iOS

CoolStar to shift focus away from A12(X) in favor of new checkm8 exploit

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The recent launch of the checkm8 bootrom exploit for A5-A11 devices certainly piqued the interest of many, and perhaps a lot more than some people would like.

Electra Team lead developer CoolStar took to Discord over the weekend to announce that he would be shifting focus away from A12(X) jailbreak development on iOS 12.1.3 and later and more toward experimenting with and developing around the checkm8 exploit:

Axi0mX showcases verbose boot on iPhone X with iOS 13.1.1 via checkm8

The tides of the jailbreak community forever changed for the better on Friday when hacker and security researcher @axi0mX released checkm8, the first publicly-released bootrom exploit for iOS-powered devices since the iPhone 4 in 2010. Captivatingly, checkm8 works on a significant number of handsets ranging from the antiquated iPhone 4s to the not-so-old iPhone X.

Checkm8 is, in and of itself, an exploit. That said, it’s not a jailbreak, but rather a powerful tool that jailbreak developers could use to devise a USB-based tethered or semi-tethered jailbreak tool for A5-A11 devices. Given how recently checkm8 was released, it should come as no surprise to anyone that public jailbreak tools don’t yet utilize the exploit, but that hasn’t stopped some talented hackers from flexing their l33t dexterities:

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: ChargingBubbles, Peekable, Vigor 2, and more

Many people just got their shiny new iPhone 11, 11 Pro, or 11 Pro Max in hand this past week, but for those sticking with jailbreakable handsets following the launch of the new checkm8 bootrom exploit, this post is for you.

In this roundup, we'll discuss all the latest jailbreak tweaks to be released from Monday, September 23rd to Sunday, September 29th. As always, we'll kick things off by talking about our favorites first and then wrap things up with an outline of the rest afterward.

New checkm8 bootrom exploit ensures lifetime jailbreakability for A5-A11 devices

Matrix code hacked iPhone.

It’s an exciting time to be an active member of the jailbreak community. Security researcher axi0mX has released a powerful new bootrom exploit targeting A5-A11 devices, and for veteran jailbreakers who remember the action-packed limera1n days of yore, this might feel like a blast from the past.

Axi0mx announced his new bootrom exploit, dubbed checkm8, via Twitter just this morning, noting that it would work on all iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches from the iPhone 4s to the iPhone X:

ChargingBubbles gives your iPhone a slick new charging animation

If you’re tired of looking at the same old charging interface every time you plug your iPhone or iPad into a power source to juice up the battery, then perhaps it’s time you take a look at a newly released jailbreak tweak called ChargingBubbles by iOS developer Soh Satoh.

As the name implies, ChargingBubbles replaces the standard iOS charging interface with one that displays bubble animations near the bottom of the handset (where the Lightning port would be). The screenshot above shows what these bubbles look like, but for a more detailed demonstration, have a look at the animated GIF below:

This tweak hides when you type to others via iMessage

iMessage is one of my favorite messaging platforms, but I sometimes wish that it provided more privacy while typing to other people. Case in point, I’m not that fond of how iMessage notifies other users with a live status indicator when I’m typing to them.

If you’re in the same boat and you have a jailbroken handset at your disposal, then I think you’ll enjoy using a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called No Typing Indicator 12 by iOS developer ceadd.

Enable Peek and Pop on unsupported devices with Peekable

One of the most popular functions conceived by Apple’s 3D Touch and Haptic Touch gestures on modern iOS devices is the ability to press firmly on an app icon from your Home screen to reveal a hidden menu, but there’s actually much more to this feature than meets the eye.

Peek and Pop is a great example, as it enables users to press firmly on objects throughout the operating system to view more information and options for that item. Peek and Pop is limited to devices that support 3D Touch or Haptic Touch, but with a new and free jailbreak tweak called Peekable by iOS developer Ryan Nair, you can enable Peek and Pop on any iOS device.

This tweak offers improved control over your handset’s many volume levels

There are so many different volume levels to configure in iOS that it’s not even funny. One moment you’re turning down your volume, and the next, you might realize that you’ve just muted your ringtone instead of quieting down your Now Playing volume.

iOS tries to be smart about how it configures volume depending on what you’re doing at any given point in time, but it’s far from perfect. Fortunately, a jailbreak tweak called Volume Mixer 3 by iOS developer VladMax offers users a higher sense of fine-grained and manual control over each individual volume setting present on their iOS device.

Augment your iPhone’s Home screen with Vigor 2

If you’ve just jailbroken your A12(X)-equipped (or other) iPhone or iPad for the first time, then you’re probably looking for some juicy jailbreak tweaks to spice up your handset’s stock capabilities. Fortunately, we’ve got an exciting one to show you today called Vigor 2 by the Atom Dev Team.

As shown in the screenshot examples above, Vigor 2 makes your Home screen icons a whole lot more useful by replacing the standard still images with dynamic widgets that change based on the content transpiring inside the respective app.

Mowgli transforms your Home screen icons into dynamic widgets

Your Home screen is literally teeming with tiny images designed to depict the applications they represent, but wouldn’t it be nice if these icons were more than just still images?

With the help of a newly released jailbreak tweak called Mowgli by iOS developer maximehip, you can command a whole lot more out of your iOS device’s Home screen experience.

Kill all App Switcher apps in one fell swoop with KillX Pro

If you’re the type of person that likes to kill all the apps in your App Switcher when you’re finishing using your iPhone, then chances are you’ll come to appreciate a newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed KillX Pro by iOS developer cemck.

Like the name implies, KillX Pro lets users kill every app from their App Switcher in one fell swoop without having to swipe on each app preview card individually to accomplish the same effect. Instead, as shown in the screenshot examples above, KillX Pro adds a single button to the bottom of your App Switcher to do this with just a tap.