Whichever side of the Android / iOS debate you consider yourself, there's no denying that each has its fair share of advantages over the other. The lack of support for widgets is something many iOS users have bemoaned since the very first iPhone back in 2007, but thanks to the marvel of jailbreaking, these individuals seldom need lament Apple's restrictions for too long. Although the HTC One X was only a moderately successful device, it did have a nice weather and clock widget typical of the company's Sense software. Over the years, a number of Sense UI inspired themes have been made available on Cydia for jailbroken devices, and now, the latest version from HTC One X has been ported too for those running jailbroken iPhones.
In the current age of GPS and satnav dependency, smartphone users rarely consult the compass feature native to nearly all the major ecosystems. However, the ability to familiarize oneself with the functions and features of a compass is an integral part of orienteering, and a tweak by the name of DirectionBar brings the compass to your iOS device's status bar.
For a long time, many comic book lovers have been trying to bring all of their comic books onto their iPhones, iPod touches or iPads while preserving their quality. If you have $10 per month to spare, Marvel may have just come up with the perfect solution for you: a comic book subscription which gives users access to 13,000 back issues of Marvel’s comic books, with the promise of more to come.
The iOS infrastructure readily allows iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users to send and share images through various mediums, including email, social networks and Messages. However, the process is certainly not without its fair share of limitations. For example, if you're in the Messages app and want to send an image you have just taken, you must proceed through the rather tedious rigmarole of opening your camera album, selecting that last taken shot, and then tapping on it. The aptly-named LastPic tweak operates on the supposition that, more often than not, you'll want to be sending the most recent pic taken with your device's snapper, and allows you to do so without that additional navigation.
The panorama mode in iOS allows users to capture the complete scene in all 360 degrees, but it does have a few minor issues. Not only is the stitching sometimes a little bit hit-and-miss, but the LED flash on the back of the device cannot be used in panorama mode. Probably an oversight on the part of Apple, one jailbreak developer has sought to rectify the flash issue, allowing users to shoot panoramic shots even when in darker areas.
Since the introduction of Siri along with the iOS 5, there has been a strong number of Cydia tweaks based around voice dictation. In order to use Apple's system-wide voice dictation technology, you need to be in ownership of an iPhone 4S / iPad 3 or newer, but thankfully, the jailbreak quarters are considerably more accommodating. If you like the idea of text being read out by a voiceover software, you may like the Awake Speech tweak, which allows a custom message to be read out after you disable or snooze your alarm.
All eyes may be on next week's Samsung Galaxy S IV launch party in New York City, if rumors stemming from Asia are anything to go by, Apple's counter smartphone offering may already be in production. Japanese blog Macotakara, which has a reputation for some high-profile hits as well as misses, has stated that Foxconn, Apple's main manufacturing source, is ramping up production of the so-called iPhone 5S. Although the Chinese company famously struggled to cope with the production of the iPhone 5 initially due to the radical new design, but since the 5S is supposedly very similar to its would-be predecessor, the firm is reportedly having little trouble adapting to a variant of what it now become accustomed to producing.
The appearance of the iOS home screen has remained very archetypal since the first iPhone was showcased by Steve Jobs back in 2007. The icons sit in rows of four, and even though the iPhone 5 allowed for an extra row courtesy of its larger display, iDevice users could be forgiven for finding the unchanged look somewhat bland. The lack of any real native customization with iOS has seen jailbreak theming thrive, and although Springtomize 2 and Iconoclasm are seen as the go-to utilities when meddling with the home screen icons, the inherently easy-to-use CustomGrid is back for another outing as CustomGrid 2 (iOS 6+).
Whenever a new piece of hardware or updated version of iOS is released from Apple, it always seems to be built around certain decisions from within that cause a little bit of fuss and confusion. The iPhone 4S proved to be one of the fruit company's most successful iPhone models to date, but the decision to include facial detection only for still image capture still proves to be a discussion point. The FaceDetectionVideo4S tweak within Cydia eradicates that issue for those who are still operating the fifth-generation iPhone.
Considering how integral the iPhone has become in the mobile industry, it's amazing to think the device is scarcely six years old. It was in 2007 that then CEO Steve Jobs wowed audiences at the Moscone West Center with the game-changing handset, and for those with a more vivid memory, you may also recall a moment when Jobs made a prank call to the local Starbucks. Ying Hang "Hannah" Zhang was the Starbucks worker in receipt of Jobs' tomfoolery that day, and having retained her position at the world's most recognizable coffee chain, recently spoke of how die-hard Apple fans still, even today, call up the store and ask for "4,000 lattes to go, please."
