iPhone Themes

Not everyone has fallen in love with the redesigned iOS 7 icons. While the latest iPhone firmware from Apple has many functional improvements, bringing back the old iOS 6 app icons is not an option. That is unless your iOS 7 device has been jailbroken with evasi0n 7.

WinterBoard makes it possible to change the cosmetics of iOS 7 with themes. The theme pictured above from developer Jailbreakstyle is appropriately named iOS 6 Icons For iOS 7 Theme. This free theme can be used in conjunction with WinterBoard to bring back iOS 6 icons on stock home screen apps.

The iOS 7 keyboard redesign is slick and easy to read. It's also bright, which means that any time the keyboard pops up in an application users are greeted with white keys. For a more subdued look, the jailbreak tweak Bloard does the trick. The name is a portmanteau, combining the words black and keyboard.

As you might guess, Bloard does one thing and does it well. Once installed, the tweak darkens the keyboard to what developer GN-OS describes as a "nice light black". Keyboard markings are reversed to white. There are no settings to configure, and the tweak will automatically darken keyboards in any iOS 7 app.

Fans of Doctor Who will enjoy the simple, yet elegant WinterBoard theme Gallifreyan Keypad. This free theme from developer Puka1701 converts the lock screen keypad numbers into Circular Gallifreyan glyphs. Glyphs also appear in the Phone dialer, but only when numbers are pressed.

The theme integrates perfectly with iOS 7, which is required for installation. Gallifreyan Keypad is dependent on WinterBoard and only works on the iPhone and iPod touch. Once installed from Cydia, the theme can be enabled under Settings -> WinterBoard -> Gallifreyan Keypad on a jailbroken device.

iOS 7 may not be here yet, but developers have been hard at work creating jailbreak themes to simulate the look and feel of Apple's latest beta firmware. Of course, the key word is simulate, as many of the themes are simply new graphical elements and other skins that use Winterboard to camouflage icons.

For those who just can't wait until this fall to see what iOS 7 is all about, there are several free iOS 7 themes popping up in the Cydia jailbreak app store. Not only can the home screen be themed, but there are options for an iOS 7 style lock screen, status bar, control toggles, messages, and even the calculator. All of the themes require a jailbroken iPhone and Winterboard.

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.