Jailbreak Apps

“Tap to unlock” from the lock screen instead of sliding with ‘tapUnlock’

tapUnlock is a new jailbreak tweak from the makers of MapsOpener and BrightVol. The tweak replaces the 'slide to unlock' bar with a 'tap to unlock' button. Personally I'm a fan of the classic slider, as it's part of how Apple introduced a new paradigm of capacitive screens to the mass market, and it's something I will always associate with the iPhone.

Unfortunately 'slide to unlock' isn't for everybody. If you know someone who has difficulty using the 'slide to unlock' gesture on the lock screen, maybe because of arthritis or another fine motor control difficulty, you'll get good mileage out of tapUnlock. Alternatively, you might just want it to have something different...

Robert Broglia releases ‘Snes9x EX+’ SNES emulator to Cydia

Robert Broglia, the developer behind the free Snes9x EX jailbreak app, and a number of other commercial '.emu' emulators for other consoles, just released Snes9x Ex+. Broglia's latest branch of his popular iOS Super Nintendo emulator is based off of Snes9x version 1.53, which is the most recent available build of the PC software.

The more recent v1.53 codebase should provide near-complete emulation for a number of games, especially those that make heavy use of mode7 scaling or the Super FX co-processor...

Listen to your iTunes library in 3D with ‘Music Collocator’

Music Collocator is a jailbreak app recently added to Cydia which plays tracks from your library simultaneously using what the developer calls '3D sound'. In this case, 3D sound means the app plays tracks together, shifting the stereo volume based on where the song is 'located' in 3D.

Since Music Collocator pulls tracks from your iTunes library, you have access to your favorite playlists, artists, albums, and genres. Unfortunately you can't swap individual songs to Music Collocator arrangements à la carte. To get around this limitation, you'll have to set a custom playlist with each track setup you want, and that's not an ideal solution.

‘Better Switcher Position’ aims to create a better app switcher

Better Switcher Position is a simple jailbreak tweak that switches the position of the rotation lock button and the music button found in the app switcher. The idea behind the tweaks is that it more closely aligns the volume control slider found in the app switcher, with the music button.

While the position of the app switcher buttons never really dawned on me before, I guess the developer of Better Switcher Position has a point. Take a look at our hands-on video inside to see what I mean.

DismissMyKeyboard allows you to quickly hide the iPhone’s keyboard

DismissMyKeyboard is a recently released jailbreak tweak for jailbroken iPhones that allows you to easily dismiss the software keyboard. While the iPad already benefits from such a feature due to the device's larger area of real estate, the iPhone's keyboard has no room for a dedicated dismiss keyboard button like you see on its larger brethren.

DismissMyKeyboard solves this issue by allowing you to perform a swipe gesture right on the keyboard in order to dismiss it. Take a look at our video walkthrough inside to see how it functions.

‘TorchNC’ and ‘InstaSnap’ spice up Notification Center on jailbroken iPhones

Two new jailbreak tweaks have recently appeared in Cydia by the same developer, and they both happen to focus on Notification Center. Specifically, these tweaks aim to add handy shortcuts to the Notification Center pull-down pane.

The first tweak on the docket, TorchNC, adds a shortcut to activate the iPhone's LED flash. There are other tweaks and apps that perform flashlight functions, but I always find it useful to have it within Notification Center, or directly on the Lock screen.

The second tweak, like the first, is a shortcut for Notification Center. Instead of interacting with the iPhone's LED flash, InstaSnap is a tweak that allows you to quickly access the camera from within Instagram. Seeing as though this tweak doesn't require the iPhone only LED flash, it works with both the iPhone and iPod touch perfectly fine.

Take a look as we profile both InstaSnap and TorchNC in our walkthrough videos inside...

FireCore updates aTV Flash (black) with TV show playlists and more

Well, it's Friday afternoon and the folks at FireCore have just given jailbroken second generation Apple TV owners something else to be excited about as the weekend approaches: an update for the popular software suite: aTV Flash (black).

The update, which brings the app to version 2.1, features several improvements including a new TV show playlist option, which makes it easier to pick up where you left off with your favorite show, customizable favorites, and more...

Infiniboard updated with Iconoclasm and OverBoard support

In what seems like the first bit of news from the jailbreak scene in quite a while, Chpwn announced today that an update for his popular Infiniboard tweak is now available in Cydia.

The utility, which allows you to add an unlimited amount of icons to each springboard page, now works with Sakurina's Iconoclasm and Ryan Petrich's OverBoard tweak...

Planetbeing says he has an iOS 6.0.2 untethered jailbreak now, but we must be patient

iOS hacker Planetbeing posted on Reddit earlier today about the status of the iPhone 5/iOS 6 untethered jailbreak. While there have been many messages regarding the viability of a jailbreak, the famous iOS hacker insists that it's only a matter of time before a jailbreak is a reality.

In other words, we need to be patient while the guys who have proven themselves time and time again put in work...

Auxo for iOS 5.1.x now available on Cydia

Auxo — the popular jailbreak tweak we covered in depth last week — is now available on Cydia with iOS 5.1 support in tow. As you may recall, the initial version only supported iOS 6 out of the gate, and many users, pined for iOS 5.1 support, since a great majority of jailbreakers have chosen to remain on 5.1 firmware for obvious reasons.

Thanks to developer, Kyle Howells, who assisted with porting the tweak, the team behind Auxo was able to meet its turnaround time for adding support for the older iOS firmware. Did the team have to make any sacrifices in order to bring such an awesome tweak to iOS 5.1? It sure doesn't look like it to me. Check inside as we go hands on with Auxo for iOS 5.1 on video...

The top jailbreak tweaks of 2012

A few weeks ago I published a somewhat controversial post about jailbreaking, and how its popularity is waning. This wasn't intended to be controversial, but it ended up that way, and after some thought I began to backtrack (a bit) on my stance.

The problem stemmed from the fact that I didn't do a very good job of explaining my stance. I didn't intend to say that jailbreaking was dead, my main point was just to show how innovation in the jailbreak community was being stifled by sometimes lazy developers, but mostly by Apple's efforts to stamp out jailbreaking.

While I still stand by my post, I felt that I needlessly ruffled a few feathers, and probably should have kept those thoughts to myself for the time being. When I began to work on this post — the top jailbreak tweaks of the year — it became more apparent that we actually have seen lot of innovation this year. Most of that innovation was earlier in the year, but nevertheless, there have been lots of great jailbreak tweaks to come out in the last 12 months.

Take a look inside as we cover some of this year's best jailbreak efforts from the development community. I'll also crown 2012's top jailbreak tweak of the year.

‘Fade’ dims your Home screen icons when invoking Notification Center

Fade is an extremely simple jailbreak tweak that forces the Home screen UI elements to fade when Notification Center is invoked. As you slide down Notification Center, elements like the app icons and the dock will progressively fade from view. As you slide the Notification Center pane up, the effect is reversed, and the elements fade back into view.

There are no options to setup or settings to configure, just install it and it starts working. Take a look inside as we demonstrate Fade on video...