Theme

Enchant upgrades notification aesthetics on jailbroken iPhones

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 4, 2021

One of my favorite things to do with a jailbroken iPhone or iPad is customize the native user interface — something that Apple doesn’t generally let you do out of the box because they feel that their team of designers know best, and shame on you for even thinking that you might be able to make something look better. But I digress…

Enchant is a newly released jailbreak tweak by iOS developer P2KDev that lets you customize the appearance of your pwned handset’s incoming notifications. With it, you can achieve a wide variety of aesthetics ranging from nearly stock to polarizingly different; whichever floats your boat.

Jailbreakers can customize the Now Playing widget with aquarius

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 4, 2021

If you’re jailbroken and listen to lots of music, then chances are you interface with the Lock Screen’s Now Playing widget rather often and might take an interest in customizing it.

iOS developer Nico Carbone has just released a new and free jailbreak tweak called aquarius that permits jailbreakers to personalize the Now Playing widget with minimal effort.

HomePlus Pro lets jailbroken iOS 14 users customize the Home Screen’s layout

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 1, 2021

Longtime jailbreakers will remember that one of the most popular pastimes would have been customizing the Home Screen layout with an arbitrary number of rows and columns to fit the growing number of apps we use on our handsets these days. Some liked higher app icon density on each page, while others preferred to lighten things up.

Last year, iOS developer Kritanta released HomePlus Pro, which offered granular Home Screen layout customization on demand for jailbroken iOS 13 devices. Now that unc0ver has picked up support for iOS 14.0-14.3, it may not come as much of a surprise that HomePlus Pro is available for jailbroken iOS 14 devices as well.

Add a splash of color to the iOS 14 Home Screen’s Dock with ColourMyDock

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated April 16, 2022

If you just jailbroke your iPhone or iPad on iOS or iPadOS 14 with the newly updated unc0ver jailbreak tool this past weekend, then you might be interested in finding some jailbreak tweaks to get your handset customization off to an acceptable start.

With that in mind, we’ll take this moment to recommend a newly released and free jailbreak tweak dubbed ColourMyDock by iOS developer TitanD3v, which allows jailbreakers to colorize their Home Screen’s Dock color with ease.

Astolfo lets jailbreakers apply custom backgrounds to Siri in iOS 14

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 26, 2021

I really like what Apple has done with the Siri interface in iOS & iPadOS 14 — especially when compared with iOS & iPadOS 13 and earlier. The new interface doesn’t take up as much space and has a more aesthetically pleasing interaction button, but in Apple’s typical fashion, even the new interface lacks user-driven customization.

Those looking to do more with the Siri interface are likely to give the nod of approval to a free jailbreak tweak called Astolfo, which was recently updated with iOS & iPadOS 14 in mind by iOS developer Litten. As some may remember, the tweak was originally worked on by Nepeta.

Cylinder Reborn: Barrel-inspired Home Screen paging animations for pwned iOS 13 & 14 devices

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated June 15, 2021

When I first got into jailbreaking more than a decade ago, one of the first jailbreak tweaks to pique my interest was one called Barrel. It could animate the Home Screen’s app icons in unique ways with every swipe between Home Screen pages.

Barrel is no longer actively maintained, which is why the Cylinder tweak launched back in 2014. Today, we’re excited to share news of the release of Cylinder Reborn by iOS developers Ryan Nair and Reed Weichler — the latest iteration of the tweak designed for iOS & iPadOS 13 and 14.

Fresh UI concept reimagines the iPhone’s Settings app

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 16, 2021

iOS is a far cry from being an ugly mobile operating system, but there’s certainly a bit of wiggle room for Apple to improve on it. Unfortunately, first party redesigns from Apple can be few and far in between.

Amid those circumstances, it’s not uncommon for third parties to develop concepts for jailbreak tweaks or themes that make an interface more aesthetically pleasing than it comes out of the box.

Trouble picking the perfect wallpaper for your pwned iPhone? DoABarrelWall can help

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated August 16, 2021

Selecting a wallpaper for your iPhone can be one of the most intimate manners of customization that you’ll get to experience, and that’s because it’s a personalized image that you’ll see every time you pick up your handset to start using it.

The primary concern with choosing a wallpaper, however, is that the quest to find the right one can be daunting. Whether you’re struggling to find one you like or you simply can’t make up your mind with regard to several that you like, choosing a wallpaper poses a unique set of challenges for the indecisive.

Tint your favorite apps with the new Meredith jailbreak tweak

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 16, 2021

One of the most obvious benefits to jailbreaking is that you can customize how your system looks and behaves without Apple look over your shoulder and limiting what you can and cannot do.

While installing themes would certainly be one of the easiest ways to make your handset look different than it does out of the box, the addition of aesthetically-driven jailbreak tweaks like the newly released Meredith by iOS developer Luki120 can help push your user experience on to the next level.

Animate or add conditional effects to notification banners with Yokumiru

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated February 5, 2021

Although the iPhone’s native notification system is faily stout in its present form, that’s not to say that it couldn’t benefit from a tiny bit of imagination. Perhaps that’s one reason why we see so many different jailbreak tweaks that change the aesthetics of iOS’ notification banners.

One of the latest of such releases is a new jailbreak tweak dubbed Yokumiru by iOS developer Plat_Ykor, which can augment incoming notification banners with slick animations, apply specialized badges to those that contain a user-designated keyword, or conceal the contents of those notification entirely until you’re ready to view them.

Croutons13 makes iOS’ breadcrumb links look more aesthetically pleasing

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated September 21, 2021

It used to be that when iOS jolted you from one app to another, you’d then need to open the App Switcher to return to what you were doing in the first app. That all changed after Apple introduced Status Bar-based breadcrumb links starting with iOS 9 and later.

To put it briefly, a breadcrumb link appears in the Status Bar as a string of text with a left-pointing arrow beside it. You’ve probably seen one after tapping on a link in an app, as this usually kicks you into either the App Store or Safari, but other apps may also apply in certain circumstances.

WidgetCustoms offers jailbroken iOS 14 users a way to personalize their widgets

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated July 8, 2021

Those using iOS or iPadOS 14 on their daily driver handset(s) are probably keenly familiar with the upgraded widget system and how it compares with the much less intuitive widget system found on iOS and iPadOS 13.

Not only can you take advantage of much more powerful widgets than ever before, but you can even choose to seat them right next to your Home Screen’s application icons if you aren’t a fan of hiding all your widgets on a specialized page. But as nice as Apple’s upgraded widget system may be on iOS & iPadOS 14 devices, one thing Apple predictably forgot to add was a mechanism for user customization.