Social network Path is a beautiful, functional and cross-platform app that is used by many, but despite its credentials and promise, has been somewhat crowded out by Facebook, Twitter et al. It's hard not to check out from time to time because it's simply such a pleasure to use, but ultimately, it's quite dormant, with users generally only checking in when they remember to. An acquisition by a big-name company could soon rejuvenate Path and turn its fortunes around, and according to a report, Apple is planning on buying the app and integrating it with its own Messages infrastructure.
As Apple recently acknowledged, iPhone users switching to Android or any other platform are running into a bug that sees messages continue to be sent using iOS’s proprietary iMessage protocol. As a consequence, messages are noted as “delivered” on iOS, but since only Apple’s own devices can read iMessages, never received. Given that the Cupertino company has already fixed what was possible on the server side of things, and now has promised a remedial iOS update, possibly in the form of iOS 7.1.2, to fix the issue completely, we shouldn’t have to wait too long for a full official fix, but in case you don’t want to potentially miss any important messages between now and then, we’ve put together a little guide detailing how you can restore immediate normality without waiting for Apple to patch it via software update.
Instant messaging apps are ubiquitous, but although we all have our favorite third-party utilities such as WhatsApp, Skype, and others, the stock Messages app for iOS still gets plenty of use. This goes a long way to explaining why we have currently such a large count of tweaks being made specifically for Messages, and while there are swathes of great, powerful, and robust tweaks for this very purpose within Cydia, sometimes, we only want to make a subtle alteration here and there. MessageRenamer7 falls squarely within this category, allowing you to tidy up your list of messages by renaming them to whatever you like.
If you're looking for a way to improve the functionality of your iOS Messages app but don't feel like shelling out for BiteSMS for iPhone, there are plenty of decent alternatives out there. Couria, which is currently available in beta, is one such tweak, offering a neat Quick Reply and Quick Compose system for a more efficient way of dealing with messages. At this point in time, it's free of charge, and having been tailored for the relatively new iOS 7, looks very much like a native feature.
If you're a bit of a numbers droid, and like to keep track of statistics, then the tweak from Cydia developer Callum Ryan may be of interest to you. It provides relatively detailed information on the activity of your Messages app, including how many SMS and iMessages you've sent or received. Not only is this useful information in terms of ensuring you don't go over your allowance, but you can also narrow things right down to specific contacts. Check it out after the break.
Supposedly private photo sharing service Snapchat has proven hugely popular, especially amongst teenagers and anyone wanting to share images that they want to be automatically deleted once viewed. The technology lends itself to sending and receiving photos that contain sensitive information - self destructing messages if you like - but is largely used to send much less important things.
Jailbreaking an iOS device has always been about the freedoms that it brings to users. Freedom to install apps and extensions that haven't been vetted and sanctioned for sale in the official App Store. Over time, the freedom to customize the look and feel of the firmware’s user-interface elements has also become extremely popular, with some users opting for minor amendments while others revel in full system artwork replacements. The new Messages Customiser package is one of customization, is a lot more subtle than a full replacement and relates directly to the native Messages app in iOS 7.
With iOS 7, Apple decided that it would take a more personal approach to names. You may have noticed it yourself. You receive an iMessage or a plain text message for example, and in the message conversation you notice that the name is displayed as just the sender's first name, rather than their full name. Which is fine, so long as you only have one person that you converse with that has that name.
Apple's Messages app, save a little occasional downtime to iMessage, provides a fairly solid and secure overall service, but customization is extremely limited. Your chat bubbles remain two colors, the background has the aura of the sky on a dull, wintry day and aside from the aesthetics, options regarding functionality are few and far between. Luckily for the jailbreakers, there are plenty of tweaks out there to rectify this, and one, which goes by the name of MessageRenamer, allows you to change the name of a conversation to anything you like.
iMessage, Apple's cross device messaging service for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac, has been a relative success since first appearing with iOS 5 and subsequently, OS X Lion. Yet like most fledgling services, it has had its fair share of teething issues, with a notable lack of proper blocking / reporting feature in place for spam messages. iOS 7 will allow users to block Apple IDs causing offence as we already know, but now, the Cupertino has also rolled out a nifty spam reporting feature enabling users to take action against any kind of intrusive or otherwise unwanted behavior.


