QuickTip – Have you ever opened an application or been using an application only to have it completely lockup? In these instances, you can do a hard restart of your iPhone or iPod Touch. To do so, just hold the lock button (that is the button at the top of your device) and the home button at the same time until you see the Apple logo on a black background (you usually have to hold the buttons for around 10 seconds before this happens). You can then release the buttons and your iPhone/iPod Touch will restart.

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A good restart/respring application is a necessity on any iPhone or iPod Touch (at least if you are doing any sort of customizing or SSHing). So, I thought I would run through the options that are currently available on 2.0 via Cydia. As of now, there are four application that allow you to restart/respring your iPhone; iReboot, PowerTool, Respring and BossPrefs. All of these apps are pretty much the same if not exactly the same as they were in 1.1.4 and below…they have just been ported to the 2.0 firmware.

iReboot gives you the option to Reboot your iPhone which brings you all the way out to the boot logo screen or the option to Restart your iPhone which will bring you to the lock screen.

PowerTool gives you the option to Hard Restart your iPhone bringing it to the lock screen, Soft Restart your iPhone which uses the Set Language mode to restart your SpringBaord and does not bring your all the way to the lock screen, Reboot which will bring you to the boot logo screen and Power Down which will turn your iPhone completely off. The Verbose Mode which will show the Linux code on your iPhone’s screen during the reboot, is not yet available.

Respring is a one-touch respring application. As soon as your open the application, it will automatically respring your iPhone to the lock screen. Not a lot of options but, quick and easy!

A few updates ago, a Power option was added to BossPrefs. In the power option you have the ability to Fast Respring which uses the Set Language mode to respring your SprinBoard and does not bring you to the lock screen, Respring and Lock which will bring you to the lock screen, Reboot which brings you to the boot logo screen and Power Off which will turn your iPhone completely off.

Honestly, it is totally up to personal preference on this one. All of the apps work correctly and do what they say they are going to do. Though, I did find iReboot to be the slowest of them all.

Update: I noticed that if you do not go back into PowerTool and turn Verbose Mode off, it will display Verbose Mode every time you reboot your iPhone even if you do not do it through the application.

Restart/Killboard/Respring/Lock – These applications are one-touch solutions to restarting your SpringBoard. Just tap the application and they will restart your SpringBoard, bringing it to the lockscreen.

RespringBB – A one-touch solution to respring your SpringBoard without bringing it to the lock screen. Just tap the application and it will use the Set Language mode to respring your SpringBoard without going to the lock screen.

Shutdown – A one-touch solution to turning your iPhone completely off. Just tap the application and it will turn off your iPhone. This would be the same as holding down your power button.

iReboot – Allows you to Reboot, Shutdown and Restart your iPhone. Reboot will do a hard restart of your iPhone, bringing it to the boot logo screen. Shutdown will turn your iPhone completely off. Restart will respring your iPhone back to the lock screen. So, iReboot is like combining Restart/Killboard/Respring/Lock and Shutdown and adding a hard restart option which brings it to the boot logo screen.

PowerManager – Allows you to Respring, Lock Respring and Restart. Respring will respring your iPhone without going to the lock screen. Lock Respring will respring your iPhone to the lock screen. Restart will do a hard restart of your iPhone, bringing it to the boot logo screen. So, PowerManager this like combining Restart/Killboard/Respring/Lock and RespringBB and adding a hard restart option which brings it to the boot logo screen.

The only difference between iReboot and PowerManager is that iReboot has a Shutdown option which allows you to turn your iPhone completely off and PowerManger has a Respring option that allows you to respring the SpringBoard without going to the lock screen. Both applications have an option that resprings the SpringBoard to the lock screen and that does a hard restart of the iPhone bringing it to the boot logo screen. So, it is up to you whether you would rather have a shutdown option or a respring option that does not bring you to the lock screen.

Update: I tested this on another iPhone and it seems to be working fine. So, I tried it again on my iPhone and it still crashes it. It must be conflicting with another application. I would say install at your own discretion.

Ok, now that I have this application working on an iPhone…here is a review.


PowerManager is an application that allows you to Respring, Respring to the Lockscreen or Restart your iPhone. The Respring option will respring your SpringBaord without bringing you to the lockscreen, Lock Respring will respring your SpringBoard to the lockscreen and Restart will turn your iPhone off and back on. All the options work as they should (at least on the iPhone I got the app to work on). PowerManager is available through the ModMyiFone source.