tweak

Eight 'tweak' stories November 2011 - May 2014

OkSiri brings always-on voice control to jailbroken iOS devices

Mike Beasley May 29 2014 - 5:32 pm PT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNUBWqr3AI4

Even if you’re strictly an iOS user, you’ve probably heard of Android’s “Ok Google” command, which automatically brings up the Google Now voice control interface from the home screen. iOS doesn’t really have an equivalent feature. In order to bring up Siri, you have to hold the home button down for a few seconds.

Today a new jailbreak tweak called OkSiri was released that enables the same functionality on iOS devices. It works just like you see in the video above, though there are a few little annoyances. Keep reading for a full breakdown on the upsides and downsides to this tweak.

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ActiveBoard jailbreak tweak is a beautiful way to stay on top of missed notifications and running apps (video)

Dom Esposito May 23 2014 - 9:49 am PT

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activ

ActiveBoard is a new tweak for iOS 7 that adds a couple of useful features to the home screen. Using a pulsating glow behind app icons, ActiveBoard will let you know if an app has a notification or is running in the background. A red glow and bouncing animation will indicate a missed or unread notification, while a white glow informs you of the app’s background status.

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Facebook releases ‘Tweaks’ tool to help devs iterate on their apps faster

Benjamin Mayo Mar 25 2014 - 11:49 am PT

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Facebook has today open-sourced its rapid prototyping tool ‘Tweaks’, a framework that helps application developers quickly iterate on their projects and test out different possibilities for their iOS apps.

The best way to improve an app is to use it every day. Even when ideas can be tested out in advance — for example, with Origami — it can still take some time with the app to see how it works in practice.

Occasionally, it’s perfect the first try. Sometimes, the idea doesn’t work at all. But often, it just needs a few minor adjustments. That last case is where Tweaks fits in. Tweaks makes those small adjustments easy: with no code changes and no computer, you can try out different options and decide which works best.

Tweaks makes it really simple for developers to adjust parameters and properties in their application and then test them out in realtime. This is particularly useful for rapid user interface development, which often consists of merely tweaking parameters (like colors or durations) than any involved work. Normally, developers have to recompile application binaries in order to change animation curves, durations or other parameters. This is relatively slow and inefficient.

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Tweak enables free iOS hotspot tethering on T-Mobile without jailbreak

Jordan Kahn Jul 8 2013 - 7:14 am PT

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A new tweak available without a jailbreak claims to enable free hotspot tethering on devices running iOS 6 and 7 for at least T-Mobile in the US. It comes to us from iTweakiOS, the same people providing hacked carrier profiles enabling features such as wideband audio and faster data speeds for various US carriers. In theory the hack could work for other GSM carriers, but there is still some work to be done to get it up and running on AT&T. On it’s website the guys explained exactly how the tweak works:

Many of you may remember a story I put out awhile back talking about how CommCenter blocks edited carrier.plist files and I may have found a work aroun to get things like personal hotspot enabled. Well, I’ve found the solution, but first, let’s talk about why CommCenter blocks plist editing. This happens because of the very thing we’re doing right now, which i suspect will likely be patched quickly by iOS 7 GM release time. People were enabling tethering by modifying the original carrier.plist files and this stopped entirely when Apple implemented signatures into the carrier.plist files and creating what we all know as CommCenter which is the process that checks these signatures. So, the challenge was finding a way to enable hotspot without CommCenter checks and verifications. After months of research and digging, I’ve finally found a genuine workaround to enable this great feature and its quite simple, really.

Step-by-step instructions are available through the iTweakiOS website now, but the process is a little more in-depth than some of the other hacks released through the website in the past. The post warns that the tweak has only been tested on T-Mobile and that AT&T users “will need to tinker around and test a bit to get it operational.” If you’re up for a bit of .plist editing and likely some trial and error if you’re on AT&T, you can find the full instructions here.

MiniPlayer jailbreak tweak updated with brand-new design

Mike Beasley May 8 2013 - 10:25 am PT

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Fans of the iTunes 11 mini-player will be excited for the newest version of the jailbreak tweak MiniPlayer. The 2.0 update brings a newly-redesigned interface that better matches the iTunes version, as well as the ability to dock it on either side of the screen. The docked player can be moved up or down the screen as needed to keep it out of the way of whatever app you’re using.

MiniPlayer has a few settings that allow you to hide it on the lockscreen, whenenver the music is paused, or by triggering an Activator action. Tapping the album artwork brings up whichever app is currently playing music (it works with any background audio app), and tapping the metadata of the song brings up playback controls.

MiniPlayer 2.0 is a free update for existing users, or a $1.99 purchase for new users on the BigBoss repo.

Another impressive lock screen mod shows how much innovation is possible from Apple in iOS 7

Jordan Kahn Mar 11 2013 - 7:25 am PT

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Peekly-iPhone-jailbreak-tweak

We recently showed you some of the possible innovative and or highly requested new features Apple could add in the next version of iOS. It’s unclear whether Jony Ive’s new software design responsibilities will lead to a radically new design for iOS 7, but many features of iOS are becoming more and more outdated with every slick new jailbreak tweak that gets released. One example is the lock screen—something that new jailbreak tweak Peekly aims to revamp.

Peekly brings weather, a selection of clocks, and a 3-month calendar in a two-page theme that reimagines the lock screen:

Peekly is a 2 page lockscreen theme for iOS. On the first page, you get the time and date. Currently you can choose between the default clock, a digital clock or no clock/date at all. More clocks coming soon! Dragging your lockscreen to the right will allow you to “Peek” at a 3 month calendar. This is the default peek. You can currently choose to put in a Twitter feed, yourGoogle Calendar events or an RSS feed. More options will be added soon. Swiping the lockscreen to the left will bring you to page 2, which has today’s weather. “Peeking” to the left on this page will show you a 4 day forecast.

Cydia utility adds push notifications to Sparrow on Jailbroken iPhones

Seth Weintraub Mar 19 2012 - 7:32 am PT

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Sparrow [iTunes $2.99] is proving to be a very popular email client for the iPhone save for one very important piece. Apple rescinded the app’s push notification ability before its public release, meaning it is effectively neutered for real time messaging. That is a bummer for the otherwise impressive mail client. Not all hope is lost, however.

If Sparrow lovers were looking for a reason to jailbreak, you now have one. IpuIpu has your Sparrow Push notifications here:

iPhone Jailbreak tweak for the popular iPhone app Sparrow, which enables eMail push notification when the app is in the background making Sparrow a real replacement for the stock Mail application.

It also makes an effort to not drain your battery:

Sparrow Push uses a very efficient implementation using the same APIs that VoIP apps like Skype use. Since there is an additional, permanent internet connection and Sparrow becomes active everytime there is activity in the email account, there will be a higher battery usage, but it should be comparable to what Apple Mail’s exchange push implementation is.

Update: The tweak’s developer noted in the comments that Sparrow Push is ~~$3.99~~ actually free and will be live on the Cydia App Store soon.

Update 2: It is live on Big Boss!

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iOS 5 hides an Android-like autocorrect keyboard bar, here’s how to enable it

Mark Gurman Nov 9 2011 - 6:34 pm PT

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In addition to the hidden panorama mode, iOS 5 hides another secret feature: an Android-like autocorrect keyboard bar. As you can see in the screenshot above, courtesy of Sonny Dickson, the bar lets users pick from a series of word choices. Here’s how to enable it:

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