iOS 11

Bedrock brings Minecraft’s funny splash screen messages to your Lock screen

It was only a couple of weeks ago that we broke the news about a jailbreak tweak release called McSettings that could theme your Settings app to look and feel more like the popular Minecraft game, but now you can do the same with your Lock screen with the help of a new add-on called Bedrock by iOS developer Samg_is_a_Ninja.

As you might’ve discerned for yourself already, Bedrock brings the nostalgic Minecraft-centric splash screen messages to your iPhone’s Lock screen. These are generally one-liners and somewhat tacky, but Minecraft lovers will be excited to hear that they animate precisely as they would in the game on your computer.

New concept reimagines the process of changing a jailbroken handset’s root password

Anytime you jailbreak an iOS device, one of the first things you’re ever advised to do is change your handset’s root password, which is commonly used to access elevated privileges in mobile terminal when entering complex commands. The password is always “alpine” out of the box, but users can change this to almost anything they want to increase their handset's security from a commonly-known password.

As imperative as changing the root password may be, many jailbreakers either forget to do so or shrug off its importance. For that reason, we’re particularly fond of a sleek concept that was shared to /r/jailbreak over the weekend that rethinks the way jailbreakers will interact with their root password after jailbreaking their handset for the first time.

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: Appaze, PortraitXI, WeatherUnlockText, and more

We fashion together an easy-to-digest jailbreak tweak roundup every week such that you can make well-informed decisions about what to install on your pwned handset. This week is no different.

In this roundup, we’ll talk about all the latest jailbreak tweaks to be released on most significant repositories from Monday, August 5th to Sunday, August 11th. As always, we’ll discuss our favorite releases first and then cap things off with an outline of the rest afterward.

Appaze lets you set brightness and volume levels on a per-app basis

If you’ve ever fancied setting custom display brightness and/or speaker volume levels for individual apps before, then it’s your lucky day. A newly-released jailbreak tweak dubbed Appaze by iOS developer AnthoPak lets you do these things with ease.

As shown in the screenshot examples above, Appaze utilizes the Home screen’s native 3D Touch menus to function. Upon pressing firmly on an app icon to reveal its menu, users will find two new additions, including “Set custom brightness” and “Set custom volume” at the top of the list.

PortraitXI enables native Portrait photography on single-lens handsets

Apple’s iPhones sport some of the best mobile point-and-shoot cameras in the industry. While their megapixel counts aren’t always as high as some of the Android-powered handsets out there, an iPhone’s camera stands apart from the rest because of the powerful software that drives it, and this includes the Portrait mode that comes baked into the native Camera app.

Portrait mode comes in handy at times when trying to snap the ideal photograph of a subject – be it an object or a person. Sadly, it’s limited to handsets that are equipped with dual cameras, with the iPhone XR being the lone exception to this rule, but jailbreakers can now take advantage of a newly-released jailbreak tweak called PortraitXI by iOS developer foxfortmobile to circumvent this needless limitation.

This tweak replaces your iPhone’s ‘swipe up to unlock’ text with weather info

If you’ve been using an iPhone for more than a week, then you probably don’t need to be reminded to “swipe up to unlock” or “press home to unlock.” Apple designs its devices to display this text whenever you’re looking at your locked handset’s Lock screen, and to some, it feels unnecessary.

If you’re ready to rid yourself of that silly text with something more useful, then chances are you’ll come to appreciate a newly-released and free jailbreak tweak called WeatherUnlockText by iOS developer XCXiao. This tweak replaces the standard text string with weather information for your current location, as shown in the screenshot example above.

Sileo v1.2.9 released with improved download manager, faster interface, and more

If you’re enjoying an iOS 11 or iOS 12 jailbreak by way of the Electra Team’s Chimera or Electra tools, then you might be excited to learn that the Sileo Team released an updated version of the Sileo package manager Sunday morning, bringing the public release up to version 1.2.9.

The Sileo Team announced the update early this morning via Twitter, noting that it would make the user interface significantly faster when doing critical tasks such as refreshing sources or downloading packages:

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: AwesomePageDots, QuickCC, StickAround, and more

It's been a crazy a week with all these jailbreak tool updates and what not, but if you've been keeping up with it all and you're interested in tweaking your pwned handset, then you're in the right place.

In this roundup, we’ll talk about all the latest jailbreak tweaks to be released from Monday, July 29th to Sunday, August 4th. As usual, we’ll kick things off by discussing our favorite releases and then wrap everything up with an outline of the rest afterward.

This tweak makes Control Center’s Bluetooth and Wi-Fi toggles more interactive

The Bluetooth and Wi-Fi toggles that Apple tucks away inside of Control Center can be useful at times, but they lack the level of interactivity that I’d expect from 21st Century software. Apple’s iOS 13 update this Fall will change this by letting users interact with nearby Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices directly from Control Center, but those running iOS 12 or earlier aren’t so lucky.

Enter QuickCC, a newly-released and free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer ichitaso that brings this iOS 13-centric functionality to pwned iOS 11 and 12 devices for users who demand more from their software.

Customize the sound and appearance of your iPhone’s keyboard with CuKey

The keyboard is something that most iPhone and iPad users will interact with on a daily basis, and with that in mind, it makes sense that some users might want to make it theirs.

If you agree with the idea above, then you’ll likely come to appreciate a newly-released and free jailbreak tweak called CuKey by iOS developer DevelopApple. This tweak lets you customize a variety of keyboard-centric attributes, such as its appearance and sound, among other things.