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Yesterday afternoon’s release of the iOS 6.x hack saw record numbers of jailbreak downloads. But there’s totally zero point in freeing your device from Apple’s shackles if you don’t know what to do with your new-found freedom. This list is a good starting point.
SBSettings lets you move a bunch of important toggles (Wi-Fi on/off, Bluetooth on/off, etc) into Springboard, so that they’re available ridiculously quickly whenever you need them. Slide your finger across the status bar at the top (that’s the default gesture, at least) and you get a little window with all the wonderful toggles. As with all good things jailbroken, it’s infinitely customisable and skinnable.
Chrome for iOS is a wonderful app, a big improvement on Safari with superb cross-device syncing. However, Apple blocks third-party browsers from using its Nitro Javascript Engine, which significantly slows down internet browsing (and also native webkit-browser-using apps like Facebook or Twitter). Nitrous reverses this terrible injustice, and you shoul see a big bump in performance once you’ve got it humming along.
For unknown reasons, certain carriers charge extra if you want to tether your iDevice to something else. For the princely sum of 0.99p, you can sneak your tethering usage past your carrier. It’s a saving in the long run.
Running scaled-up iPhone apps is all well and good, but they look horrible and distorted, and that’s not why you sold your firstborn to for that Retina iPad. FullForce scales up (compatible) iPhone apps to full-screen goodness. And yes, it does work for Google Maps.
Apple Maps is, hopefully, nothing more than a lonely and unused icon, sitting in a folder somewhere you’ll never stumble across it. But, if you ever click-through to directions — say, hitting up a postcode in an email — the beast will rear its ugly head, because you can’t get rid of it as the default mapping app. This tweak fixes that, banishing Apple Maps to an even more long-lost corner of your device.
If you’re the guy (or gal) with a million friends who spends their entire life in a perpetual messaging conversation, you need this app. It’s a simple, elegant hack that lets you reply to incoming messages from any app. It’s also got some neat stuff in the actual messaging app that will mean you never touch stock Messages again.
Auxo is basically how multitasking on iOS should work, and while Cupertino’s probably not going to do it any time soon, you can take your newly jailbroken iPhone, £1.30, and tell them to go screw themselves.
Barrel is the jailbreak tweak that you don’t need, but have anyway so you can show off to jailbreak-sceptic friends. It’s got a bunch of cool 3D animations that make transitioning homescreens a novel and slightly exciting experience.
A file manager is boring but fairly necessary. iFile is probably the best of the bunch, but more importantly, it integrates pretty well with other tweaks, and native apps like DropBox.
A simple but elegant tweak, this lets you delete Cydia apps like you would any normal App Store app. Free and painless.
If these have tickled your fancy and you feel like diving deeper into the depths of jailbreaking, check out or comprehensive 50-killer-app guide to making the most of your jailbroken device.
10 Awesome Apps for Your Jailbroken iPhone and iPad
Did the iPhone 5 Already Get Jailbroken?
iOS 6 Is Already (Kinda) Jailbroken
Been using my Nexus 4 for 4 days now and even though it’s really good, I am missing my iPhone for a number of reasons!! Bluetooth connection for one is so much better on the iPhone, I use this everyday in my car and listen to music via Bluetooth, don’t get me wrong the Nexus does connect and play music, but not effortlessly, and it doesn’t show the song track on my car display because of what I suspect the App doesn’t properly integrate with the phones own music system like iOS does.
The Stock music player sucks balls, battery is ok but I reckon I could squeeze out more battery life out of my 4S, and the button bar at the bottom pisses me off, playing games and the bar is still there! What is that about, should be able to hide it and just slide notifications down to make it reappear. I like the position of the speaker (even though it is very tinny) when playing games as your hands make the speaker echo to the front so it seems like its coming out the screen and not at 1 side of the screen. The screen is very good and perfect size, camera also ok/good.
All in all, absolutely cracking phone for the price. I would defiantly recommend it but it has shortcomings that should and can be fixed.
(I know this article has nothing to do with N4 but no where else to put it)
I have to agree about the bottom button bar, I use ‘Screen Filter’ when reading the Kindle app at night and the bottom buttons stay lit up as bright as anything…..that really annoys me!
Is there nothing you can do to hide the button bar? it hides when playing videos! surely the same should apply to games! seeing as the screen is crying out to be played on.
It’s nice to read a comment that doesn’t just bash one phone and says the other is the best, Android phones and iPhones are both good for certain people and their individual needs. The only thing I can think of for you is to buy an iPod Touch if you want to have iOS for your music and iOS apps and keep your Nexus for everything else. It’s not an elegant solution, but that’s just my idea for you.
“It’s nice to read a comment that doesn’t just bash one phone and says the other is the best”
This should be the norm, rather than a rare treat. The sad fact is that i’m genuinely amazed when a friendly and rational discussion breaks out on here! I sometimes feel i’m in the minority when it comes to actually wanting to discuss the content of articles rather than circlejerking/flaming, especially when it comes to anything Apple related.
Re: Your comment, I guess the main problem with buying two devices is that it kind of kills one of the big pros of going for a N4, which is the price, bringing the total cost to about £500, only about £30 cheap than actually getting an iP5.
It’s usually the reason I don’t get involved in the bashing because I’ve used both iOS and Android and liked them both, when the bashing is over people’s opinions nobody can win because both sides feel they’re right. I just like using whatever suits me, I had a Nexus before but went back to iOS just because it synced well with what I had and I use my phone mainly for apps and I just preferred the ones on iOS. And yeah you’re right, I didn’t think about the price, perhaps the nano? I think that has bluetooth for just the music playback.
I think it’s more norm here than anywhere else on the internet from what I have seen, and I hope it always will be.
You get the odd troll with something to say, but the comments to follow the troll get me giggling. like “OH wow!” and sarcastic responses (if you read into them right).
I use to think Apple couldn’t be beaten (Stupid) but recently the industry as a whole has actually been very amazing with recent technology! take Microsoft with the Surface, and Google, Samsung, Sony. All doing there best to stay afloat and maybe conquer Apple. I have seen this happen and it’s a good tech age we are currently living in and it would be stupid to stick with one company when the whole tech world is doing something amazing.
Luckily enough I’m sure my little brother has an iPod touch that he never uses, so I could keep that in my car for music. I have always had iPhone’s and that really got me into new technology and thus Gizmodo
, It took the Nexus 4′s very good specs/looks and price to make me jump ship to Android after all I hear on these comments is that Apple is shit and Android is GOD.
I also like the idea of a new nano for my car, but then again that wont have apps (Spotify, youtube downloads etc).
I will keep my nexus until my current contract runs out and if i end up falling in love with Android I will think about either getting a new one or keeping the N4, but if I miss iOS too much and the next iPhone has a bigger screen (4.7 minimum as it is an awesome size) I will go back to Apple.
Glad you’re open minded and you use whatever suits you. And I have the iPhone 5 at the moment and I found it weird going down in screen size from my Nexus but the screen does seem perfect after using it a day or two. I’ve seen that a lot of apps for Android are getting prettier so it may be worth checking them out: http://androidniceties.tumblr.com.
I too like JoeyG410 bought a Nexus 4 four days ago and I am in the exact same predicament as him. Unfortunately as much as I like the Nexus device I too wish I could get rid of the bottom bar whilst gaming. I’m also really tempted to jump ship back to apple and get my game on via that device. I really do value the extra screen space that much..
The extra screen size is awesome compared to the 4S size. I would actually recommend life long Android people to try iOS out for a few weeks, they will love it if they didn’t have a negative opinion off iPhone’s right away, and I wouldn’t blame them if they went back to Android as it is awesome!
It’s like having a Jailbroken iPhone but better in a way!? but actual phone use in day to day life I think the iPhone has a slight edge with me, but I will of course keep the N4 for the next 8 months.
A lass that works for me isn’t getting the Nexus4 (which I recommended for her) as she’s heard it’s very fragile. Any truth in this? Am skeptical but have never even got my hands on one, so…
It feels pretty solidly built, it’s got gorilla glass front and back, like the Iphone 4/4s.
Ah, but everyone knows how fragile the iPhone 4 is compared to the competition! As I proved by selling a phone that looked like new after more than 2 years of use.
It is not fragile? if you drop anything there is a chance of it breaking. the sides are quite rubbery so any side landings should be fine and it is Gorilla Glass 2 so should withstand a good amount of life.
Good valid points so I’m going to help you out. For fullscreen with no buttons download the apps: “Full!screen” or “GMD Hide Bar”. Then you can use gestures or smaller overlays to control your phone.
Don’t forget CallBar v2. I love it as I can answer or reject call while in whatever app I am running without having to leave said app.
Thanks for this, especially Tetherme; i’ve been looking for a cheaper alternative to the extortionate MyWi. One addition I would suggest is NCsettings, possibly in place of SBsettings, which puts all your options in Notification Center instead. It’s a little bit slicker and smoother than good old SB, and ties nicely into the existing system. Theres also some really nice addons/tweaks for it too. Check it out!
Just remember to switch on the function there that encrypts data so service provider can’t tell that you are tethering if you are not meant to.
No worries, i’m on GiffGaff! They allow tethering on one of their bundles.
Just nit-picking here, but the screenshot you put for iFile is the one for the App Store version, the Cydia version looks like this:
http://moreinfo.thebigboss.org/moreinfo/ifile2.png
Wrong iFile image…
I WISH the jailbroken one looked that good.
Jailbroke with no problems. SBSettings was nice until it crashed my phone good n proper, needed two resets. Then realised that the phone wouldn’t ring (all other alerts were just fine). Am restoring to normal and might try again once some of the bugs are ironed out.
Currently jailbreaking my iPad 2, how long did it take other people? Been about 20 minutes now, and since I’ve never done this before I’m not sure if I should be nervous or not.
It shouldn’t take that long. Note that using the evasion jailbreak at some point it asks you to slide to unlock your iphone/ipad and tap on the jailbreak icon to continue.
Thank you. It did briefly come back to life then the screen went black again, and the Envisi0n thing kept saying “DO NOT TOUCH YOUR DEVICE”. But I finished jailbreaking between reading your comment and writing this one, so all is good now! Thanks!