Cydia Updated to Remove April Fool's Joke

Last Year's April Fool's joke reappeared in Cydia today, thanks to code that checked for the date and displayed a Twitter-inspired Quick Bar. Saurik explained that the prank was intended to emulate the discontinued Twitter iPhone app feature, which received poor reviews. The Quick Bar automatically displayed promoted tweets.

Cydia QuickBar April Fools Update

The feature was renamed the "dickbar" by some frustrated users before it was eventually removed by Twitter. Saurik realized that some people might get confused by the feature reappearing every April 1st, so he removed the code once and for all. Cydia 1.1.6 incorporates this change and can be updated using the Cydia app.

Lock Rotation in Landscape Mode on the iPhone

Locking the rotation with iOS comes in handy on the iPhone, preventing the orientation of the screen from changing unexpectedly when reading, for example. Accessing the rotation lock button from the home screen is simple, just bring up the multitasking dock by pressing the home button twice. Scroll from left to right and there's the orientation icon.

Cydia Tweak SwitcherLand landscape

Apple has limited this feature to locking the orientation in portrait mode only, and the multitasking dock won't appear at all in the landscape orientation. Developer BTPankow has put an end to all this, releasing SwitcherLand to add horizontal orientation lock to the iPhone. This tweak makes it possible to bring up the multitasking dock even when using an app in landscape mode.

1-Bit Camera App Snaps Retro iPhone Photos

Now you can warp back to 1998 and take 1-bit photos on your iPhone, much like the Game Boy Camera of yesteryear. The images are saved directly to your camera roll in stunning 320 x 480 resolution black and white. Officially, that's more than 150 kilopixels, or by a more familiar measure 0.15 megapixels.

1-Bit Camera iPhone App

To get the image just right, there are high and low contrast modes and two dithering options. When it comes to dithering, you can choose Atkinson (used on the original Mac in 1984) and Bayer (Nintendo Game Boy) for two distinctly unique styles. The flash or front facing camera can be used for those with newer iPhones.

Jailbreak Apple TV 2 Running iOS 5.1 With Seas0nPass

Owners of the second generation Apple TV (ATV2) are in luck today, as FireCore has released an updated Seas0nPass jailbreak. Updating the ATV2 to iOS 5.1 brings users the brand new Apple TV interface along with additional features. If you were waiting to update to iOS 5.1 until the jailbreak was released, now the coast is clear.

Seas0nPass Apple TV

The Apple TV was recently updated to third generation hardware, with several improvements including a single-core A5 processor and 1080p HD support. At this juncture, ATV3 owners must remain patient while developers work on a jailbreak solution for their devices, which are shipped with iOS 5.1 preinstalled.

iPhone 4S iOS 5.1 Jailbreak Update

Those waiting for a jailbreak solution for A5 devices running iOS 5.1 will have to be patient, according to the latest Twitter updates from developer pod2g. The good news is that work is underway, and parts of a userland jailbreak have already been found.

Cydia jailbreak app store

Even though three different jailbreaks were confirmed on the new iPad, developers MuscleNerd, i0n1c and Chpwn have not signaled when these might be ready for public use. In the meantime, iPhone 4S and iPad 3 owners running iOS 5.1 have no jailbreak option available.

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