One of the prime difficulties with moving to a new phone or upgrading your existing device is all the valuable data that you leave behind in the old one. Thankfully, we’ve come such a long way in the world of smartphones that it isn’t that much of an issue any more, as third party solutions allow you to achieve that with relative ease, even though it’s a hassle. Things become really interesting (and difficult), however, when you decide to move between platforms, especially from iOS to Android.
If you're a bit of a numbers droid, and like to keep track of statistics, then the tweak from Cydia developer Callum Ryan may be of interest to you. It provides relatively detailed information on the activity of your Messages app, including how many SMS and iMessages you've sent or received. Not only is this useful information in terms of ensuring you don't go over your allowance, but you can also narrow things right down to specific contacts. Check it out after the break.
Keeping abreast of your contacts can be a tedious and ongoing task, particularly when you've accumulated more than you care to maintain, but it doesn't have to be such a nightmare. A tweak by the name of QuickContacts, created by developer DarkMalloc, enables you to access your favorite contacts right from your home screen by making a simple swiping gesture, so if you just want to make a quick call to a close friend or relative, you needn't have to go through the tiresome rigmarole of scanning and searching your digital phone book.
Market research in the mobile industry offers some fascinating insight into how we use our beloved smartphones and tablets. Research firm JDSU has been analyzing the data usage habits of mobile device owners, and rather interestingly, has discovered that those wielding the latest and greatest Apple handset - the iPhone 5s - consume more data than those in ownership of any other smartphone or slab currently on the market.
With every new report on Apple's future smartphone movements, the likelihood that we'll be seeing at least one handset with a considerably larger display than the iPhone 5s's 4-inch effort has seemed stronger. Some reputable publications have even suggested that the fruit company may be planning two, and now, The Wall Street Journal has waded in to corroborate this notion. One of the devices will apparently offer a display in excess of the 4.5-inch mark, while the second handset will exceed the 5-inch mark, equating to a significant leap from the current flagship.
iOS may pack a decent amount of emoticons by default, but online, you might have caught wind of the latest craze in self-expression - unicode faces. Using all manner of strange characters, people have been coming up with some pretty humorous faces, and if this kind of thing floats your boat, then the fact that you can add them to your iOS keyboard (provided that you're jailbroken) should put a smile, or rather, a (◕ ◡ ◕) on your face. Check out the new UniFaces jailbreak tweak, which lets you do exactly this, after the leap!
Depending on who you speak to, push notifications can either be a life-saver or work of pure evil. There is an extremely large mobile device user base that simply can’t live without notifications no matter how hard they try. Conversely, there is also a set of users who receive so many text messages, emails and social network alerts that it becomes a full-time job to keep up with the incoming notifications that are generated on a per app basis. The Notification Privacy tweak that has recently landed on Cydia offers jailbroken users the opportunity to take control of those push notifications by devising a setup that suits the individual.
Some tweaks are practical, meant to enhance the functionality of iOS in part or as a whole. Others, meanwhile, are designed for aesthetic flair, but while some try and fail at being both at the same time, a new, free-of-charge tweak manages to hit that cross-section between usefulness and eye-candy. It's called SimplePasscodeButtons, and, as the name concedes simplifies your passcode's keypad by removing the numbers from the keys.
Apple's iOS is widely recognized for offering one of the smoothest experiences a user can enjoy on a mobile device, but while it tends to deliver on this notion, it's not without its issues from time to time. Often, new software can be fraught with problems and issues, yet despite having been picked up by millions of users in its first few months, iOS 7 has remained relatively incident-free. It has emerged, however, that some users are experiencing crashes and random reboots, but the good news is that Apple has just released a statement acknowledging the issue, and promised the iDevice-using faithful that a fix is on its way.
Sure, after years in existence, the jailbreak scene has grown and expanded to the point where Cydia harbors thousands of useful, enhancing tweaks for iOS-lovers far and wide. But only an elite few have grown to become part of the furniture as fair as jailbreakers are concerned, and along with the likes of BiteSMS and the now somewhat unneeded SBSettings (thanks, Control Center), Springtomize has grown to become the ultimate all-in-one hub for those looking to mod and theme the look and feel of iOS. Now, the guy behind it, Filippo Bigarella, has revealed that an iOS 7-tailored Springtomize 3 is on the horizon, and if it can continue in the same vein as the two versions preceding, jailbreak lovers are in for quite a treat.
