Review

Element Case’s Black Ops Elite case for iPhone 11 Pro looks great, but costs a small fortune

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 14, 2019

Going beyond the familiar world of traditional rubber, silicone, or TPU smartphone cases, I often find myself experimenting with substitutions that seem vastly out of the ordinary. While testing such cases for the brand-new iPhone 11 Pro, I happened upon the Element Case Black Ops Elite, which in my opinion, certainly lives up to the notion of being extraordinary.

Element Case’s Black Ops Elite case is built from a bevy of premium materials that you won’t find in most run of the mill iPhone cases, including a hard anodized aluminum frame that gets bolted into a sturdy G10 backplate, and a Dropshock-equipped TPU inner shell lined with a premium felt interior that gives your iPhone all the pampering and protection it needs.

Customize the look and feel of your Settings app with Horizon

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 2, 2023

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

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated October 18, 2019

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.

Retro review: World of Goo

Sergio Velasquez ∙ October 11, 2019

World of Goo is not your regular videogame. Instead of having some overpowered bosses and enemies, you have goo. Instead of complicated controls and gimmicks, you have goo. And instead of having a good story, well, I think you see where I'm going with this. But they do give you a good story.

It may seem like a weird idea at first, but back in the day World of Goo was extremely popular. And it was even nominated for several awards, including an Innovation Design award at the Independent Games Festival.

These are different times, though. Games have evolved and they're more complicated now, even on mobile. So a simple game about Goo is still entertaining? Let's find out in today's retro review.

Flow: A modernized Cover Flow UI for your jailbroken handset

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 9, 2019

I still remember the early days when Apple placed a heavy emphasis on Cover Flow for browsing your music library. While those days might be over, we’ve taken a particular liking to a newly released jailbreak tweak called Flow by iOS developer Muirey03, as it puts a modernized spin on the classic Cover Flow media view.

Those who remember Cover Flow probably remember it one of two ways: 1) clunky; or 2) simplistic. Cover Flow appeared nice to look at, but it wasn’t always as refined or fluid as I would have liked. Flow, on the other hand, modernizes the Cover Flow concept such that it not only looks good, but works just as well.

BoardBanner13 makes notification banners more notch-friendly

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated November 15, 2021

If your jailbroken iPhone sports the controversial notch at the top, then we’ve got some exciting news for you. A newly released jailbreak tweak called BoardBanner13 (iOS 12~13) by iOS developer PeterDev can modify your handset’s incoming notification banners to make them a lot more notch-friendly.

As depicted in the screenshot examples above, BoardBanner13 pushes the notification banner up and into the notch at the top of the display, effectively filling all the screen real estate that is normally ignored by Apple’s native banner notification implementation. The tweak is purportedly based on a concept that surfaced on Twitter earlier this month.

AVPlayerPlus supercharges iOS’ native video player with useful new gestures

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 8, 2019

Whenever you tap on a video in the mobile Safari web browser, such as on YouTube or otherwise, iOS displays that video in a familiar interface called the AVPlayer, which appears in the screenshot example above.

Like most video players, iOS’ native AVPlayer provides only the fundamental controls to and get things done, but with the help of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called AVPlayerPlus by iOS developer Tr1fecta, you can enjoy several more luxury controls in the native AVPlayer interface that Apple never bothered to provide to you out of the box.

Assume full control over iOS’ native animations with AnimationsBeFastPlus

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 8, 2019

Every iOS device comes standard with system animations that aim to make the user experience feel both fun and interactive. Apple doesn’t offer much by way of animation customization, and for that reason, it’s unsurprising that the jailbreak community has picked up much of the slack in this department.

Enter AnimationsBeFastPlus, a new jailbreak tweak by iOS developer eXqusic that permits users to get their hands dirty with system-wide animation configuration options.

Arcade review: Jenny LeClue – Detectivu

Sergio Velasquez ∙ October 7, 2019

Everyone loves a good mystery game, but we don't get many of those on the App Store. Sure, there are mystery games for you to play, but they are not the vast majority. Not the good ones, anyway.

That's why I was looking forward to playing Jenny LeClue - Detectivu. A murder mystery literally at my fingertips. And now that we've got the chance to play it, it's time to see if it's the mystery adventure I was waiting for, or if it's just another forgettable game. Fingers crossed.

Apple Watch Series 5: worth an upgrade?

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 7, 2019

Apple Watch Series 5 is an evolution of the major redesign of the popular wearable device we got with last year's Series 4 refresh. Although a couple of light improvements in Series 5 may not warrant an upgrade for those who happen to own one of the previous models, they’re certainly enough to keep Apple Watch as the best smartwatch currently available.

This tweak can delete all Messages app conversations with a tap

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 7, 2019

Chronic texters know just how easy it can be to fill iOS’ Messages app with active conversation cells, but what about when it comes time to delete them all?

You could swipe and delete each one individually or you could tap the ‘Edit’ button and select each one individually before deleting them all in one fell swoop. But a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called clearallmesg by iOS developer mr Yacine takes things one step further to make deleting messages in bulk even easier.

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: Bazzi 2, NextUp, Ringer13, and more

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 6, 2019

It’s a great time to be a member of the jailbreak community, and if you have a pwned handset in your possession, then you might be wondering about the best way to make your handset stand out from the crowd.

In this roundup, we’ll discuss all the jailbreak tweaks released from Monday, September 30th to Sunday, October 6th. As always, we’ll kick things off by discussing our favorites and then wrap things up with an outline of the rest afterward.