Accelerometer

Lock your iPhone by placing it face-down on a desk with DownLocker

There are typically two ways to lock your iPhone when you’re finished using it: 1) press the sleep button; or 2) wait for the lockout timer time out. But with a new free jailbreak tweak called DownLocker by iOS developer Soh Satoh, you can add a third and practical method to that list.

DownLocker utilizes your iPhone’s accelerometer system to discern the handset’s orientation in space, and when it senses that your handset is lying face-down, it locks the device. This works with virtually any flat surface, whether that object is opaque or transparent, which is an apparent advantage over similar tweaks that would use the handset’s proximity sensor instead.

Waves brings fun fluid-like animations to your jailbroken iPhone’s Home screen

While most jailbreak tweaks are made in response to some sort of problem or inconvenience in iOS, some exist purely for good fun and entertainment. A new free release dubbed Waves by iOS developer Muirey03 is a beautiful example of the latter.

As you might have inferred already from the name and the screenshot example above, Waves brings a fluid-inspired animation to your iPhone or iPad’s Home screen. The fluid depicted in the screenshot is sensitive to motion, which means tilting your device causes the fluid to move just as the laws of physics in the real world would command.

This jailbreak tweak is a classic remake that brings animated crawling ants to iOS

If you’re one to appreciate fun and quirky animations on your jailbroken iPhone or iPad, then a new free jailbreak tweak called Ants by iOS developer SparkDev might be of interest to you.

Once installed, Ants causes an army of animated virtual ants to spawn all over the iOS interface. They appear and crawl around whether you’re on your Home screen or inside of an app.

tvOS 10 preview: all-new Remote app with Siri voice control, tilt gaming & more

A software replacement for the physical remote that came in the box with your fourth-generation Apple TV, Apple's entirely overhauled Remote application provides you with the full range of Siri Remote features complete with touch navigation, tilt-based control in games and voice input via Siri.

And in making tedious text entry on tvOS even easier than before, the new app lets you summon the keyboard right from the Lock screen of your iPhone by pressing a notification that automatically gets pushed every time you select a text field on the Apple TV.

MyReachability: reach all four corners of an app by mating the accelerometer with Reachability

MyReachability is the first compelling tweak that I've seen thus far involving Reachability. I don't want to sound hyperbolic, but this could be a game changing tweak with a little bit of TLC.

MyReachability is from Korean developer Shine, the first such tweak I've seen of his, but hopefully not the last. That's because what I found was something extremely impressive, innovative and practical.

MyReachability allows you to access various areas of an app via Reachability by tilting your device. It taps into the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus' accelerometer to do this, and it makes accessing most areas of an app with one hand feasible.

Check out my video walkthrough of MyReachability after the break, and see why this new jailbreak tweak has me so excited.

New iPhones use two accelerometers for better power management

Apple is using two accelerometers in both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Chipworks has discovered in its extensive teardowns of the two handsets. The first is the three-axis BMA280 accelerometer, made by Bosch, and the second is believed to be InvenSense's six-axis MPU-6700.

Why two? Interestingly enough, Chipworks believes that Apple decided to go with two accelerometers to improve power management and overall user experience. The InvenSense is more sensitive, and can do more things, than the Bosch, but it also draws a lot more power.

How to add LG-inspired ‘knock’ gestures to Activator

The LG-inspired KnockOn feature seems to be a big hit amongst the jailbreak community. We've already seen Elias Limneos' KnockOn inspired tweak called SmartTap, and now we have Knock.

Knock is an Activator add-on that adds two new gestures to the mix: the ability to knock on (hard tap) the sides of the iPhone or the front and back of the iPhone. Knock uses the device's accelerometer to detect knocks, and a lot of work has been put into its development to prevent false positives. Have a look at our video demonstration for more details.

Some users complaining of inaccurate iPhone 5s sensors

Heads up iPhone 5s owners: have you noticed that your Compass app readings are a little bit off? Don't worry, you're not alone. It seems a number of users are complaining of inaccurate sensors on Apple's latest handset.

More specifically, users have noticed that both their compass and inclinometers on their 5s devices are consistently off by a noticeable margin. The latter appears to be incorrect by 2 degrees, while the former is off by 8-10...

How to get iOS 7 styled parallax wallpaper on your iPhone

We've got an extremely cool new Lock screen theme to show you guys and it's called iOS 7 Accelerometer Slideshow Lockscreens. This is a new WinterBoard theme that recently appeared on Cydia, and it completely transforms the iOS Lock screen.

The download includes 5 different theme packs that work well with both 4" iOS devices, and smaller 3.5" devices. Each theme pack features well over a dozen different wallpapers that all move around as you move your device.

Like the Parallax effect found in iOS 7, these new themes allow you to harness the device's built-in accelerometer for a similar stylized effect. It's something that really needs to be seen to full appreciate.

Have a look inside as we showcase iOS 7 Accelerometer Slideshow Lockscreens on video.