Jailbreak developers have been on a roll over the past two weeks, releasing several custom widgets for the new Notification Center in iOS 5. From the looks of things, it doesn't appear that the community plans on slowing down anytime soon.
Programmer Aaron Wright has recently released not one, but two jailbreak tweaks for Apple's iOS 5 beta software. Jailbroken folks on iOS 5 are more than welcome to try out the 2 new widgets, which are available for free from the developer's repo...
The jailbreak scene has certainly taken an early liking to iOS 5's new Notification Center. The pulldown menu seems to be the perfect spot to put well-designed widgets that give you useful information at a glance.
Though it's unclear whether Apple will actually allow 3rd party developers to design widgets for the Notification Center, jailbreak developers have already proven its potential. The latest example of that is the new RSSWidget...
WidgetTask is a new jailbreak widget for the iOS 5 beta that adds a multitasking tray to Notification Center. This widget is from the same people behind UISettings - another third party widget that's available for iOS 5 beta jailbreakers.
Like SpringPrefs, WidgetTask adds itself to the iOS Notification Center under your already-installed widgets. Instead of having to double tap the home button to access your multitasking tray, WidgetTask will allow you to switch apps with ease from the Notification Center pulldown.
It's crazy to think that within a week of Apple releasing the first beta version of iOS 5, members of the jailbreak community have already hacked the new software and developed several version-specific tweaks.
The main area of focus for jailbreak developers appears to be iOS 5's new Notification Center pull-down menu, since it provides the perfect place to present custom widgets. SpringPrefs is the latest custom widget to surface, and it provides access to all of your iPhone's system stats at a glance...
It's been about 24 hours since the release of RedSn0w 0.9.8b1, a tethered jailbreak for iOS 5 beta 1, and we've already had confirmation that it's possible to add widgets to the Notification Center of Apple's latest mobile OS. Not only we have the confirmation, but we now have the proof as the jailbreak community has already come up with a tweak for it.
The tweak is called UISettings, and could be described as a SBSettings widget for the Notification Center.
Once installed, UISettings will appear in your Notification Center along with the Stocks and Weather widgets, or "tickers", as Apple likes to call them. Just like SBSettings, it gives you quick access to turn On and Off some important features of your device, such as wifi, Airplane Mode, Bluetooth, etc...
When the iOS 5 Notification Center was unveiled by Scott Forstall at WWDC, the possibility of third party widgets was also teased to developers. Although no public SDK for widgets was announced by Apple, the first, non-Apple widget has been successfully added to Notification Center, thanks to the RedSn0w tethered jailbreak that recently got updated for iOS 5.
Developer WillFour20 was able to dig into a jailbroken version of the iOS 5 SDK. He uncovered the ability to add his own widget, and he demonstrated it with the above: "Hello World." Thanks to this discovery, developers with jailbroken iDevices will be able to start developing and testing widgets for iOS 5...
Graphic artist Jan-Michael Cart is on a roll these days with his iOS 5 concept videos. After imagining how speech recognition and fast app switching might work on iOS 5 Jan-Michael is now sharing with us his vision of a Lion-style dashboard on Apple's next iOS update.
As Cart explains, when you slide over to the old Spotlight Search screen, the wallpaper shifts and you're taken into a Dashboard screen similar to the kind found in Mac OS X. You can have many pages of widgets...
iGizmoz is a new application available in the App Store that will bring widgets to your iPhone without having to jailbreak it.
There are currently a few applications such as Cydget and SmartScreen that let you set up widgets on your iPhone but the downside, if we can call this a downside, is that you have to be jailbroken.
iGizmoz is legit and 100% Apple approved. It comes with 11 customizable widgets:
Calendar Countdown Flashlight Search tool Slideshow Speed dial Sticky notes Stopwatch Swinging creature Tic tac toe game World clockThe folks over at AIS seemed to really like iGizmoz:
I had absolutely no issues customizing or using any of the widgets. The entire application is extrememly smooth and exquisitely designed. iGizmoz is most definitely worth the $0.99 price tag if not only just to experience widgets at their best!
One problem I have with iGizmoz is that you have to launch the app first before being able to access the widgets. It kinda defeats the purpose of the whole widget thing but it's better than nothing. Purists might still prefer using jailbreak apps and access the widgets directly from the lockscreen.
You can download iGizmoz from the App Store for $0.99.
I'd be interested to see what you think about iGizmoz.
SmartScreen is a soon-to-be-released application that will add little widgets on your iPhone lock screen, letting you access information witout having to launch any application. You'll be able to rearrange these widgets in the same way you move icons around.
Looking at the video demo below, I am very eager to get my hands on SmartScreen as I think it will be one of the best iPhone hacks ever. Needless to day that SmartScreen won't be available in the App Store...
MediaPhone, the guys behind SmartScreen, will even have an SDK available:
A SmartScreen SDK will be available to everyone in November 2009 but widget developers are being selected to participate in a Beta programme, if you feel you could participate and would like to produce widgets, please email dev@media-phone.ch and we will consider you early access to the programme.
I really can't wait for this to be available. Exciting, isn't it?