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A look at some of the most interesting tweaks for jailbroken iOS 7 devices

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Now that the iPhone 5s and iOS 7 have been jailbroken for a while, tweak developers have had some time to evaluate the current state of iOS and find some great ways to improve on the existing features.

Below you’ll find a bunch of great iOS 7-ready tweaks for your newly-jailbroken iOS 7 devices. Most of them are free, but the ones that cost are worth the price (or maybe even more).

tinybar

TinyBar – repo.alexzielenski.com
Back on iOS 6, lots of users complained that notification banners covered up too much of the top of the screen—including half of the navigation bar and its buttons. In iOS 7, the problem has gotten worse: notifications cover the entire bar. Reaching up to tap a navigation bar button just as a notification comes in can end up pulling you into another app altogether.

iOS 6 users could alleviate this with a tweak called DietBulletin, but that doesn’t currently work on iOS 7. Thankfully, a there is a solution. The tweak is called TinyBar, and it does exactly what the name implies: it makes the notification banners take up a much smaller portion of the screen, leaving your navigation buttons untouched.

How much space the banners take up is up to you, and you can even set long notifications to scroll through the entire message. The tweak is still under active development, with new features being added regularly (just a few weeks ago it didn’t even have any settings). You can grab TinyBar for free from the developer’s Cydia repo, listed above.

ncallonly

NCAllOnly – BigBoss repo
Like the rest of the system, iOS 7’s notification center got a major overhaul and introduced a few new features. One of those features is a new tabbed interface that breaks up your notifications and other information into three sections. One of those sections, the “Missed” tab, seems unabashedly useless. If you missed a notification, it would be in the “All” tab, so why also show it in a separate view?

You can get rid of the “Missed” tab (or any tab you happen to hate) with a tweak called NCAllOnly. Don’t let the name fool you, though. The tweak doesn’t force you to use only the “All” tab. It actually has options to disable the “Today” tab and “Missed” tabs separately, so you can choose to see only the tabs you actually want to use.

flipcontrolcenter

FlipControlCenter – rpetri.ch/repo
FlipControlCenter is one of the most extendable tweaks you’ll find for iOS 7. By itself, FCC gives you full control over your existing Control Center toggles and a few extras. You can swap out the toggles at the top of the panel and the quick launch buttons at the bottom for any FlipSwitch-compatible toggle. That’s good news since most tweaks that include a toggle of some kind now use the FlipSwitch standard.

Extensions like HueHueHue add extra FlipSwitch toggles that can be put in your Control Center for quick access. For example, HueHueHue allows you to control Philips Hue lightbulbs from your phone using a Control Center button.

For security, FlipControlCenter allows you to disable any toggle from the lockscreen. That way you can still access your flashlight or Do Not Disturb toggle without having to worry about someone walking away with your phone and turning on Airplane Mode to avoid being track via Find My iPhone.

FlipControlCenter is free, though some extensions may cost (HueHueHue is $.99).

couria

Couria – http://cydia.qusic.me
Couria is the core to an extendable quick-reply system. Tapping a new Messages notification banner or entry in Notification Center (or swiping a message on the lockscreen) brings up a small reply panel that lets you fire off a reply without leaving your current app. You can also use an Activator gesture to bring up a quick-compose screen from anywhere.

Because one of Couria’s main features is its extensibility, developers can create quick-reply systems for a any app right on top of the existing system. You can also install themes for the reply sheet to fit your own tastes.

One of my favorite features of Couria is the passcode option. You can set the quick-reply panel to require a passcode (separate from your regular unlock code) before you can reply. You can decide whether the passcode requirement should apply when the device is locked or unlocked independently, or disable the code entirely.

The passcode and theming options can be set separately for each individual plugin, so your Messages quick-reply can look and behave differently from your replies for something like WhatsApp (the plugin for which has not yet been updated for iOS 7).

smscontactphotos7

SMSContactPhotos7 – BigBoss repo
Despite its unwieldy name, SMSContactPhotos7 is a pretty simple tweak. You install it and it puts contact photos next to your Messages conversations. It also adds photos next to the chat bubbles inside the threads. Unlike most other tweaks that do this, SMSContactPhotos7 doesn’t just show a blank “group” icon for group chats. Instead, it shows the photos of two people in the chat together.

Swipey ($1.99) – BigBoss repo
Swipey is an interesting new take on the iOS 7 lockscreen. While you can swipe from left to right anywhere on the lockscreen to unlock your device, swiping the opposite direction accomplishes nothing.

Swipey fills in the gap here by adding the ability to quickly launch up to six of your favorite apps by swiping right-to-left on the lockscreen. Each app shows up as its own “card” as you swipe through. To launch an app, just stop swiping and wait for a second. The app will then launch immediately and you’ll be ready to start sending messages, composing tweets, installing apps, or anything else you might want to do.

Swipey also supports passcode locks and requires you to enter your code before you can quick-launch the app of your choice.

 

BioLockdown ($1.99) – BigBoss repo
BioLockdown is a tweak for the iPhone 5s that allows users to lock apps using TouchID. You can also lock specific pages in the Settings app or FlipSwitch toggles.

The tweak also allows you to set a grace period during which you won’t be required to re-scan your fingerprint.

BioLaunch ($.99) – BigBoss repo
The name “BioLaunch” may sound similar to “BioLockdown,” but the two are only partially related. While BioLockdown is used for blocking access to apps, BioLaunch is designed to make it easier.

To use the tweak, you can assign a different app to each of your fingerprints. Then, scanning a specific finger at any time will automatically launch the app associate with that finger. So, if you assign Messages to your left index finger, scanning your left index finger at any time will bring up the Messages app.

You can also allow the app to track how much time you spend in each app and assign a finger to your favorite app. The tweak then automatically determines which app you use the most and brings it up. That’s completely optional, though, so don’t worry about the tweak tracking your usage if you don’t want it to.

BioLaunch has a few settings to protect against accidental launches. The first is an alert that confirms whether you actually meant to launch an app before opening it. The second is a quick vibration when a fingerprint scan is successful, to alert you if you accidentally leave your finger on the home button. The last setting is a ‘two-touch’ option that requires you to scan your finger twice to launch an app.

BioLaunch and BioLockdown are fully compatible, so you don’t have to choose between them.

52db02e09df73

Controllers for All ($1.99) – ModMyi repo
iOS 7 introduced support for third-party game controllers, but so far we haven’t seen many that seemed overly impressive. With Controllers for All, you can now hook up your PS3 controller via Bluetooth and use it in any game that supports controllers. The setup process is as simple as pairing a Bluetooth device, and the functionality mimics that of other available controllers.

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Comments

  1. Jonathan Vander Veen - 10 years ago

    Jailbreaking an iPhone doesn’t seem to provide the same margin of improvement that it once did.

    • Zachory Kagan Benton - 10 years ago

      In my opinion it’s because apple has included a vast number of tweaks using different implementation in iOS7 reducing the ones needed to create your “perfect” device.
      But at the end of the day we all need to hide that carrier logo…

    • verizon2828 - 10 years ago

      If you have an iPhone 5S, then THIS is the jailbreak to get. The devs really put the Touch ID sensor to work and I think it’s the best jailbreak ever. I no longer have to actually press down on the Home button…I can just touch the sensor to unlock and get in the phone from sleep mode, I can press and hold for multitasking, and I can use my fingerprint to automatically enter passwords on other apps in my iPhone, I can touch the sensor to exit an app and get back to the home screen. Huge timesaver and makes the overall experience awesome. BioLockDown, Virtual Home, and iTouchSecure make all this happen. Also check out NoSlowAnimations to make the phone just a little faster. Animations annoy me and this tweak completely removes them or speeds them up. Best jailbreak ever.

    • PMZanetti - 10 years ago

      I would HAVE to disagree. Right now, HiddenSettings7 is reason enough to jailbreak any iPhone running iOS 7.0.4.

      The improvement that this app lets you make to the speed of the animations will completely change your appreciation for iOS 7. The truth is, the animation speed, while fine for some & bothersome for others, slows you down. Navigating the phone is slow. With HiddenSettings7, you can reduce the overall % of speed…and by dropping it to about 50% of current speed, everything moves quick and smooth. Unlock becomes much less of a hassle, the home screen can be made almost instantly scrollable. Folders and Apps pop up and down and switch like lightning.

      While some may not notice, I know I notice how much slower it is to get around iOS 7 than iOS 6. This changes all of that.

      I would have a hard time going back now after weeks of this speed on my 5s.

      • verizon2828 - 10 years ago

        Thanks for the tip! I didn’t know about HiddenSettings7. Just installed it and I can notice an improvement in speed. BOOYAA!!

    • You are such a noob. Jailbreak is more refined and gives you more control than anytime before. iOS 7 redesign and the new jailbreak tweaks allows the iPhone to be by far the best portable device in the market.

    • Jordan Bonner - 10 years ago

      There is an insane amount to do. Just 9to5mac doesn’t seem to be the place to find it.

  2. myke2241 - 10 years ago

    i still see value in jailbreaking. There are somethings i love about iOS 7 and somethings not so much. i think the bigger question is how many of us knew there was a legit jailbreak for iOS 7? i didn’t

  3. dpacemaker - 10 years ago

    On my iPhone 5 I was able to get the slow motion camera at 60fps and burst mode. CCToggles is great because it allows you to add which toggles you want at the top of Control Center, and put what app shortcuts you want on the bottom. Jailbreaking is great, it unlocks the full potential of the iPhone, and iPad.

    • Ricardo Lamas - 10 years ago

      For your information you don’t have to jailbreak for 60fps access, you can download Slopro on the AppStore and it lets you record HD 60fps videos on the iPhone 5, plus it has post processing features that smooth the video enough up to par with the 5S build in 120fps feature like blending frames etc.

      in case you didn’t know apple allowed this new API so that developers could pull up native 60fps so jailbreaking isn’t doing anything the iPhone can’t already do without it. I’m an advocate of jailbreaking though’

  4. Andy Chakalov - 10 years ago

    Please help me get rid of the battery icon as shown above and leave only the percentage visible! Bolt isn’t compatible with iOS 7 anymore :(

    Thank you in advance!

  5. Iain Williams - 10 years ago

    I hope that Apple poach the Couria concept, though I would imagine that Apple would implement it slightly differently.

    For example, when a notification pops up at the top of the screen, you could swipe down on the notification which would pull up a fuller interface, through which you can write a quick reply. After you are done replying you swipe up to push the interface away, sending you back to whatever application you were in originally.

  6. TRAJEN (@TRAJEN) - 10 years ago

    Couria adds so much efficiency to iOS. The default theme, which resembles iOS 6, is a nice bonus. Virtual Home is THE reason to jailbreak for iPhone 5s owners. Do it.

  7. Dennis McCarty - 10 years ago

    For being a new post, I thought for sure you would’ve had ‘Controllers For All’ on the list. It lets you use a PS3 controller for iOS7 controller enabled apps. Now you don’t have to waste 100 dollars on a cheap plastic MFI controller. It’s one of the best reasons to Jailbreak now. Also ‘SwipeSelection’ is one of my favorites. Great on the iPad. :)

  8. Anthonie Zapata - 10 years ago

    The whole controllers for all process was a pain in the ass and still apps have issues connecting or staying connecting to my ps3 controller

    • Dennis McCarty - 10 years ago

      You had that’s much difficulty?? It was really easy to me. If you look on the Cydia page, there is simple to read instructions. I recommended to quite a a few people on Twitter and they didn’t have any problems either. You must be new to jail breaking. I’ve already been using a PS3 controller with RetroArch and BTstack so I guess I already know what I’m doing.

    • Dennis McCarty - 10 years ago

      And I never have any issues with connectivity and staying connected. Just don’t close the app. Lol. It’s that simple. Once you close or change the app, you’re going to need to press the ps button again when going back into that app. It’s so easy, a 12 year old can do it.

  9. shareef777 - 10 years ago

    Biolaunch does NOT work individual fingerprints. It recognizes all fingerprints as one. It also doesn’t work with BiteSMS quick compose feature which is what I was planning around. Oh, and it’s very buggy. Brings me to the home screen instrad of an app I specified a lot, and the home screen doesn’t respond to touches. Again, very buggy and should be removed from this list.

  10. CodeMink (@CodeMink) - 10 years ago

    hmm.. nice one. I got to know some more apps from CodeMink ( http://codemink.com/jailbreak-ios-7-top-10-cydia-tweak/ ) have a look here.