Developer Spotlight: CoolStar, the “Classic” Tweak Author [Interview]

Developer Spotlight: CoolStar, the “Classic” Tweak Author [Interview]
Getting an early start in developing when he was 8 years old, CoolStar began making simple apps for Windows XP in Visual Basic and later moved on to C++ then eventually onto Obj-C. He only regrets not starting with on-device development as it set him back a year trying to find the right tool-chain for developing for iOS on Linux and Windows (which is not easy). He recommends starting with high level languages like Python or Visual Basic for new developers as there is a lot of abstraction done for you like memory management, enabling one to focus on building a single skill at a time. This seems like really good advice since there is really no easy way to start learning programming languages. He has high hopes and aspirations for the jailbreak community going forward; planning on releasing some recovery utilities to help users who are stuck in infamous bootloop situations. Theses will allow users to perform basic functions to repair whatever damage they might have incurred due to installing a poorly written tweak or modifying the wrong system files. This could help people avoid having to update to the latest un-jailbreakable iOS firmware. This is an incredibly selfless motive and he doesn\'t get enough recognition for it. He\'s already made a name for himself developing something similar called Semi-Restore which is a Windows and Linux utility that performs a soft-restore, while retaining the jailbreak. The main difference is these new utilities will run on device and might not force the user to wipe the device and start from scratch. He (among others) has high hopes that Apple will open up their software to power users and release an "unlocked" firmware for which they don\'t provide official support. Only time till tell if Apple will ever do this, but then again they wouldn\'t get as much free security research. To see the full interview, be sure to click the following link and leave a comment letting us know what your thoughts are.

Velox 2: From the Ashes of a Fallen Tweak a New Heavy Hitter Arises

Velox 2: From the Ashes of a Fallen Tweak a New Heavy Hitter Arises

Velox 2 is being developed by Philip Tennen and it will be available on the BigBoss repo for $1.99. The original tweak came out on the tail end of the iOS 6 days, around when iOS 7 was going to drop. This among other things including a lack of support and updates contributed to a bad reputation leading to a lot of people being let down, thinking it wasn\'t worth their money. Phil talks about this and more on an episode of JailCast, he responds to peoples concerns with "I would hope people can look to my track record of tweaks and the support thereof" and "I don\'t look at it as me picking up a legacy of a failed tweak as much as inheriting an idea that lets you interact with your phone in a whole new way." His track record speaks for itself, with tweaks like Acute, Hermes and Roomy and great customer service, we should be able to expect Velox 2 to surpass it\'s spiritual predecessor.

Tweak Preview: View Recently Open Apps Above the Control Center with ‘Return’

Tweak Preview: View Recently Open Apps Above the Control Center with ‘Return’

Return is a new tweak coming out soon by William Vabrinskas for $0.99 on the ModMyi repo through Cydia. Return will display the most recently opened apps above your Control Center for ease of access. Additionally, the tweak also allows you to clear them if you so choose. Every time you open a new app it will push the one at the very right out of the screen and shift the other three over to make room for the new one. It\'s very simple and has a native feel. There currently aren\'t any options, but he\'s got a preference pane and he plans on adding in some settings for choosing the amount of apps displayed, favorites and paging if it\'s requested enough. I mentioned to him that it would be really cool if he could add in a button to go back to the home screen and he says he will look into it if people are interested in that enough as well. For now I made a home button shortcut with Polus to get me by.

Developer Spotlight: William Vabrinskas [Part Two]

Developer Spotlight: William Vabrinskas [Part Two]

After a really in-depth part one interview with William Vabrinskas, developer of Shade and many jailbreak tweaks, we\'re now here with part two. Just as you guessed it, part two is just as good as part one, if not better. This time we\'ve got more questions to go through, however, the interview is just as long and covers a wider range of topics. For those who may have missed part one, Vabrinskas went into a lot of detail to describe how he got started with programming, some of his first tweaks, and what inspired him. Those who want to find out more can also check out an interview he did with Jailcast about a month ago. But without any further to do, be sure to read part two by clicking the following link.

Developer Spotlight: Jonas Gesner the Creator of ‘ProTube’ [Interview]

Developer Spotlight: Jonas Gesner the Creator of ‘ProTube’ [Interview]

Jonas Gesner was inspired to create ProTube to solve a problem he was experiencing at the time -- the standard YouTube player for iOS defaulted to HD and on slower internet connections videos would pause to buffer a lot, making them basically un-viewable. He decided to make an app with selectable playback quality and downloadable videos; the second iteration of it delivers a native fully featured app experience. After tackling some difficult design decisions he was able to submit the app without any trouble at all from Apple, they accepted it like any other app. He still updates ProTube which is available on Cydia for $1.99, but they are fundamentally different. The first one is almost nothing more than a web view with a bunch of features stacked in, to make it an app while the second is a fully featured native YouTube experience. He got into to developing for jailbroken iOS after some friends introduced him to it and he couldn\'t find a good theme for SBSettings. After making one, he quickly began making other tweaks and apps including Bridge and Unfold but he primarily works on ProTube now. He develops with his MacBookPro and a few test devices to make sure everything works as intended. Check out the interview by clicking the following link to see what he said and get some great advice for aspiring tweak and app developers.

Protube 2: Fall in Love with YouTube All Over Again [Review]

Protube 2: Fall in Love with YouTube All Over Again [Review]

Protube has a history of being the go-to jailbroken YouTube app, it has been around for long enough to basically become the default YouTube app for jailbreakers. Born out of the need for more options like downloadable videos and selectable playback quality, now it has made it\'s way over to the App Store and competing with other apps like Jasmine by Jason Morrissey the developer of Alien Blue or the official YouTube app from Google. With it\'s power-user feature set along with the elegantly designed user-interface it won\'t have any problems contending, especially once people discover the offline playlists. At $2.99 with no annoying ads or popups ProTube hits the sweet spot in terms of price versus usability. Having the ability to select anywhere from 144p to 1080p and then download it for offline viewing later warrants a higher price tag, tack that onto the fact you can even stream audio in an optimized 256kbps quality which uses low bandwidth and you\'ve got yourself an incredibly powerful YouTube player for less than your cup of joe in the morning., so go show some support for an awesome jailbreak developer and buy his app, you will not be disappointed!

Weekly Round Up: December 1st – December 6th

Weekly Round Up: December 1st – December 6th

Welcome to the weekly round up post, where we reviewed AppHeads by sharedRoutine which lets you switch between your apps like switching between Facebook\'s ChatHeads system. From there, we also covered the unexpected release of the iOS 8.1.1 jailbreak from TaiG, another Chinese jailbreak team. We also shared with you a Casual Connect videos from the event last month. Like always though, a few great iOS games have also been updated with new content that you should check out.

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Monday, December 1st

AppHeads: A New Perspective on iOS Multitasking, and a Short Interview with the Developer AppHeads is a new Cydia tweak by sharedRoutine that enjoyed a decent amount of hype in the jailbreak community. The original teaser post from 3 months ago had almost two hundred upvotes and a little over fifty comments with everyone wondering when they could get their hands on it. The post was this little teaser image in his alpha stage and people ate it up like the next best thing since sliced bread. A little while went by with no updates on it and then just under two weeks ago this post on Reddit popped up and teased it again with a video. It saw over two hundred upvotes and nearly one hundred comments with the same feeling from Redditors, they were basically frothing at the mouth and screaming, “TAKE MY MONEY!!”. It’s now on the BigBoss repo for $4.99 and worth every cent. iOS 8.1.1 Jailbroken by Pangu’s Rival “TaiG”, Best to Hold Off for Now [Updated] TaiG (pronounced “Tai-G”) is a Chinese hacker team/App Store that had a hand in the iOS 7 jailbreak by the Evad3rs team which caused some controversy in the community back in December of last year. Supposedly, they offered the Evad3rs a hefty sum of cash to include their App Store with the iOS 7 jailbreak. This was the cause of the controversy as TaiG has been closely linked to piracy in China. It seems as though the team is attempting to redeem itself in a way by releasing a public jailbreak for iOS 8.1.1, even though it’s at a very weird time. The jailbreak uses three exploits to attain root access for installing Cydia, one of which is the same one Pangu learned from i0nic’s exploit training classes, which Apple apparently hasn’t fixed properly. We will update you with more information when it we get it though. As with all jailbreaks when they first drop, it’s a good idea to stay away from this one for a few days to make sure respected members of the community can thoroughly check it to make sure it’s safe for public use. If you want to throw caution to the wind and try it for yourself just go to their site or download it directly from Mega here.

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Tuesday, December 2nd

Casual Connect Belgrade 2014: The Movie [Video] ‘Red Bull Racers’ for iOS Receives New Winter Update Red Bull Racers, the free racing game from Red Bull Media House and Bongfish, has gotten an extensive new content update that’s just in time for the winter season. The arcade racer, based on the legendary slot car system from Carrera, now features three winter-tested additions to the motor pool and seven new tracks with jumps and drifts. Players can look forward to the completely new winter locations on seven new tracks with a wintery design as well. In total there are 36 new challenges that can be accomplished, which extends the gameplay time by a couple hours. Three new vehicles have also been added to the game to suit the winter conditions. Indie Prize Showcase at Casual Connect Belgrade 2014 [Video]

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Wednesday, December 3rd

How to: Jailbreak iOS 8.1.1 from iOS 8.1 Pangu Now that Muscle Nerd has officially deemed the iOS 8.1.1 jailbreak from TaiG safe, you can now upgrade to the new iOS 8 update and jailbreak your device yet again. Reddit user, michaelbui, has written a pretty straight forward and simple guide on upgrading to iOS 8.1.1 and re-jailbreaking your device if you’re running into any trouble or just need some help along the way. If so, be sure to check out the following steps below.

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To see the entire round up, be sure to click the following link.

How to: Jailbreak iOS 8.1.1 from iOS 8.1 Pangu

How to: Jailbreak iOS 8.1.1 from iOS 8.1 Pangu

Now that Muscle Nerd has officially deemed the iOS 8.1.1 jailbreak from TaiG safe, you can now upgrade to the new iOS 8 update and jailbreak your device yet again. Reddit user, michaelbui, has written a pretty straight forward and simple guide on upgrading to iOS 8.1.1 and re-jailbreaking your device if you\'re running into any trouble or just need some help along the way. If so, be sure to check out the following steps below.

1. Download iOS 8.1.1 from iTunes (or use this website).


2. Restore your device to iOS 8.1.1 and set it up as a new device.


3. Turn off Find My iPhone, the pass code/Touch ID, auto lock and turn on Airplane Mode.


4. Download TaiG jailbreak.


5. After you have downloaded the TaiG jailbreak, open up the program and plug your iOS device in.


6. There should be two boxes checked, uncheck the second box which is the third party Chinese App Store. After that, click the "X" to exit the window that pops up.


7. Click the jailbreak button, and let it process and jailbreak your device. It will reboot your device a few times, so don\'t worry about that.


8. If all goes right, you\'ll see Cydia on your spring board. Open Cydia let your device reboot after preparing the file system.

Once all is said and done, michaelbui suggests that you install system-cmds from Cydia and you\'ll be good to go. Enjoy! [Reddit]

AppHeads: A New Perspective on iOS Multitasking, and a Short Interview with the Developer

AppHeads: A New Perspective on iOS Multitasking, and a Short Interview with the Developer

AppHeads is a new Cydia tweak by sharedRoutine that enjoyed a decent amount of hype in the jailbreak community. The original teaser post from 3 months ago had almost two hundred upvotes and a little over fifty comments with everyone wondering when they could get their hands on it. The post was this little teaser image in his alpha stage and people ate it up like the next best thing since sliced bread. A little while went by with no updates on it and then just under two weeks ago this post on Reddit popped up and teased it again with a video. It saw over two hundred upvotes and nearly one hundred comments with the same feeling from Redditors, they were basically frothing at the mouth and screaming, "TAKE MY MONEY!!". It\'s now on the BigBoss repo for $4.99 and worth every cent. Taking queue\'s from MessageHeads by Ian Burns, which is a quick reply and quick compose tweak inspired by Facebook\'s ChatHeads for Android; AppHeads takes this a few steps further, essentially bringing the same functionality for all apps. It\'s almost completely usable as a quick compose tweak and since there aren\'t a lot of these types of tweaks updated for iOS 8, I\'ll take what I can get for now. That being said, InteractiveMessageNotifications has been updated to work for iOS 8 as a separate paid package, however, the general impression from the community is it leaves a lot to be desired.

Sticky notes on your Lock Screen with ‘Sticky’

Sticky notes on your Lock Screen with ‘Sticky’

Sticky notes are a part of a lot of people\'s lives; used for everything from jotting down tiny notes to managing large scale projects (if you do it right.) They are integrated into Mac OS X and there are several free programs for PC\'s that offer the same functionality. Omitted from stock iOS for some reason, I can see why Apple might not want to include them on the iPhone but there surely have a home on the iPad. Sticky in Cydia on the ModMyi repo by William Vabrinskas, will bring you this awesome functionality to your iPhone or iPad for just $0.99. I can\'t recommend this tweak enough; it\'s lightweight, feature filled and "just works". The tweak puts a little square in the bottom left corner of your lock screen where you tap to invoke a note, it even has a few different options for animations. It even has the option of manually customizing the position of the little square, it can be tricky but with a some fussing it can help make your lock screen yours. There is a "Save" button on the bottom left corner of the actual sticky note which will -- you guessed it -- save the note to your notes app. Since I use the heck out of my notes app this will only increase it\'s functionality for me. It even lets you type out really long notes and scroll through them with ease. My only two gripes so far are the inability to be able to paste and it doesn\'t seem to care that Eclipse 2 wants to darken my keyboard; these are incredibly small things and although it would be nice to get these features I won\'t be the one to get on his case about it. If he can add that functionality without taking anything away then great if not then it\'s probably for the best. When you take a look at the preferences and all of the options he has stacked in you will see where it truly shines. Don\'t like the standard yellow sticky color? No problem, change it to whatever you like, you can even change the font as well. Having five different animation options to choose from -- Fade, Curl Up, Genie Effect (my favorite), Flip Left and Flip Right -- you can go that one step further in customizing it how you like. Last but not least is the ability to change the font size, which is big for me as I like to fit as much information as possible on my screen because I have really good eyes and don\'t mind very small text. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more tweak reviews from your jailbreak guru, also feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!

Get it quick, Apple warns ‘Neato’ to pull keyboard from Notification Center or Else

Get it quick, Apple warns ‘Neato’ to pull keyboard from Notification Center or Else

Apple has some pretty blury guidelines for what can be in the Notification Center and what can\'t. This has already caused a bit of confusion regarding calculators in the NC and the late app-widget Launcher. This has got to be frustrating for developers and users alike. I personally heard about Launcher too late as I was stuck on iOS 7.1.6 due to a jailbreak not being released yet for iOS 8, by the time I got wind it was already gone in the blaze. That being said, I jumped on Neato when I heard on Reddit that they might be pulling it if they don\'t remove the keyboard from the Notification Center widget. The thread is titled, "What Apple don\'t realize is these are the kind of things that convince developers to turn to jailbreaking, and users to look to jailbreaking" and it\'s spot on. It is one of the largest reasons why I myself will always be a "jailbreaker". There will always be something that Apple doesn\'t think it\'s users are ready for or it somehow breaks their odd guidelines. It\'s going to be interesting to see what happens with this widget; will they turn to Cydia? I hope so!

Tweak Review: ‘SnooScreens’ by Milo Darling

Tweak Review: ‘SnooScreens’ by Milo Darling

If you\'re a wallpaper enthusiast like me then this going to be the tweak for you. SnooScreens, developed by Milo Darling, lets you cycle a bunch of different wallpapers based on conditions you set by Activator . This is his first paid tweak that\'s been submitted to one of the default Cydia repos, so it\'s going to take some time to get released since he has to go through the approval process. But that said, it should be out within the next few days as he submitted it about 4 days ago and will be $0.99 in the BigBoss repo. For the entire review, be sure to click the following link.

Video: iH8Sn0w Demos Untethered iOS 8.1.1 Jailbreak

Video: iH8Sn0w Demos Untethered iOS 8.1.1 Jailbreak

Known for programs like P0sixspwn and Sn0wbreeze, iH8Sn0w has recently demoed a completely untethered jailbreak for iOS 8.1.1. Despite Apple saying they patched these security flaws in their latest update to iOS 8, this seems to be more so hardware related than anything. This jailbreak iH8Sn0w shows in the video above only works on 30-pin connectors and not devices that use the Lightning cable. So with that being said, if this jailbreak ever becomes publicly available, it will only be for the iPad 2, iPad 3 and iPhone 4S. For now though, we\'ll keep you updated if we hear work of anything new.

iOS 8.1.1 Inbound, Jailbreakers Beware

iOS 8.1.1 Inbound, Jailbreakers Beware

As most everyone knows, after Apple gets word that someone has modified their precious iOS beyond their walled garden they will release an update. Well that time has come as iOS 8.1.1 has just been seeded to developers and the time window to jailbreak on a iOS 8 devices soon will come to an end. If you have a Windows computer, you can jailbreak any iOS 8 device right now, just head on over to en.pangu.io to grab yourself an installer. If you\'re on a Mac you\'ll have to wait it out for a bit longer and hope that Pangu releases a tool fairly soon, or you can test your luck and try jailbreaking through a virtual desktop (VMWare or Parallels) and jailbreak that way. All in all, there is a new firmware coming out and if you\'ve been wanting to upgrade to an iOS 8 jailbreak, now\'s the time and we don\'t know when the next jailbreak will be out.

Backing up Tweaks and Settings for a Restore or Update [Jailbreak]

Backing up Tweaks and Settings for a Restore or Update [Jailbreak]

Looking to upgrade iOS 8, but want to save all your jailbreak data just in case? Well look to further, today PocketFullOfApps\' very own Josh Pasholk will walk you through the entire step-by-step process. First things first, you can check if Apple is still signing iOS 7.1.2 here. All you need to do is select your iOS firmware and the website will let you know if it’s good to go or not. From there, you\'ll need to download your selected firmware and it should be completed by the time you’re done following this tutorial. In addition, you can also check if your version jailbreakable here.

Note: I did this with 7.0.6 around when 7.1 came out which wasn’t jailbreakable any longer by Evaision 7 while I am reasonably sure I saw that it was indeed still being signed, they stopped signing it right as I was in the process of restoring, causing me to lose my jailbreak. So since iOS 8 is out Apple could close the window at anytime.

Okay, here I am going to go through what I did to backup all of my tweaks and settings for restoring my iPhone 5 (this time to iOS 7.1.2 from iOS 7.1.1). As always, you of course want to backup to iCloud and iTunes locally just in case something happens and you need the one or the other. I have my iPhone backup every night to iCloud so it doesn’t take long (two minutes) to back up before this. For this process I used a few different tools to make things a little easier for me. Also I would like to mention I followed fellow Redditor TomLube\'s tutorial the last time I had to do this but I thought I would write up a more step by step one for people who could potentially benefit from it. You can find his original post here. To see the full how to guide, be sure to click the following link.

How to: Jailbreak iOS 7.1.1 with PanGu on Mac using a Virtual Machine [Video Tutorial]

How to: Jailbreak iOS 7.1.1 with PanGu on Mac using a Virtual Machine [Video Tutorial]

Really want to jailbreak your iOS device with PanGu but don\'t have a Windows machine to do it? Well you\'re just in luck thanks to the folks over at iDownload Blog . Using a Parallels 9, a 90-day free trail of Windows Enterprise, a couple hours of time and patience, they have created a pretty handy video tutorial demonstrating how to use PanGu on Mac. Don\'t want to use Parallels 9? We are told that Oracle\'s VM Virtual Box works pretty good as well. But without any further to do, be sure to checkout the video above for all the details.

How to: Untether Jailbreak iOS 7.1.1 with PanGu [Video Tutorial]

How to: Untether Jailbreak iOS 7.1.1 with PanGu [Video Tutorial]

Need help jailbreaking iOS 7.1.1 or running into some trouble along the way? Be sure to watch Youtube user macmixing\'s video tutorial above to guide you through the process. Also, stay tuned for more jailbreak-related articles coming your way later this week.

iOS 7.1.1 Untethered Jailbreak Released: Everything You Need To Know

iOS 7.1.1 Untethered Jailbreak Released: Everything You Need To Know

After a somewhat surprise release and a lot of anticipation, an untethered jailbreak for iOS 7.1.1 has finally been made public under the name of PanGu. Developed by what appears to be a Chinese group of people, PanGu seems to be using i0n1c\'s exploits which he failed to make public before anyone else made use of them. While a iOS 7.1.1 untethered jailbreak may sound great, users do need to take caution before proceeding. In a similar issue, the first ever release of Evasion7 came bundled with Chinese software/spyware called "Taig" which led to a lot of frustration from the jailbreak community. This time around, some software by the name of "PP Helper" has been packaged with PanGu but can be removed if wanted. Everything else aside, the jailbreak has been confirmed to be clean and comes with Cydia. As of right now Cydia does not "officially" support iOS 7.1.1, however, it still works without many adverse problems. Moving forward, the same goes for jailbreak tweaks from what we have heard. Most if not all tweaks should work without any problems on iOS 7.1.1, but some may have a few bugs or glitches that will need to be worked out. If you\'re on the fence about jailbreaking, time is running out quickly. Rumors have hinted that iOS 7.1.2 may land sometime here soon and who knows if that will patch any exploits used by PanGu and i0n1c. So what we recommend doing is to download the .ispw for iOS 7.1.1 just in case and see what happens from there. In the coming days we\'ll have more information on PanGu and various guides on how to jailbreak your device if you need help or are running into any trouble.

How to: Free Up 700MB of Space on Your iOS Device if You Don’t Use Siri [Jailbreak]

How to: Free Up 700MB of Space on Your iOS Device if You Don’t Use Siri [Jailbreak]

Despite the sheer usefulness and power of Siri and everything that can be done with it, some iOS users don\'t find the need to use it. If you so happen to fall into that category of not using Siri and want to free up some space on your iOS device, you are in luck thanks to Reddit user WizenGryphon. As noted in his post on Reddit, Siri comes jam packed with custom files (typically in a .dat format) that are used for pronouncing just about anything which in turn takes up a lot of precious space. Thankfully removing these files isn\'t rocket science and reinstalling them is even easier. So without any further to do, be sure to read the how-to below and you\'re on your way to freeing almost 1GB of space on your iOS device.

1. Head on over to the Settings app and disable Siri.


2. Using iFile or SSH, navigate to "/var/mobile/Library/Assets".


3. Delete the folders named: "com_apple_MobileAsset_VoiceServices_CustomVoice" and "com_apple_MobileAsset_VoiceServicesVocalizerVoice". For those that used iFile, you\'ll need to empty your trash to make sure the files were actually deleted.


4. As an extra step of precaution, we suggest you use the popular jailbreak app iCleaner then restart or respring your device.

If for whatever reason you want to use Siri later down the road, all you need to do is enable it within the Settings app and all the files will download. Alternatively, the folders mentioned earlier can be transferred to your computer then sycned back onto your iOS device. As a precautionary act, we highly recommend that you backup any photos, apps, or documents on your iOS device just in case if something goes wrong. [Reddit]

Winocm Teases iOS 7.1.1 Untethered Jailbreak [Video]

Winocm Teases iOS 7.1.1 Untethered Jailbreak [Video]

Despite iOS 7.1 supposedly patching any jailbreak exploits that have been used, it appears as if the tides have turned thanks to Winocm and i0n1c. Described by i0n1c as "a single beautiful kernel bug that goes from mobile to kernel", this new jailbreak comes untethered which is a fairly huge surprise. Even though this may sound really exciting, there are a couple catches that need to be addressed. With Apple to most likely announce iOS 8 at WWDC next month, Winocm and i0n1c may hold off to potentially save this bug for later down the road when it may be more useful. In addition Winocm will be leaving the jailbreak scene for an internship at Apple sometime this year, so if this bug isn\'t properly packaged for public release prior to that, we may never see it. While we do have high hopes for this exploit, only time will tell when or if it will become publicly available.