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Customize the look and feel of your Settings app with Horizon

One of the great things about having a jailbroken iPhone or iPad is having the ability to customize the appearance of nearly any interface element. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of jailbreak tweaks that can help you do this.

If you’re just refreshing your Cydia or Sileo sources for the first time this week, then you might have noticed a particularly interesting new release under the Changes tab called Horizon by iOS developer Sirius24. This tweak effectively lets you customize the native Settings application however you want.

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: BoardBanners12, Flow, and more

It’s a great time to be a jailbreaker, especially if you’re using the iOS platform. With current jailbreaks available for iOS 11 and 12, support for A12(X) readily available in public beta, and with exciting works involving the new checkm8 bootrom exploit to be released in the foreseeable future, it seems like almost anything might be possible.

With that in mind, we’d like to take a closer look at all the latest jailbreak tweaks to be released. In this piece, we’ll talk about all our favorite new tweaks first and then outline the rest afterward.

Apple stops signing iOS 12.4, preventing downgrades to a jailbreakable firmware

We all knew it was coming, and now it’s official – iOS 12.4 is no longer being signed by Apple.

The Cupertino-based big tech company closed the signing window for iOS 12.4 late Wednesday evening, effectively preventing downgrades from the newer iOS 12.4.1 release, which was released more than two weeks ago to re-patch the Sock Puppet exploit that Apple inadvertently un-patched in iOS 12.4.

This jailbreak tweak lets you play videos in the background via Safari

While refreshing my sources in Cydia this week, I happened upon a particularly interesting jailbreak tweak dubbed playbackSafari by iOS developer CydiaGeek. Intrigued by the name and the brief description provided in Cydia’s ‘Changes’ tab, I tapped on the tweak to learn more about it, and I’m glad that I did.

With playbackSafari, you can begin playing a video in the Safari web browser and then close the app or lock your device without experiencing interruptions to the playback. While leaving the app would prevent you from watching the video, it’s worth noting that the audio continues playing in the background.

VideoSwipes adds swipe gesture controls to iOS’ native video player

The iOS platform sports a gorgeous native video player interface, but as you might come to expect from Apple, those good looks aren’t coupled with the oodles of functionality that you might find on other platforms such as swipe gesture-based controls.

In response to this apparent shortcoming, iOS developer AnthoPak has just released a new free jailbreak tweak in Cydia called VideoSwipes, and just as the name implies, this tweak brings swipe gesture-based controls to iOS’ native video player.

Augment iOS’ native power down interface with ModernPower

Pressing and holding a certain button sequence on your iOS device (the sequence varies depending on the device) invokes the power down menu from which you can easily turn your handset off. Unfortunately, iOS’ native power down menu has an ongoing reputation for being somewhat ‘featureless.’

In an attempt to change that, iOS developer conorthedev released a new free jailbreak tweak called ModernPower, which gives iOS’ native power down menu a modern facelift and supercharges it with additional features that you won’t find out of the box on a stock device.

InstaLauncher helps you launch any app on your device in a jiff

One of my favorite parts about jailbreaking over the years has been installing custom app launchers that make accessing my apps easier. There haven’t been that many tweaks of this nature in recent memory, and that’s why I’m excited to show you the rebirth of a classic jailbreak tweak dubbed InstaLauncher by iOS developer Jonathan Winger-Lang.

InstaLauncher has been around for several years, but it was just recently re-released with full support for the latest Electra and unc0ver jailbreaks encompassing iOS 11 and iOS 12. Those who remember the original tweak should see InstaLauncher for what it is: a tweak that lets you launch any app on your device in a jiff without having to scour multiple Home Screen pages.

PingWatch gives your iPhone a more audible Lost and found tone

Sometimes you misplace your iPhone and it’s merely hiding in between the seat cushions on your couch rather than being lost out in public, and that’s why Apple includes a native feature on your Apple Watch called Lost and found, which forces your iPhone to emit a high-frequency sonar tone so that you can locate it with just your ears.

As cool as this feature is, many have expressed their concerns with the sound, noting that it isn’t loud or noticeable enough. Apple’s response to these concerns? – such is life. But iOS developer Lefteris Karkaletsis wanted to do more, and so he released a new jailbreak tweak called PingWatch to replace the native Lost and found tone with something more audible.

Unc0ver v3.0.1 released with important stability fix & more

The unc0ver jailbreak tool for iOS 11.0-12.1.2 was updated on Tuesday to version 3.0.1 as an incremental update from the previous release, which spent several months evolving over the course of 50-something beta updates.

Pwn20wnd announced the update via Twitter Tuesday afternoon, noting that unc0ver v3.0.1 contained important bug fixes in addition to miscellaneous improvements:

Electra Team and Pwn20wnd issue status updates regarding the A12(X) jailbreak

Despite the unforeseen bombshell that Saurik recently dropped on the jailbreak community regarding the much-anticipated Cydia Substrate update for A12(X) devices, this hasn’t stopped talented hackers such as those from the Electra and unc0ver jailbreak teams from devising workarounds to ensure that the community gets its cake and eats it too.

The unc0ver jailbreak is perhaps the most impacted jailbreak from the ordeal, as Electra uses Substitute instead of Cydia Substrate. And for that reason, we consider the following words from hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd be to be somewhat significant given the times we’re in:

ReachIt puts a Now Playing music interface in the empty Reachability space

Modern iPhones have become so massive that it’s becoming a challenge to operate them one-handed. For this reason, Apple implemented a feature in iOS called Reachability that pulls the contents of your display farther down so you can reach them with your thumb.

On any stock device, the Reachability interface leaves a large gap of unused space at the top of your display, but a new free jailbreak tweak called ReachIt by iOS developer Nepeta makes use of that wasted screen real estate by incorporating a Now Playing music interface into it.