In the past I've wondered why Apple seems to neglect its dynamic theme options, yet every year there are new static themes available for iOS. Unfortunately, for those of us who like them, dynamic themes seem to have been placed permanently on the shelf.
An upcoming jailbreak package looks to change this by offering several new well-designed dynamic themes to jailbroken iOS users. It's aptly entitled Dynamics, and it will be released once the teaser version receives 500 downloads.
There most certainly is no shortage of downloadable iOS 8 keyboards in the App Store, so much so that the proliferation of soft-keyboards makes it virtually impossible for us to cover each and every one that hits the Apple platform.
On the other hand, themable keyboards like CoolKey, a keyboard for the colorful, are few and far between.
Customization matters to an awful lot of people and there's admittedly a void here than needs filling. That's where Themeboard jumps in.
Created by Germany-based Taphive, the brains behind such apps as TodoMovies that we reviewed back in March, this app is an advanced iPhone and iPad keyboard with a built-in repository of wonderfully designed themes by some of the best designers around.
Theme board sports a unique Emoji/Kaomoji bar and has plenty of features that users have come to expect from Apple's default keyboard like auto-correction, Caps lock, slide-shift to capitalize, quick delete with three speeds, text predictions, custom shortcuts and more.
Read on for the full review of this feature-packed keyboard.
Themers rejoice as WinterBoard has been updated to support new features of iOS 8. Clocking at version 0.9.3916, this new version of WinterBoard adds a few features geared towards iOS 8, as well as some features for users that are still on iOS 7.
Besides the many updates that can be found under the hood, the most obvious change users will notice right away is that WinterBoard isn't a standalone app anymore, and all changes will have to be made directly from the dedicated panel in the Settings app.
There's no doubt that Apple for the first time in iOS history is opening up its mobile operating system by giving developers the tools to create previously unheard-of features like custom iOS 8 keyboards, new filters for the Photos app, custom Share sheet actions and several other types of App Extensions.
It would also appear that Apple is testing a feature that would allow end users to choose alternate looks for the iOS 8 user interface with different font types, custom color schemes and more.
This could be a huge boon to tinkerers and a great selling point because never before has Apple allowed people to customize the iOS look and feel without jailbreaking their devices...
A few weeks ago, I shared three beautiful iOS theme setups for the iPhone. Judging by the amount of readers that left comments, including those that shared their own setups, I would say it was a resounding success. A few readers asked that we follow up with another similar post, so here we are with three more colorful iOS theme setups to go along with the summer season. The setups come from the /r/iOSthemes community on Reddit, and we've included the jailbreak tweaks and themes used where possible…
A few of our readers have asked us what happened to Theme Thursday, a weekly column that covered the best new Winterboard themes for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The answer is that we decided to discontinue this column in April, primarily because themes started being released on a less frequent basis. Nevertheless, the theming community is still going strong.
Despite the slowdown, there are still a number of quality themes released every now and then that are worth mentioning. As such, we've turned to the /r/iOSthemes community on Reddit and hand picked three iOS theme setups that we think look gorgeous. Where possible, we've included the themes and jailbreak tweaks used to achieve each setup. Take a look ahead…
Circlet, a new stylish Status Bar indicators tweak we recently previewed in now available in Cydia.
Developed by Julian Weiss, this jailbreak tweak allows you to theme your Status Bar signal, Wi-Fi and battery indicator without the use of WinterBoard. Weiss notes in the description of the tweak that it is very lightweight, as "every "circlet" is generated as needed, without any assets saved," and no respring is necessary.
Circlet is an upcoming jailbreak tweak from prolific developer Julian Weiss. It allows you to simplify the status bar using customizable circular indicators.
The great thing about Circlet is that it doesn't rely on WinterBoard, image assets, or even a respring to pull off its customizable styles. Circlet is a modern jailbreak tweak that's easy to use and just as easy on the eyes. Take a look at our hands-on video of Circlet after the jump.
Theme Thursday is back for the eleventh consecutive week, continuing to promote some of the best Winterboard theme releases for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. This week, we are proud to present you with Gleam, Axle and Simplump.
Each theme is quite different from the next, which should provide everyone with something to choose from. If there is nothing you see here that you like, consider checking out previous editions of this roundup. We've covered almost 50 themes to date. Here are three more…
Do we have any Zelda fans in the building? If you're a fan of Nintendo's action-RPG series, then you will no doubt appreciate this new Alkaline jailbreak theme from designer alextmoore.
Aptly entitled Zelda Hearts for Alkaline, this recently released theme allows users to replace the stock battery indicator with hearts similar to those that appear in the Big N's popular gaming classic.
Want to see how it works in action? Have a look inside for the video walkthrough.
It has now been over three calendar months since Theme Thursday began as a weekly column that promotes some of the best Winterboard theme releases for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. While this week was somewhat slower in terms of quality themes, we are still excited to share three well-designed releases alongside a preview of a fourth one that remains a work in progress. Join us ahead for a look at Looka, Elza, Comic7 and Caramelo…
A few weeks ago, we reviewed ProWidgets—a tweak that I believe is amongst the best of jailbreak releases. The tweak by itself is very well done, but my sentiments were also based on ProWidgets' potential with regard to expandability.
The version of ProWidgets that I reviewed didn't include the simple grey theme that's now available with the latest ProWidgets update. Although it's not technically a third-party theme, this is one of the first big changes that we've seen to ProWidgets since our initial review. Have a look inside as we showcase the tweak's simple grey theme on video.