iPad

From the latest news to the most comprehensive tutorials, learn how to get the most out of your iPad with our step-by-step guides and expert tips.

The best swipe keyboards for iPhone and iPad

Best Swipe Keyboard iPhone - SwiftKey

Keyboards that offer a swipe feature are handy, helpful, and let you type faster than ever. Instead of hitting each key separately, you simply use your finger to swipe through the letters to create your words. These types of keyboards are great if you haven’t yet mastered the two-thumb typing.

If you’re in the market for a new keyboard and are interested in swiping, these are the best swipe keyboards for iPhone and iPad.

How to stop audio messages from disappearing on iPhone and iPad

Stop Audio Messages from Expiring on iPhone

Audio messages in the Messages app are cool little ways of communicating without text. You can tell someone you love them, send them a song clip, or just ask what’s up, all with your own voice.

The thing about audio messages, however, is that they don’t hang around forever. By default, they expire after two minutes of sending or listening to them, not to be heard again. This might be fine for some but not for others.

If you fall into the “others” category and want to hang onto those clips, here’s how to stop audio messages from expiring in the Messages app on iPhone and iPad.

Amour 2 lets you customize your locking and unlocking animations

If you’ve just jailbroken your iOS 12 device with unc0ver and you’re looking for new and exciting ways to customize the user experience, then you might take an interest in a newly-released jailbreak tweak called Amour 2 by iOS developers Luke Muris and Geometric Software.

With Amour 2, you can make your handset stand out from everyone else’s by customizing the handset’s locking and unlocking animations. The concept isn’t particularly new, but the apparent popularity of the original Amour tweak helped motivate the developer to release to the latest version.

How to change the skip seconds for Podcasts and Books on iPhone and iPad

Podcast on iPhone - Change Skip Seconds

If you use your iPhone or iPad to listen to podcasts in the Podcasts app or audiobooks in the Books app, then you probably know about the skip feature. You can skip back a few seconds to catch something you missed or skip forward to move past something you have already heard.

The thing about this skip feature is you may not want it as low as 10 seconds because it might not be enough, and you have to keep tapping. At the same time, you may not want it to be as high as 60 seconds because you might skip way too much.

Here’s how to change the skip seconds for Podcasts and Books on iOS.

SmartLight lets you toggle the iPhone’s flashlight with hardware buttons

I use my iPhone’s rear-facing LED flash as a flashlight all the time for various tasks, but I’ll be the first to admit that Apple could and should come up with a more intuitive way of toggling it on or off. In some cases, using a software button to toggle the flashlight just isn’t good enough, such as when you have wet or dirty hands.

Here to the rescue is a new free jailbreak tweak called SmartLight by iOS developer smokin1337, which spearheads a solution to these kinds of scenarios by letting users toggle the rear-facing flashlight on or off with the device’s hardware buttons instead.

Add an application drawer to your jailbroken iPhone with Vesta

If you’ve ever used an Android handset before, then you might be familiar with the App Drawer where you can access any of your installed apps from one place. iOS has never sported an App Drawer-like feature out of the box, and this prompted iOS developer SparkDev to create a new jailbreak tweak called Vesta to bring one to the iOS platform.

Vesta is easily invoked with any of the built-in gestures or with Activator, and as depicted in the screenshot examples above, the Vesta interface is divided into two sections – one that displays some of your recently-used apps, and another that displays all your handset’s installed apps in one convenient place with no Home screen pages or folders to get in your way.

NoIdleTimer negates the Lock screen’s lockout timer if your device is charging or playing music

Apple designed your iOS device’s Lock screen to go back to sleep after a predefined timeout period, and while this can be useful for battery savings in certain circumstances, there are some instances where this might be irrelevant or where you may favor performance over battery life.

For that reason, iOS developer Nepeta came out with a new free jailbreak tweak called NoIdleTimer that lets you disable the Lock screen’s automatic lockout period so long as certain conditions are met.

How to subscribe to Apple News+ on iPhone or iPad

Apple News Plus on iPhone Subscribe

At Apple’s March media event, a new subscription service was announced called Apple News+. This service is part of the News app and gives subscribers access to over 300 magazines, newspapers, and publications.

If you’re ready to jump on board and check out magazines like People and National Geographic Magazine along with newspapers like The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, here’s how to subscribe to Apple News+ on iPhone or iPad.

Sonus12 is a minimalist, yet customizable volume HUD for iOS

We feel like we’re beating a dead horse every time we say that the iPhone’s native volume HUD sucks, so we’ll just skim past that line and get right to the point of why you clicked on this post. Say hello to a new jailbreak tweak called Sonus12, a drop-dead gorgeous volume HUD replacement for iPhones and iPads by iOS developer ubik.

Sonus12 is minimalistic by design, which prevents it from obstructing your view when you adjust your handset’s volume level. By default, it appears at the top of the display, and it’s very compact.

Essentials: An all-in-one SpringBoard customization tweak for iOS 11 and 12

If you’re jailbroken on iOS 11 or iOS 12 and looking for the ultimate one-stop-shop jailbreak tweak to customize the bulk of your operating system’s primary aesthetic and function, then you’re sure to take a particular liking to a new jailbreak tweak release called Essentials by iOS developer Adam Seiter.

Essentials provides a long list of options for iPhone and iPad users, much like the original classic that we’ve all come to know and love called Springtomize. On the other hand, Essentials supports the latest jailbreakable versions of iOS, whereas Springtomize hasn’t been officially updated since the golden days of the iOS 10 jailbreak.

MusicArtwork changes the Music app’s icon depending on the Now Playing track

A large part of Apple’s business model involves Apple Music, and so it’s no surprise that the company spend a lot of its time refining the music experience on its mobile devices. That aside, Apple could do more, and those who agree might enjoy a new jailbreak tweak release called MusicArtwork by iOS developer Cole Cabral.

Right out of the box, MusicArtwork replaces iOS’ native Music app icon with an image file that is representative of the Now Playing song’s album artwork. You can view a few different examples of the tweak in action via the multitude of images that we’ve included in this piece.