TwitLock is a Cydget that allows you to tweet from your lock screen. Once installed, you can activate it via the stock Settings application under the Cydget.

After you have activated the Cydget, you will need to go to your lock screen. The first time you view TwitLock on your lock screen you are prompted to sign into your twitter account. After you have successfully signed in you are able to post a tweet right from your lock screen.

Currently the app is pretty basic… it only supports tweeting however, the developer says he will continue to add features.

Like most Cydgets this one also has some lag while trying to sign in and while typing a tweet but, the actually tweet is sent very quickly and with basically no lag. You can get TwitLock via the BigBoss source.

ScreenShots

WikiSearch is a Cydget that allows the ability to search Wikipedia right from your lock screen.

Once installed, you can go into the stock Settings application under Cydget and enable WikiSearch. You will then be able to search Wikipedia directly from your lock screen. To search, just tap on the search bar and type in your search term(s). It will display the mobile version of Wikipedia on your lock screen. You are able to scroll through the page, click on links, view images… etc. You are not able to zoom in on the page but other than that, it has most of the functionality you would normally have.

I did find this Cydget to be a little laggy (though, I find most Cydgets to be a little laggy). I also am not a big fan of the wallpaper for the Cydget… I feel it a bit classier if the background of Apps/Cydgets are neutral with no particular theme. You can get WikiSearch via the modmyi source.

Note: If you would like to change the background image for the WikiSearch Cydget, you can do so by sshing in and dragging a new image into the /System/Library/LockCydgets/WikiSearch.cydget folder. Just rename the image to LockBackground.jpg. Make sure you change it to .jpg!

ScreenShots

Last week I wrote about Cydget, a “framework for managing lock screen plugins.” Over the week-end there were a few Cydgets (like Widgets for Cydget) released that are pretty decent.

The first is HTC Hero Cydget. This Cydget includes the current Time, Temperature and Weather Conditions. Once you have installed the Cydget, you will need to go into the stock Settings application under Cydget and activate it. I did find that this particular Cydget does not display immediately on the lock screen, there is a slight delay. (strike)Though, it does know your current time and weather info without having to edit a .plist which is nice. (/strike)

The second cydget is LockLight Cydget. This is basically a flashlight Cydget. It displays a completely white screen at full brightness. I don’t know about you guys but, I actually use my iPhone as a flashlight quite often! So, to have it available from the lock screen comes in handy for me.

Both the HTC Hero and the LockLight Cydgets are available via the modmyi source.

Remember, Cydgets can be used at the same time as the LockInfo mod and other lock screen mods as long as they are compatible with SBAwayViewPlugins.

Another Reminder, you toggle through all your activated Cydgets by pressing the Home Button while on your lock screen (Quick Dismiss still works with Cydget). You can reorder your Cydgets in the stock Settings application under Cydget.

NOTE: Do not activate only the LockLight Cydget!! You will not be able to “slide to unlock” your device. If you activate the LockLight Cydget be sure to have another one activated as well.

[UPDATE]
Ok, so apparently the app is not pulling in the specific weather info for your location. Below is a quick tutorial on how to update the info for it works correctly for your location. This does require ssh.

How to set-up the HTC Hero Cydget
1. SSH into your device

2. Locate the /System/Library/LockCydgets/HTCHero.cydget/Private folder.

3. Open the ConfigureMe.js file.
*You may need to save it to your computer before you are able to open it. This can be done by simply dragging the file onto your desktop.

4. This is what the ConfigureMe.js file will look like:

var iconExtWall = ‘.png’
var iconExtLock = ‘.png’
var locale = ‘USIL0490′
var iconSetWall = ‘HTC1′
var iconSetLock = ‘HTC1′
var enableWallpaper = true
var isCelsius = false
var useRealFeel = false
var enableLockScreen = false
var source = ‘yahooWeather’
var stylesheetWall = ‘twoLine’
var stylesheetLock = ‘Under_StatusBar’
var updateInterval = 30

5. Change the var locale to your zip code.
* If you are outside of the US, you will need to search for your city on Weather.com. After you have searched for your city, copy the code out of the link in the browser (examples… UKXX0085, BRXX0232, ASXX0112… etc) and put that code into the var locale.

var iconExtWall = ‘.png’
var iconExtLock = ‘.png’
var locale = ‘55901′
var iconSetWall = ‘HTC1′
var iconSetLock = ‘HTC1′
var enableWallpaper = true
var isCelsius = false
var useRealFeel = false
var enableLockScreen = false
var source = ‘yahooWeather’
var stylesheetWall = ‘twoLine’
var stylesheetLock = ‘Under_StatusBar’
var updateInterval = 30

6. Save the changes you have made to the ConfigureMe.js
* If you saved the file to your computer you will need to drag it back into the /System/Library/LockCydgets/HTCHero.cydget/Private folder on your device. Make sure you save the changes you made to the file before dragging in back onto your device.

7. Respring your device.

8. That’s it. It will now display the correct weather info.

9. If you would like the temperature on your lock screen to display in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit, you will need to change the var isCelsius to true instead of false (true = Celsius, false = Fahrenheit).

var iconExtWall = ‘.png’
var iconExtLock = ‘.png’
var locale = ‘55901′
var iconSetWall = ‘HTC1′
var iconSetLock = ‘HTC1′
var enableWallpaper = true
var isCelsius = true
var useRealFeel = false
var enableLockScreen = false
var source = ‘yahooWeather’
var stylesheetWall = ‘twoLine’
var stylesheetLock = ‘Under_StatusBar’
var updateInterval = 30

10. Follow steps 6-8.

ScreenShots

Description:

Today MediaPhone announced ‘SmartScreen’ an application for the iPhone and iPod touch that will allow informational widgets to be placed and used on the lock screen.

Widgets are similar to those offered by Apple’s ‘dashboard’ and they follow familiar look and feel.

The widgets can be rearranged on the lock screen by using a ‘tap and hold to move’ action that is often used by to iPhone users (when moving icons around the home screen).

The application will work on all models of iPhone and iPod touch that run OS 3.x, unfortunately due to the nature of the product it will not be available for purchase in the Apple AppStore but will be sold to customers of jailbroken phones via alternate means.

A SmartScreen SDK will be available to everyone in November 2009 but widget developers are being selected to participate in a Beta programme, if you feel you could participate and would like to produce widgets, please email dev@media-phone.ch and we will consider you early access to the programme.

Demo Video:

Twidget is a sweet application that allows you to view tweets on your lock screen. When you install Twidget, it will add an icon to your SpringBoard. When you launch the app, you will need to enter your Twitter info. Next, you will need to go into WinterBoard and activate Twidget.

Once you have entered your info and activated Twidget via WinterBoard, you can lock your iPhone or iPod Touch. You should see a menu bar with the options; Friends, Own, Replies, Favorite and Refresh. You will also see a bar indicating that your tweets are loading. The first time it took quite a while for my tweets to load acutally, I ended up deactivating and reactivating it in WinterBoard and then it went. Once your tweets load, you are able to view your most recent 10 tweets by your Friends, your own tweets, your @ replies and your favorites. You can also refresh the tweets using the refresh option. Sometimes it refreshed really quickly, other times it took a while….usually it is pretty quick.

This application is strictly for viewing your tweets. You cannot respond to tweets, post a tweet, click on links that are in the tweets…etc. I would love to see an update that keeps the lock screen on longer. For now, you can install the 20 Second Lock Screen mod via the BigBoss source. But, it would be nice if the application had a longer delay or stayed on while you were viewing tweets and then re-locked when you were finished.

Overall, a pretty sweet application for all your Twitter addicts!

You can get Twidget via the iSpazio source. Not to be confused with Twidget in the MacCiti source.

ScreenShots

About a week ago, I did a review of SweetMail…an application that allowed the ability to display unread email on your lock screen. At the time, the app needed a little work. If you were one of the people who kept the app around, you would have noticed that the developer was able to update the app without updating it in Cydia. In doing so, he added a few features that allowed you view the emails on your lock screen and scroll through them. Today, I got the following message on my lockscreen; “Due to cost of servers for SweetMail I can no longer run it as I cannot afford to keep it available. Sorry for this issue. Please uninstall SweetMail from your handset.”

So, it seems that SweetMail is no longer available as an application. Let me know in the comments if this was an application that you used.

ScreenShots

It looks like Lock Calendarversion 1.0 has been released. I’m not sure if it has been a while since I have done a review of Lock Calendar or just a while since they have updated it! Either way…there are some new features in the app. In the settings for Lock Calendar (which is location in your stock Settings applicaiton) you now have the ability to choose a specific calendar to display on your lock screen (which is a great faeture) and the ability to do a lot more customizing of the app. You are able to select the seperator color, the background color and transpaency and the text color, current color, font type and font size for the Date Bar, Title, Location and Time. You can pretty much customize the app to look however you want now! I will say that it is not the most user friendly interface but, after a little time…you will get the hang of it.

ScreenShots

Lock Calendar has been update to version 0.2. The update has a few bug fixes however, it also updates the appearance of the app and adds some setting options. Like in the previous version, as soon as you install Lock Calendar, it will automatically start displaying Calendar events on your lock screen (it is NOT activated via WinterBoard).

When you install the app, you will notice that the there are is no longer a gray highlight behind the date and that the spacing has been changed so that events are closer together. There are a few other minor aesthetic changes such as a comma after the day in the date. Overall, a nice visual update though, I actually didn’t mind the highlight behind the date in the previous version. Another nice feature of the update are some setting options.

Once you install Lock Calendar, you can go into your stock Settings app and you will find an option for Lock Calendar. Here you are able to change a few basic settings such as, the ability to turn on/off the Lock Calendar application, the ability to turn on/off the current event, the ability to choose the number of entries displayed on the lock screen (1-10, 15, 20, 25 or Unlimited) and the ability to choose the amount of time in which the app will display on the lock screen (1-5 days, One Week, Two Weeks or One Month).

If you are a looking for a simple (and free) way to display upcoming events on your lock screen…this just might be the app for you! It is easy to use and works exactly how it should.

Screenshots

I have been messing with this mod on and off for about a week now and I think I’m finally to a point where I have gotten it to work correctly so, I thought I would pass it along. It does take some ssh work along with some code editing. I will walk you through the steps, if you are willing, give it a try.

The steps below will give you a lock screen that looks exactly like the one in my screenshot. However, there are really endless possibilities for modding this lock screen.

1. Install the WinterBoard application on your iPhone or iPod Touch. To do so, go into Cydia and search for WinterBoard and install the app.

2. Install the StatusNotifier application (NOT the Notifier application). StatusNotifier is available through the ModMyi source and can be installed via Cydia.

3. Open the StatusNotifier application on your iPhone and turn on all the notifications. Note: The lock screen notifications will not work unless ALL the options are turned on in StatusNotifier. You do not have to turn on any of the Reminders for it to work, just the notifications.

4. Go to THIS forum page on MacThemes2.net and download the Complete Version Download file. This will download a file titled “HomeScreen_2.0″ (mirror)

5. On the same forum page, also download the en.plist file. To find this file…look for the section of text below and click on the download link. This will download a file titled “en.plist” (mirror)

“NOTE: To make this work, you need to hide the lockscreen date*
*does not apply on weather/notifier version.

for english language: “link to file“

Note: if you are not using the English language, there is also a link so that you know how to edit the file to work for you.

6. Unzip both the HomeScreen_2.0 and en.plist folders.

7. Drag the HomeScreen_2.0 folder that you create on your computer (the unzipped folder) into the Library/Themes folder on your iPhone or iPod Touch using ssh. Select Copy.

This will add the HomeScreen_2.0 mod into the WinterBoard application on your iPhone or iPod Touch. That way, the mod can easily be activate and deactivated.

8. Create a backup of your current en.plist which is located in the System/Library/Frameworks/UIKit.framework/DateFormats folder on your iPhone or iPod Touch. To do so, just drag the file off your device and onto your computer. That way, you always have the original file.

9. Drag the en.plist file (that you downloaded and unzipped) into the System/Library/Frameworks/UIKit.framework/DateFormats folder on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

10. If it will asks you if you want to overwrite the current file…yes you do. (be sure to make a backup of the original first.

11. Ok, if you activated the HomeScreen_2.0 mod in WinterBoard right now…it will technically work. However, you will need to edit a little code in order to get it to display your current weather…instead of the weather for Manila!

12. Open the configureMe.js file on your iPhone/iPod Touch. It is located in the Library/Theme/HomeScreen_2.0 folder.

13. Find the location code in the file…below is what it looks like:

// The location field should be a relatively machine-legible string
// if using the default, Apple/AccuWeather parser (originally from Leopard’s Weather.wdgt)
var locale = "ASI|PH|RP073|MANILA" //"OCN|AU|VIC|MELBOURNE" //"ASI|PH|RP077|MAKATI" //e.g. ‘Defiance, Ohio’|'Moscow, Russia’|'Ledyard, AT’|'London, UK’

14. If you are in the US…you will want to use Yahoo.com to pull in the weather instead of AccuWeather. To do so, delete the bolded code below:

// The location field should be a relatively machine-legible string
// if using the default, Apple/AccuWeather parser (originally from Leopard’s Weather.wdgt)
var locale = "ASI|PH|RP073|MANILA" //"OCN|AU|VIC|MELBOURNE" //"ASI|PH|RP077|MAKATI" //e.g. ‘Defiance, Ohio’|'Moscow, Russia’|'Ledyard, AT’|'London, UK’

15. Now you will need to type in your City and State information. Below is what the code will look like now. The bolded code is where you will added your City, State.

// The location field should be a relatively machine-legible string
// if using the default, Apple/AccuWeather parser (originally from Leopard’s Weather.wdgt)
var locale = "Ankeny, IA" //e.g. ‘Defiance, Ohio’|'Moscow, Russia’|'Ledyard, AT’|'London, UK’

16. Now, scroll down to the bottom of the configureMe.js file to where it talks about using YahooWeather. Find the code shown below and copy it.

var source = ‘appleAccuweatherStolen’ //’appleAccuweatherStolen’|'yahooWeather’

17. Paste the code you just copied under the line where you added your City, State…it will look like the code below.

// The location field should be a relatively machine-legible string
// if using the default, Apple/AccuWeather parser (originally from Leopard’s Weather.wdgt)
var locale = "Ankeny, IA" //e.g. ‘Defiance, Ohio’|'Moscow, Russia’|'Ledyard, AT’|'London, UK’
var source = ‘appleAccuweatherStolen’ //’appleAccuweatherStolen’|'yahooWeather’

Now, change the code to looks like this:

// The location field should be a relatively machine-legible string
// if using the default, Apple/AccuWeather parser (originally from Leopard’s Weather.wdgt)
var locale = "Ankeny, IA" //e.g. ‘Defiance, Ohio’|'Moscow, Russia’|'Ledyard, AT’|'London, UK’
var source = ‘yahooWeather’ //’appleAccuweatherStolen’|'yahooWeather’

18. You will also need to change it so that it displays Fahrenheit instead of Celsius. To do so, locate the code below.

// Set to ‘false’ if you’d prefer Farenheit
var isCelsius = true //true|false

19. Change true to false.

// Set to ‘false’ if you’d prefer Farenheit
var isCelsius = false //true|false

20. Close the configureMe.js file. It will ask if you would like to save the changes…yes, you would.

21. Ok, now if you go into WinterBoard and activate the HomeScreen_2.0 mod, it will display the correct weather for your location.

Editing Calendar Color
Another pretty easy mod for this lock screen is editing the colors in the calendar. I will walk you through how to do this. For other modding info…check out the forum thread for this lock screen.

1. Open the LockBackground.html file. It is located in the Library/Theme/HomeScreen_2.0 folder on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

2. Find the below code in the file.

.daysofweek {
font-size:14px;
color: #fdff77;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-weight:bold;
padding-top:5px;
}
.days {
font-size:14px;
color:white;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-weight:bold;
padding: 0 5px 0 5px;
}
.days #today {
font-size:14px;
color:white;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-weight:bold;
background:black;

3. The .daysofweek are the days of the week listed across the top of the Calendar (S,M,T,W,T,F,S). The .days are the days in the calendar (1-31) and the .days #today is today’s date in the calendar.

4. If you would like to change the color of the days across the top, you would change the color # to whatever rgb hex # you would like. You can create your own or you can find them online (HERE is an example). Below is a before and after of the code.

Before

.daysofweek {
font-size:14px;
color: #fdff77;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-weight:bold;
padding-top:5px;

After

.daysofweek {
font-size:14px;
color: #cd853f;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-weight:bold;
padding-top:5px;

5. The same goes for the days in the calendar (1-31) and the today’s date in the calendar. Just change the corresponding color # to whatever you would like it to be and then save the file.

6. You can also remove the black background behind today’s date in the calendar by deleting the bolded code below.

.days #today {
font-size:14px;
color:white;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-weight:bold;
background:black;

As I said previously, there are a lot more modification you can make to this lock screen such as font size or space sizes, etc…for more info check out the forum thread.

Note: If you would like to change the Tap to Unlock to Slide to Unlock just remove the Bundles folder or rename it to Bundlers_OFF.

I am continuously on the lookout for a good lock screen theme. I was doing some modding last night and I ran across this theme…Blue-Island via the Apple-News.fr source (this source can be installed via Cydia in the More Package Sources section…check out THIS post for more info).

Blue-Island is a theme that has a very nice lock screen. It is a simple lock screen that displays the time and any missed events (calls, texts, new mail…etc). A quick note before I get started…this is theme is via a French repo so, the theme itself will not work for you unless you are French however, the lock screen works even if you are not French.

In order for the lock screen to display your missed events, you will also need to have some sort of status bar notifier application installed (StatusNotifier, IntelliScreen…etc). Once you install the Blue-Island theme, you can activate it via WinterBoard. If you would like to use just the lockscreen part of the theme, you will need to move it below your current theme in WinterBoard (see screenshot below).

Let me know in the comments if you have a favorite lock screen theme…I’m still looking for the perfect lock screen.

Screenshots