Jeff Benjamin

Jeff has been with iDownloadBlog since 2010, acting as resident video specialist, and tutorial expert. He earned his degree in Computer Network Systems back in 2001, but decided Cisco routers and the like just weren’t for him. Since then, he’s been heavily involved with online writing. He’s written for numerous tech and video game sites since the late 1990′s, and has a knack for explaining things in a simple, clear, and concise manner. Jeff works primarily from the east coast on his Retina Macbook Pro, and shoots video with a Canon DSLR. During downtime he likes to travel the world, visiting the various Apple Stores across the globe. You can email him at jeff [at] idownloadblog.com and follow him on Twitter @JeffBenjam or on Google+.

EasyAppOrientation: screen orientation lock on a per app basis

Jeff Benjamin ∙ November 30, 2015

Have you ever wanted to lock the orientation of your iPhone's screen in portrait mode for one app, but lock it in landscape mode for another app? Occasionally, I run into that exact dilemma, and it's alway a little frustrating that I have to micromanage the lock orientation button found in Control Center when switching between the two apps in question.

A new jailbreak tweak is aiming to help eliminate this problem, as it will allow you to lock the orientation of your iPhone's screen on a per-app basis. The tweak, which is appropriately titled EasyAppOrientation, is a free release that lives up to its billing.

Display Recorder gets updated with improved iOS 9 compatibility

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated June 12, 2018

Ryan Petrich has been on a roll as of late when it comes to updates to his most popular jailbreak releases. Not only has Activator received a monster update earlier today, but Display Recorder has received an update that makes it more compatible with iOS 9.

Display Recorder is a popular jailbreak app, because it allows you to capture your iPhone's screen and showcase on screen taps so that viewers of the exported video will know where you're tapping on screen. I've used Display Recorder for many years now, and in my opinion, it remains the best way to directly capture your iPhone's screen on video.

NCCards: customize Notification Center notifications

Jeff Benjamin ∙ November 29, 2015

NCCards is a recently released jailbreak tweak that ushers in a new interface for the notifications shown in Notification Center. The $2.99 tweak, now available on the BigBoss repo, brings new visual cues to notifications, but retains much of the functionality that iOS users are familiar with.

Testing out NCCards reveals a promising feature-set with a few notable miscues. Watch our video walkthrough to see the tweak in action.

How to add hardware specs to the iOS Settings app [jailbreak]

Jeff Benjamin ∙ November 29, 2015

HardwareSpecs is a just-released jailbreak tweak that places a new Hardware Specs panel inside of the stock Settings app.

If you want to quickly gauge device hardware information, such as Product, Type, Model Number, Platform, Processor, Architecture, and much more, then HardwareSpecs is a jailbreak tweak that's worthy of your time.

Activator receives a huge new update for iOS 9 and the iPhone 6s

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

Activator, the staple jailbreak tweak relied on by many as a standalone release, and by tweak developers as a complementary component, has been updated to version 1.9.7. The update brings a boatload of new changes, features, and fixes to the fore, including support for taptic engine actions, 3D Touch events, and more. Needless to say, if you have a jailbroken iPhone 6s, then this update is for you.

A9X teardown showcases Apple’s impressive strides in chip design

Jeff Benjamin ∙ November 28, 2015

The fine folks over at Chipworks have provided the first up close and personal look at the A9X processor found inside of the recently launched iPad Pro. What it uncovered was yet another impressive design job, one that should, again, make Intel take notice.

Not only is the A9X extremely powerful, besting some laptop machines powered by Intel chips, but it's also much bigger than the A9 processors supplied by both Samsung and TSMC that are found in the iPhone 6s.

The Motley Fool recently contacted Chipworks for insight into Apple's newest SoC. What it found was a technical achievement that Apple's designers should be more than proud of.

How to fix the ‘Redownload Unavailable’ error in the App Store

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

Let's face it; everyone experiences buyer's remorse from time to time, which results in a change of heart about a purchase. Then there are those occasions when you regret changing your mind about changing your mind. That's what recently happened to me after I requested an App Store refund for an app that I later realized I actually wanted and needed.

Oddly, I encountered a weird error telling me that since I had previously requested a refund for the app, I could no longer purchase it again. That makes no sense. Why would Apple not want to take my money just because I had requested a prior refund?

The error reads "This redownload is not available for this Apple ID either because it was bought by a different user or the item was refunded or cancelled."

Whatever the reason for the error, after searching Google, it's obvious that I'm not the first to encounter this issue. The good news is that fixing the Redownload Unavailable with This Apple ID error is very easy to do...

AnySpot for iOS 9: Search Spotlight from anywhere on your jailbroken iPhone

Jeff Benjamin ∙ November 27, 2015

Unless you happen to have a physical Bluetooth keyboard attached to your iPhone or iPad, you cannot invoke Spotlight on iOS 9 unless you happen to be on the Home screen. AnySpot for iOS 9 aims to change this.

AnySpot lets you assign an Activator gesture to Spotlight so that you can access the search interface from anywhere on your iPhone or iPad, even if you happen to be within an app. If you want Spotlight search to work closer to how it works on the Mac, allowing you to access it from anywhere, then you should consider using AnySpot.

Tatton: a jailbreak tweak that brings a grab bag of special settings to iOS

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

Tatton is a recently released tweak that’s geared towards making your iPhone faster. In fact, the name Tatton itself is Greek for faster, and that’s what this tweak claims to do.

In order to accomplish this feat, Tatton, a free tweak available right now on the BigBoss repo, removes unnecessary features that can slow down iOS’ animations—think blurs and things of that nature. The developer of Tatton says that older devices in particular can benefit from his tweak. Does such a claim ring true?

Nightmode9: a tweak that brings a system-wide dark mode to iOS 9

Jeff Benjamin ∙ November 27, 2015

Using a bright screen in a dark environment isn’t doing any favor to your eyes, and that’s why some apps incorporate a so-called night-mode for dark settings. But night mode features within apps have a big limitation, and that’s that they only work within specific apps.

Wouldn’t it be better if iOS had a true system-wide night mode that worked in apps as well as the iOS interface as a whole? That’s the basic idea behind Nightmode9, a recently released jailbreak tweak that adds tons of user-configurable night mode features to iOS 9.

PwnTunes for iOS 9: manually manage music via Windows on a jailbroken device

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated June 12, 2018

PwnTunes is a jailbreak tweak that’s been around since the every early days of jailbreaking. If memory serves me correctly, I think it’s been available since the iOS 3 days, which seems like an eternity now that we’re only 7 months or so away from iOS 10.

The basic premise behind PwnTunes is that it affords Windows users drag and drop access to import and export music without iTunes. The tweak is able to accomplish this feat by turning an iPhone into a mass storage device that’s accessible via Windows Explorer.

Review: Spigen Ultra Hybrid Tech case for iPhone 6s

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

I’ve been using the Spigen Ultra Hybrid Tech case for my iPhone 6s since the device launched. As many of you know, I’ve never been big on cases, but the dings and dents suffered on my previous generation iPhone 6 Plus convinced me that I needed to reconsider the case-less strategy.

I decided that I would try a case, but it had to be one that wasn’t overly bulky or gaudy. Thankfully, the choice was fairly easy, because the folks over at Spigen sent us a package with no less than 20 cases and accessories.

I’ve already covered some of their products in previous posts, but today I’d like to talk to you about the Ultra Hybrid Tech case for Apple's latest flagship phone. Is it any good?