iOS 12

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: Horizon, Nighthawk, and more

There have been so many interesting teasers involving the new checkm8 bootrom exploit that we seriously can’t wait to see what becomes of it, but for those who might be jailbroken on iOS 11 or iOS 12 with Chimera, Electra, or unc0ver in the meantime, we’ve put together a comprehensive list of this week’s jailbreak tweak releases for your convenience.

In this roundup, we’ll dive into things by discussing our favorite jailbreak tweak releases fist and then wrap things up with an outline the rest afterward.

Luca Todesco teases progress on checkra1n, a checkm8-based jailbreak

Just over a week ago, well-respected hacker and security researcher Luca Todesco took to Twitter to tease an all-new custom boot logo and frame buffer concept for checkra1n, a purported jailbreak utility that would be based on the recently-released checkm8 bootrom exploit from @axi0mX. Fortunately, the teasers haven’t stopped there.

Just this weekend, the official checkra1n Twitter page teased an image of what appears to be both a seventh-generation iPod touch and an iPhone SE – each running iOS 13 – with the checkra1n jailbreak app present on the Home screen.

Sileo v1.5.0 brings 30% speed boost, iOS 13 support, and more

Anyone enjoying a jailbreak by way of the Electra Team’s Chimera or Electra tools will want to fire up the jailbreak’s native Sileo package manager and refresh its sources this weekend.

The Sileo Team released an updated version of the Sileo package manager on Saturday, bringing it up to version 1.5.0 with significant speed boosts, preliminary support for iOS 13, and dark mode-centric aesthetic improvements. The announcement was made early this morning via Twitter:

PhotoInfo adds image resolution and size data to the Photos app

The iPhone’s advanced photography capabilities make it incredibly easy to fill your Photo Library with images. On the other hand, iOS’ Photos app doesn’t do as great of a job of communicating file attributes as we’d like.

Given the circumstances described above, we’re particularly excited to show you a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called PhotoInfo by iOS developer shepgoba.

Nighthawk emphasizes any jailbroken iPhone’s OLED display

Many of Apple’s latest handsets sport OLED display panels, which exhibit higher contrast ratios and deeper black colors when compared with older LCD display panels. If you’re fortunate enough to have a jailbreak on one of these devices, then there’s no doubt that you could take better advantage of your OLED display with the help of a modern jailbreak tweak.

Enter Nighthawk, a new release by iOS developer Dylan Duff that transforms many of iOS’ native blurred-background interfaces into OLED-friendly pitch-black masterpieces.

Customize the look and feel of your Settings app with Horizon

One of the great things about having a jailbroken iPhone or iPad is having the ability to customize the appearance of nearly any interface element. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of jailbreak tweaks that can help you do this.

If you’re just refreshing your Cydia or Sileo sources for the first time this week, then you might have noticed a particularly interesting new release under the Changes tab called Horizon by iOS developer Sirius24. This tweak effectively lets you customize the native Settings application however you want.

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: BoardBanners12, Flow, and more

It’s a great time to be a jailbreaker, especially if you’re using the iOS platform. With current jailbreaks available for iOS 11 and 12, support for A12(X) readily available in public beta, and with exciting works involving the new checkm8 bootrom exploit to be released in the foreseeable future, it seems like almost anything might be possible.

With that in mind, we’d like to take a closer look at all the latest jailbreak tweaks to be released. In this piece, we’ll talk about all our favorite new tweaks first and then outline the rest afterward.

Luca Todesco shows off custom boot logo and frame buffer concept via checkm8 exploit

If you’ve been paying any attention to the jailbreak community recently, then you’ve undoubtedly caught wind about the new checkm8 bootrom exploit.

Given how checkm8 is a bootrom exploit, it can’t be patched with a software update, and it works on all A5-A11 devices up to and including the iPhone X. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise to anyone that avid jailbreak developers are attempting to get their hands dirty with it.

Flow: A modernized Cover Flow UI for your jailbroken handset

I still remember the early days when Apple placed a heavy emphasis on Cover Flow for browsing your music library. While those days might be over, we’ve taken a particular liking to a newly released jailbreak tweak called Flow by iOS developer Muirey03, as it puts a modernized spin on the classic Cover Flow media view.

Those who remember Cover Flow probably remember it one of two ways: 1) clunky; or 2) simplistic. Cover Flow appeared nice to look at, but it wasn’t always as refined or fluid as I would have liked. Flow, on the other hand, modernizes the Cover Flow concept such that it not only looks good, but works just as well.

RomanPad puts roman numerals on the numeric keypads in iOS

Roman numerals appear to be making a comeback in popularity, and for those who demand classiness from everything they touch, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Just last week, we showed you a jailbreak tweak that adjusted the Status Bar time to appear as roman numerals instead of standard numbers. But with a newly released and free add-on called RomanPad (Beta) by iOS developer Simalary, you can enjoy a similar experience on any number pad in iOS, including the passcode entry screen and the Phone app’s dial pad.

BoardBanner13 makes notification banners more notch-friendly

If your jailbroken iPhone sports the controversial notch at the top, then we’ve got some exciting news for you. A newly released jailbreak tweak called BoardBanner13 (iOS 12~13) by iOS developer PeterDev can modify your handset’s incoming notification banners to make them a lot more notch-friendly.

As depicted in the screenshot examples above, BoardBanner13 pushes the notification banner up and into the notch at the top of the display, effectively filling all the screen real estate that is normally ignored by Apple’s native banner notification implementation. The tweak is purportedly based on a concept that surfaced on Twitter earlier this month.