When your iOS device is jailbroken, customizing how it looks can be as easy as installing a WinterBoard theme. There's literally thousands of them in Cydia to choose from. The options get much more limited, however, if your device is hack-free.
But that doesn't mean it's impossible. We've covered a number of ways to modify a stock iOS device in the past, and we've got another one to show you today. Here's how to customize your iPhone or iPad app icons, no jailbreak required...
I'm not usually a theme kind of guy. I know there are a lot of people out there that love customizing the look of their devices, and that's awesome, but I'm more about functionality and minimalism.
That doesn't mean, though, that I won't give new and interesting themes a shot. I used ayecon for a long time, and then I had iMIUI for a bit. And over the past few days, I've been testing out Motif...
Folks that are really into customizing the look and feel of their iOS devices will be happy to hear that a new tweak just hit Cydia this week that will enable them to take things a step further.
Animer, by Hashbang Productions, is a new jailbreak tweak that allows you to customize the animations for a handful of features in iOS including notification banners, and the app switcher...
A few days ago we showed you how to add a custom carrier logo to a non-jailbroken cellular iOS device. The app to enable the hack — CarrierEditor — is a Mac only app, so only Mac users were able to take advantage of the feature.
Now it's your turn, Microsoft faithful, as developer Dany Lisiansky steps up to the plate to provide a custom carrier logo solution for Windows users
If you read our original post on CarrierEditor, then you'll be happy to note that the process for adding a custom carrier logo using a Windows machine is virtually the same as it is on the Mac. Take a look inside as we break down the entire process in our full video walkthrough...
Looking to add some additional functionality to the iPhone's volume HUD? If so, then you might want to take a look at HUD Pro — a new jailbreak tweak available on Cydia's MacCiti repo.
At $1.50, I feel HUD Pro is a bit pricey for what it offers. It features things that venture more toward the gimmicky side than actually being useful, but perhaps this video will make it easier for you to decide on that...
The iPhone 5, though some will argue that it looks similar, is a major departure from its predecessor. It has a larger screen, upgraded internals, and a new unibody design.
And as it turns out, that design could spell trouble for aftermarket back panels. Because instead of a single piece of glass — like on the iPhone 4 and 4S, you have this part-aluminum, part-glass back panel directly attached to internal components....
The stock Home screen in iOS looks pretty boring. Luckily, jailbreaking can change that. It opens the door to a whole world of customization, including tweaks, icon packages and tons of other theming possibilities.
And if you like customizing your device, and want to share your iPad or iPhone setup with the world, there's a new service that lets you do that. Homescreen.me finally came out of private beta this week...
Let's just file this one under the "who in the world would ever find a use for this?" category. MakeMyPopup is a brand new jailbreak tweak that allows you to create your own pop up notifications on the iPhone.
The problem with MakeMyPopup isn't that it only allows you to create one singular pop up notification. It isn't that pop up notifications are ugly, and have all but been replaced by banner notifications. The issue with MakeMyPopup is that it does absolutely nothing; it has no usable function outside of the fact that it fakes your own customizable pop up.
The question stands to be asked: Just who would use this? Would you?
I've always tinkered with my devices, regardless of their OS. I remember installing leaked versions of RIM's OS 6 on my old BlackBerry Bold, and rooting my Android handsets to install the latest ROMs.
But out of all of those experiences, I can honestly say that hacking devices, customizing them and installing tweaks, is much easier to do on iOS than it is on any other platform — even the "open" Android...
Some jailbreak tweaks are immediately labeled as being worthless, and Black Icon Labels is one such tweak. I understand that there are a few users out there who will find this tweak handy, but most will probably claim otherwise.
Black Icon Labels changes the color of your app icon labels from white to black, and nothing more. If there's one good thing that I can tell you about this tweak, it is that it doesn't require WinterBoard to make the change. If you have a light colored wallpaper set on your iPhone's Home screen, then Black Icon Labels might be something you want to check for...
Have you been looking for a way to make your iPhone's ringtone more personalized? Do you enjoy listening to jazz ensembles? Well if you answered yes to one of, or (preferably) both of these questions, you need a Singtone.
What's a Singtone? Well it's a ringtone, customized and sung just for you by the folks of Ensemble 101. The group is looking to take its jazz act on the road next year, and they are hoping to use Singtone sales to fund the tour...
You can safely file this one under the "not necessarily useful, but nonetheless interesting" tweak of the day. VolumeColor is a recent Cydia release that allows you to alter the color of your volume HUD.
It's also not that original, as I'm pretty sure I've seen such functionality in another tweak before, though its name currently escapes me.
Anyhow, feel free to take a look at our video walkthrough of VolumeColor inside...