Apple iPhone School » BigBoss

Puller for Byline – Pull to Sync

Brooke — Sun, 01 May 2011 03:05:19 +0000

For those of you who don’t know… I have a love hate relationship with the Byline application. Love because it is my favorite RSS reader application. Hate because, in my information craved state, I check the application FAR TOO OFTEN throughout the day! If it were not bad enough… I now have a hack that adds one of my favorite gestures to the application… “pull to refresh.” If you have been around AiS long enough, you know that I almost always install all “pull to refresh” hacks. You name it (Safari, Mail…) I most likely have it installed. So, in sticking to my “pull to refresh” hacking trend, I was overjoyed to see that there was a hack in Cydia that added this feature to Byline.

Simple and easy. Install the hack in Cydia, open Byline, pull to sync! So much more cool than tapping the sync button!

The app is instantly activated when you install it in Cydia. There is no icon or settings for this hack. To deactivate the hack, you would need to uninstall it in Cydia (or use SBSettings Mobile Substrate Addon feature)… but seriously why would you need to deactivate it! I had no issues when I tested the app. You can get Pull To Refresh Safari via the BigBoss source.

Available In: Cydia

Price: Free

Screenshots:

PhotoProtect – Prevent Photos from Being Deleted

Brooke — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 03:16:07 +0000

PhotoProtect is a cool little hack that allows the ability to keep the photos and/or videos in your Camera Roll from being deleted. This is a great way to prevent kids from accidentally deleting your photos! Once installed, the hack is automatically activated. If you go into the Camera Roll and select the trash button you will get a pop-up that says, “Don’t delete my photos! It’s a trap!” When you select OK, it will do nothing. The photo will not be deleted and will stay in the Camera Roll.

PhotoProtect does have a few settings (located in the stock Settings app) including the ability to turn the hack on/off (turning the hack off will allow you to delete photos again) and the ability to type what you would like the pop-up and button to say when trying to delete a photo.

Note: I did have one instance when I had the hack turned on and it still deleted my photo. I went and turned the hack off and then back on again and it worked fine after that.

Other than that one glitch, the app seems to work like it should. You can get PhotoProtect via the BigBoss source.

Available In: Cydia

Price: Free

Screenshots:

TVDown Screenshot Animation

Brooke — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:47:49 +0000

TVDown Screenshot Animation is a hack that changes the animation when taking a screenshot. Normally, when you take a screenshot, you would see a quick white flash. This hack changes the “flash” to an animation that is similar to an “old-tv-powering-down.” It’s kind of cool. You can get TVDown Screenshot Animation via the BigBoss source.

This hack does not add an icon to your SpringBoard or any settings in the stock Settings application. It is automatically activated as soon as it is installed in Cydia. To remove the hack, you would need to uninstall it in Cydia or use the Mobile Substrate Addons option in SBSettings.

Available In: Cydia

Price: Free

ScreenShot:

IconMaker – Create Custom Icons From Your iPhone

Brooke — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:54:35 +0000

IconMaker is a pretty cool application that allows you to quickly create custom icons right from your device. It turns images into nice shiny, rounded icons. Personally, this is an awesome application for me. I create icons all the time and now, instead of opening Photoshop on my computer and creating an icon, I can create it right on my iPhone!

When you open the application, there are a few options;

Save to photo library – when turned on, will save a copy of the newly created icon to your Photo Library
Save File – when turned on, will save a copy of the newly created icon to /var/mobile/Library/IconMaker/icon.png on your device
Apply overlay – when turned on, will apply the glossy affect to the newly created icon
Apple shadow – when turned on, will apply a shadow to the bottom of the newly created icon
Open in iFile – when turned on, will open the newly created icon in iFile

Using this application is pretty simple. First, you will need to save the image you would like to turn into an icon into your Camera Roll. There are a few ways you can do this. If you have an application icon you would just like to make look nicer, you can go into iFile, find the application with the icon you would like to modify, find the icon and save the icon to your Camera Roll. If there is an image you want to make into an icon, you can go into Safari on your device and do a Google image search for a square version of the image. To save an image from Safari to your Camera Roll… just tap and hold on the image and then select “Save Image.”

Once you have an image in your Camera Roll, you can go open the ImageMaker application and get started. It’s super easy. Just select the options you would like, tap the camera icon in the top right corner, select the image you save to your Camera Roll and tap Generate icon. Tada! A brand new icon!

Depending on which options you chose… the new icon will now be saved in your Camera Roll or as a file on your device. You can then get the icon off your device by emailing it, SSHing it off, taking it off via USB… etc.

I had no issues when testings this application. It worked great as long as I had an image that was a square. If the image you select is not a square, the newly created icon will look a little distorted. But, if you have a square image… it works just fine.

IconMaker was just updated today to a new version that adds the ability to create an icon for a specific theme. Which was kind of a cool update. You can get IconMaker via the BigBoss source.

Available In: Cydia

Price: Free

ScreenShots:

No Screenshot Flash – Remove “Flash Effect” When Taking Screenshot

Brooke — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:40:02 +0000

No Screenshot Flash is a hack that removes the “flash” when you take a screenshot. It will still make the “shutter” sound when you take a screenshot it will just no longer have the quick white “flash.” That is basically all there is to it. A simple little hack. It worked exactly like it was supposed to when I tested it. You can get No Screenshot Flash via the BigBoss source.

Available In: Cydia

Price: Free

ScreenShot:

EasyRearrange – Quickly Rearrange Icons

Brooke — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 19:19:42 +0000

EasyRearrange is a hack that allows you to quickly rearrange apps on your SpringBoard. The hack starts like every other rearranging application… by putting your icons into “wiggle” mode so that you are able to move them around your SpringBoard. Now, this is where the application is different from the rest, you then tap the icon you would like to move. This will suspend the icon allowing you to scroll to the page you would like the icon moved to. So, instead of dragging the icon from one page to the next page to the next page until you are on the page you would like… the icon stays put and the pages move behind it. Then, just tap the Home button and the icon will drop onto that page.

READ THIS: This would actually be a decent hack except that it doesn’t work very well. I think there have only been a few times in which I have been able to get it to work successfully. Every other time I tested it… it put my SpringBoard into Safe Mode. I tested it multiple times, restarted my device, reinstalled the app and still got the same results… Safe Mode. Also, you are not able to scroll through pages while in “wiggle” mode which means you have to tap next to the page dots to go to the next or previous page. Not a huge deal, but slightly inconvenient. There were a few other quirks I found with the hack as well. Honestly, I would say pass on this one for now. Maybe we will see an update that will make some improvements.

If you do want to give it a try… it is available via the BigBoss source. It does not have an icon or any settings. To remove the hack, you would need to uninstall it in Cydia.

Available In: Cydia

Price: Free

ScreenShot:

ManualCorrect – User Controlled Auto-Correct

Brooke — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:30:43 +0000

ManualCorrect is a hack that removes the stock auto-correct feature and replaces it with more user controlled auto-correct. Basically, the stock auto-correct automatically changes some of the words that you type (which can leave for some interesting emails and messages!) where ManualCorrect removes the stock auto-correct feature and puts in it’s place the option to choose a correction.

I will admit, this hack was a little confusing at first. With the stock auto-correct, if you tap on a suggested word, it keeps the word you have typed instead of using the suggested word. It corrects your words automatically when you hit the space bar to keep typing (hence the reason for some crazy conversations!). The ManualCorrect hack basically reverses this. When you are typing and your device suggests a word, you tap on it to select the suggested word. If you tap the space bar to keep typing, it will keep the word you typed. So, it’s basically the exact opposite of the stock auto-correct feature giving the user more control over corrections.

Personally, I like the stock auto-correct and I’m not sure I would use this hack on a regular basis. But, if you are one of the many people who are sick of being burned by the auto-correct, you may want to check out ManualCorrect. You can get it via the BigBoss source.

When you install this hack, no icons or settings are added to your device. It is automatically activated as soon as it is installed in Cydia. To remove the hack, you would need to uninstall it in Cydia or use the Mobile Substrate Addons option in SBSettings.

Available In: Cydia

Price: Free

FakeCarrier – Create Custom Carrier Name and Time String

Brooke — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 20:45:43 +0000

FakeCarrier is an application that allows you to easily customize both your carrier name and time string in the Status Bar. The app is super simple to use. Once installed, it has three options; Fake Carrier, Fake Time and Show BatteryLevel. To change the carrier or time string just open the option, type your custom message into the space provided and select Set. The string will instantly change without having to close the app or respring your device… this is a nice feature because then you can instantly see what your custom string looks like and if you do not like it, you can just change it right there. To get the stock Carrier name of Time string back, just tap Reset. Simple and easy.

The Carrier name needs to be less than twelve characters to display the entire field. If your custom Carrier name is longer than twelve characters is will display the first eight characters and then ….. The time strings allows for a much longer custom string. I did notice that the app does have a few glitches. When you have a long custom time string and then change the Carrier name to something over ten characters… it gets a little confused. I had a few instances where the app didn’t work exactly correctly but overall… it got the job done. If you find things are really messed up, just reset everything and then respring your device.

FakeCarrier also has an option to turn on the battery percentage next to the battery image on the Status Bar. This will display the current battery percentage along with the battery image. This is probably a more useful option for those on older firmwares. The new iOS’s have this option built-in stock… you can do this by going into the stock Settings application then the General option and then the Usage option. There you will see the Battery Percentage option which you can turn on/off.

You can get FakeCarrier via the BigBoss source.

Available In: Cydia

Price: Free

ScreenShots:

RoundCorners – Round the Corners of your iDevice’s Screen

Brooke — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:27:33 +0000

RoundCorners is a mod that rounds the corners of your iDevice’s screen. It basically creates a mask for your device that gives everything rounded edges. Because it is a mask, it rounds the corners of whatever is displayed on the screen. This includes everything; SpringBoard pages, Stock Applications, App Store Applications, Webpages… etc. The mod actually has a few settings. The settings are located in the stock Settings application. The settings include; the ability to turn the mod on/off, Premode (which allows you to round the entire page… including the statusbar… or just the page), the ability to change the radius of the rounded corned (making it more or less rounded), the ability to turn the mod off in GameMode… etc.

I did not have any problems installing, activating or deactivating the mod. It worked just as it should. I do like that it is not a WinterBoard activated mod and instead has it’s own settings… that is nice. You can get RoundCorners via the BigBoss source.

Available In: Cydia

Price: Free

ScreenShots:/h4>

Pull To Refresh Safari – Another Sweet Hack

Brooke — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 02:41:49 +0000

If you read my previous article about the Pull to Refresh For Mail hack… then you probably already know my feelings about Pull to Refresh Safari. I LOVE it! I don’t know if I’m a “pull to refresh” addict or what but I just love these hacks!

As the title suggests, this hack adds the ability to “pull to refresh” in the stock Safari application. To use the hack you just pull the Safari page down past the address bar and your page will automatically refresh.

The app is instantly activated when you install it in Cydia. There is no icon or settings for this hack. To deactivate the hack, you would need to uninstall it in Cydia (or use SBSettings Mobile Substrate Addon feature)… but seriously why would you need to deactivate it! I had no issues when I tested the app and like Pull to Refresh For Mail, it has officially been added to my “must-have” list. The best part is that it’s free! You can get Pull To Refresh Safari via the BigBoss source.

Available In: Cydia

Price: Free