Although Cydia plays home to a large number of powerful, in-depth and awfully creative system based packages, the fact still remains that a lot of iOS device owners choose to go through the process of jailbreaking purely for the ability to modify and customize their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to suit their own tastes and styles. Theming the device is extremely popular through WinterBoard activated interface assets, but it is also highly likely that the new Go Desk desktop rendering package will convince many users to also add some live home screen animations to their devices.
We've known for quite some time that Ryan Petrich is probably one of the hardest working and most productive developers in the jailbreak community, but if we need further proof regarding that notion; a wave of tweaks were released in Cydia bearing his name. Although a lot of the developer’s packages often land on his own private repository for testing purposes, a number of them were pushed out to the main repo for everyone to take advantage of. One of the simplest releases, but one that a lot of users may find useful is the UpsideDown package that pretty does exactly what the name suggests.
The only thing worse than having little or no battery left on a mobile device, I find, is knowing you had ample time to put it right. You thought the one hour charge would be enough to fill up, only to find when you're about to leave that your device's juice levels are still not at their peak. We live in the midst of a "there's an app for that" culture, but such has been the advancement of Cydia over the past few years, that the same can now be said for tweaks. If you're looking for a tweak to help you better manage your battery, well, there's a tweak for that.
Navigating through apps is probably one of the most important aspects of using software on devices like the iPhone or the Galaxy S III. Being able to move to new interfaces, use the features within the app and then navigating back to where we came from is extremely important, but we sometimes take for granted how this is achieved. Android fans generally appreciate the dedicated back button that exists on devices but iOS fans generally need to rely on developers incorporating the navigation methodologies or hope that an app is built around a navigation controller that automatically applies a back button to go to the previous location.
Sn0wbreeze has finally been updated to v2.9.7, bringing in support for iOS 6 / iOS 6.0.1 on Pre-A5 powered devices such as the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and the 4th-gen iPod touch.
Regardless of whether you are a fan of Apple's Siri or prefer to use Google's Voice Search on your device, it looks like giving audible commands to a smartphone or tablet is definitely here to stay and will play an increasingly important role in how we interact with our devices. We have recently seen a video comparison showing Siri and Google Voice Search going head-to-head and now we are seeing the release of the NowNow jailbreak tweak that is designed specifically for those who want to quickly invoke Google's Voice Search on their iOS device.
The iPad mini had only been officially in the wild for 24 hours before we were treated to a picture of the failbreak jailbreak running on the tablet. Although it has been jailbroken using the developer only method that we have been hearing about in the last month or so, it shows that progress is being made behind the scenes. In addition to the iPad mini jailbreak and iPhone 5 jailbreak, Grant Paul - a.k.a. chpwn - has now taken the opportunity to show off Cydia running on the gorgeous Retina display of the new fourth-generation iPad.
Although the Apple TV is still officially classed as hobby project for Apple that takes its place behind the likes of the iPhone and iPad, it is a piece of kit that is growing in popularity and prominence with more units shipping each quarter. Apple have showed recent signs of taking the Apple TV more seriously with the addition of streaming content such as the iTunes Festival and their own media event keynotes but until they add some powerful extensions and features, it may continue to live as the company's hobby creation. Thankfully, the jailbreak world loves to pay attention to unloved iOS devices and it now seems possible to control the Apple TV using basic voice commands.
Apple has found themselves on somewhat of a product release spree in the last two months, with a new iPhone, a new range of iPods and two new iPads being released to the public. Put that together with the launch of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display and the imminent release of refreshed Macs and you have a very packed Apple hardware refresh. With all of this new technology coming out, the jailbreak world may have taken a public backseat recently, but legendary iPhone Dev Team member MuscleNerd has just updated his Twitter feed to make sure are all aware that things are still bubbling away in the background.
Earlier today, Apple released iOS 6.1 beta 1 to developers. Only registered members of iOS Dev Center currently have access to it. If you are a iOS developer who develops tweaks and apps for Cydia, you might be interested in a jailbreak for iOS 6.1.
