Control Center

Grounded bars access to vital Control Center toggles without authentication

I love how convenient Control Center makes it to toggle my iPhone or iPad’s controls on or off in a pinch, but I’m almost certain that anyone who’d grab my iPhone when I’m not looking might feel exactly the same way. In fact, Control Center makes it far too easy for a thief or mischief-maker to toggle Airplane Mode as a hindrance to handset recovery, and that’s enough to make anyone second-guess the added convenience…

Grounded is a brand new and free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer biD3V that’s designed to prevent such issues from living rent-free in your head. The tweak works by allowing users to make certain Control Center toggles unusable as long as your iPhone or iPad is locked, but they become usable the moment you authenticate yourself.

Ekip brings tighter integration between your jailbroken iPhone and your Mac

AirDrop, iCloud, and a bevy of other services provided by Apple have helped to create a nearly seamless user experience for those owning both an iOS device and a Mac. But if you’ve ever wanted a tighter integration than what already exists, then you’d be S.O.L., at least… without the help of a jailbroken handset.

Fortunately for those who do have jailbroken handset(s) at their disposal, a newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed Ekip by iOS developer maximehip can upgrade the level of integration that users might come to expect while using their iPhone or iPad and their Mac in the same general vicinity.

CCCounters adds usage information to iOS’ Control Center toggles

It goes without saying that Control Center would be one of the more advantageous additions to iOS over the years. But despite how great Control Center is, that hasn’t stopped the jailbreak community from tweaking it in imaginative ways to make it better for the end user.

One such example is a newly released and free jailbreak tweak known as CCCounters by iOS developer 0xkuj. Once installed, CCCounters monitors Control Center toggle usage and displays the most recent instance in which those toggles were switched on or off.

CClock adds a date and time module to Control Center on pwned iPhones

The Status Bar plays host to a digital clock almost all of the time, except of course when you launch Control Center. Once you do, the clock disappears from the Status Bar and is replaced by the cellular and Wi-Fi connection indicators and your carrier’s name instead.

Few people would refer to this as a problem, but it’s an annoyance for some who wish that the time would merely remain in the Status Bar even after Control Center is launched. Fortunately, a new and free jailbreak tweak called CClock by iOS developer Obumbravit offers a useful workaround.

Zefy makes Spotify behave more like a default media player on jailbroken iPhones

Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming services available for the iOS & iPadOS platforms apart from Apple's own Apple Music streaming service. But if anything’s painfully obvious, it’s the fact that Apple nerfs the functionality of third-party apps and services that compete with its own by limiting what they can do on their platform; this effectively makes Apple’s own services look better by comparison, and intentionally so.

If you’re an avid Spotify user and you also have a jailbroken iPhone or iPad at your disposal, then you could probably benefit from the likes of a newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed Zefy by iOS developer udevs. This tweak implements a few handy workarounds for iOS to make Spotify feel more like a native music player than just a third-party alternative to Apple’s.

Check out these 9 new Apple TV features in tvOS 14

Apple yesterday released the tvOS 14 software update that brings new capabilities and feature enhancements to the company’s Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K digital media players. Some of the big ones you’ve already heard about, such as an expanded Picture in Picture feature and multiuser support for Apple Arcade. With the media's attention focused on the headline-grabbing improvements in iOS 14, we thought you might also want to learn about everything new in tvOS 14 so here it goes...

Coeus augments the Control Center interface with app and Activator shortcuts

Apple created iOS’ Control Center interface to be an all-in-one hub for shortcuts and toggles, but for whatever reason, the company limits the shortcut selection to a small number of native apps without so much as the seemingly necessary option to configure custom app shortcuts of the end user’s choice.

If, like me, you despise Apple’s systematic disregard for user configuration, then there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll enjoy the likes of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called Coeus by iOS developer Azzou.

CCTime13 adds a time indicator to the Status Bar in Control Center

The iPhone’s Status Bar exists to provide users with pertinent information at a glance. Whether you’re checking to see the current time, your handset’s current signal strength, or how much battery life you’ve got left, chances are you look at it somewhat frequently.

One thing that has always sort of bothered me however is that the Status Bar’s time display disappears when you launch the Control Center interface, and that’s a gripe that a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed CCTime13 by iOS developer 0xkuj aims to solve.