News

Charging your Apple Pencil 2 could prevent you from unlocking your car

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 15, 2019
Tesla Model S key fob

Wireless charging in the second-generation Apple Pencil may interfere with your car's key fob and cause intermittent issues when attempting to unlock the vehicle, Apple has acknowledged.

As first noted by French blog iGeneration.fr (Google Translate), a recent update to Apple's support document covering using Apple Pencil with iPad or iPad Pro explains that the wireless charging feature of Apple Pencil 2, when being used, tends to clash with key fobs.

Should that happen to you, store the stylus separately so it doesn't charge wirelessly when attempting to unlock the car or simply move the tablet away from the key fob.

If you're charging your Apple Pencil (2nd generation) with your iPad Pro and your car's keyless entry device (key fob) is nearby, signal interference might prevent you from unlocking your car with your key fob.

If this happens, you can simply move your iPad Pro away from the key fob or remove your Apple Pencil from your iPad Pro and store it separately. When Apple Pencil is finished charging, any resulting signal interference will cease.

I own both the latest iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, but have yet to experience this issue (for context, I drive my car every day and my iPad goes with me everywhere I go). Aside from Apple's advice, I'd also recommend trying holding your fob closer to the antenna, usually located near the radio antenna, that communicates with the door locks.

In one example, a DJ’s light-control panel was designed to send out intermittent signals but somehow transmitted a continuous stream of data on the same frequency used by some vehicle remote controls, as explained in a recent WardsAuto article:

Since the beginning of the year motorists in a section of Yonkers, 15 miles (24 km) north of Times Square, were unable to unlock their cars with remote-control fobs. Some drivers of cars without keys simply were unable to enter their vehicles because of unexplained electronic interference.

Due to poor shielding or wiring, some key fobs can generate harmonic interference and even unintentional interference. The same goes for a whole host of other wireless devices, including your iPad Pro's Wi-Fi and the tiny wireless charging coils in the new Apple Pencil.

Key fobs generally trigger signals on two bandwidths: 315 mHz and 434 mHz.

Photo: A Tesla key fob has an option to pull the car forward and backward remotely

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Unlock the full potential of your iPhone’s native Photos app with PhotoManager

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 15, 2019

When you capture photographs with your iPhone’s camera or save images from the internet, they get saved directly to your Camera Roll where you can interact with them later. Unfortunately, Apple’s Photos app tends to be somewhat light on features, and this presents issues for power users.

PhotoManager (iOS 12) is a new jailbreak tweak release by iOS developer Frozen Penguin that spearheads an effort to solve this dilemma. It integrates a plethora of useful new features into the native Photos app, which presents users with more control over their files and albums.

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Bring haptic feedback to your iPhone’s keyboard with HapticKeys

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 15, 2019

If you just got finished jailbreaking your iPhone and you’ve been anticipating the idea of porting Android-style keyboard-centric haptic feedback over to your handset’s typing experience, then you just might come to appreciate a new jailbreak tweak called HapticKeys by iOS developer colecabral.

HapticKeys does exactly what it sounds like; like with most forms of haptic feedback, it provides a small amount of vibration each and every time you tap on any of the iOS keyboard’s buttons.

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Augment your Cydia app’s visual appeal and more with Renovare

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 15, 2019

With the help of a newly-released free jailbreak tweak called Renovare by iOS developer KushyDaBush, you can give your Cydia app interface a colorful, modernized makeover in a jiff.

As you can see in the screenshot example above, Renovare can be used to colorize the tabs, glyphs, and backgrounds of the Cydia app. The tweak is fully-customizable, and adds a dedicated preference pane to the Settings app where you can set it up to your liking:

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Jailbreak tweaks of the week: ActionBar, Goodges 2, Vocito, and more

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 14, 2019

If you’re in search of the best and latest ways to customize your jailbroken iOS 11 or iOS 12 device, then you’ve come to the right place.

In this roundup, we’ll summarize each of this week’s new jailbreak tweak releases from Monday, April 8th to Sunday, April 14th. As usual, we’ll kick things off by discussing our favorites and then outline the rest afterward.

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FlashyHUD is a minimalist volume HUD replacement for iOS with oodles of configuration

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 13, 2019

It’s no secret by now that the iPhone’s native volume HUD leaves a lot to be desired, especially in the realms of aesthetics and intrusiveness. Thankfully, there are a plethora of jailbreak tweaks in Cydia that can change how your iPhone’s volume HUD looks, and we’re here today to talk about the latest in this batch of tweaks called FlashyHUD by iOS developer Nepeta.

As shown in the screenshot example above, FlashyHUD provides a volume HUD interface that appears at the very edge of the display, hence preventing it from getting in your way and causing a ruckus. Perhaps more importantly, FlashyHUD is fully-configurable; not only can you colorize it however you want, but you can also choose where it appears on your display.

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BatteryPercent12 displays a numeric percentage inside the Status Bar’s battery icon

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 12, 2019

On modern notched handsets like the iPhone X, XR, XS, and XS Max, Apple did away with the numeric battery percentage option for the Status Bar. Instead, the numeric battery percentage remains hidden unless you open the Control Center interface.

I’ve enabled this feature on all my previous iPhones for years, and so this change has felt like a serious downgrade since I picked up my first iPhone X. On the plus side, a new free jailbreak tweak called BatteryPercent12 by iOS developer dpkg_ promises to display the numeric battery percentage in the Status Bar without hindering the battery icon itself.

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Pwn20wnd says Saurik plans to update Cydia Substrate for A12(X) devices

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated April 26, 2019

Pwn20wnd’s unc0ver jailbreak tool supports all versions of iOS from 11.0-12.1.2, and it supports most iOS devices. The lone exception to the latter part of that statement is that A12(X) devices are only partially supported, which means Cydia and Cydia Substrate won’t be installed on those handsets (yet).

Just last week, Pwn20wnd shared what he still needed to complete the full A12(X) support for unc0ver, and while one of those components has since been completed, the community continues to wait for the other.

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