Jailbreak

Check out the most comprehensive jailbreaking coverage on the internet, including the latest news, apps, tweaks, and detailed tutorials about everything jailbreak.

Tweaks of the week: ADKeys, Alternatum, and more

According to the rumors, iOS 9 will be a heavy blow to the jailbreak community, but as Jeff cleverly noted, there's no such thing as impossible. With that said, we're hoping the grim rumor won't discourage smart developers from coming up with new tweaks.

Speaking of new tweaks, this week was pretty slow, but it saw the release of a few interesting ideas.

Alternatum brings an app switcher and toggles to Reachability

Alternatum is yet another jailbreak tweak that piggybacks on the Reachability feature introduced with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. It allows you to add a host of new features to the Reachability view such as an app switcher, toggles and more.

Unfortunately, I don't currently own any jailbroken devices that feature Reachability, but Alternatum does bring the ability to use a simple Activator gesture to mimic Reachability. Does it work well?

ADKeys: assign an image as your keyboard background color

ADKeys, which stands for adaptable keys, is a tweak that lets you change up the background and key cap color of the keyboard in iOS. By doing so, you can match up your keyboard color with other areas or your iPhone, such as your current wallpaper or theme.

If you can manage to handle the tweak's frustrating preferences, then you may be able to obtain the look you're going for. Have a glance at our walkthrough for a bit more detail.

iOS 9 security & jailbreaking: there’s no such thing as impossible

Recent reports are claiming that Apple's upcoming iOS update—iOS 9—will make it more difficult to jailbreak iPhones and iPads going forward. Some are even stating that it will be nearly impossible to jailbreak an iPhone running iOS 9.

The reason? Rootless—the kernel-level security feature that was discussed earlier today. This new feature is said to prevent malware, increase the safety of extensions and preserve the security of sensitive data.

When it's all said and done, Apple's security efforts in iOS 9 appear to be its most prolific since iOS 5. It could make it more of a challenge for jailbreakers and hackers.

But impossible? There's nothing that's impossible when it comes to security. More difficult? Perhaps. More challenging? Maybe. But impossible?

Let’s Talk Jailbreak 108: What great timing

Episode 108: We discuss the prospect of replacing Siri with third-party voices, and a host of new jailbreak tweaks like Helius 2, LockEmoji, NoBanner, LockEditor, and more.

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Red Hat. Different for the sake of better technology

Helius 2 adds a fresh coat of paint to the Lock screen music controls

Helius 2 is the follow-up to the popular tweak that redesigned iOS Lock screen media controls. In a nice gesture to owners of the original, developers s1ris and Phillip Tennen have rewritten the tweak from scratch and are providing it as a free upgrade to previous owners of Helius.

In case you've forgotten, or in case you've never used the original version, Helius is a tweak that takes your default media controls on the Lock screen, and provides them with a fresh coat of paint. Have a look at our video walkthrough for more information on how this tweak works.

How to display the now playing app in the iOS media controls

Have you ever glanced at your Control Center or Lock screen media controls, and wondered what app was responsible for playing the now playing song? This tends to happen if you have several music apps installed on your iPhone.

The problem stems from the fact that iOS doesn't display the app responsible for a song's audio output. But a new jailbreak tweak, called PlayingLabel, promises to solve this issue.

LockEditor lets you modify several Lock screen properties on iOS

If you find the stock iOS Lock screen to be a bore, then LockEditor is here to spice things up a bit. It's a jailbreak tweak that allows you to modify a plethora of Lock screen features, from the passcode rings, to "slide to unlock" text.

In fact, LockEditor contains nearly two-dozen different settings and switches that allow you to customize the look and feel of the Lock screen. Have a look at our video, which showcases some of the features that you'll find in LockEditor.

NoBanner suppresses banner notifications when playing video

Have you ever been in the middle of a great video, only to have the experience interrupted by an untimely banner notification? Not only is this visually disturbing, but incoming banners reduce the audio volume of a playing video as well.

NoBanner is a new jailbreak tweak that puts an end to this issue. It suppresses banner notifications whenever playing video on your iPhone. Watch our video walkthrough for a demonstration of NoBanner in action.

LockEmoji prevents the iOS keyboard from reverting to another input mode

If you regularly use the emoji keyboard on iOS, then you've no doubt experienced the issue that causes your keyboard to revert to another input method.

This problem generally arrises when doing one of two things: after tapping send in a chat app like the Messages app, and on first keyboard activation when the current input mode is emoji.

If you're unfamiliar with the issue, it's a little difficult to describe without actually showing you. Check out our video demonstrations, which shows you how LockEmoji—a free new jailbreak tweak released on Cydia—tackles this issue.

It was a good week for jailbreak tweaks

As I'm preparing this list, I can't help but think it's been a pretty good week for jailbreak tweaks. None of them qualify as groundbreaking or life-changing, but many of them do add these small modifications that make jailbreaking so appealing to me.

And as I am entering my fourth week without a jailbreak on my main device, I have come to really miss these little gems that are very subtle, yet incredibly useful for day to day usage. 

How to replace Siri sound effects with Jarvis sound effects

Ever since Siri's been out, I've seen people comment about how great it would be to replace Siri's voice with J.A.R.V.I.S. from Marvel's Iron Man series.

Apparently, that desire hasn't waned, as there's a fairly large thread on Reddit discussing a method for replacing Siri's stock sound effects with custom Jarvis effects pulled right from the movies.

I've tried this method out, and honestly, it sounds a little bit low budget. Nonetheless, I know some of you will enjoy this, and just the fact that you can learn where the Siri sound effects are, and how to replace them properly, makes this tutorial worth checking out.