BigBoss

Create Custom Push Notifications For Any App With AppAlert

Guest Author ∙ June 1, 2011

Having applications that remind us of our daily tasks & chores is one of the advantages that comes with carrying an iPhone. If your memory is anything like mine, you too will struggle to dress yourself properly each morning without the help of a good to-do list app and push notifications. But AppAlert for iOS takes push notification to the next level.

Available now through Cydia, AppAlert allows you to create custom push notifications for any application. So rather than setting yourself a reminder to pay that important utility bill — which you'll no doubt just dismiss and forget about — you can create a push notification that takes you straight into your banking app to transfer the money instantly…

RecognizeMe Now Available for Jailbroken iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ May 19, 2011

Yesterday we told you about RecognizeMe, a jailbreak app that lets you use facial recognition to unlock your iPhone. Instead of using a password you can have your face scanned for verification.

RecognizeMe is now available on Cydia for $6.99 via the BigBoss repo. It's undoubtedly one of the coolest jailbreak apps out there, but is it really worth it to spend 10 waiting for your face to be scanned when you could unlock your phone is just about a second?

Troubleshooting Cydia: Problems with Broken Repos

Alex Heath ∙ April 10, 2011

I had a scary experience last night. As I was searching for a certain tweak in Cydia, I noticed that I wasn't getting the results I was looking for. So I searched for a few more apps and tweaks, and I kept getting no results. I thought about it for a minute, and then realized that every item I had searched for was from the BigBoss repo.

I've recently upgraded to the iOS 4.3.1 jailbreak, and I haven't gotten to play around with my main iPhone setup that much yet.

To my surprise, the BigBoss repo was broken in Cydia. BigBoss is a pre-installed repo in Cydia, so it's very odd that it wasn't working. The good news is that there's a way to re-add default Cydia repos without re-jailbreaking the iPhone...

How to Add New Sources to Cydia

Alex Heath ∙ January 11, 2011

Cydia, the jailbreak equivalent of Apple's App Store, indexes all jailbreak apps/tweaks/mods so that users can easily find them on the iPhone. To have Cydia on your iPhone, you must first jailbreak. This process frees you from having to only download apps from Apple's App Store. Once you jailbreak, you can install all kinds of cool apps, mods and tweaks on your iPhone through Cydia.

Instead of Apple's curated content, Cydia must rely on "repositories" from jailbreak developers to index jailbreak apps. These "repositories" (or "repos") are basically just storage houses for jailbreak content that developers want to distribute through Cydia. Repositories are sources that Cydia searches for jailbreak apps.

By default, Cydia already pre-installs some popular repositories that host most jailbreak content. However, there is a way in Cydia to add more sources. Not all jailbreak content can be accessed through the default sources that Cydia pre-installs. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to add a new source to expand your jailbreak catalog in Cydia...

Tip: How to Quickly Respring your iPhone

Alex Heath ∙ Updated January 17, 2018

Many of us jailbreakers know how frustrating it can be to debug the modifications we make to iOS. When installing an app in Cydia, if the app requires it, Cydia gives you a prompt to restart your springboard.

There are two types of restarts you can have on your iPhone: a hardware restart and a software restart. A hardware restart takes considerably longer, and it is when you see the Apple boot logo (or your own, modded logo). A simple software restart usually does the trick for installing new packages on your iPhone, and it also helps with ironing out the bugs you may be experiencing...

5 of the Best SBSettings Themes

Alex Heath ∙ Updated August 7, 2017

If you have jailbroken your iOS device, chances are you've heard of SBSettings. For years, it has remained one of the staple applications of the BigBoss repo in the Cydia store. If you aren't familiar with SBSettings, go read our original review of the app.

In my opinion, SBSettings is enough reason to jailbreak. The app is that useful. I'm not sure why Apple hasn't implemented the idea into iOS yet. I love being able to quickly toggle my iPhone's resources and settings on and off.

The two things I love in an app are functionality and aesthetics. And in most cases, I won't use an app if it doesn't have both. The functionality of SBSettings is undeniable, but I've found that finding an aesthetically pleasing theme for the app is somewhat tedious. So, I have done my best to comb the far reaches of Cydia to bring you five of the best SBSettings themes...

SpringFlash: the First Jailbreak App for iPhone 4 Only

Sébastien Page ∙ July 31, 2010

With the iPhone 4 jailbreak to be released soon, BigBoss has created a jailbreak application dedicated to this device only. The app is called SpringFlash and like the name suggests, it is an application that takes advantage of the iPhone 4 LED Flash to serve as a flashlight.

SpringFlash will be a Springboard Activator-based application which means you will have to use Activator to define a gesture or activation method to launch the app (ie "tap and hold the status bar). Since it is Activator-based, the great advantage of SpringFlash is that you won't have to look for the app icon to launch it when you need it.

I'd like to say that I have tried SpringFlash but since there is now iPhone 4 jailbreak yet, that would be a lie...

SpringFlash will be available under the BigBoss repo for free. Now we just need a jailbreak!

[BigBoss]

SBSettings v1.0.1

Sébastien Page ∙ November 17, 2008

SBSettings brings the concept of toggle and app launch directly from the springboard, giving you the ability to launch it no matter what apps is running by just sliding your fingers across the status bar. The drop screen appears with docked icons like 3G, Wifi and SSH. These toggles are green when enabled and red when disabled. There is also quick access to hiding icons, respringing, restarting, and features like the "Apple kill switch", etc...

With 1990+ downloads in one day, SBSettings is one of Cydia's top apps.

With v1.0.1, you can move important toggles on the springboard where they are always available instantly while other apps are running.

New changes:

Add icon to dock Added theme support Home button now closes the window Disabled entirely on lock screen (this one was annoying)

SBSettings is available for free on Cydia. After installing it, you won’t find any icon on your screen but just slide your fingers across the status bar to make it appear.

Recovering missing or hidden icons

Sébastien Page ∙ October 30, 2008

BigBoss wrote a post tonight about 2 questions he's often asked:

How do I recover the Poof icon if I hid it? How do I recover my missing icons after restoring my iPhone?

Here are the solutions that BigBoss recommends

If you have Cydia, install Quickgold and Poof to unhide the icons

Install SBSettings and unhide any apps that are hidden

Launch the Settings app and disable/reenable restrictions. Doing this should unhide all the hidden apps

If Cydia is hidden, you can use Apt-get and install Quickgold from the SSH prompt

Worst case scenario, if nothing works, you can use iPhoneBrowser and delete the files located at /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SpringBoard.plist and the reboot your phone

Full credit goes to BigBoss. This post was highly inspired from his recent post.

Stay away from iDontCrash

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated February 5, 2016

BigBoss posted a warning about iDontCrash, and its developer Brandon Rose.

A week ago, a developer tried to send me an app called iDontCrash to host. Being curious, and a developer myself, I asked a few questions about this app before hosting it. The answers proved to me that it is total fraud on the community. It should be called iDontWork or iAmFake. This app gave me hours of enjoyment while we were picking it apart. In short, do not trust this app or its developer Brandon Rose. It is upsetting when someone tries to harm our community, therefore, I decided to post all about this app and its pseudo developer.

What does iDontCrash claim to be? It claims to be an app that prevents crashing due to low memory. Sounds great right? It sounded pretty dubious.

iDontCrash claims to run and close instantly then putting a daemon onto the system that monitors memory usage. This does not happen. Instead, the app crashes because it is an invalid binary for the system.

Although the application is harmless, BigBoss recommends to beware of this Brandon Rose guy.

How to jailbreak your iPhone 3G 2.1 firmware

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated November 13, 2019

Wow, again, it didn't take long for BigBoss to come up with a not-so-easy way to jailbreak your iPhone 3G.

Download the 2.1 firmware for iPhone 3G from the iPhone Downloads section and save it to your desktop Install iTunes 8 Update your iPhone to firmware 2.1 with iTunes and make sure it is activated Uninstall iTunes 8 Uninstall Apple Mobile Device Support (From Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel) Install itunes v7.7. - you can find it here Download QuickPwn with the correct 2.1 bundle inside it here Run QuickPwn. Select the iPhone 3G 2.1 firmware that you downloaded in Step 1 Select at least Cydia. You may also select Installer Once finished, your iPhone will reboot, which may take a few minutes. Cydia and Installer will not be visible on your springboard. Don't panik! This is ok. Download TotalCommander and t-pot addon Install TotalCommander and in the left pane navigate to T-PoT.1.1.zip and click on it. It will install t-pot automatically Download the mobileinstallation patch Use Totalcommander to install the patched mobileinstallation file to /System/Library/PrivateFrameWorks/MobileInstallation.framework. Click on the dropdown box [-\-] top left and select network neighborhood then t-pot. Remember to back up your original mobileinstallation first! Still in TotalCommander delete /private/var/mobile/Library/Caches/com.apple.mobile.installation.plist Reboot your iPhone Done!

This is not the most straightforward method to jailbreak your iPhone 3G but it is the only one so far! As usual, use it at your own risks...

Thank BigBoss