iOS

Rumor: iOS 11’s Siri will learn from user behaviors, gain iMessage integration & iCloud syncing

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 27, 2017

A sketchy rumor released Monday by the Israeli outlet The Verified claims that Siri will gain some interesting new capabilities when iOS 11 launches this fall. For starters, Apple's personal digital assistant will tap into machine learning deeper than ever before to learn from user behaviors within the context of individual apps. Moreover, Siri will integrate with Apple's iMessage service and sync data via iCloud.

Add some squareness to iOS with ringUI

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 27, 2017

A handful of elements that make up the iOS UI in its entirety are round or have rounded corners; this includes, but is not limited to: passcode buttons, Control Center toggles, the corners of banner notifications, and Home screen folders, among other things.

If you’re not a fan of this system-wide rounded style, a new free jailbreak tweak called ringUI by CydiaGeek can be installed to make several elements on your device look much squarer.

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: YouTubeVolume, Zeal, & more…

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 26, 2017

As another week comes to an end, we have yet another roundup to go over all of the newest jailbreak tweaks that were released in Cydia this week.

In this piece, we'll talk first about all of the releases that impressed us the most from the bunch, and then we'll quickly go over all of the rest.

Zeal is a battery management system for your jailbroken iPhone or iPad

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 25, 2017

Lots of people take their battery life seriously, and it goes without saying that Apple provides the bare minimum of battery health and information tools; it has often been up to jailbreak developers to fill in these gaps.

A new jailbreak tweak release called Zeal by iOS developers Rabih M. and Stijn aims to answer all the cries from battery sticklers that have yet to be answered by Apple. It provides both an informative battery management interface that you can invoke on demand to see more about how your battery is doing and conserve power.

Delay your Lock screen auto-dimming feature with this tweak

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 25, 2017

I often get asked about how to delay the Lock screen's auto-dimming feature, and it would seem that a viable solution has conveniently slipped into Cydia this week.

Dubbed CustomLockscreenDuration, this new free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Andreas Henriksson lets you choose how long of a delay there is before your Lock screen falls asleep. This is great for anyone who uses Lock screen-related mods, because the screen sometimes tends to dim while you're interacting with the tweaks.

After installation, you can head right into the Settings app, where you will find a preferences pane tailored around configuring the dim timer:

This tweak brings a YouTube-inspired volume HUD to your iPhone

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 25, 2017

If you’ve ever used the YouTube app on your iPhone before, then you know Google has good taste in what a volume HUD should look like. Obviously, the monstrosity of a volume HUD that Apple continues to impose on iOS users is not something said users like to see, as it gets in the way of everything.

Because Google has the right idea, iOS developer midkin decided to create a YouTube-inspired volume HUD system that’s made to work across your whole iOS system. As a result, the new free jailbreak tweak YouTubeVolume was born.

Apple: iPhone and Mac vulnerabilities detailed in WikiLeaks CIA dump were fixed years ago

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 24, 2017

WikiLeaks yesterday published a new batch of internal CIA documents which highlighted some of the hacks and programs that the spy organization has been developing internally for years. Those tools were specifically designed to infest Apple’s all-in-one iMac desktop and MacBook notebooks if an agent was able to gain physical access to the device.

One of the methods involved utilized patched Thunderbolt EFI exploit. Apple told TechCrunch that the documents detail old exploits fixed years ago.

MaskMe10 lets you mask notifications based on keywords or specific names

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 23, 2017

Privacy is a big concern for a number of people, and one of the things that can be considered an invasion of this simple right is when people look over your shoulder to see what and who you’re texting.

A new free jailbreak tweak called MaskMe10 by RIshanan gives you some peace of mind by providing you with masking options for your incoming message notifications.

Home Depot 32-bit jailbreak update released

Joaquim Barbosa ∙ March 21, 2017

Today saw the release of an updated version of jk9357’s 32-bit jailbreak tool for iOS 9. The jailbreak, which is named Home Depot, was first released several weeks ago with support for a smattering of devices on various firmwares, and we wrote a piece about its launch at the time.

The updated version is labelled Release Candidate 1, indicating its increasing compatibility and proximity to a final iteration.

Update: RC 1 had an issue that would cause Cydia to fail to install. All users please download RC 2 instead.

Google previews Android O, check out the top new features ahead of iOS 11’s June beta

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 21, 2017

If you think Apple's innovation in the smartphone OS space has stalled, wait until you see the next major revision to Google's Android operating system.

Today, the search giant released a developer-only preview of Android O (it's the working title). While it won't release for public consumption before the fall, developers can download Android O and begin testing it right away. Android O adds many of the same features Apple customers have enjoyed for more than six months with iOS 10, or even longer.

These include things such as richer notifications, picture-in-picture modes, wide color gamuts in apps, limits on what apps can do in the background to improve battery life and more. Here's our preview of Android O's enhancements and new capabilities available to customers and developers.

Choose the default email app on your iPhone with MailClientDefault10

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 10, 2023

Most iOS users utilize the Mail app on their device by default for any email-related activities because it's the stock app for doing so. Unfortunately, after deleting the Mail app (post-iOS 10), iOS won’t redirect mail:to links to your favorite third-party email app when you tap on them.

MailClientDefault10 is a new jailbreak tweak release by HiDan that fixes this problem by letting you configure a third-party email client as the default app for composing emails, which effectively solves the aforementioned problem.

NotifyCensored lets you hide notification banner content on a per-app basis

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 21, 2017

When privacy is a concern of yours, sometimes you need to be mindful of the notifications that pop up from apps, as they can easily make sensitive information readable by anyone who might be looking over your shoulder.

While some apps like Mail, Messages, and Facebook Messenger come with internal settings for hiding message content, not all messaging apps do, or do it as well. That’s where a new free jailbreak tweak called NotifyCensored by Pax Cex will come in handy.