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Starscape: A curious new aesthetic for banner notifications on jailbroken handsets

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 15, 2021

Banner notifications are a critical component of the notification system found on iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads. Whenever you miss a notification, regardless of which app it’s coming from, the operating system displays a banner to keep you in the loop of what’s going on.

Like many things in Apple’s fully integrated software ecosystem, banner notifications aren’t aesthetically customizable. With that in mind, it’s easy to see why banner notifications are often the topic of interest with respect to jailbreak tweaks.

Get Lottie-style notification banner animations on your jailbroken iPhone with LottieNotifications

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 30, 2022

Since the start of January, we’ve witnessed and covered a number of jailbreak tweak releases intended to port fun and quicky Lottie-style notifications to the iOS and iPadOS platforms.

LottieLockscreen was the first of such releases, and as the name implies, it offered Lottie-style animations for the Lock Screen. A few days later, LottieStatusBar became available, and it brought similar animations to the Status Bar. Today, we’re looking at another addition to the Lottie tweak family.

Jailbreakers can customize their Home Screen’s app icon labels with Labels+

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 2, 2023

One of the things we just can’t help but notice about the Home Screen is the fact that each individual app icon sports its own label — typically designating the respective app’s name.

Apple doesn’t provide users with much customization when it comes to the Home Screen’s app icon labels. The only arguable exceptions are that the icon labels may switch between black and white depending on the color of the Home Screen’s wallpaper and that users may embolden the app icon labels by enabling bold text system-wide.

Colorize Control Center’s connectivity module toggles with Aestea Revived

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated June 2, 2021

One of my favorite elements of Control Center is the connectivity module, which resides on the top shelf of the interface and provides nearly all of the toggle buttons for my handset’s wireless radios, including Bluetooth, Cellular, Wi-Fi, and a handy button for immediate access to Airplane Mode, among other things.

As much as I like the connectivity module in terms of its functionality, I’ve always thought that it would be more exciting if Apple provided a way for users to colorize the user experience to suit their tastes. While it doesn’t seem that Apple shares the same interests that I do, a free jailbreak tweak dubbed Aestea Revived by iOS developers Litten and Luki120 certainly hits close to home on the subject.

LottieStatusBar brings Lottie-inspired animations to the Status Bar

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 30, 2022

It was only a couple of days ago that we showed you a jailbreak tweak dubbed LottieLockscreen by iOS developer MiRO. In a nutshell, it brought fun and quirky Lottie-style animations to the Lock Screen on jailbroken iPhones. The tweak’s popularity rapidly gained momentum following its release, and as such, we knew it would only be a matter of time before the developer expanded the concept to other interfaces of iOS.

LottieStatusBar is the latest of such expansions, and just as the tweak’s rather conspicuous name implies, it ports these Lottie-style animations to the handset’s Status Bar.

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.

Gears animates the Home Screen’s Settings icon on jailbroken handsets

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 3, 2021

When glancing at my iPhone’s Home Screen, two of the icons I often pay the most attention to are those belonging to the Calendar and Clock apps since they offer something more than just a static visual, including a live date display and a live time display.

I’ve often caught myself wondering why Apple doesn’t animate more of the Home Screen’s app icons, as this would offer a slew of eye-catching aesthetics that would compel users to spend more time appreciating the time and effort invested in making the interface look presentable.

SmartVolumeControl3 provides alternative volume HUD interfaces & customizable behavior

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated October 18, 2021

As many veteran iPhone and iPad owners may remember, last year’s iOS & iPadOS 13 release introduced an overhauled volume HUD interface that removed the repulsive mid-screen monstrosity that we were plagued with for countless years. The newer volume HUD materializes off to the side of the display, precluding it from getting in the way as you try to read, watch a video, or peek at photos.

But let’s say that even the newer iOS & iPadOS 13 volume HUD doesn’t do it for you… what then? If you’re not jailbroken, then we can’t offer much of a remedy, but if you are, then we think you’ll probably enjoy a newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed SmartVolumeControl3 by iOS developer midkin due to the myriad of alternative volume HUD interfaces it brings to the table.

Customize your handset’s folder backgrounds with FolderArtwork

Anthony Bouchard ∙ December 29, 2020

If your Home Screen is riddled with more apps than you can count with the fingers on your hands and the toes on your feet, then you might use folders to help organize the superfluous clutter. As useful as they are for this purpose, however, they could definitely do with a bit more customization.

FolderArtwork is a newly released and free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Dcsyhi that offers several means of customizing your Home Screen’s folders, ranging from user-selected background artwork to custom borders and colors.

Give your Camera app a Sci-Fi-inspired makeover with FuturistiCam

Anthony Bouchard ∙ December 21, 2020

Jailbreakers who open their favorite package manager and refresh their sources this weekend will likely happen upon a peculiar and newly released jailbreak tweak dubbed FuturistiCam by iOS developer PlatYkor.

At first glance, FuturistiCam makes iOS’ native Camera app user interface look like something right out of a science fiction movie. It appears to bring custom aesthetics and sound effects to the Camera app so that it’s both fun to use for the end user and attention piquing to anyone who might be around you.