Alihassan Mahdi

Alihassan is currently pursuing his degree in Computer Science at the University of Wollongong in Dubai. He has an utmost passion for all things tech and is a tech-savvy person. In his spare time, you’ll either find him messing with his iOS smartphone or working-out at his local gym. He is a proud owner of an iPhone 5s and a close follower of Apple. As for his future, he’s looking forward to securing a Master's degree in Software Engineering and start his own software business. You can follow Alihassan on Twitter.

How to send Facebook messages without using Messenger app

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

Last month, Facebook announced that it was disabling the messaging service in its official Facebook app for iOS requiring users to switch to its Facebook Messenger app in order to continue to send and receive messages from friends. This move by the company to force users to use its standalone messenger app was disliked by many.

Yet, if you wish to get rid of this restriction and continue chatting with your friends without using the Facebook Messenger app, you can follow either of the methods outlined below. In this post, we will share two methods that will allow you to send messages in Facebook without using the standalone Messenger app.

Configure individual app settings on iPhone with AppControl

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ August 11, 2014

Volume and brightness are system-wide settings that apply to all apps on your iOS device, thereby requiring users to frequently configure them depending on the app that is open. For instance, I've seen people mute their device while playing a game or raise the brightness when reading a book on their device. AppControl is a new jailbreak tweak that allows you to solve this problem.

With AppControl, users will have the ability to configure the settings of each app individually such as brightness and volume as well as various other extra settings. For example, if your device's brightness is at 25% but you've set the brightness of an app to be 75%, launching it will raise the brightness from 25% to 75%...

The best jailbreak tweaks for Safari on iOS 7

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ Updated June 11, 2018

Last week, we presented you a list of best jailbreak tweaks to enhance the stock Messages app on your jailbroken iOS 7 device. Today, we've decided to list the best jailbreak tweaks that will improve your web browsing experience on Safari.

Safari has been greatly improved on since it was first released along iPhoneOS 1. With iOS 7, it saw the addition of various new features such as iCloud Keychain, unified address and search bar, Private browsing mode and more. However, it still has some restrictions and lacks various features that prevent it from being an all-in-one web browser for iOS.

To enjoy more features and get rid of some of its limitations, read our complete list of best jailbreak tweaks for Safari on iOS 7...

vHome brings a virtual Home button to your jailbroken iOS device

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ August 7, 2014

There are several tweaks available in Cydia that allow you to imitate a press of the Home button without actually touching it. Such tweaks are quite useful when you have a broken Home or Power button. vHome is yet another jailbreak tweak that adds a virtual Home button on your screen.

Developed by Noeliel, vHome brings a small virtual Home button to your jailbroken iOS device that looks quite similar to the physical Home button on your device. It floats on your screen and tapping on it will either take you to your Home screen or lock your device. vHome might sound similar to other virtual Home button tweaks but it works in two ways

Brightness Activator 2: adjust screen brightness with Activator gestures

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ Updated August 12, 2014

If you ever felt that you wanted a quicker way of adjusting your device's brightness rather than opening Control Center, you should try out a new jailbreak tweak known as Brightness Activator 2 that takes advantage of Activator gestures.

Just by looking at its name, you must have guessed by now what the tweak does. Brightness Activator 2 allows users to adjust their device's display brightness by making use of Activator. This means that you can assign Activator gestures to increase or decrease the brightness by a specific amount without having to launch Control Center or Settings app.

BlowToUnlock: blow at your iPhone device to unlock it

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ August 5, 2014

BlowToUnlock is a brand new jailbreak tweak that landed in Cydia recently and is quite a unique one. Although 'Slide to unlock' and Touch ID are the two main methods of unlocking an iOS device, BlowToUnlock takes your device a step further by allowing you to blow at your device in order to unlock it.

With BlowToUnlock, you can simply blow at or around the device's microphone to wake it up or unlock it. Other than the device's microphone, you can also blow into the headphone's microphone to unlock the device. However, the good thing is if you have a passcode enabled, you'll first be prompted to enter it before gaining access to your device. In fact, this ensures that the security of your device isn't compromised...

TwitConfirm prevents you from accidentally retweeting or favoriting a tweet

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ August 4, 2014

If you use the Twitter app regularly on your iOS device, you may have accidentally retweeted or favorited a tweet while scrolling through your timeline feed. It can be quite annoying just to go back and undo the action and sometimes, you won't even notice that you've retweeted or favorited a post. However, a new jailbreak tweak landed in Cydia recently that helps Twitter users overcome this problem.

The best jailbreak tweaks for the Messages app on iOS 7

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ Updated March 28, 2023

Last week, we presented you a list of best jailbreak tweaks for the Music app on your jailbroken iOS 7. Today, we're back it again to show you a list of best jailbreak tweaks that will spice up the stock Messages app.

The Messages app has been greatly improved over time and comes packed with amazing features in the latest version of iOS 7. The Messages app is both used for SMS as well as iMessage for communication with other Apple devices. However, there are a few features that it lacks but can be achieved by using the tweaks listed below. Read on to find out the best jailbreak tweaks for the Messages app on iOS 7.

Chroma: customize the system-wide tint in iOS

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ August 2, 2014

One of the reasons that users jailbreak their iOS device is to customize almost every aspect of iOS's UI elements. The default tint color in iOS is blue and that is why you'll notice most of the buttons, toggles or chat bubbles colored blue. However, Chroma is a brand new jailbreak tweak that just hit Cydia's ModMyi repo recently and is the best way to customize the tint color in iOS.

Chroma allows users to customize the system-wide tint in iOS with an unlimited range of colors. In other words, there's no limited color combinations, the end result depends totally upon you and your choice. Once you choose a color, it will be applied to many different user interface elements across all applications such as the buttons in App Store's navigation bar, chat bubbles in the Messages app etc...

ConvoProtect: lock or hide individual conversations in Messages, Whatsapp and Kik

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ August 1, 2014

All of us have that one nosy friend who sneaks into the Messages app the moment they get your device and reads all your conversations. If you hate this, you might want to check out a new jailbreak tweak known as 'ConvoProtect' that adds an extra layer of security to your conversations.

ConvoProtect allows you to lock as well as hide select conversations from the stock Messages app, including Whatsapp and Kik as well. Along with individual conversations, the tweak also provides an option to secure group messages as well as hide the message preview for a particular conversation in the conversations list.

Musiex provides system-wide access to music controls

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ July 29, 2014

Recently, we compiled a list of best jailbreak tweaks for the Music app on iOS 7 and you might want to check it out to discover new tweaks that you may find useful. This said, Musiex was among the list and we decided to take it for a spin. Read on to find out more about it.

Musiex allows users to access the media controls from anywhere within iOS and control the currently playing song without having to open the Music app. It can be launched by making use of an Activator gesture and swiping up the interface or pressing the Home button will close it. Once Musiex is activated, a neat interface appears at the top of the device's screen, just like the notification banner, and displays information about the currently playing song such as the track name, artist and more. Additionally, the song's artwork appears to the left of the interface and a progress bar is also available enabling users to scrub through songs and move to any specific point of a track...

Smart Search spices up Spotlight search on iOS 7

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

Spotlight can be used to search for content (music, app, mail etc.) on your iPhone, iPad or iPod and it can be accessed by swiping down the Home screen. Personally, I've never found Spotlight search useful and I rarely use it except when I'm tempted to. However, iOS 8 takes the feature to a whole new level by allowing users to search for an iTunes song, App Store app, website, Wikipedia entry and much more directly from Spotlight.

Inspired by iOS 8 Spotlight search, Smart Search is a new jailbreak tweak that improves the functionality of Spotlight search on jailbroken iOS 7 devices by expanding its search capability. It gives users the ability to search for a keyword from the App Store, iTunes Store, Google, Wikipedia, YouTube and more. We decided to give Smart Search a try and it worked flawlessly as advertised.