It has been a long time (and when I say long time… I’m talking like August 19th of 2008 long time) since I have done a review of Dock, an application that allows you to launch other applications. Honestly, I didn’t even know if it was working on the 3.0 firmware so I decided to give it a shot and, apparently it does work on 3.0. I do think however, that this app has been through more transformations than any other app!

To use Dock, you just drag your finger up from the bottom right corner (or left… depending on your settings) to the middle of your iPhone or iPod Touch’s screen. This will bring up a list of applications. You can then drag your finger up and down to scroll through the applications. Once you are on the app that you would like to launch, just let go and it will launch. You can choose the applications you would like in each Dock via the apps settings.

There is also the ability to drag your finger from the middle bottom of your screen in the center of your screen. This will bring up a middle dock which displays a menu with five options; Media, Phone, Uncategorized, Utilities and Work. You can drag your finger left and right on the screen to switch between the categories. Each category then contains applications. To see the applications in each category, drag your finger upward on your screen. You can then scroll through the application by dragging your finger left and right again. To get back down to the main menu, drag your finger downward. To launch an application, just select it and release your finger.

When you install Dock via Cydia, it will add a Dock Prefs icon to your SpringBoard. Like in the previous version it allows you to; Enable/Disable Dock, the Line Glow, the Speed Dial option in Dock and the ability to display hidden application in Dock. You can also choose to have a starburst on the left or the right (or both). You can also choose what you would like the starburts to launch; Recent Apps or a specific category of apps.

There are six pre-set categories; Hidden, Media, Phone, Uncategorized, Utilities and Work. In the Media option you will find YouTube and iTunes. In the Phone option you will find; Maps, Messages, Phone, Safari and Weather. The Uncategorized option is basically all your applications both App Store and jailbroke. The Utilities option has the AppStore, Clock, Cydia, Settings and WinterBoard. The Work option contains Calculator, Calendar, Mail and Notes.

You can move apps to a different category by selecting a category, selecting an app and then selecting which category you would like to more the application to.

I found that there are two features of this application that do not work. The “Create a New Category” option doesn’t seem to work along with the “Disable Dock for apps” option. Not a huge deal since you can arrange the apps in the Categories already created.

Overall, it seems to work fine on 3.0. I haven’t had this app on my iPhone in quite a while and I forgot how fun it was. It brings me back to the early jailbreak days! Now all we need is the screenshot option that it used to have and we would be good to go. You can get Dock via the Ste Packaging source (which also reminds me of back-in-the-day!).

Note: Don’t forget to use the “Restart SpringBoard” button after you make changes in the app’s settings.

ScreenShots

A few days ago there was an update to the Five Icon Dock mod…sorry, I forgot to write about it! I know some of you are having issues with the Five Icon Dock mod on the 3.x firmware which honestly, I think it weird because i haven’t had any problems with it on any of our test iPhone’s or our personal iPhones. Either way, hopefully this update fixes it for those of you experiencing issues. Below is all the info I have about the update (which isn’t much).

Tweet – “Finally got Veency on 3.x (3GS tested), fixed a serious bug in Cyntact (now with Favorites support), and handled some Five Icon Dock issues.”

ScreenShots

Old Dock Theme is a WinterBoard enabled theme that changes your dock to look like the dock from back in the 1.1.1 days…yeah, I know, old school! Make sure you move it above your theme in WinterBoard if you would like to use it in conjunction with a theme. The developer also suggests installing the ReflectiveDock mod to make the Old Dock Theme look the best. You can get Old Dock Theme via the BigBoss source.

How to Install

1. Your device must be jailbroken. (how?)
2. Make sure you have WinterBoard installed via Cydia.
2. Make sure you have the BigBoss source installed in Cydia.
3. Search for Old Dock Theme in Cydia, run the install.
4. Open WinterBoard and activate the Old Dock Theme theme.

ScreenShots

The Reflective Dock mod is a mod that allows the icons on your dock to have reflections. Well, it seems that Mr. David Ashman has updated the mod adding all sorts of new settings.

Once installed, you can now go into your stock Settings application and you will see a Reflective Dock option. Here you are able to Enable/Disable the application (no more need for WinterBoard), turn on/off the Reflect All Icons option, turn on/off the Use Gradient options and adjust the Opacity, Reflection Gap, Reflection Length Factor and the Horizontal Shift.

I’m going to briefly describe what each option does. The Reflect All Icons option, when turned on, will reflect all icons on your SpringBoard and not just the icons in your dock.

The Use Gradient Option, when turned on, will add a gradient (fading out of the reflection) to the reflection. If you turn off the Gradient Option, you will just have a solid reflection.

The Opacity adjustments will change how transparent the reflections are. The larger the number, the less transparent the reflections will be.

The Reflection Gap adjustments change the amount of space between the icon and the reflections. The larger the number, the larger the space between the icon and the reflection.

The Reflection Length Factor adjustments will change how long the reflection is. The larger the number, the longer the reflection will be.

And, I’m not sure what the Horizontal Shift does. I don’t notice any changes when I adjust the number! Let me know in the comments if this option works for you and what it does!

Overall, a nice update. I like the new features and the new customization ability. I also like that WinterBoard is no longer needed in order to use the mod. However, I did notice that any time I enable or disable the mod itself or the Reflect All Icons feature…I have to respring my iPhone for the change to take place. Not sure if this is just me or if it is a bug with the mod. A few features I would like to see are a way to disable the dock icon reflections but leave the All Icons feature enabled and a reset button that would reset all the options back to stock….that way if you do a little tweaking, you can easily go back to the stock settings. But, other than that…very nice!

You can get the Reflective Dock mod via the david.ashman.com source.

Honestly, I was slightly confused when I saw this app (No Dock Reflections) in Cydia. The purpose of the application is to allow the ability to turn of the dock reflections if you have the ReflectiveDock mod installed. What had me confused is that when I did a review of the ReflectiveDock mod when it was first released, it already added a “no dock reflections” option into WinterBoard….so, I didn’t see the reason why we would need it again as a seperate package. Well, after uninstalling and reinstalling both application I realized that somewhere along the line of updates, the ReflectiveDock mod no longer shows up in WinterBoard once installed and no longer installs an option to turn off the dock reflections. So, therefore, No Dock Reflections is a much needed and very useful application (though, I personally hardly ever turn off the dock reflections)!

Basically, to make things simple, if you install the ReflectiveDock mod you will probably want to install the No Dock Reflections app as well. That way the dock reflections can easily be turned off via WinterBoard. When I tested the No Dock Reflections option…it worked perfectly. Both of these apps are available via the david.ashman.com source.

The ReflectiveDock mod, via the david.ashman.com source, was updated a few days ago allowing the reflective dock to correctly reflect the WeatherIcon mod. I finally had a chance to test it and it works great. If you are someone who likes to have your weather icon in your dock and you use the RefelectiveDock mod…then you are good to go. Now, all we need is an update so that it reflects the LiveClock mod! I would love to watch the little second hand go around in the reflection!

Note: You will need version 1.6.0 or newer of the WeatherIcon mod for this to work. Remember all these mods are activated via WinterBoard.

Screenshots

You’ll also need to copy the 4 icons that are in your dock into the “Reflective Dock (4 Icons)”. You can get these in the application’s folder. Now edit the Widget.html file and add in the icon names where it says img src=. If you have a custom dock you’ll have to put that in the same folder too named dock.png. If you’re like me and use a transparent dock then just delete the dock.png and ReflectiveDock.png files. You should just be able to activate it in WinterBoard and you will now have a reflective dock! Let me know how it works for you!

iSpazio DockFlow is a mod that I noticed last night. It changes your dock icons giving them a cover flow look. It actually looks pretty cool however, there are a few restrictions with it. You need to have a five icon dock, the icons have to be specific icons in a specific order (Safari, SMS, Phone, Mail and iPod) and you cannot use it with other mods such as Stack. But, if you are willing to deal with these restrictions is does look pretty cool. Once installed, you will need to activate it via WinterBoard.

I’ve missed this when I upgraded to 2.0. It’s pretty simple really, just install “Five Icon Dock” From Cydia. Then all you have to do is drag an additional icon to your dock. Here’s what it looks like:

Dock was one of my all time favorite application for a long time on firmware 1.1.4 and below! I ended up uninstalling it when it interfered with a few other apps. But, Dock is back and has a whole new look! For those of you who are not familiar with Dock…it is an application launching application. It it’s old version, it also allowed you to take screen shots. After you install Dock on your 2.0 firmware, you will need to restart your iPhone or iPod Touch. But, one it is installed and you have restarted your device, you can activate Dock by slowing running your finger along the bottom of your screen….below your dock at the very edge of your screen. You must keep your finger on the screen to keep Dock launched

You will then get a menu with five options; Media, Phone, Uncategorized, Utilities and Work. You can drag your finger along your screen to switch between the categories. Each category then contains applications. To see the applications in each category, drag your finger upward on your screen. You can then scroll through the application by dragging your finger on the screen again. To get back down to the main menu, drag your finger downward. o launch an application, just select it and release your finger.

If you leave the application stock, this is what you will find…in the Media option you will find, YouTube and iTunes. In the Phone option you will find Maps, Phone, Safari, Text and Weather. The uncategprozed option is basically all your application both App Store and jailbroke. The Utilities option has the AppStore, Clock, Cydia, Settings and WinterBoard. The Work option contains Calculator, Calendar, Mail and Notes.

When you install Dock, it adds a Dock Prefs icon to your SpringBoard. In the Dock Prefs, you can totally customize the application. You can choose to turn on/off Enable Dock, Show line glow and Enable Speed Dial. You can also change the categories that each application is in or create new categories. You can do this by selecting a category, then selecting an application within that category and then choosing which category you would like it to be moved to or create a new category for that application. You can also choose to have some application not even show up in the Dock app. The Disable Dock for apps option actually turns off Dock from launching in the applications that are checked. Thanks to Treadeater for the correction. To implement this, select Disable Dock for apps. It will then allow you to put a check mark (by selecting the application) on the applications that you do not want Dock to launch in. This includes both App Store and Installer/Cydia applications. Very cool…I love the ability to customize the application!

Another cool thing is that you can launch Dock from any application or at least all the apps I tested. Overall, a very cool concept but, slightly difficult interface. I found that it took a few tries to get used to the interface and even then I found it difficult to navigate at times. I also had a few crashing/glitching issues. Nate True does good work and am a huge fan of Dock…I will look forward to updates to this application.