Review

Gravity brings realistic gravitational physics to your jailbroken handset’s Home screen

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 2, 2019

In all the years I’ve been jailbreaking iPhones and testing jailbreak tweaks, one classic has always stood out to me in particular, and that was Conrad Kramer’s famous Graviboard. Just as the name suggests, this tweak brought real gravitational physics to your handset’s Home screen, causing all your app icons to fall in the direction of gravity.

Albeit released almost nine years ago, Graviboard was one of the coolest reasons to jailbreak an iPhone back in the day. Given the magnitude of the original tweak’s popularity, it’s unsurprising that there have been a few reincarnations since then. One of the most recent remakes to pay a viit to Cydia is Gravity by iOS developer Julio Verne.

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GoodWiFi forces iOS to show more information about nearby Wi-Fi networks

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 1, 2019

iOS makes it easy to connect to a nearby Wi-Fi network, but there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes that Apple doesn’t show you in the stock Wi-Fi Settings interface.

Enter GoodWiFi, a free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Julio Verne that extends the basic functionality of Apple’s stock Wi-Fi Settings page by adding detailed information about your (and surrounding) Wi-Fi networks.

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Turkey brings a pitch-black Dark Mode theme to Cydia

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 1, 2019

It seems likely that Apple could implement an official Dark Mode feature for iOS 13, so wouldn’t it be nice if you could get the same aesthetic in your Cydia app?

If you’re on board with the aforementioned thought process, then you might appreciate a new jailbreak tweak called Turkey by iOS developer LaughingQuoll. As depicted in the screenshot examples above, Turkey brings a sleek Dark Mode experience to the Cydia package manager.

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This tweak lets you colorize iOS’ multitude of Today View widgets

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 31, 2019

If there’s one thing about jailbreaking my iOS devices that stands out to me most, it’s being able to customize the look and feel of iOS outside of Apple’s stock parameters. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of jailbreak tweaks that can do this, and new ones are seemingly being released every day.

In this piece, we’ll take a closer look at Colorful Widgets, a new free release by iOS developer Mateusz Morawski that colorizes your iPhone or iPad’s widgets with a whole host of different options.

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Looking to give Cydia a modernized facelift? Try CellDia

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 31, 2019

Despite the relatively small number of redecorations the Cydia app has received over the last several years, it continues to be a reliable package manager today. Fortunately, Saurik (Jay Freeman) empowered developers to tweak and modify the Cydia app under Cydia Substrate starting in 2015.

Given the circumstances, the ball is very much in the jailbreak community’s court to make Cydia look and behave differently than it does out of the box, and that’s exactly what a free jailbreak tweak called CellDia by iOS developer Julio Verne attempts to accomplish as you’re about to witness.

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BLightAlert leverages your iPhone’s display brightness to get your attention for notifications

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 30, 2019

iOS’ notification system tends to be subtle enough that it can be easy to forget or miss an incoming notification. Fortunately, a free jailbreak tweak called BLightAlert by iOS developer Julio Verne can help mitigate this problem.

BLightAlert leverages your handset’s display backlight to grab your attention for incoming notifications. Once installed, the display brightness changes rapidly from low to high for a couple of seconds whenever an incoming notification rolls in, like so:

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BigShotJb lets you capture taller screenshots more easily

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 30, 2019

I snap so many screenshots on my iOS devices each day that even the world’s most renowned mathematicians would need a calculator to keep count, but the situation is intensified when I capture tall vertical interfaces; doing so often requires snapping several screenshots that will need to be stitched together in photo-editing software afterward.

If you’ve ever been in a similar predicament, then you know what a pain this can be and you’ll be ecstatic to know there’s another way. A free jailbreak tweak dubbed BigShotJb (iOS 11) by iOS developers tapthaker and Julio Verne lets you capture tall vertical screenshots just like the one in the example above with minimal effort.

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AirBuddy brings proper AirPods support to the Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 29, 2019

If you’ve ever used Apple’s AirPods with your iPhone or iPad before, then you already know about the seamless pairing experience that's made possible by the Apple-exclusive W1 chip. Unfortunately, Apple hasn’t polished this experience on macOS just yet, and the AirPods experience on the Mac feels the same as any other Bluetooth-enabled device.

To say Apple left Mac users hanging in this respect would be an understatement, but third-party app developers have taken notice of this macOS-centric niche and now appear to be coming to our rescue.

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DashBored: A tweak to reduce your boredom with the iPhone’s Dashboard interface

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 29, 2019

Your iPhone’s Lock screen and Notification Center are each home to a specialized interface for displaying the date and time along with a list of information notifications – this interface is known as the Dashboard.

That said, if you’re feeling a bit bored with the stock look and feel of the Dashboard, then perhaps you should try a new free jailbreak tweak called DashBored (pun intended) by iOS developer Smokin1337. As shown in the screenshot examples above, this tweak lets you customize the Dashboard’s colors, font, notifications, text, and much more.

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Ventana brings a Windows 10-inspired Lock screen to jailbroken iPhones and iPads

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated February 28, 2022

If you like how the Windows 10 Lock screen looks and feels, then you’ll probably enjoy using a jailbreak tweak called Ventana by iOS developers CoolStar and Jeremy Goulet. This tweak redesigns your iPhone or iPad’s Lock screen to make interface elements appear more as they would on a Windows 10 device.

Right out of the box, Ventana themes the Now Playing interface, any incoming notification banners you might have waiting for your attention, and the date and time display. Ventana also provides you with a Siri shortcut akin to the Cortana shortcut that you might find on Windows 10.

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Slyd: A new jailbreak tweak that cures your nostalgia for ‘slide to unlock’

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 28, 2019

It’s been quite a few years since Apple has used the classic ‘slide to unlock’ interface on any of its mobile handsets, and with the advancements in biometric authentication and software since then it should be safe to say it isn’t coming back; at least not officially.

But if you’re feeling a bit nostalgic about the slide to unlock interface, then you’ll be thrilled to learn about a new free jailbreak tweak called Slyd (SlideToUnlock) by iOS developer Nepeta. Just as the name implies, this tweak ports the classic slide to unlock interface from iOS 7 to iOS 11.

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