I have said it before, I am saying it now and no doubt I will say it time and time again, but the most popular tweaks in my personal opinion are the ones that provide either a much needed enhancement to the operating system or an actual real world benefit to users. Aesthetic modifications are all well and good, but tastes change over time and they will no doubt be downloaded, used for a brief time frame and then pushed into obscurity whereas a tweak or modification which provides an actual tangible benefit will stand the test of time.

The world we live in is a hugely cultural diverse place with it becoming increasingly more and more common that people do business and communicate with individuals all over the world. With social networks playing such a huge role in our online lives, it is not uncommon to find ourselves communicating with people on a daily basis who live on the other side of the world. I know from first hand experience that there is nothing more infuriating than sending someone an important email and not getting a response from hours because it is the middle of the night where they live and they are more than likely sleeping.

One of the main driving forces behind users performing a jailbreak on their iOS device is the fact that it gives the ability to modify the feel and appearance of the operating system. As a company, Apple are a champion of innovative design and their current range of hardware is amongst the most beautifully designed out there, but a growing number of users feel the need to modify the stock interface elements to better suit their individual tastes.

There can be no denying that the favored jailbreak flavor of late 2011 and 2012 has to be the iOS 5 exclusive Notification Center and Siri digital assistant. The inclusion of the two new features in the public release of iOS 5 presented practically limitless opportunities for developers when it comes to extending their native limited abilities.

There is no doubt about the fact that the current trend for Cydia tweaks is all about modifying the new Notification Center and giving additional functionality to the Siri digital assistant software. Since the release of iOS 5 in October of last year, the Cydia store has been inundated with modifications and tweaks which add widgets, settings and even an animated Nyan cat to the Notification Center screen, but in all honesty there are only a handful which are any good.

Before the belated introduction of Siri, Notification Center was the main talking point of Apple’s much improved operating system for mobile devices – iOS 5. Although the voice-recognition software is marvelous and all, the improved notification infrastructure has to go down as the prized feature of what is (besides the battery issues) a very well put together update.