There are plenty of articles out there in the wonderful world of the Internet that goes into detail about all the cool tweaks you could throw as your Jailbroken iPhone, iPad etc. So I won’t be focusing this article on that, rather I want to explain to you how having my own iPhone 4S Jailbroken has helped with my productivity and workflow tremendously.
Also before I go any further, there are plenty of resources available to what Jailbreak is, and how to achieve it on just about any iDevice with iOS version upto 6.1.2. These are the benefits of Jailbreaking in my own opinion.
Let’s break this article into two parts, firstly I will go into detail about what the restrictions or feature lacking in the current Apple iOS software running on your freshly restored iPhone or iPad that every now that I just wish Apple had implemented or even just did things in a different way.
For the second part of this article, I will go into the tweaks, and other customisations that you can easily obtain (some free and some not free tweaks) that has helped my productivity work flow when using my iPhone.
Limitations in Stock Apple iOS (Up to version 6.1.2)
These irks I find are rather annoying to me personally and may not be such a huge deal for others, but after owning an iPhone 3GS for many years and moving onto an iPhone 4S, the iOS software has also updated along the way and with it introduced some great new things, but however are also very lacking in some areas, and here are the ways I still find iOS very counter-productive;
Typing and Editing Typos
Typing on the iOS keyboard with the auto-correct can be a nuisance sometimes, but what I find even more annoying is the way (or lack of) to correct a typo, to correct a typo I somehow have to have even more tiny fingers with needle point accuracy to touch my iPhone 4S exactly where I want to type and more often than not completely missing where I want to edit and just end up rewriting.
iOS Messages App
Where do I start with this one? Being forced to open the iOS Messages app each and every time I want to reply or send an message to someone is very counter-productive, there have numerous times where I would be reading an article in browser and I wanted to reply to message then and there without leaving my browser.
Fair enough Apple has implemented the Notification Center since iOS 5+ to combat this and allow you to return to your previous notifications and reply to your messages there, but again they are done only in the messages app.
Too Many Controls to Close and Switch Between Apps
Some would argue about mentioning this fact, because due to the limited screen size on iPhone 4S and earlier models you’d really only need one finger to perform most actions and they are simple actions such as opening apps, sliding down for Notification Center and that’s about it. But sometimes I wanted to be able to quickly switch to say iOS Notes, while I was reading something in a browser I would have to press the home button to bring me back to the home screen then open up Notes (first world problem perhaps?)
Customisation (or lack of)
Ever since the introduction of iOS 4+ is where things in iOS had started to pickup slightly, in that you had folders which you could categorise your apps to essentially clean up your home screen somewhat. Also let’s not forget the ability to also change your wallpaper for both your lock screen and home screen independently, but that was all the level of customisation you can achieve to make the phone, well ‘your own’.
You could argue that customisation is purely just for visual appeal sure, but I am more focusing on the customisation of placement of your apps here on your home screen that truly make the home screen just that bit more productive.
Read on to find out, how jailbreaking your iPhone, iPad can help combat some of the limitations I’ve mentioned above with just a few small tweaks that are only available to jailbroken devices.
Enhancing iOS and Increasing Your Productivity
Typing and Editing Typos
Tweak: SwipeSelection (Free)
How would we combat this you say? Well this is easy, thanks to an excellent tweak called SwipeSelection. This is a tweak that allows you basically tap and hold down on your iPhone or iPad keyboard and drag left and right to move the cursor to where you want to start typing, the idea was based on a concept and recently turned into a reality for all the jailbreakers to enjoy.
Have a look at the video below to see this simple, yet very practical tweak in action! If I could only install one tweak ever on a jailbroken iPhone, this would be it.
I will wait till you’ve gone and jailbroken your iDevice and then come back here and carry on reading.
OK, we’re done? Moving on.
iOS Messages App
Tweak: Messages+ ($7.99) bundled with Activator (Free)
What if I said, there is a seamless way to incorporate the existing iOS messages app and push this one level further but allowing you to reply and send messages virtually anywhere on your iPhone?
Well you can with Messages+ so that means if you’re busy browsing away in Safari or watching the excellent YouTube video above demonstrating SwipeSelection, you can pause this video and do a swipe gesture to show the native messages app as an overlay on the screen you are already on.
Here is another excellent run down of Messages+ (thanks to the Jeff at iDownloadblog);
Customisation and Closing and Switching Between Apps
This last point, I am going to combine three tweaks together, because all three I believe compliment each other quite well (they are excellent tweaks installed separately on your device, don’t get me wrong).
The tweaks are;
- Springtomize 2 ($2.99)
- Auxo ($1.99)
- Zephyr ($4.99)
Without going to in-depth, I use Springtomize as a way to customise just about every aspect of the home screen and the animation speeds, how many app icons are placed on the dock home screen, which gives you more choices for getting to apps with less page flicking.
With Auxo and Zephyr, these are really the best combination of tweaks imaginable, and some would argue these are possibly over hyped, and in some ways I do agree but not because of the impracticality of the tweaks (far from it) but to the stability in earlier versions of each of the tweaks, they would present frequent and quite often random reboots of your iPhone, but with the latest updates to both tweaks they really work well and the developers are constantly updating and fixing the tweaks.
Zephyr allows me to be more productive on my iPhone, I love the idea of being able to just swipe up on an app and be able to close the app (still sitting in task switcher), the ability to just swipe left and right to switch between apps easily and all this can be easily achieved using Zephyr tweak, but don’t just take my word for it, check out this video below (as I have a thing for videos lately it seems)
Auxo is an overhaul on Apple’s take on the task switcher, the basic concept of Auxo, is the task switcher shows a screenshot of the app that is running and allows you quickly close an app completely by swiping the corresponding app down, not only that, but flicking across the task switcher you’ll also see a set of quick access toggles and these allow you control things like, wifi, torch, vibration on or off and more.
Let’s take a look at how Auxo works;
By combining the gesture controls of Zephyr and Auxo, you can quickly see that just by swiping you can access the task switcher and close apps and change apps all with very minimal interaction with the physical home button and it may seem like a novelty idea, but once you start performing these on your phone, you’ll quickly become so accustomed to the tweaks that you’ll just want them to be enabled by default as part of iOS.
Overview
There you have it, by just installing the few tweaks I mentioned, which is really only a handful of tweaks that have already improved on how I navigate and function on my phone jumping from app to app you’ll quickly become accustomed to these abilities I even started doing some of the gestures on a non-jailbroken iPhone without even realising.
More Reading
- Apple Aren’t Happy, People Jailbreaking Their Own Devices
- evad3rs (People behind the latest Jailbreak method) – External Link
Sources:
- Header Image, from ibtimes.co.uk (modified)
- Excellent hands on videos from iDownloadblog.com
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