iOS 14

FreePIP enhances Picture in Picture mode on any jailbroken iPhone or iPad

Picture in Picture mode is a handy feature that iPhone and iPad owners can fall back on whenever they find themselves in a situation where they’d like to continue watching a video while pursuing another task on their device at the same time.

Picture in Picture mode isn’t without its shortcomings, however. For example, it doesn’t work with every app, and users may feel limited by the mini player’s usability while multitasking. That’s one reason why a new and free jailbreak tweak called FreePIP by iOS developer Soh Satoh might appeal to some users.

KBAppDock upgrades the stock keyboard on jailbroken iPhones

The keyboard is one of the most frequently-used interfaces on any iPhone, and that’s not just because it’s useful for texting, but also because it’s the one tool you use whenever you browse the web, jot down notes or reminders, or search the App Store for your favorite apps, among other things.

While it’s certainly possible to download third party keyboards from the App Store to replace iOS’ native keyboard interface, you’d be hard pressed to find anything nearly as powerful as what can be had with a jailbreak tweak. That’s because jailbreak tweaks often let you keep Apple’s wonderful native keyboard while still enabling you to augment it in ways that Apple otherwise wouldn’t permit on a stock handset.

Emerald: A new Status Bar experience that Apple needs to take notes on

Your iPhone’s Status Bar is intended to provide useful information at a glance, and while it definitely seems to have the basics covered, Apple could have went so much further in terms of implementing an immersive Status Bar-centric user experience. Given what an iPhone costs these days, wouldn’t you think they’d give this some thought?

While it seems unlikely that Apple will be upgrading the iPhone’s Status Bar any time soon, those lucky enough to have a jailbroken handset at their disposal won’t need to put up with the stock Status Bar experience any longer. Why, you ask? Just have a look at a newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed Emerald by iOS developers LaughingQuoll and thetimeloop, and all your questions will be answered.

WidgetCustoms offers jailbroken iOS 14 users a way to personalize their widgets

Those using iOS or iPadOS 14 on their daily driver handset(s) are probably keenly familiar with the upgraded widget system and how it compares with the much less intuitive widget system found on iOS and iPadOS 13.

Not only can you take advantage of much more powerful widgets than ever before, but you can even choose to seat them right next to your Home Screen’s application icons if you aren’t a fan of hiding all your widgets on a specialized page. But as nice as Apple’s upgraded widget system may be on iOS & iPadOS 14 devices, one thing Apple predictably forgot to add was a mechanism for user customization.

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: DnDSwitch, LottieNotifications, SmartVolumeMixer2, & more…

It’s already that time of the week again, and that means we’re coming back at you with another jailbreak tweak and news-oriented roundup.

In this roundup, we showcase all the latest jailbreak tweak releases from Monday, January 11th to Sunday, January 17th. We’ll begin by kicking things off with a display of our favorite releases first, and then we’ll wrap things up with an outline of the rest afterward.

CCUptime lets jailbreakers view their handset’s current jailbreak uptime with ease

A growing trend I’m seeing lately is jailbreakers flocking to /r/jailbreak or other forms of social media to share their handset’s uptime. In essence, some jailbreakers appear to enjoy showing off their pwned handset’s stability, especially with regard to one jailbreak versus another.

One way to do this is to show off how long a particular handset has been running in a jailbroken state without needing to be re-jailbroken, as a longer uptime indicates that the handset hasn’t crashed or forcefully rebooted itself.

DnDSwitch lets jailbreakers toggle Do Not Disturb via the ringer/silent switch

All of Apple’s iPhone models come equipped with a side-mounted ringer/silent switch that makes silencing your device’s incoming notification sounds so effortless that it can be done right from your pocket. But as we witnessed in a popular /r/jailbreak request post from this past week, a sizable portion of iPhone users would come to appreciate the ability to repurpose the ringer/silent switch as a physical Do Not Disturb toggle switch.

The aforementioned idea seemed like a good idea even to me when I read about it earlier in the week, but now that a new and free jailbreak tweak called DnDSwitch by iOS developer smokin1337 officially exists, I can genuinely say that I welcome the concept even more than I did just a few days ago when I read about it on Reddit.

SmartVolumeMixer2 offers seamless control over all your iPhone’s different volume levels

Depending on your surroundings, you might fine-tune your handset’s volume level so that you can hear music, videos, or even voice messages and phone calls. In most cases, we do this by pressing the volume up or down buttons on the side of the device, or perhaps by opening Control Center and dragging the slider to a comfortable listening level.

What many people don’t know, however, is that iOS & iPadOS play host to several different volume level settings. One of those controls your media playback volume, while another controls your phone call volume. You also have individual volume levels for connected Bluetooth devices, notification sounds, and even Siri’s voice.

Jailbreakers can customize their Home Screen’s app icon labels with Labels+

One of the things we just can’t help but notice about the Home Screen is the fact that each individual app icon sports its own label — typically designating the respective app’s name.

Apple doesn’t provide users with much customization when it comes to the Home Screen’s app icon labels. The only arguable exceptions are that the icon labels may switch between black and white depending on the color of the Home Screen’s wallpaper and that users may embolden the app icon labels by enabling bold text system-wide.