In the last week or so, we have seen a number of developers release their work onto the Cydia store that exists to offer an alternative implementation of Apple's native multitasking experience. A standard installation of iOS allows a user to double tap the Home button to invoke a switcher tray along the bottom of the screen which holds the icons of the currently backgrounded apps.
JoinedDecember 18, 2011
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A technology enthusiast, former software developer, and current Head of Quality and Testing at a leading SaaS company. A developer of multiple apps. A lover of pleasing people and a believer in being your authentic self.
Tweaks that hook into the music-playing aspects of a jailbroken iOS device seem hot property at the minute, with a few hitting Cydia in the last day or so. PodControl is one a number of music-orientated tweaks that have landed in Cydia, with its sole purpose being; to give users a quicker, more efficient way of playing and flicking through their music library. By default, iOS provides music controls in the multitasking switcher tray which can be accessed by double pressing the Home button and then swiping through the views to get to the controls, not exactly quick access by any stretch of the imagination.
What could possible be better than having an iPhone or iPod touch with five docked icons at the bottom of screen? Yes, you guessed it, having ten docked icons is undoubtedly better and provides double the docked app fun. The DoubleDock tweak that hit the Cydia store in the last few hours offers that exact functionality, and will definitely prove to be one of those packages that either appeals or it doesn't.
With the App Store containing close to 600,000+ apps, it is no surprise that a lot of software gets lost in the jungle and never makes it to the publics attention. With that said, apps that can bring new user experiences to the table are generally picked up on and quickly gain significant traction amongst iOS users, something that was particularly evident with the Clear app that offered a beautiful gesture based experience.
Perhaps not the most exciting, but one of the most useful aspects of an iPhone or iPod touch in my opinion is the built-in functionality to display weather conditions for you local city using the default stock Weather app. iOS has always had a default Weather app from day one, which has remained relatively untouched with every new version of iOS which Apple releases.
I would imagine that being the CEO of Apple would be one of the most challenging but also most rewarding job in the technology industry at the moment. The company is enjoying such a tremendous run of success with their mobile and Mac products and have seen their stock price soar in recent weeks, but that doesn't mean that the position of CEO doesn't come with its fair share of stress. After being in the position full-time for the last seven months, it seems that Tim Cook is settling in rather nicely if the latest employee opinion polls are anything to go by.
Everyone loves a bit of privacy every now and then, and let's face it, I am pretty sure that everyone has given their cell phone number out to someone that they later regretted giving it to for one reason or another. You would expect, that in this advanced day and age when smartphones play such an increasingly important and prominent role in our everyday lives, we would have a native filtering option on the device, or at very least our networks would be able to provide such a service.
Apple makes a number of premium products, but it is mainly the iPhone and iPad that have stolen the limelight in recent years. Their smartphone and tablet range are clearly their most successful products in recent years, but one of their other media devices is starting to gain some traction now, thanks to recent hardware and software updates.
It seems like only yesterday that the jailbreak dream team dropped the good news by announcing the release of an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.0.1 that would bring liberation and freedom to those who were using an iPhone 4S or iPad 2 powered by Apple's A5 chip. It was in fact over eight weeks ago and although it was a huge accomplishment by all involved to release the Absinthe jailbreak, the community is once again focusing all eyes on the development teams hoping for a jailbreak which covers iOS 5.1.
Considering consumers pay such a high price in the stores for their gizmos and gadgets, they would be forgiven for thinking that the manufacturers of these high-end pieces of technology are doing all they can to ensure any data that passes through the product and associated services is as secure as it possibly can be. However, if recent research into the subject is anything to go by, then it would appear that this isn't always the case, with sensitive data such as credit card details being easily accessible on Xbox 360 consoles through the use of widely available tools.
