Following the release of iOS 7 and the subsequent untethered jailbreak from the Evad3rs team, the Cydia community seems to be exuding an air of professionalism and creative thought, and having covered iOS tweaks for a number of years, I have been generally taken aback by the marked improvement in the quality and thoroughness of tweaks this time around. Rather than releasing tiny alterations that deal with one small feature or snag, developers have sought to completely modify the way entire apps and features behave for the better, and Aria, a new tweak over at the BigBoss repo, gives the Music app something of an overhaul.
Apple’s recent introduction of iOS 7.1 plugged jailbreak exploits that made the previous Evasi0n untethered jailbreak possible, and as such, jailbreakers have had to either stick with a preceding iOS 7.0.x release, or upgrade and forgo their access to Cydia. However, even though the pre-iOS 7.1 efforts by the Evad3rs team were commendable, it doesn’t mean that the hard work has ceased, and seasoned hacker Winocm has just posted a video of iOS 7.1 booting untethered.
One new feature that Apple added with iOS 7 was the ability to enjoy dynamic wallpapers, yet like all previously-unseen implementations, Apple held back on a few experimental features when it came down to the final, end-user release. It's often the case that, rather than remove features entirely, Apple simply hides them, before phasing them out at a later date, but if you want to enjoy some of the wallpaper animations and effects that didn't quite make the cut, then HiddenWallpapers is the tweak for you. Check it out after the fold!
Apple made a lot of aesthetic changes with iOS 7, but even though - after a notable initial resistance - most folks seem to have warmed to the flatter, tidier new look, this hasn't stopped the Cydia community from coming through with a host of great themes. And recently, a new skin by the name of Elegance has dropped over at the MacCiti repository, and uses some very washy shades of color to create a dry, understated look that we believe works very well.
Thanks to the closed-source nature of Apple's iOS, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users must make do with the stock keyboard, and although it has improved to a degree over the years, it is, without a doubt, still streets behind the likes of SwiftKey and Swype. The only way these more advanced keyboards have managed sneak onto stock iOS is through standalone apps like SwiftKey Note and Hipjot, but now, the developer of the latter has made the intuitive typing interface available to those running jailbroken devices.
Twitter may not be the biggest social network thanks to the medium of Facebook, but for passing on quick thoughts and musings, it's certainly the most convenient. Keeping things under 140 characters, The Twitters has become famous for its here-and-now approach to social media, and while smartphones make it even easier to send out a tweet at the drop of a hat, a new and updated version of the TwitkaFly tweak, which is TwitkaFly for iOS 7 aims to enhance things even further. Compatible with both the official Twitter app and the popular Tweetbot, TwitkaFly is a nifty quick-compose utility that can be thrown up anywhere on a device through a predetermined activation method, and with a bunch of different themes, fits nicely in with whatever aesthetic you're trying to achieve.
A particularly captivating, futuristic iOS 8 concept, which we first caught a glimpse of late last month, sought to combine elements of the Control Center and new multitasking view of to create an entirely new, effortlessly functional interface. Some concepts are unattainable and / or just plain unrealistic, but, reading between the lines, this particular concept made perfect sense - combining two features into one for ease-of-access. Naturally, with the jailbreak scene currently thriving, one developer sought to turn this most plausible of designs into a genuine reality, and having announced the Vertex tweak only a couple of days back, it has been completed, packaged up, and is ready for prime time. Check it out below!
Surenix, long-time graphic designer and member of the famed Evad3rs team, first teased his beautiful Ayeris theme for iOS 7 in early February before finally releasing it late last month. Providing subtle alterations to the native aesthetic rather than applying anything too drastic, Ayeris has gone down really well with themers looking for a refined stock appearance rather than a complete overhaul, and now, the same theme has been optimized for the iPad. Details after the break!
We simply cannot deny that we live in an extremely social world. As a society, we may not thrive on getting out and about and interact with one another face-to-face anymore, but you only have to look at the popularity of social networks and messaging apps to realize how import digital communication is in the modern world. It's almost a given that any accomplished app or tweak that focuses on messaging, sharing or communication is instantly going to be successful, which is why the developer of Compose for iOS 7 could be onto a winner.
Before iOS 7, when multitasking was basically a non-feature of Apple's mobile operating system, tweaks like Auxo made app switching a beautiful, functional experience. Even though multitasking boasts much more fluidity these days, we were no less enthused when A3Tweaks announced late on in February that Auxo 2 would be arriving for iOS 7 within a few weeks. Unfortunately, it's not quite ready for prime time just yet, but things are certainly progressing, as displayed by a new teaser shot posted to Vine.
