iOS

The best Augmented Reality apps for iPhone

More often than not, the term Augmented Reality still has that elusive, techy ring to it, particularly when brought up in conjunction with Apple’s purported eyewear project. Curiously, many of us have it down as tomorrow’s technology rather than today’s, when the truth is that AR apps have populated the App Store for years.

While some of these apps are admittedly not much more than shoddy tech demos, separating the wheat from the chaff actually produces some really cool apps conceived to boost your business, creativity or simply keep you entertained in novel ways. With the preamble out of the way, here are the best Augmented Reality apps for iPhone available today.

ExactTime shows exactly when your notifications were received

When there are missed notifications on your iPhone or iPad, a summary of what’s awaiting your attention is available in Notification Center. Each notification header displays an estimate of when it was received, but it’s not always as descriptive as you might want it to be.

A new free jailbreak tweak called ExactTime by gilshahar7 helps improve on this tiny frustration with iOS notifications by providing an exact time received in the notification header, rather than just an estimate.

Fourth betas of iOS 10.3.2, macOS Sierra 10.12.5, watchOS 3.2.2 & tvOS 10.2.1 now available

Apple on Monday issued fourth betas of what would become maintenance and bug-fix updates to its four major software platforms: iOS, macOS Sierra, watchOS and tvOS. Members of the Apple Developer Program can now deploy iOS 10.3.2 beta 4 (build 14F5086a), macOS Sierra 10.12.5 beta 4 (build 16F67a), watchOS 3.2.2 beta 4 (build 14V5485a) and tvOS 10.2.1 beta 4 (build 14W5583a) through the Software Update mechanism.

The best jailbreak tweaks for the Music app

If you have a jailbroken iOS 10 device, then you likely used the Yalu jailbreak tool that debuted at the beginning the year. While the iOS 10 jailbreak has inspired the development of numerous jailbreak tweaks, some of them really stand out from the rest.

In this piece, we'll discuss the best jailbreak tweaks for complimenting the Music app that have been released following the iOS 10 jailbreak.

Give Notification Center a makeover with betterNC10

If you're looking for a new look and feel for Notification Center, then check out a new free jailbreak tweak dubbed betterNC10 by CydiaGeek.

This tweak lets you change up the aesthetics of Notification Center as well as change the way certain functions behave. The bevy of options that are baked into betterNC10 can reduce the time you spend clearing notifications and remove unwanted clutter among other things.

How to use CoolBooter CLI to dual-boot your device

You may have seen my report on the CoolBooter updates, in which I mentioned that both the app and the command line versions had seen changes. Whilst using the CoolBooter app is self-explanatory and will satisfy the needs of most, it does not currently support iOS 5 as the secondary OS, which may lead some to want to try out the command line utility instead. I will therefore be walking you through using CoolBooter CLI 0.3 to dual-boot your device.

Five neat tricks Spotlight search can do for you on iPhone

Bearing in mind the numerous ways to invoke Spotlight search on your iPhone today, the feature has clearly become a centerpiece of iOS 10th iteration.

That is because for one, it's the fastest way to rifle through your device for any type of information, however it is also incrementally adopting Siri-level intelligence. You might know about using Spotlight for swift currency and measurement conversions by now, but the list does not end here. Largely undiscussed on the web, here are five more cool uses for Spotlight.

CCDataMore adds a cellular data toggle to Control Center

Apple really doesn’t make it easy to toggle cellular data on or off apart from using Airplane Mode. Your only other option is to dig through your Settings app to find the cellular data preference pane, which is intrusive when you're already in another app or doing something else.

Fortunately, a new free jailbreak tweak called CCDataMore by iOS developer Lizynz solves this problem by enabling a cellular data toggle in Control Center.

Supercharge your iPhone wallpaper options with PanoramaPapers

Apple has always been boring when it comes to wallpaper options on the iPhone. They debuted ‘dynamic wallpapers’ when iOS 7 dropped, but to this day, you're still limited to Apple’s stock selection; otherwise, you have to use still images and you can’t change things beyond that.

To fix that problem, a new free jailbreak tweak called PanoramaPapers by iOS developer sst1337 can complement your device by letting it stand out from the rest. It lets you have different kinds of wallpaper layouts on your device, depending on the images you choose.

This tweak displays your Wi-Fi channel in the Status Bar

Modern wireless routers use both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands to feed internet data to your wireless devices, but figuring out what channel you’re using from your device typically requires an app or access to the router’s wireless settings to discern.

On the other hand, a new free jailbreak tweak called WifiChannelBar by Jeremy Kister makes things easier for you by displaying the Wi-Fi channel your network is using right next to the Wi-Fi icon in your Status Bar.

Apple posts third betas of iOS 10.3.2, macOS Sierra 10.12.5, watchOS 3.2.2 and tvOS 10.2.1

Apple on Monday issued third betas of what would become maintenance and bug-fix updates to iOS, macOS Sierra, watchOS and tvOS. Members of the Apple Developer Program can now deploy iOS 10.3.2 beta 3 (build 14F5080a), macOS Sierra 10.12.5 beta 3 (build 16F60a), watchOS 3.2.2 beta 3 (build 14V5480a) and tvOS 10.2.1 beta 3 (build 14W5578b) through the Software Update mechanism.