Lockscreen

Vinyl shrinks iOS’ oversized Now Playing widget and makes it more customizable

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 2, 2021

I’ve got nothing against the iPhone’s Now Playing widget; after all, it’s a convenient tool for controlling media playback from the Lock Screen without going through the process of unlocking your device and launching the Now Playing app every time you want to make a small adjustment.

Praise aside, I also agree with anyone who says that the Lock Screen’s Now Playing widget is larger than it needs to be, and that’s one reason why I’m excited about a new and free jailbreak tweak release dubbed Vinyl by iOS developer Lightmann.

TinyWidget14 puts the Lock Screen’s Now Playing widget on a diet

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 23, 2021

Most iPhone users are familiar with the Now Playing widget. It’s the thing that pops on your Lock Screen whenever you have any type of media playing in the background.

While it’s useful for granular playback controls, the Now Playing widget certainly takes up a lot of vertical screen real estate on the Lock Screen, which severely limits available space for missed notification banners. Fortunately, a new and free jailbreak tweak dubbed TinyWidget14 by iOS developer P2KDev puts the Now Playing widget on a diet.

Got a checkra1n’d iPhone X with iOS 14 without a passcode? This tweak is for you

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 13, 2021

If you’re using a Face ID-enabled handset without a passcode, which might very well be the case if you’re using the checkra1n jailbreak on the iPhone X with iOS 14, then you may notice how interacting with notifications from the Lock Screen takes more effort than it needs to.

More specifically, if you don’t have a passcode, then tapping on a notification banner from the Lock Screen reveals an Open button that must be tapped before you’re brought to the app’s interface to interact with the missed notification.

ButterflyEffect adds animated butterflies to the Home & Lock Screens

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 6, 2021

Do you enjoy butterflies? If you answered ‘yes’ to that question, then you might find yourself intrigued by a new, free, and rather conspicuously-named jailbreak tweak dubbed ButterflyEffect by iOS developer Pixelomer.

At first glance, ButterflyEffect causes animated butterfly-themed sprites to flutter over the top of your Home Screen and Lock Screen wallpapers. These animations traverse your screen from the bottom to the top and move slowly enough to be noticed, yet fast enough not to get in the way of your wallpaper viewing pleasure.

LottieLockscreen gives the Lock Screen quirky Lottie-style animations

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 30, 2022

One of the things I appreciate most about having a jailbroken iPhone at my disposal is that I can simply download a single jailbreak tweak and suddenly have a user interface that transcends the appearance of any stock handset in circulation. Whether you’re into making a native interface look more impressive than it does out of the box, or you want something flashy that will garner attention from anyone around you, there’s something for everyone.

One of the latest of such jailbreak tweaks is a new and free release dubbed LottieLockscreen by iOS developer MiRO, and as you’re about to witness for yourself, the tweak takes various angles of approach for augmenting the Lock Screen’s aesthetics.

Customize your jailbroken iPhone’s locking animation with AnimeMyScreen Pro

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 4, 2021

Many jailbreakers are deeply familiar with the concept of customizing their handset’s user interface and its animations. While there’s certainly no shortage of jailbreak tweaks available for facilitating this task, we’re excited to show you one of the latest releases dubbed AnimeMyScreen Pro by iOS developer Antony M.

You may recall a similarly named jailbreak tweak called AnimeMyBadges that was released approximately one month ago, and while that tweak focused primarily on the animations of notification badges, AnimeMyScreen Pro is instead used to customize the animation you’d see when locking your handset.

Upgrade your jailbroken iPhone’s Do Not Disturb indicator with Lune

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated October 27, 2021

Apple’s iPhone and iPad come standard with a notification-hampering feature known as Do Not Disturb, which can keep your handset silent when you don’t feel like being bothered by rings, dings, and other noises. More recently, Do Not Disturb began showing an unsightly banner on the Lock Screen when enabled, and not all users have taken kindly to it.

Lune is a free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Litten that was just recently rewritten from scratch to provide a new way of discerning when Do Not Disturb is turned on via the Lock Screen. It does so by displaying a configurable Moon icon wherever the user may choose to put it, just as depicted in the screenshot example above.

TextTime gives jailbreakers a text-based Lock Screen time display

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 12, 2020

The iPhone’s Lock Screen was designed to show the current date and time at a glance, and it does a particularly good job of it right out of the box. The large numerical display that comes from the factory makes discerning the current time an effortless task. But let’s say you’re jailbroken and want something fancier…

TextTime is a newly released and free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Lightmann that changes how the iPhone’s Lock Screen displays the current time. It does this by switching from a digital numeric readout to a word-based readout that quite literally spells the time out for you.

Add a splash of color to iOS’ dialer and passcode interfaces with DialerGradient

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated December 9, 2021

Apple’s software user interfaces are somewhat notorious for being both streamlined and professional, but they also tend to be on the bland side of things. The company isn’t known for offering much in the customization department, and this can be a serious pain point for those who demand more personality from their iPhone’s user interface. Fortunately, jailbreak tweaks aplenty can help out with this limiting aspect of iOS.

Enter DialerGradient, a newly released jailbreak tweak by iOS developer NaneraManu that lets iPhone users customize virtually any parameter of their handset’s numeric dialer interfaces, whether it’s the Lock Screen’s passcode interface or the Phone app’s dial pad.

Numberfications upgrades Notification Center with numeric clear buttons

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 12, 2020

As you use Notification Center to peruse your missed notifications, there might come a time when you need to clear some out of your way. This is why Apple provides the “X” button for clearing certain notifications; but what if the clear button served an even more utilitarian purpose than it already does?

Say hello to a brand new and free jailbreak tweak dubbed Numberfications by iOS developer EthanRDoesMC. This tweak effectively replaces the useless “X” in Notification Center’s individual clear buttons with a number to designate just how many notifications are nestled within that particular group.

Axon Reborn groups missed notifications on the Lock Screen by app

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 25, 2020

Longtime jailbreakers will probably remember Priority Hub as one of the best notification-centric jailbreak tweaks of all time. It was so popular that after the original developer stopped maintaining it, iOS developer Nepeta came out with an alternative to Priority Hub dubbed Axon mid-last year that brought with it full-fledged support for pwned iOS 11 and 12 devices.

We entered the age of the jailbroken iOS 13 device a rather long time ago, and as you might come to expect, history tends to repeat itself. With that sentiment in mind, it may be too surprising that Nepeta has released a new and free jailbreak tweak called Axon Reborn with novel support for pwned iOS 13 devices.

Access your favorite contacts from anywhere in iOS with QuickConnect

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 25, 2020

By now, most folks already know that iOS 14 will permit users to pin their favorite conversations at the top of the Messages app. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could pin your favorite contacts to various parts of iOS system wide as opposed to being confined to just one app?

That’s the thinking behind a newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed QuickConnect by iOS developer Elias Sfeir, and as depicted in the screenshot examples above, the tweak lets users pin their favorite contacts to frequently used parts of the iOS platform, including the App Switcher and the Lock Screen.