Unless it’s full of unread notifications, the iPhone’s lock screen is already pretty bare — Apple has designed it to be clean and clear, like the rest of iOS. But you can take it a step further with SubtleLock, a new tweak for jailbroken iPhones that adds a touch of minimalism to your lock screen to provide you with more space and a cleaner look.
Apple Should Turn This Lock Screen Concept Into A Reality For iOS 7 [Video]
The iOS lock screen is a boring place. It displays the time, any notifications you’ve received since you last unlocked your device, and a shortcut to the Camera app. But that’s it. When you compare it to Android’s lock screen, which now has support for all kinds of cool widgets, it’s clear there’s room for improvement.
One way Apple could start improving it for iOS 7 is with this awesome concept from Jean-Marc Denis.
Make It Easier To Get A Lost iPhone or iPad Back Using Just Your Lock Screen [iOS Tips]
Here’s a neat idea that will make you wonder why you hadn’t thought of this already. I know that’s what I thought as soon as I saw it.
Even though we have stuff like Find my iPhone and Find my Mac available, what about that honest person who finds your iPad or iPhone on a bus or in a restaurant and wants to return it to you? If you haven’t engraved your contact information onto the iPad (and who does that, really?), and you’ve set a passcode to get past the lock screen, that kind individual will be out of luck in trying to find you to get your iPad or iPhone back to you.
What’s a helpful iOS device owner to do, then, to help a good samaritan return a lost item?
Our Editor’s Picks For 2012’s Best Jailbreak Tweaks [Best Of 2012]
There have been a ton of great tweaks released for jailbroken iOS devices in 2012. Innovation in the jailbreak community is far from dead, and ideas are continuing to evolve alongside iOS itself. What makes jailbreaking great is the sheer amount of customizability it unlocks. Sometimes a simple idea gives way to a crazy amount of potential.
That’s what this top 10 list of 2012 jailbreak tweaks is about: pushing the limits of what your iOS device can do. Here are the very best quality jailbreak tweaks from the past year:
IntelliScreenX Scam Hits The App Store And Should Be Avoided At All Costs
Every so often, an iOS developer attempts to make a quick buck by creating a simple app, naming it after a hugely popular jailbreak tweak, then releasing it in the App Store with the same logo and screenshots. That’s exactly what JB Solutions has done with IntelliScreenX, a $0.99 app that promises to be the ultimate notification center for your lock screen. In reality, it’s nothing more than a nasty alarm clock.
Keep Other People From Using Siri In Your iPhone’s Lock Screen [iOS Tips]
Did you know you could use Siri, Apple’s personal voice assistant, without unlocking your iPhone? Well, you can. Hold the Home button for the few seconds it takes for Siri’s purple microphone icon to show up, and you can ask it to do anything you like, like making a phone call, composing a Tweet, or sending an iMessage. This is a great feature for the person who owns the iPhone, but what about someone who finds your iPhone, or that one friend who can’t keep from messing with your stuff?
Luckily, you can turn this “feature” off, thereby preventing this from happening. Here’s how.
These Gorgeous, Book-Themed iPad Wallpapers Are Perfect For The iPad Mini As E-Reader [Gallery]
The iPad mini is rather perfectly sized for an e-reader: light, easy to hold, super thin. What better way to show off your reading street cred with a set of luxuriously tasty book-themed images? They’re perfectly sized for the iPad mini, with higher resolution options for its larger, more Retina-enabled bigger brothers, too.
Bored Of Sliding? New Tweak Lets Your Pinch To Unlock Your iOS Device [Jailbreak]
Apple’s iOS lock screen has remained largely unchanged for the last five years. That’s probably because it serves its purpose pretty well, but sometimes it’s nice to try something different. Thanks to Pinch to Unlock, a new tweak for jailbroken iPhones, you can do just that. Rather than sliding to unlock your device, you just pinch.
Switch To A 24-Hour Clock On Your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch [iOS Tips]
Here in the US, if you’re in the military or work in aviation, you might actually use what most of the rest of the world thinks of as standard, 24-hour time. While it will confuse all your US-living friends and relatives when they ask for the time and you show them your iOS device’s lock screen, that’s their issue, right? You, at least, will have the joy of knowing that you are fully prepared for the type of time tracking that most people around the globe use.
The default iOS clock in the US is a 12-hour clock, with AM and PM appended to the numbers to denote morning or evening. The other, more standard way of representing the time is with the 24-hour clock, in which any time after 12:00 is the logical 13:00, 14:00, and so on. It’s really easy to set on your iPhone or other iOS device.
WhatsApp For iPhone Gets Quick Reply Tweak Courtesy Of BiteSMS Developer [Jailbreak]
If you’ve ever jailbroken an iPhone, you should be familiar with BiteSMS, the built-in Messages replacement that delivers almost every feature you could ever want in a messages app. One of its highlights is a feature called Quick Reply, which allows you to respond to incoming messages from the home screen, the lock screen, or from within other apps using a handy popup window.
The developer behind this awesome app has now brought Quick Reply to the hugely popular WhatsApp messenger, using a new tweak that’s available now from Cydia.
AnimateLockscreen Breathes New Life Into Your iOS Device’s Boring Lock Screen [Jailbreak]
Since iOS 5 was introduced last summer, our lock screens finally do something worthwhile, and that is present all of our unread notifications in one place, so that we can see what we’ve missed at a glance. However, when you have no outstanding notifications, the lock screen is stall a rather boring place.
AnimateLockscreen is a new jailbreak tweak that aims to change that, by breathing new life into your lock screen with gorgeous animated wallpapers.
Reveal: View Longer Messages Inside Banner And Lock Screen Notifications [Jailbreak]
The iOS 5 Notification Center displays incoming messages in a couple of ways. When you have an iOS device unlocked, a new message can be shown via a small banner notification at the top of the screen. A regular alert can be displayed for certain apps, and incoming notifications are also pushed to the iOS lock screen when a device is locked. The system works well, but Apple restricts the amount of text you can see in a given notification. If you want to read an entire message that’s more than a sentence or two, you have to open the associated app.
The jailbreak community has improved the way Notification Center handles longer messages. A new Cydia tweak called Reveal lets you view long chunks of text from a banner or lock screen notification.
Forecast Presents Handy Weather Info On Your iPhone’s Lock Screen [Jailbreak]
A jailbreak tweak called Forecast presents a handy weather widget on your iPhone’s lock screen for displaying current weather and the weekly forecast. Powered by Apple’s own Weather app, Forecast replaces the standard time and date at the top of your iPhone’s lock screen. Weather info is displayed on the right while the time is still displayed on the top left of the lock screen, giving you the best of both worlds.
FastLock Adds Elegant Shortcuts On Your iPhone’s Lock Screen [Jailbreak]
Cydia is home to one too many lock screen tweaks. There are classic packages like LockInfo that enhance the iOS lock screen with all kinds of handy shortcuts and features, but there’s also tweaks like LockLauncher that are messy and ugly. With that said, FastLock is a refreshingly simple take on lock screen shortcuts for jailbroken iPhones.
Stride Lets You Unlock Your iOS Lock Screen With A Customized Gesture [Jailbreak]
A new jailbreak tweak called Stride brings better-than-Android-like gestures to your iOS lock screen. Developed by talented App Store and jailbreak developer Adam Bell, Stride costs $3 in Cydia. Gone are the boring days of the ‘slide to unlock’ bar. Now you can unlock your jailbroken iPhone with a pre-set gesture of your choice! And boy does it look sweet.
How To Get iOS 5.1 Lock Screen Camera Shortcut On iOS 5.0.1 Right Now [Jailbreak]
Apple introduced a handy lock screen shortcut for the native Camera app in iOS 5.1. You can quickly tap the camera icon from your iPhone or iPad’s lock screen and snap a picture. Unfortunately, jailbreakers left stranded on iOS 5.0.1 haven’t been able to enjoy this great feature — until now.
A new jailbreak tweak brings the lock screen camera shortcut to jailbreakers on iOS 5.0.1.
How To Access Notification Center From Your Lock Screen [Jailbreak]
Have you ever wanted to check the weather or look at stocks without unlocking your iPhone? A tweak called Bulletin lets you access the iOS 5 Notification Center from your jailbroken device’s lock screen.
Launch Apps From The Lock Screen Of Your Jailbroken iPhone With LockLauncher
Do you ever wish that you could get quick access to your iOS apps from your device’s lock screen? With LockLauncher installed on your jailbroken iPhone, you can.
App Brings the iOS Lock Screen to Your Mac
One of the main staples of iOS is its iconic “Slide to Unlock” lock screen. The interface makes sense on a touchscreen device — just swipe your finger from left to right to unlock.
An app called Lock Screen 2 brings the “Slide to Unlock” screen from iOS to the Mac. Practical, right?
Jailbreak Tweak Brings Lock Screen Camera Button to iOS 4
As we await the launch of iOS 5, jailbreak developers are creating new tweaks for the existing iOS 4 software that aims to provide us with a taste of the goodies we’ll be getting our hands on this fall. The latest is CameraLock — a great little utility that introduces a camera button to your lock screen.