I was excited to see an update for WinterBoard in Cydia today! And, the update turned out to be exactly what I was hoping it would be! WinterBoard now supports changing the StatusBar and fixes the bug where the wallpaper was being cut off just above the dock and just below the StatusBar. A very cool update! Oh, they also changed the icon…which I like. Other than that, there were no change to the user interface, still just lists file names. However, it is nice to have my custom themes looking correctly (<--- pretty sure that is not proper grammar, I apologize to all English teachers)! Check out the screenshots below.

Note: I would like to say thanks to the Developer for adding the icon.png file to the WinterBoard.app folder. It makes my job A LOT easier!

Many of you who are on firmware 2.0 might be wondering why there are so many themes being added to Cydia when SummerBoard isn’t even available yet. The answer is WinterBoard. WinterBoard is an alternative to SummerBoard (get it…Summer and Winter! ). It is an open source application, developed by Jay Freeman, that supports SummerBoard themes. At the moment WinterBoard is very primitive. There is basically no user interface and there are a few bugs. But, if you are desperate to change your theme and are not big on using Customize…this might be the app for you. When you open WinterBoard, you will notice that it comes with one default “theme.” You can install more themes via Cydia. They are available in the Themes and Themes (SummerBoard) categories.

You can also SSH your own themes into the /root/Library/Themes (that is the main root folder, not the var/root folder). If you SSH in your own themes, they will need to be in the same format as SummerBoard themes (if you already have a few SummerBoard themes created you do not need to make any changes to them, just SSH them in).

Ok, now lets talk about the actual app itself. After you install WinterBoard you will need to restart your iPhone or iPod Touch. If you do not restart your device, none of the changes will take place. As of right now, there is no user interface. When you open the application you will the list of all the files for the themes you have installed and/or SSH’d in. To select a theme, just tap on it. It will then respring your SpringBoard and the themes will be applied to your iPhone or iPod Touch.

When you install a theme you will get the custom icons, the wallpaper and the dock for that theme. There are a few downfalls, the first is that the Wallpaper image stops at the top of the Dock and the bottom of the StatusBar. There are a few ways to get around this, one way is by creating a wallpaper that is black at the top and bottom (see screenshot of my Pink theme below). The second issue is that the StatusBar does not seem to work. Even when I SSH in a custom StatusBar, it does not display. Also, there are obviously no settings for turning on/off dock, wallpaper, icon titles…etc. Overall, if you approach this application correctly, you can make it work and even start to feel like your getting back a little more control of your iPhone! It definitely needs a UI and a few bugs fixes but, it works and I love that I can now SSH some of my favorite themes onto my iPhone! Let me know how it is working for you.

Note: I did notice that themes I installed via BigBoss which are technically “SummerBoard” themes, though they work with WinterBoard, are installed in the var/mobile/Library/SummerBoard/Themes folder and not the /root/Library/Themes folder.

There are a few new SummerBoard themes in the Installer. Two of the new themes (Radiance and Soft) are available via the iSpazio source. Does anyone who upgraded to 2.0 like seriously miss their jailbroken iPhone?? I know I do! At least we have a test iPhone that is still jailbroken so I don’t feel quite as restricted!

There is a new SummerBoard theme available in the Installer. The theme itself isn’t actually new, it came out a few days ago but I never had a chance to write about it. The theme is based off the iPhone 3G and includes quite a few icons (these are the times when I wish my iPhone 3G was jailbroken!). You can get the iPhone 3G Themes from the iSpazio source.

Below is the list of my current top ten themes and how to get them. Note: Some of these themes are tweaked to my liking…they may have a different dock or wallpaper than the original theme.

10. Realize – MMiThemer

9. Chalkwork – MMiThemer

8. Buuf2 – Installer: ModMyiFone

7. Ethereal – MMiThemer

6. A8stract – MMiThemer

    • Incorporated an AutoUpdate utility – I have already used this feature of Customize and it did indeed notify me that there was an update. You can then update right in the application. However, when I updated through Customize, it did not show up in my Installer as an updated version.

    • Added ability to contact the Creator via Mail.app – This is a great feature. In the Theme Broswer, when you are in the more info screen for an item, you can tap on Creator and it will open an email with that person’s email address so that you can contact them directly.

    • Added About page to display what’s new, what’s coming, and what’s broken. – The About page is the Installer More Info screen, it is not an actual About page in the application.

    • Added Comments section to each theme/file set in Customize. – This is also a cool new feature. You can now comment on any of the items in the Theme Browser.

Version 2.0.0RC1 of Customize also added a new feature called Freeboard. However, please read the following posts before enabling Freeboard.

Customize with Freeboard
Customize with Freeboard Update

Freeboard is considered a SummerBoard replacement giving you the options to turn on/off Freeboard itself, Show Wallpaper, Hide Icon Labels and Five Icon Dock.

Version 2.0.0RC1.2 & Version 2.0.0RC1.3 of Customize do not have any visual changes, I am assuming they are bug fixes.