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.