iPhone4idiots

My five year old teaches me things all the time. Yesterday it was the VoiceOver feature of the iPhone, iPad or iPod. VoiceOver is a feature mainly for those with visual impairments as it allows the device to speak the names of onscreen menus and other items to the user. While this is a vital feature for some, it can drive you nuts the first time you encounter it. I’m not sure how but he turned it on. To do so goto Settings>General>Accessibility and toggle VoiceOver on. When you do this you are given the warning, “VoiceOver changes the gestures used to control iPhone. Are you sure you want to continue?” Apparently, my five year old tapped yes and a few minutes later came to me wondering why his iPod didn’t “work” anymore. I knew what he had done but it took me 15 minutes and a Google search to figure out how to turn it off. Continue Reading…

Want to have iPad like multitasking on your iPhone then Zephyr might be the tweak for you. Zephyr, $2.99, is a Cydia tweak from Grant Paul (aka @chpwn) who has worked on numerous jailbreaks and Cydia tweaks. Zephyr adds two multitasking gestures. Move between apps with left to right swipes and show the multitasking bar with a swipe up from the bottom. I didn’t download this til recently as I’ve always had Activator mimic a Home button tap for the swipe up from bottom gesture. However, many people kept talking about how great a tweak it was so I finally decided to try it. I think a lot of people are just sucking up to what has to be one of the 20 most important people in the jailbreaking community. That said, I do like the swiping left to right to move between apps. It feels very natural and is fast. As you can see in the photo I have Disabled the “Swipe up from Bottom” feature. I really don’t care to see the multitasking bar and I prefer this gesture to mimic a press of the Home button for when that fails (IMO, Home button failure is the biggest problem on an iPhone). I could choose another gesture to mimic the Home button tap, but I really don’t need to see my multitasking bar. Other than turning off Pandora I never use it. What would be nice is if @chpwn adds a third gesture to Zephyr. A five finger pinch to close any app. That would make this a must have Cyida tweak. Instead it is one I recommend you give a try to see if you like.

Just watch the short video to see what this Cydia tweak does. In short, it allows you to make in app purchases for tons of apps for free. It doesn’t work for all apps, but there is lengthy list of apps listed for which it does. I believe it only works for iOS 5.0 and above which means it will not work on the iPad 2 or iPhone 4S until the jailbreak is released for these devices. This tweak can be found in the Xsellize or Insanelyi repos. If you don’t know how to add sources to Cydia you see how to add these two repos here.

I just don’t understand tech companies sometimes. Twitter just updated its iOS App and there are two major problems. The first and biggest is it no longer supports landscape viewing? Why would they remove this feature. I use it all the time. Landscape view makes the tweet stream easier to read in many situations and I used it daily. Removing features that your customers like and are used to is a big mistake. Not Netflix screw up big, but pretty big. The other problem is the bottom tab now labeled Discover. This was where you could quickly look at Top Ten trending topics which is one of the best things about Twitter. It’s how you can see what’s hot right now. As you can see in the photo, the trends are now displayed under Stories. Frankly I don’t care about the Angels, Ice Cube or Eddy Curry. I want to see the Top Ten trends and then pick which interest me. That now takes a swipe down and extra tap to accomplish. Twitter now only displays two trends. Sorry, I don’t count the promoted trend. That’s not what’s in the news, it’s just what’s paid for. Nice job Twitter, I might now offically move to Tweetbot.

A second hidden feature in iOS 5 was discovered yesterday by Sonny Dickson. Unlike the panorama feature for which there are apps that do a better job this is one you might want to use. It takes about 2 minutes to enable with iFile, but if you aren’t jailbroken you can turn it on in about ten minutes after downloading iBackupBot. Watch the video to see if you want this feature. If yes, click continue reading for the simple step by step guide.

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So you might have read iOS 5 has a hidden panorama feature that can easily be turned on if you are jailbroken. Conrad Kramer (@conradev) found out how to do this and it takes about 30 seconds with iFile. While cool that he found this there is a reason it is hidden. It’s quality is not great. Thus, I’m not even listing the simple instructions for enabling it. Ask in the comments if you really want it, but trust me. There is no reason to turn it on. Don’t worry, if you want nice quality panoramic photos on your iPhone check out Dermandar Panorama, Dermandar $1.99. It’s super fast and takes nice quality pictures which can easily be saved to your Camera Roll. Here are a couple of comparisons between the two. Continue Reading…

Should you jailbreak iOS 5? Yes, of course you should. I’m quite happy with my iPhone 4 on the semi tethered redsn0w jailbreak. So there are five Cydia apps I use all the time on iOS 5 that make jailbreaking a must. SBSettings, iFile, Activator, BiteSMS and PdaNet/MyWi are still must have features. I show each one in this video. Check it out and let me know where you are on jailbreaking your iOS device?

So iOS 5 is available for download today. You’ve probably heard lots of things about it since IMO this is by far the biggest update in iOS history. iCloud, iMatch, Notifications and more. Frankly its all a little overwhelming even for me. First some details, iOS 5 is available for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, both iPad 1 and 2 and for iPod Touches 3rd generation or newer. For my jailbreaking peeps, as always, if you update to iOS 5 kiss your jailbreak goodbye for the time being. Yes, there is a tethered one, but who wants that? See the previous post about when a new untethered jailbreak for iOS might arrive. Now for more details on iOS 5 and why the biggest feature of iCloud might not work for many of you. Continue Reading…

I am one happy camper playing with my iPad 2 now that it’s jailbroken thanks to Comex! BTW, over 1,000,000 downloads from jailbreakme.com in 24 hours. Not surprised and I’m sure the vast majority were iPad 2. If you haven’t jailbroken already you really should. Just watch the video here it’s so easy, reversible and legal. So what have I installed and am playing with? Watch the video and then continue reading to see instructions. As always please comment. It makes me feel loved. I’ve also added a new poll. Which of these apps/tweaks would you most want – RetinaPad, Multi-Touch gestures, FolderEnhancer, FullForce?
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Great news for you non-jailbreakers out there. iOS 5, coming this Fall, is a major update where Apple has once again taken some of the best Cydia apps and implemented them into iOS. I guess the best place to start is with the Lock Screen. iOS 5 will provide a Lock Screen that provides more information and allows you to access apps directly by swiping them. No need to swipe to unlock to get to your home screen and then find and tap the app. This is very similar to Cydia app LockInfo. I don’t think it’s going to be as customizeable as LockInfo (why would Apple want you to design the look yourself) but it’s a big improvement. Along those lines you will now be able to access the camera much faster. No need to enter a passcode or slide to unlock. Just touch the camera button on the Lock Screen and it launches. Also, you can now use the up volume button to snap photos. I bet a ton or you have missed a good picture by a few seconds trying to get it launched. This will make all the difference. While this is nice, IMO the biggest and best upgrade in iOS 5 is Notifications. Continue Reading…