Popular ‘ayecon’ jailbreak theme goes on sale for $0.99

One of the most popular, and arguably one of the best jailbreak themes of all time is now on sale. For the first time since its inception, ayecon, the groundbreaking Retina enabled theme for the iPhone is available for just $0.99.

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been over a year since ayecon was initially released on Cydia. I think it’s safe to say that the theme has aged well, and adequately stands the test of time.

If you’re one of the few jailbroken iPhone owners that has yet to purchase ayecon, then you can do so now for just $0.99 on Cydia. This sale, according to its designer, Surenix, starts tonight, and he doesn’t have a date yet set for the sale to end.

If you’re at all into themes, I don’t imagine the decision of whether to buy ayecon or not being a very tough one. We spoke very highly of the theme in our initial review, and we feel that more than a year later, the words uttered in that review still ring true.

If you’ve yet to purchase ayecon, is a $2 discount enough to make you consider a buy? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.

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iRealSMS beta with iOS 7 inspired QuickReply

The developer of iRealSMS contacted us recently regarding a new upcoming feature to its popular Messages app alternative. iRealSMS 3.0.6 brings a new iOS 7 inspired QuickReply theme to the fold, and it looks pretty interesting. Once QuickReply makes its way to iOS via an iOS 7 jailbreak, we imagine that this is similar to how it’d look. What say you? Check out our brief video preview after the jump.

Of course, this is just a preview, and you can expect a full in-depth review once the tweak update officially touches down on Cydia. So far, the developer has yet to provide a solid ETA for release, but I would imagine that you can expect it much sooner than later.

What do you think? Do you use iRealSMS, or do you stick with its more popular alternative, biteSMS? What made you decide to use one app over the other? Please sound off with your thoughts and comments down below.

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MuscleNerd: no A5+ bootrom exploit

For those of you holding out hope that a bootrom exploit has been discovered for newer iOS devices, you’re going to have to keep hoping. That’s because famed iOS hacker, MuscleNerd, has confirmed that no A5+ bootrom exploit exists. A bootrom exploit is extremely desirable, because it means that the device could be permanently susceptible to a tethered jailbreak, much in the same vein as limera1n for pre A5 devices.

Many have speculated that p0sixninja’s work has something to do with a bootrom exploit, but this pretty much squashes such speculation. Not all hope is lost, though. When asked if Apple has defeated jailbreakers, MuscleNerd responded like this:

I can’t say I’m surprised that no bootrom exploit exists. What do you say?

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LockToggle adds handy settings toggles to your Lock screen

Folks who have yet to find a Lock screen-settings-toggle tweak that suits their needs will be happy to know that another one has been added to the pile this weekend. LockToggle, by developer Haifisch, gives you quick, one-touch access to some of the most common iOS settings, without you having to unlock your device…

As you can see in the screen shot above, or in the video below, the tweak accomplishes that by adding system toggles to your Lock screen. The toggles are represented by a scrollable list of icons that, by default, rest on top of the ‘slide to unlock’ bar, and include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, screen brightness, volume and many more.

The tweak itself is about as straightforward as they come. Once installed, you can enable it from within your Settings app, as well as move the icons to the top of your Lock screen. Unfortunately, that’s about all you can do—there’s no way to pick which toggles are displayed, and no way [that I've found] to rearrange them.

But for what it is, LockToggle works great. Tapping an icon immediately enables a disabled setting, and vice versa. I don’t think it’s for me, as I’m fairly happy with Lockbar Settings Lite, but I’m sure other folks will find it very useful. If you’d like to check it out for yourself, you can find in Cydia, in the BigBoss repo, for free.

Have you tried LockToggle yet? Thoughts?

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‘PatternUnlock’ brings Android inspired security to iOS

PatternUnlock isn’t the first jailbreak tweak to hit Cydia that features an Android-like pattern unlock pattern, but it is, perhaps, the best. Other jailbreak tweaks like AndroidLockXT can lay claim to being the first, and some may prefer the vast amount of options offered with that tweak.

I prefer PatternUnlock, however, because of its ease of use, design, and impeccable documentation. It’s a tweak that plays nice with stock iOS, and compliments the standard experience instead of making it feel obtuse and disjointed. Take a look inside as I go hands-on with PatternUnlock on video.

The first thing you’ll notice about PatternUnlock is its settings. The preferences for PatternUnlock are laid out in a logical and easy to follow manner. The first option at the top of the tweak’s preferences allows you to enable or disable PatternUnlock altogether. Beneath that, once again in a logical order of appearance, lies the option to change the pattern passcode.

Just like the stock iOS passcode, you can require the patten to be entered immediately upon unlock, or set an interval based delay ranging from 1, 2, 5, or 15 minutes, or 1, 2, or 4 hours. For those of you who wish to involve haptic feedback on the Lock screen, then you’ll be happy to find a vibrations section in PatternUnlock’s preferences. Here you can set vibration to happen when touching a point, or on a successful unlock. There are also two different sliders for each section dedicated to adjusting the vibration duration and intensity.

A few additional supplementary features are included with PatternUnlock’s settings. You’ll find the ability to enable an option bar for accessing the emergency call button (iPhone’s only), and a setting to enable the device’s block mode when too many incorrect unlock attempts are made.

PatternUnlock comes bundled with five different themes, and includes detailed documentation on how to develop your own themes. I found that the themes in PatternUnlock were designed in a way that truly compliments the iOS Lock screen. In my opinion, AndroidLockXT, while a good tweak, doesn’t fit in with iOS the way PatternUnlock does from a design perspective. AndroidLockXT’s stock themes seem too Android-ish for iOS, whereas PatternUnlock doesn’t seem to force the issue. Of course, there are a plethora of 3rd party themes available for AndroidLockXT, so that’s something that you need to consider.

When it comes to options, that’s where AndroidLockXT is simply more robust. PatternUnlock features options, but they are all tightly involved with the basic functionality of the tweak. AndroidLockXT goes the extra mile with all sorts of additional goodies, such as the ability to remain unlocked while on a specific Wi-Fi network.

Those extras are nice and all, but once again, PatternUnlock gets the basic stuff right. For instance, the way that PatternUnlcok works together with stock passcodes shows a lot of forethought on the part of developer, Jonas Gessner. While on the Lock screen, PatternUnlock includes a button in the upper-right hand corner that allows you to switch to traditional passcode mode. This lets you use both forms of security interchangeably, and also ensures that your device won’t be compromised in the event that the tweak is disabled or uninstalled.

I also need to mention that way that the lines of the patterns “snap” into place. This snapping feature makes it much easier to enter complex patterns using PatternUnlock when compared to the competition. PatternUnlock is more forgiving when it comes to unlocking your device, and this makes using it less tedious. This feature shouldn’t be understated. Watch the video for a visual description of what I mean.

If you’re looking for an alternative to the stock passcode unlock in iOS, then look no further than PatternUnlock. To me, it’s the best pattern unlocking alternative present on Cydia, and it’s well worth the $1.99 asking price. I believe that AndroidLockXT is a good choice as well, but if I had to select between the two, PatternUnlock would be my choice for the reasons mentioned above. What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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Safari Upload Enabler finally updated with support for iOS 6

Folks who have been around the jailbreak community for a while will likely remember a popular tweak called Safari Upload Enabler. Before Apple added the ability in Safari to upload photos and videos in iOS 6, it was one of the only ways you could natively upload files from within the mobile browser.

Well we have some good news today for all of you jailbreakers, Safari Upload Enabler has finally been updated with support for iOS 6. Developed by H. Samara and N. Bassen, the new version of the tweak is out in Cydia now with a number of improvements, including a new Dropbox API and more…

Here’s the full change log for version 1.2.1:

• Support for iOS 6.x extending the iOS 6 upload capabilities
• New Dropbox API
• Photo picker: new option to show preview before selection
• Photo picker improvements/bug fixes
• New localizations: Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal & Brazil), Romanian, Slovak, and Swedish

As before, the tweak installs itself into mobile Safari and removes the block that Apple put in place to keep the browser from uploading certain things. Once installed, a file browser will pop up upon you tapping ‘upload’ web links. And also as before, you can configure all of the options from your Settings app.

Obviously, there are tons of third party applications that allow you to upload pictures and videos (like Facebook and Twitter) to the web, and with iOS 6 you can even do it within Safari. But using Safari Upload Enabler, you can upload all kinds of different files—like a resume to CareerBuilder or a recipe to Barista.

To be honest, I don’t ever really need to upload anything in mobile Safari—I rarely use it. But I can see how using this tweak, and maybe Safari Download Manager and iFile, could really expand the abilities of your iOS device. If you’re interested, you can find Safari Upload Enabler in the BigBoss repo for $2.99.

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How to make the stock Camera app read QR codes

I can probably count on one hand how many times I’ve used a QR Code reader over the years. The fact that such functionality isn’t built into iOS pretty much ensures that this tech will always be dead to me. Yet, a new jailbreak tweak is trying to change that by incorporating the ability to scan QR Codes directly from the stock Camera app. NativeQRis the name of the tweak, and not only will it allow you to scan QR codes, it also allows you to share contacts using QR codes as well.

Once the tweak is installed, you can find its on/off toggle within the Camera app’s options panel — that’s the same panel where you’ll find things like Panorama mode and grid lines. After you enable NativeQR, using it is as simple as holding your viewfinder over a QR code. It only takes a second for NativeQR to recognize a code, and it responds with a dialogue that allows you to copy the link of the website corresponding to the code, or open the browser to go directly to the website.

NativeQR’s ability to share contacts is impressive. Once the tweak is installed, you’ll find a new QR Code option next to the traditional share options. Sharing works pretty much exactly as you would expect, scan the code, and the traditional “add to contacts” page appears.

NativeQR features no additional settings or options to configure. It’s a wonderful alternative to 3rd party QR code readers, and if you’re anything like me, it’ll increase the probability of you actually taking the time to scan a code when you come across one.

For $1.99 on Cydia’s BigBoss repo, NativeQR can be yours. Share your thoughts and comments about NativeQR and QR Codes below.

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Create shortcuts for up to 7 of your favorite apps with SubIc0ns

There’s no shortage of jailbreak tweaks that allow you to quickly access your favorite apps. I can think of a few right off the top of my head including Axis, Grabby, and JellyLock. And today, we’ve got another one to add to the list.

SubIc0ns, by developer ClausCartel, is a new tweak that allows you to add up to 7 app shortcuts to a hidable window that can be accessed via any Activator function. This gives you quick access to these apps from anywhere in iOS…

Upon installing the tweak, all of its options can be configured from the Settings app. Here you’ll find a toggle to enable/disable the tweak, set its activation method, and program the shortcuts. iPhone 5 users can set up to 7 of them.

The idea behind SubIc0ns is great—a menu of app shortcuts that can be accessed from anywhere in iOS—but the execution is awful. The menu looks terrible, and the animation that reveals it is extremely choppy. I also had stability issues.

With that being said, it’s hard for me to recommend the tweak. But to be fair, it does work as advertised (just not very well), and it can only get better from here. If you’re interested in checking it out, you can find it in the ModMyi repo for free.

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