When Facebook added Chat Heads to its apps the addition was greeted by both excitement and derision in equal measure, but for those that use them, Chat Heads are a must-have feature. Those who use the right flavor of Android will have access to Chat Heads system-wide, but those of us using iOS devices like iPads and iPhones aren't able to do the same thanks to Apple's stranglehold on how things work when an app is closed. It's a trade-off that we make, but it's safe to say the idea of having instant access to Chat Heads no mater what app is in use would be appealing to many.
If you've been involved in the jailbreak scene for a number of years then it's highly likely that you'll be familiar with a number of the more popular tweaks that still grace Cydia with their presence. Thousands of iOS device owners, including myself, regularly take advantage of latest jailbreak techniques purely to get their hands on a couple of "must have" packages. The Barrel tweak, developed by Aaron Ash, is one of Cydia's more well-known and used tweaks and has sat in a class of its own for a number of years - until the arrival of Cylinder by Reed Weichler.
Those of you still rocking pre-iOS 7.1 firmware have probably stuck with an older edition in order to preserve your jailbreak, which is a perfectly legitimate reason to forgo some of the changes that Apple has made. Among the various alterations to iTunes Radio and the introduction of CarPlay, Apple has also made some subtle tweaks to the stock icons, turning down the 'greens' in order make everything a tad less bright. Now, those icons have been ported into a theme, so if you want the subtler home screen aesthetic as enjoyed by those on iOS 7.1, check the details below.
As well as filling in some of the blanks left over by Apple's iOS software development team, jailbreak tweaks also offer some weird and wonderful features that nobody - besides, of course, the developer - would have thought to implement. A new, free tweak has just landed over at the BigBoss repo that turns your standard Passcode into a thought-provoking math problem, and while those inept with numbers would shudder at such a feature, it's actually quite a good way of sneaking some learning onto the daily digital grind.
It seems that someone at Facebook likes nice round numbers, because the social network has released Facebook Messenger 4.0 for iPhone and Android. Big new updates are great, except when they're not big at all, which is certainly the case with Facebook Messenger. See, the app has seen its version number bumped to the lofty number of 4.0, but do the changes warrant a new point-0 release? Probably not, no.
As expected, Microsoft finally unveiled its famed Office app for the Apple iPad earlier on today at a special keynote, and while this is an addition that will doubtlessly be welcomed by scores of iPad users far and wide, there's also some good news for smartphone-based Office users. As of now, the app is not only free to download, but those using Office Mobile for iPhone and Office Mobile for Android can create, edit and save Office documents on their handsets for free - no Office 365 subscription required.
Apple made a bunch of improvements with iOS 7, many of which were aesthetic. But as well as performing some housekeeping on several pre-existing features and apps, the company also introduced one or two new faces. Among them was AirDrop, a convenient file transfer system taken from OS X, but like most new Cupertino implementations, it didn't arrive without limitations on what it was capable of. If you're jailbroken, though, you'll know that the proverbial ball and chain Apple puts on certain aspects of its mobile OS are being removed on a daily basis, and as its name implies, AnyDrop turns AirDrop into the feature it was always supposed to be.
One of the most exciting features Apple added with the iPhone 5s was the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, and despite a few teething issues, it seems to have gone down rather well with the iPhone-using faithful. Now a jailbreak tweak has emerged that brings a virtual fingerprint sensor to the lock screen, so if you don't happen to own an iPhone 5s but would like a similarly cool feature, then Bio is definitely a Cydia export that you'll want to check out.
As Google's Chromecast continues its expansion to other countries around the world, the company appears to have begun to refocus its energies into the little HDMI dongle. Offering buyers a way to get video and audio onto a television via both Android and iOS devices, Chromecast is almost an alternative to an Apple TV for those that don't need the kinds of features that particular product offers.
You can always trust the jailbreak world to come up with something interesting, and we find that some of the better ones fly somewhat under the radar. A tweak that's still very much in its infancy but doesn't seem to be getting much attention is Appellancy.
