Tips

When it comes to different themes on the iPhone the sky is the limit. All you need is a jailbroken device and a willingness to install WinterBoard. Although some say the tweak saps their battery life, there are a variety of high-quality themes available, all of which can be removed if they cause a problem. LS Squares is an interesting theme that modifies the iOS lock screen with a look similar to Windows Metro tiles.

The theme works particularly well with some other tweaks to help refine the appearance. First of all, LS Squares requires some more advanced setup to select which city's weather is displayed, the language and default units for temperature. When downloaded from Cydia, LS Squares is set to display weather information from Los Angeles. Changing this requires editing a text file on your iPhone.

The MiniPlayer that comes with iTunes 11 provides album art, audio controls and more in a compact window that saves space. Now you can bring this power directly to the iPhone home screen with the jailbreak tweak MiniPlayer. Why open the Music app if you don't have to?

The MiniPlayer interface was created by Ayecon theme designer Surenix, which means the tweak meshes right into iOS with a polished look. Swipe gestures can be used to hide, move or show the MiniPlayer, and the interface is collapsible to the right or left of the iPhone screen. Tapping the album art will open the Music app.

Sure, Siri is a personal assistant, but wouldn't it be great if the iPhone had a personal secretary, too? Now thanks to a jailbreak tweak called Secretary your device can read texts, notifications and even calendar events using the built-in text to speech functions of iOS.

Secretary can be set to read specific items including a count of missed calls, count of unread messages, SMS or iMessage senders and the content of the messages. Output can be piped through the iPhone speaker or a Bluetooth accessory.

Sometimes an iOS jailbreak tweak changes the rules of the game. Velox is one such tweak, bringing a whole new level of functionality to the iPhone in a streamlined package that might as well have been designed by Apple. We've seen these types of tweaks before, such as Auxo or Infinifolders, however Velox can fundamentally change how you interact with iOS on a daily basis.

Here's how it works: simply swipe down over an app icon on the home screen and a folder-like section will open. Inside this area will be recent information from the app, or menus to perform specific functions. For example, swiping down on the stock weather app icon will reveal weather info right on the home screen without ever having to open the app.

Looking for a one-stop solution to change the colors of the built-in iOS user interface? Accentify makes it possible to select from a list of 15 colors to change the default light blue tint found throughout the iPhone operating system. No respring is required for changes to take effect, only a jailbroken device running iOS 6 or later.

Under Settings -> Accentify there's even an option to create a custom color for the UI using red, green, and blue element sliders. Beware, color selections will change the color of different UI accents across applications, not just stock apps. If something doesn't quite match you can tell Accentify to use the default iOS color for specific apps, by toggling the app under Settings -> Accentify -> User Applications.

Unlocking the iPhone, navigating to Settings and burrowing down into several menus just to switch something off can waste a lot of time. Developer Samball has released the jailbreak tweak LockscreenToggles to circumvent the entire process, making settings toggles accessible directly from the lock screen.

Once installed, LockscreenToggles has no settings to configure, simply swipe left on the lock screen clock to reveal five toggles. To see the rest of the toggles, swipe down. Toggles can be rearranged by dragging and the top 5 in the list are the ones that will appear in the horizontal bar at the top. Tapping a toggle will switch the setting ON or OFF.

Ever notice when Mobile Safari gives you suggestions to complete a search query that tapping them initiates the search immediately? Other browsers such as Google Chrome don't have the same behavior, the search query can be completed and reviewed before actually searching. Now thanks to the iOS jailbreak tweak Platinum, Safari can complete search queries, too.

Once installed from the Cydia app store, Platinum has no options or settings to configure. The tweak simply adds circular blue arrow buttons to the right of auto-complete suggestions when typing in a Safari query. To complete the words in the query field with one of the suggestions, tap the blue button. If you prefer to initiate the search immediately then touch the words themselves.

Many iPhone users like to switch Airplane Mode on either for peace and quiet or to reduce exposure to radio signals at night. Bringing your iOS device on an airplane will require that the radios be switched off during takeoff and landing. Thanks to the simple, free jailbreak tweak LockScreenAirPlaneMode this process is easy and quick.

If you use Airplane Mode often, you already know that switching it ON or OFF means unlocking your device and navigating to Settings. WIth LockScreenAirplaneMode installed from Cydia, the process is easy as long pressing an airplane icon directly on the lock screen.

Flipping between landscape and portrait mode on the iPhone can be useful, or it can be detrimental to getting things done. Locking the screen orientation in iOS is a simple proposition, however there are some apps where one mode is almost always better than the other. So why not automatically switch when needed?

Using the stock iOS calculator in landscape mode provides many scientific functions beyond the extremely simple portrait mode numerical calculator. If you're interested in only using the scientific calculator the tweak LandscapeCalc will automatically switch the calculator app into this mode. Once installed on a jailbroken iOS device, there are no settings to configure.

Some of the best jailbreak tweaks provide useful information in a sleek and stylish manner, improving on stock iOS features. One such tweak is Live Battery Indicator, which merges the best of both worlds when it comes to showing battery life remaining. Not only will the new status bar icon displayed by this tweak show current battery percentage, but it will graphically show how much power is left.

A simple circle surrounding the percentage indicates this value visually, so as the battery power is depleted the circle indicates life remaining. When battery life is low, the circle will be proportionally dark to indicate that charging is needed. Unlike the stock iOS battery icon with percentage turned on, Live Battery Indicator is compact, saving space and displaying information efficiently.