When iOS 5 was first introduced to the world for public consumption in October 2011, it was immediately evident that it contained a number of highly useful features which would quickly become the focus of the jailbreaking development community. The introduction of Notification Center was seen as a huge, much needed feature addition to iOS, but also provided an entirely new entity for developers to hook into and enhance on a jailbroken device.

Even the most hardcore of geeks need a little bit of tenderness in their lives every now and then, which is why coders all over the world will be winding down this Tuesday for an evening of romantic loveliness with their significant other. But just what kind of gift do you get for your loved one? You could try treating them to a romantic meal at a posh restaurant, send them a bouquet of flowers to their workplace or maybe just a simple expression of love through a Valentine’s Day card?

I don’t know if it is something that has been out into the global water supply recently, but swiping seems to be the new tapping. Why take the time to lift your finger up and decompress a button when you can feel manly and powerful enough by quickly swiping your finger across the screen to achieve the same result? I certainly know which one I prefer.

The sheer number of Twitter applications available for the iPhone often makes choosing just one a very difficult choice for users. The official Twitter app is free of charge, but generally represents a love it or hate it situation amongst users with a large number of regular iOS Twitter users opting to look elsewhere for on-device Twitter usage. If you ask any seasoned iPhone user which Twitter application they prefer, the same handful of names generally pop up and usually includes the likes of Osfoora, Echofon, Twittelator Neue, Tweetbot and Twitterific.

The ‘Path’ iOS application will no doubt go down as one of the most popular applications of 2011 thanks to its mix of having an innovative and beautiful user interface as well as operating as an extremely functional journal-type app. Although the Path app had been around since November 2010, the 2.0 release in final quarter of last year introduced a revamped UI which gained the application quite a lot of media attention and a large amount of new users.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to favor mobile applications which do exactly what they say on the tin without attempting to deviate too much from the core functionality. One of the more recent applications which falls into this category has to be YouTube Producer for iOS devices by Musicshake Inc.

Of all the areas of our smartphones we’d call the most precious, text messages would be somewhere near the summit. On top of that, it’s one of those segments we like to keep the most private – obscured from the eyes of those prying brown-nosers.

The good people over at eFusion have introduced an application to the App Store which offers the ability for users to record conversations which are taking place via services such as Skype, or through the use of other Voice Over IP services such as the iOS Viber application. The application is called SkyRecorder, and is predominantly aimed at people who find themselves on a VoIP call and need to take down notes but are unable to for whatever reason.

Nobody who hasn’t been hiding in a cave for the last two years can argue against the quality of the cameras in Apple’s last two iPhones. First the iPhone 4 brought impressive photo quality to the iPhone lineup with a 5-megapixel camera, and then the iPhone 4S took things a step further with an 8-megapixel shooter.

First it was iBooks, then came Newsstand, and now Apple has even thrown iTunes U – its attempt at cornering the textbook market – into the mix.

When using a PC or Mac, you can readily configure iTunes, VLC or your media player of choice to deliver a little bubble or popup whenever a new song played. Some like it, others don’t.

Ever since the confirmation of native Twitter integration in iOS 5, there has been a marked uprising in not only third-party App Store apps, but also jailbreak tweaks related to those using The Twitters.

Siri has arguably been the main focal point of iOS 5 since Apple’s latest and greatest mobile operating system dropped in mid-October of last year.

Even though iOS is pretty easy on the eye for the most part, our tinkering nature entices us to make certain visual changes in order to make things a little more to our liking.

I know you’re thinking that every time you open Cydia and refresh the repositories; there is another tweak added which offers a set of custom commands for Siri. Well, to be honest; you would be right in thinking that, but that doesn’t mean that another player in the game can’t offer some additional goodies.

Although iOS is renowned for being a smooth and invariably seamless mobile experience, it does lack many customization features which would render it a more ‘complete’ operating system.

We are getting extremely close to the saturation stage in Cydia, where developers are having a difficult time creating new and unique tweaks which haven’t already been thought of. With that being the case, jailbreak devs tend to be really creative and inventive or attempt to improve upon an existing solution by coming up with a better implementation of something that already exists.

Forget Facebook, forget Google+ and forget MySpace if you haven’t already, the real social network for the cool kids these days has to be Twitter. Introduced in 2006, Twitter has amassed over 200 million active subscribers and is responsible for serving 1.6 billion search queries each day. With the active and engaged member count growing daily, Twitter is the micro blogging service of choice.

I make no secret of the fact that I am a massive jailbreak enthusiast. I have owned every iPhone since 2007, and both iPads and have eagerly jailbroken each and everyone of them as soon as the relevant tools are released or updated for the new devices and firmwares. I do it not just for the sake of it, but because I genuinely believe a number of tweaks and modifications which exist in Cydia enhance iOS and make it the best mobile operating system available.

With our cherished mobile gadgets now packing in very decent cameras, many have opted to ditch the unnecessary pocket-fill of the traditional standalone camera.