iOS

LeadMeHome makes it easy to find apps on cluttered Home screens

Home screen setups vary from one person to the next, but if yours is more cluttered than most, then perhaps you could benefit from a new free jailbreak tweak release called LeadMeHome by iOS developer LonestarX.

LeadMeHome aims to help you find app icons on your Home screen more efficiently. Whether you want to launch, move, or delete the app in question, LeadMeHome saves you the time and hassle of searching several pages’ worth of app icons with a fine-toothed comb.

The future of Mac could look a lot like iOS

the future of mac

The future of Mac could look like iOS. That’s the findings of a new report that examines Apple’s new Star project, which is said to be in the prototype stage. If details of this project come to fruition, it could change the very definition of what most of us think of as a computer as we head into the next decade.

Gauze brings a grid-style App Switcher to iOS 10 devices

Apple tweaks the App Switcher user interface with almost every major iteration of iOS. But despite all the changes Apple made over the years, the App Switcher still harbors one recognizable issue: it wastes a ton of screen real estate.

GridSwitcher was a well-accepted jailbreak tweak released in 2015 that attempted to resolve this concern by displaying more apps in the App Switcher at a glance, but it only supported iOS 7 and 8. Today, a new jailbreak tweak called Gauze by iOS developer Antique breathes new life into this idea for jailbroken iOS 10 handsets.

Victrola gives the Lock screen’s Now Playing music interface a makeover

Whenever play music on your handset, the Lock screen becomes immersed with Now Playing music controls and information relevant to whatever might be playing. The controls work exactly how we’d expect them to, but they sport a standardized appearance and lack character.

For those who agree, it may be worth trying a new jailbreak tweak release dubbed Victrola by iOS developer Antique. If effectively provides a polarizing new look and feel for the Lock screen’s Now Playing music controls.

iTranslate makes translating text in Safari an effortless task

I can’t even keep count of how many times I’ve landed on a non-English web page and needed to use Google Translate to understand what I was looking at. But it now seems that there’s a more straightforward way.

A new free jailbreak tweak called iTranslate by iOS developer Teun Strik builds a translation feature directly into the Safari web browser itself, allowing you to translate words, sentences, or entire web pages in what feels like an instant.  

Navatar brings messaging avatars to unsupported devices

If you use the native Messages app to send iMessages or SMS messages from your iPhone, then you may have noticed the avatar that generally appears in the navigation bar. When you have a contact picture configured for the recipient, that picture displays here; otherwise, you’d see the recipient’s first and last initials instead.

Apple stopped supporting this feature on smaller handsets like the iPhone 5s and earlier with some of the latest iterations of iOS, limiting it to larger-displayed devices such as the iPhone 6 and later. On the other hand, a new free jailbreak tweak dubbed Navatar by iOS developer EthanRDoesMC changes that.

Hush, KITTLoader, and 14 other jailbreak tweaks to check out this weekend

Jailbreak Tweaks to check out

While Electra for iOS 11.0-11.1.2 remains the latest jailbreak solution for Apple-branded handsets, there’s been some talk lately about new exploits that impact some of Apple’s latest firmware versions. Nevertheless, nothing has materialized just yet.

In the meantime, anyone with a jailbroken device may take an interest in tweaking it outside of stock parameters. This roundup encompasses every jailbreak tweak released in Cydia from May 14th until May 20th. As usual, we’ll start by showcasing our favorites and then outline the rest afterward.

Hush toggles Do Not Disturb by placing your iPhone face down

Do Not Disturb mode, which can be toggled from Control Center or from the Settings app, is a timelessly handy feature that I use to keep iPhone notifications at bay when I’m busy.

But a new free jailbreak tweak called Hush by iOS developer smokin1337 promises to make accessing Do Not Disturb mode even easier by merely letting you place your handset face-down to activate the feature.

This tweak displays a countdown to your alarm in Control Center

If you take advantage of the alarm feature on your iPhone or iPad as often as I do, then a new free jailbreak tweak called CCAlarmETA by iOS developer LonestarX may come off as intriguing to you.

Precisely as the name implies, CCAlarmETA puts an ETA indicator inside of the Control Center-based alarm shortcut any time there's an active alarm on your handset.