Bluetooth

Radio proximity security attack targeting up to iOS 13.5 detailed by Ian Beer

Anthony Bouchard ∙ December 2, 2020

Accomplished security researcher Ian Beer, known for releasing a host of iOS exploits used by modern jailbreak tools, dropped a bombshell on Twitter late Wednesday evening after sharing a detailed blog post about a jaw-dropping radio proximity exploit affecting up to and including iOS and iPadOS 13.5.

The blog post summary goes on to explain that the hacker can remotely trigger kernel memory corruption through the execution of arbitrary code. Furthermore, it can force affected iOS and iPadOS devices in radio proximity to reboot with no user interaction needed or put privacy at risk by breaching user data or utilizing cameras and microphones without the user’s knowledge. Scary indeed…

Some M1 Macs are exhibiting Bluetooth issues

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 25, 2020

With Apple's refreshed MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini computers powered by the company's M1 laptop chip in customers' hands now, we're starting to see first reports of the inevitable teething issues that accompany every new hardware launch.

New to Mac? Here’s all the tools in the Mac Utilities folder

Sandy Writtenhouse ∙ November 18, 2020

If you’ve just purchased your first Mac, and especially if you’re coming from Windows, you might be wondering about the Utilities folder. You may see the folder but have yet to open it or you might be looking for a specific tool and don’t realize it’s in that folder.

Whatever the case, we’re here with another in our New to Mac series to help you out! We’ll explain what’s in the Utilities folder and what each tool is for.

Crystal brings volume-based active noise cancellation toggling to AirPods Pro for jailbreakers

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 17, 2020

Apple’s AirPods Pro quickly rose to become one of the market’s most popular active noise cancellation-equipped wireless earbuds. Out of the box, they isolate users’ ears from their surroundings via active noise cancellation; and in the event that you need to hear somebody, they support transparency mode, which allows a person’s voice to pass through the AirPods Pro’s microphone and into the user’s ear canal as audio.

One thing worth noting is that when using the AirPods Pro, the user must manually switch between active noise cancelation mode and transparency mode with a gesture when either feature is desired. With that in mind, iOS developer Litten devised a way to make this behavior more autonomous based on the user’s circumstances, and as such, a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called Crystal was born.

Review: WT2 Plus translation earbuds bring us one step closer to a Babel Fish type experience

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 21, 2020

If your foreign language skills leave a lot to be desired, these specialized earbuds from a Chinese brand, called TimeKettle, provide near real-time translation from one language to another, with 95 percent translation accuracy and support for enough language pairs to cover more than 80 percent of the world’s population. Here’s how they work in real life.

How to fix Bluetooth issues on your iPhone or iPad

Sandy Writtenhouse ∙ Updated May 19, 2025

Try these troubleshooting tips to fix Bluetooth issues on your iPhone and iPad and resolve connection problems with wireless accessories and other intermittent issues.

BTManager+ gives jailbreakers more control over Bluetooth peripherals

Anthony Bouchard ∙ September 17, 2020

iOS is a very user-friendly platform when it comes to Bluetooth device connectivity. On the other hand, ease of use comes with certain trade-offs, such as the scope of configurability and advanced settings and/or features.

If you walk among the plethora of iPhone power users out there, and you use a lot more Bluetooth devices than the average Joe, then we think you might benefit from the likes of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed BTManager+ by iOS developer Beckett O’Brien.

The best waterproof Bluetooth speakers

Evan Selleck ∙ July 24, 2020

For the folks out there who like to spend time outside but don't want to lose out on listening to music, being able to bring along a Bluetooth speaker is a welcomed one.

Rename Bluetooth devices via your pwned iPhone with BTDeviceRenamer

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 11, 2020

One of the great ways you can amplify your iPhone’s user experience is through the extension of Bluetooth accessories, including but not limited to headphones and/or speakers. But have you ever tried to pair your newly acquired Bluetooth device only to find that it had an odd or unappealing name in the Bluetooth list?

If you answered yes to the question above and have a hard time distinguishing between one device from the next, then we’d like to recommend an excellent new and free jailbreak tweak dubbed BTDeviceRenamer by iOS developer Tr1fecta. Just as the name implies, this tweak lets you rename virtually any Bluetooth device that you’ve paired with your jailbroken iPhone or iPad.

This tweak simplifies device connection switching for AirPods

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated November 8, 2021

Apple advertises the AirPods and AirPods Pro connectivity experience as ‘magical’ and ‘seamless,’ but if you’ve ever tried to connect your AirPods to another device of yours, then you’ve likely experienced the widespread frustration in which they connect to your most recently-used device instead. It’s easy to fix this when it happens, but it’s also somewhat cumbersome and time-consuming to say the least.

Anyone who is even the least bit familiar with the aforementioned experience will almost certainly come to appreciate the likes of a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called AirPopupConnect by iOS developer nicho1asdev, as it aims to make the process of pairing your AirPods or AirPods Pro to a different device noticeably faster and easier.

AlwaysOnHeadphones can improve the call-taking experience on Apple Watch

Anthony Bouchard ∙ June 6, 2020

Having an Apple Watch is convenient for a bevy of reasons, but one of my favorites is having instantaneous access to messages and phone calls from the comfort of my wrist, even when my iPhone isn’t within arm’s reach.

As wonderful as it is, it’s not without its quirks. Perhaps one of the most annoying processes has to do with how you would take Apple Watch-centric phone calls when you have a Bluetooth headset or headphones connected to your iPhone, and a newly released jailbreak tweak called AnswerOnHeadphones by iOS developer CardboardFace aims to fix this once and for all.

This tweak displays a notification when your AirPods case gets low on battery

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 26, 2020

Your AirPods are a piece of peripheral hardware with no useful battery indicator on them apart from a few limited features that are built into iOS. For example, you can open your AirPods case to view the battery percentage in the pairing interface, or you can look at the Today widget to see the remaining battery life for any paired AirPods.

These limitations mean that it’s easy to wear your AirPods’ battery down to near-zero, and this includes the charging case you use to keep them kicking all day long. At some point, they’ll just run out of battery, but with a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called AirPods Case Low Battery by iOS developer Jackson Sykes, you can at least receive a low battery notification banner when the charging case’s charge gets too low for comfort.