Yesterday, Categories, an application that allows you to organize the applications on your SpringBoard into folders, received a few updates. The update to version 2.27 was the major one which basically includes an internal rewrite of the app making the app perform much quicker. Updates 2.27.1 and 2.27.2 were basically bug fixes. See the complete change log below.

After updating, I definitely notice an improvement in the app’s functionality. It is MUCH quicker and just feels less bulky. So far, I have not had one crash… which is great! Normally, Categories will crash a few times on me. I also love that when adding an application to a folder, the apps are now in correct Alphabetical order! It makes adding applications so much faster and easier!

Overall, a great update… you will want to be sure to update to update this one. You can get Categories via the BigBoss source.

Change Log:
Version 2.27.2
- Fixed issue on update that caused some users to see no folders after update from 2.26. (Sorry, while this should solve the issue, it wont undo what was done for you that already experiences it meaning you have to set folders up again if this happened to you).

Version 2.27.1
- Fixed issue where editing name or icon only edited first folder in the list.
- Reworked the package, itself, so that it won’t install with CategoriesSB version less than 1.1. This caused some updates to lose contents of the folders because they update Categories but not CategoriesSB.

Version 2.27
- Complete Internal rewrite with help from ashikase
- Reworked how apps are added to be based off bundle ID rather than folder names. Should solve issues like taptap2 and taptap3 not being able to be in a folder together.
- Improved UI (added transitions and such)

You can check out BigBoss’s article about the update HERE.

ScreenShots

Yesterday, CategoriesSB was released in Cydia. CategoriesSB is an application that integrates Categories into the SpringBoard. This is done by loading the folders you create using Categories directly on the SpringBoard instead of loading them as a separate app. What this basically does is allows the folders that you create with Categories to load much faster. This also allows for things like badge support since the folder is directly on the SpringBoard.

You will still need to use the actual Categories application to create, edit, delete and rearrange the applications in the folders you create. You can get CategoriesSB via the BigBoss source.

BigBoss added some info about CategoriesSB on his website:

Developer
Ashikase has written a Springboard add-on for Categories app. What this does is takes categories an moves the folders directly into springboard. The result is that everything loads very quickly, instantly more like. Also, the icons are rounded and badges are supported. Another interesting feature he has added is that if you make a category folder called “Recent” and leave it empty, it will track your last loaded applications. Pretty neat!

This extension to categories was not written by me. Ashikase has written other apps such as backgrounder. He is selling it for 99c in cydia store. If you are interested check it out. If you don’t want to fork out 99 cents, then you can still use categories as it is.

And yes, Categories is still in development and will remain free, but I have been distracted with other stuff recently. But there are plans to integrate some native support for this new extension in the GUI of categories app as well as a long list of things I’ve had planned since 1.1.x time frame…

Check out the full article HERE.

Categories 2.23-1:
    • Added some debugging info for some crashing some folks are seeing
    • Added some permission changes to some folders to “guess” what some crashing may be as a long shot

SBSettings 2.99-5:
    • Added some debugging info for some crashing some folks are seeing
    • Added some permission changes to some folders to “guess” what some crashing may be as a long shot

ScreenShots

Then I remembered a setting in the stock settings that resets my home screen. Just navigate to your Settings App, General, Reset, Reset Home Screen Layout. Now your home screen will show all your apps in alphabetical, except the first page.

P.S. Of course just removing them all from each category would have worked to, I just forgot…

Categories helps organize your icons on your iPhone or iPod Touch into categories. This is yet another huge reason to jailbreak your iPhone. Instead of scrolling through pages of apps you can have one icon for games and then all your games show under one menu. You can pick the icon that represents your category or you can SSH some of your own icons in if you want. Just add them to /private/var/stash/Applications/Categories.app/icons. Today, a package came out in Cydia that adds the older icons from categories for firmware 1.1.4. I’m sure there will be more packages in the future. You can also go to our website, iphoneicons.com and get some to manually SSH in, that’s what I did. Gives you even more customizing options.

Another sweet thing with the new Categories is you can change the name of the category or the icon. Just tap edit and then the category and you’ll get the option. I also noticed you can have app names with spaces. I don’t think you could before. I did have my iPhone respring in the middle of setting up categories but it didn’t lose any of my settings. Let us know in the comments how you organize your apps. If you post a link to a screenshot in the comments I’ll convert them to show up, or you can use the IMG tag if you know html to post them.

Note: If you are using both Poof and Categories be sure to update your Poof to version 1.10 or later!!

Back on the main menu, you will also notice five options along the bottom of the screen; Configuration, Customize (opens the Customize app), Restart SB (restarts your SpringBoard), Help and Change Log (this is the change log for the actual app – Categories). When Configuration is selected, it will display all the of the option that can be turned on or off they include; Allow Hide Icons, Show Assigned Apps, Use Background img, Left-Right Scrolling, Hide Last Row, Title At Bottom, Rubberbanding, Summerboard themes and No Plist Protection. To see a detailed description of what each of these options do…tap the Help button on the bottom of the screen. Once you have selected all of your options..tap done in the upper left corner.

Ok…now comes the fun part…to get this category to actually go onto your SpringBoard…tap Restart SB on the lower menu bar. This could take a minute so be patient. Once your SpringBoard has restarted…find your new category. When you open it…you will see all of the apps you added to that category. Just tap on an app to open it. You can also edit what is in the category from this screen by tapping Edit. If you tap Screen, it will save how your category is set up that way the next time you open it…it will open faster. If you want to change the layout and design of how your apps display in the category…you can do that through the Configuration options. You can even use Customize and change the display order of your icons so the category is where you want it on your SpringBoard. If you want more info about this app…check out it’s help page…it is one of the most complete help pages I have seen.

This is a seriously sweet app. At first I wasn’t too sure about it…but, I really really like it! I love that it is customizable and that it makes my SpringBoard a lot more organized. But, the best part (and this happened today) is when someone picks up one of your iPhone’s and says…does this have any games on it…you can just direct them to the game category instead of trying to list off what is a game and what isn’t!!

Categories is available in the Installer.app through the Ste Packaging source.Below are the screenshots:

Note: (info from the developer): If anything goes wrong and your phone has no icons, you can just restore the display order file in the /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app folder. M68AP.plist for iphone 1.1.1/1.1.2, N45AP.plist for touch, DisplayOrder.plist for 1.0.2 or older. The back up of this file is in /var/root/Library/Categories folder. Just copy it with scp or ssh.