iOS

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: Maple 2, Watermelon, and more…

Anthony Bouchard ∙ December 8, 2019

The checkra1n team is currently developing the first public jailbreak for iOS 13, and for those already taking advantage of the public beta during its initial public testing phases, we’d totally understand if you wanted to find some interesting jailbreak tweaks to trick out your newly liberated handset. The same goes for those who are already enjoying jailbreaks on Chimera, Electra, or unc0ver.

In this roundup, we’ll talk about all the latest jailbreak tweaks released from Monday, December 2nd to Sunday, December 8th. As usual, we’ll kick things off by talking about our favorites first and then wrap things up with an outline of the rest afterward.

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Make iOS’ Rotation Lock less cumbersome with Oriental

Anthony Bouchard ∙ December 7, 2019

The ability to switch between landscape and portrait orientation on the iPhone can be godsend in certain situations, but in certain situations, it can be a real pain in the (redacted) — especially when in bed and your iPhone thinks laying on your side means that you want landscape orientation.

Apple combats this problem with iOS’ optional Rotation Lock feature, but this necessitates an additional step on the user’s part. For that reason, iOS developer Ubik has made a new and free jailbreak tweak called Oriental, which aims to make display rotation smarter for the iOS platform in general.

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Blots brings a dot-based notification system to jailbroken iPhones

Anthony Bouchard ∙ December 7, 2019

If you’re in search of a subtle way to augment iOS’ native notification system, then you might want to turn your attention to that of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called Blots by iOS developer Antique.

As you accumulate missed notifications, Blots displays colored dots at the top of your display, just underneath the Status Bar. These dots are specifically colorized to match the dominant color of the app icon for which the notification represents.

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Watermelon brings Apple Watch Complications to iOS

Anthony Bouchard ∙ December 4, 2019

One of the reasons I love my Apple Watch so much is having the ability to glance at my wrist to see information from Complications. On the other hand, I spend most of my time using  my iPhone as opposed to my Apple Watch, and it’d be nice to have watchOS-like Complications present on my iOS devices.

If you’re thinking along the same lines I am, then you might be interested in a newly released jailbreak tweak called Watermelon by iOS developer LaughingQuoll.

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This tweak makes YouTube videos look nicer on notched iPhones

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated November 15, 2021
YouTube dark icon.

When watching videos in the YouTube app for iOS, those with notched handsets can view them one of two ways when the handset is in landscape orientation: 1) zoomed out such that the notch remains hidden in the video’s black side border; and 2) zoomed in such that the notch physically cuts into the video frame. Switching between these modes is as easy as using a pinch gesture while a video is playing.

As you might have noticed by now, some YouTube videos take better advantage of the wider display canvas, filling the display up to where the notch begins. This usually depends solely on the aspect ratio of the videographer’s filming equipment, but with the help of a new jailbreak tweak called UniZoom by iOS developer Lavie Gariv, users can synthetically impose similar scaling effects on virtually any video on YouTube.

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Maple 2 brings configurable AirPower-like charging aesthetics to jailbroken handsets

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated November 8, 2021

Before Apple abandoned its plan to release a first-party all-in-one wireless charging station slated to be called AirPower, the company also showed off some rather appealing charging banners and animations to accompany it. Sadly, those quirky bells and whistles died with AirPower, and Apple never bothered to enable them for other Qi-enabled wireless charging solutions.

Jailbreakers don’t have to do without, however. Maple 2 is a newly released jailbreak tweak by iOS developer LaughingQuoll that brings these fantastic charging features to pwned devices, and even better, the tweak can be customized more profoundly than Apple ever would have permitted out of the box in a native implementation.

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Unc0ver jailbreak updated to v3.7.0 beta 4 with minor changes

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 27, 2020

Despite all the hype surrounding the checkra1n jailbreak in recent memory, hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd is reminding everyone that he’s still around with a new public beta release of his renowned iOS 11 and 12-centric jailbreak tool Monday evening.

Pwn20wnd didn’t share any status updates on Twitter about the new unc0ver public beta v3.7.0 beta 4, and perhaps unsurprisingly, that’s because this appears to be a relatively minor update dealing with Cydia and tweak injection methods.

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Apple halts downgrades from iOS 13.2.3 by unsigning iOS 13.2.2

Anthony Bouchard ∙ December 2, 2019

Apple systematically stops signing older mobile software releases as newer ones become available. Given the company’s track record in this regard, it should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the matter that Apple has stopped signing iOS 13.2.2 Monday evening, a move that effectively averts firmware downgrades from the newer iOS 13.2.3 that Apple released approximately two weeks ago with miscellaneous bug fixes.

There are two primary reasons why someone would want to downgrade their firmware in the first place, with the first being to revert back to an older version of iOS after a new release breaks functionality or introduces unwanted bugs, and the second being to restore the device to a jailbreakable firmware after a software update patches the necessary exploits used by a tool.

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Checkra1n v0.9.6 now available for public testing with an extensive change log

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 27, 2020

If you’ve been testing the checkra1n public beta jailbreak on any of your iOS devices since the tool’s availability for public testing made headlines almost three weeks ago, then you’ve unquestionably noticed the sudden stall in frequent tool updates.

As it would seem, the checkra1n team has been hard at work in crunching bugs and improving the jailbreak’s stability, and that brings us to the latest update. Checkra1n team member Luca Todesco took to Twitter Sunday morning to announce the availability of checkra1n v.0.9.6, the latest in a long line of public beta releases for avid jailbreakers who wish to take advantage of the powerful checkm8 bootrom exploit:

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Jailbreak tweaks of the week: Gump, Little11, Sonus13, and more

Anthony Bouchard ∙ December 1, 2019

If you’re freshly jailbroken on iOS 12 or 13 by way of any of the most popular jailbreaks like checkra1n, Chimera, or unc0ver, then you’re probably looking for new and exciting ways to trick out your device. We’ve got you covered.

This roundup encompasses all the latest jailbreak tweaks released from Monday, November 24th to Sunday, December 1st. As always, we’ll kick things off by discussing our favorites and then wrap things up with a comprehensive outline afterward.

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