take a look at a new free jailbreak tweak called DontSwipe by iOS developer SecondEight1, as it can lay your worries to rest.

Activator picks up iOS 11 compatibility in latest update

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 29, 2018

Renowned jailbreak tweak developer Ryan Petrich updated his popular Activator extension this week with support for iOS 11.

This is the first time since the release of CoolStar’s Electra jailbreak for iOS 11.0-11.1.2 that Activator received an official update to support Apple’s latest jailbreakable firmware. Notably, unofficial forks were under development by other developers previously.

BioLockout lets you disable biometric authentication with an Activator gesture

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 12, 2018

Biometric authentication methods like Touch ID and Face ID come standard on most modern iPhones, and a new free jailbreak tweak called BioLockout by iOS developer ARX8x lets you take full control over when they can be used.

BioLockout takes advantage of Activator, so you can easily configure a gesture that toggles biometric authentication on or off on demand. You can set it up in the Settings app after installation:

Randomize your iPhone’s wallpaper image on demand with UnsplashWalls

Anthony Bouchard ∙ November 8, 2017

The wallpaper is one of the first things you notice every time you use your device, whether you're glancing at the Lock screen to view the time, or accessing the Home screen to launch an app. With that in mind, shouldn’t your wallpaper captivate your interest?

It can be challenging to choose a single wallpaper to use all the time, but with a new free jailbreak tweak called UnsplashWalls by iOS developer ipad_kid, you won't have to. It can keep things exciting by randomizing your iPhone's wallpaper on demand.

This tweak adds a Reduce White Point toggle to Flipswitch

Anthony Bouchard ∙ November 8, 2017

Did you know that your iPhone includes the Reduce White Point feature to mitigate eye strain? It can give your eyes a rest from the vibrant colors of your display, but setting it up can be a cumbersome process because it's buried so deeply in iOS' settings.

Enter a new free jailbreak tweak called Reduce White Point Flipswitch by iOS developer Erik E, which aims to make accessing Reduce White Point easier by implementing support for Flipswitch-enabled tweaks.