As soon as iOS 7 was jailbroken, Cydia was opened up to the inevitable plethora of iPhone 5s-only tweaks. By that, we obviously mean tweaks that use the iPhone 5s's Touch ID fingerprint sensing system, and with it being such a prominent feature it was really only a matter of time before jailbreak developers started to use it in some interesting ways.
There's been a ton of innovative and exciting mobile and desktop apps and tools that have managed to attract a lot of initial attention before falling into obscurity. Remember Knock? The app that allows you to unlock your Mac without inputting a password? Sure, it still has a fair amount of satisfied users, but the hype around it seems to have quickly dissipated into nothing. The same affliction doesn't seem to be applied in equal measures to tweaks that are released into the jailbreak world, with hype already starting to build for BioUnlock, a tweak that hooks into the iPhone 5s Touch ID sensor to essentially offer the same functionality as Knock.
When it turned out that all the rumors were true and Apple was indeed going to bring fingerprint technology to the iPhone, the immediate question was an obvious one; what exactly can and cannot be done with a fingerprint?
Wireless charging is commonplace among many higher-end Android and Windows Phone handsets, but in typical Apple fashion, the Cupertino company has yet to bite. Just like the lack of NFC and the late showing of 4G LTE, Tim Cook's firm doesn't tend to jump aboard newer technologies until later on in the day, but WiTricity's wireless charging solution, which improves upon the widely-used induction model for a more versatile wireless power-up experience, could theoretically provide something for those who love iPhone and long to be able to charge without connecting to a Lightning connector.
In the interest of adding additional competition in the jailbroken world of biometric detection, a developer by the name of Ryan P has thrown his hat into the ring in the form of AppScan. The package, which is available as an immediate free-of-charge download, is the developer’s equivalent of BioLockdown for iPhone 5s, Applocker for iOS 7 and BioProtect for iPhone 5s, except it has the added bonus of being entirely free. The release of the three aforementioned packages clearly proves that there's a market for this type of tweak, but is there a market for a free variant that may or may not continue to receive support?
The popular BiteSMS app has just been updated with full support for iPhone 5s. The BiteSMS team have been pushing out builds thick and fast over the festive season. In the last eleven days there has been a total of six releases to the BiteSMS test repository, with each one completing a small part of the puzzle that will ultimately involve a release of stable version of BiteSMS that supports the latest firmware as well as modern iPhones with 64-bit processors.
Touch ID is undoubtedly one of the most exciting hardware additions to be incorporated into iOS devices in recent times. Not only does the biometric sensor introduces a whole new level of security for users, but it also opens the door for a variety of innovative and extremely useful tweaks for jailbroken devices. With that said, it also allows developers to offer functionality that can be thought of as cosmetic rather than earth shattering or innovative, such as playing a chosen sound when the device is unlocked through the fingerprint sensor.
Apple's Touch ID sensor on the 64-bit iPhone 5s seems to be what is currently hot at the moment among Cydia developers, with a number of them taking the opportunity to release tweaks that rely on biometric authentication to perform specific tasks. Ryan Petrich, of Activator fame, is the latest to adopt current trends with the release of his BioLockdown package, available to download now.
The addition of a gyroscope sensor into the iPhone is one example of the device’s evolution, but the release of the iPhone 5s and Apple's Touch ID sensor is probably one of the most exciting developments that we have seen for a while. As you might expect, the jailbreak community is extremely keen to take advantage of that hardware, with Elias Limneos earlier teasing a new Touch ID compatible tweak and now making it available for all to grab from Cydia.
The HiddenSettings7 tweak, for those that missed it, unlocks bunch of cool iOS 7 settings obscured by Apple from the view of the end user, and having been released last week, the launch has now been swiftly followed by an update complete with support for the 64-bit processor of the iPhone 5s, iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display. Further details, as well as info on where you may find HiddenSettings7 for A7, can be seen after the break.
