Jailbreak Apps & Tweaks

SwipeExpander is a new jailbreak tweak that brings powerful keyboard shortcut gestures to the iPhone à la AltKeyboard. The tweak employs swipe-up and swipe-down keyboard gestures to invoke a variety of different actions, from mundane copy/paste shortcuts, to insert text shortcuts.

One of the cool things about SwipeExpander is that lowercase and uppercase keys are deemed separate, meaning you can have a large variety of keyboard gestures across the 26 letters in the english alphabet. But that's not all, SwipeExpander plays nice with well-known and respected keyboard related tweaks like SwipeSelection, PredictiveKeyboard, and more. Check out our hands-on video inside.

AltKeyboard 2 is a follow-up to the uber-popular A3tweaks release, AltKeyboard. It is perhaps only surpassed in expectation by the brand’s Auxo 2, which released earlier this year to much anticipation.

The rumblings about an iOS 7 compatible version of AltKeyboard have seemingly been around since iOS 7 was first jailbroken, or maybe even before that. Needless to say, AltKeyboard is one of the most popular jailbreak tweaks in the community.

It’s understandable why the tweak proves to be so popular. iOS’ stock keyboard is extremely small on the iPhone, and lacks any features like "swyping," or a 5th row of keys. Because the iPhone has pretty-much maintained its diminutive form factor throughout its lifespan, there’s just not a lot of room for keyboard expansion when it comes to literally increasing the size of the keys or the number of available keys available on screen at once.

With that in mind, AltKeyboard 2 builds on the same formula that made the original release such a success. It adds functionality to the stock keyboard without increasing its size. Have a look at our full walkthrough of AltKeyboard 2 after the jump.

SlideCut is a brand new jailbreak tweak from developer r_plus. Whenever I see this developer's name behind a tweak, it piques my interest, because they're usually innovative and fun to use. SlideCut is no different.

SlideCut allows you to slide from your spacebar key to any shortcut key to execute an action. For example, you can slide from the spacebar to the 'A' key to select all, or slide from the keyboard to the 'C' key to copy the highlighted text.

We've got a full video walkthrough of SlideCut in action. Have a look inside to see how it works.

Sometimes you just want to switch up the look and feel of things, and that is what Color Keyboard for iOS 7 allows you to do. As you might have imagined, Color Keyboard is not new to the jailbreak scene. It's a tweak that's been available for lesser firmware, but was just recently updated to cooperate with iOS 7.

Update: with the release of iOS 8, Apple now allows third-party keyboards in the App Store. If you're looking for a different keyboard for your iPhone or iPad, make sure to check out our list of iOS 8 keyboards.

If you've used Color Keyboard in the past, then you'll be intimately familiar with the contents of the iOS 7 version of the tweak. If you want to change up the look of your keyboard, then Color Keyboard for iOS 7 is one of the best tweaks that you can use. Have a look inside as we delve into Color Keyboard for iOS 7's feature-set on video.

If you've been keeping your ear to the street as of late, you're well aware of the Nintype/Hipjot keyboard tweak that's currently in development for Cydia. Unlike most Cydia releases, the Hipjot keyboard implementation is being worked on by the developer of the App Store version—Jormy Games—so you can expect a release that's about as faithful as possible to the developer's original vision.

Comparable to keyboard technology like Swype, Hipjot adds a keyboard that largely departs from Apple's stock iOS keyboard. It allows you to use swiping gestures to go from one character to the next in order to build full words, sentences, and paragraphs. The unique text entry method allows its users to type much faster than is possible on a standard iOS keyboard, with some users reaching upwards of 70-90 words per minute without breaking much of a sweat.

I've had the chance to go hands-on with the Cydia version of the keyboard, and I can tell you that it makes typing much faster. Being able to use Hipjot with stock iOS apps, and 3rd-party apps makes typing a breeze. Inside we've created a preview video of the beta build so that you can see how the keyboard works in action with stock applications.