iPhone Tweaks

One of my biggest gripes with Siri has been fixed thanks to a new jailbreak tweak called PersistentAssistant. The new jailbreak tool allows Siri to keep listening after you ask her a question. This eliminates the need to keep tapping the button every time you want to use Siri, allowing you to have a continuous conversation with the voice assistant.

This is the perfect tweak for impatient people who are always turning Siri on and off before she has time to do her job. It's also great for those drunk nights when you're trying to show her off to your friends because it makes her much easier to use. You can tap Siri a second time or let her automatically shutdown if you only have one question.

Here is a great Cydia add-on for international travelers. International Locations for Siri allows Siri to perform local searches outside of the U.S.. While Siri can speak several languages, and is also available in other countries, location based services are currently only available in the U.S..

I obviously can't test the tweak without leaving the country, but the $0.99 investment may be worth the risk to some frequent travelers. The add-on is available for download via the BigBoss repo. If you do not already have AssistantExtensions it will be installed when you download the tweak.

The new jailbreak tweak HomeSpringPage allows you to create a blank page on your iPhone's Home screen to use with Dashboard X widgets. Dashboard X is another Cydia tweak that allows you to add Notification Center or user made widgets to your Home screen.

After you have installed Dashboard X ($1.99 via the ModMyi repo) and HomeSpringPage, the first page of your iPhone will be completely devoid of any app icons. This gives you the free space to add any Notification Center or jailbreak widgets you own. You can also use a combination of apps and widgets on the new page.

There have been a lot of useful jailbreak tweaks released this year. For example, I love AssistantExtensions, which allows you to make Siri even better. However, SwipeSelection is quickly becoming my new favorite jailbreak tool.

The tweak is based on a YouTube video created by Daniel Hooper. Hooper published a concept video that demonstrated how editing text on an iPad could be easier. The jailbreaking community responded by creating SwipeSelection based on his ideas.

It's a simple tweak that makes typing on your iPhone much easier by allowing you to drag your finger to move your cursor. You can use one finger for a more precise cursor drag, or two fingers to move faster. You can even select text easier by holding the shift key and dragging your finger. All of this is demonstrated by Hooper's video posted below.

The highly anticipated jailbreak tweak that allows you to add Notification Center widgets to your iPhone's Home screen is finally available in Cydia. Dashboard X is available for download for $1.99 via the ModMyi repo. It's compatible with all iOS 5 devices, and works with all existing Notification widgets.

Dashboard X is easy to use: Just tap and hold to enter wiggle mode. Tap and hold again to access the "Add New Widget" screen. This will display a list of all the Notification Center widgets that you currently have installed on your device. Select the widget you want to add, tap "Add Widget" and it will appear on your Home screen. Position the widget wherever you want, and hit the Home button to exit and lock the widget into place. You can delete the widget by going back into wiggle mode and tapping the (x) like you would normally do to delete an app. You can also remove widgets from the Settings menu by going to the "Enable Widget" panel.