A rather exciting development has recently surfaced in the jailbreaking scene for iPhone. The Checkm8 bootrom exploit was shown off to the public by axi0mX, which made way for the undefeatable Checkra1n jailbreak tool. With it, you can freely jailbreak a variety of older iPhon ...more
If you want to use your iPhone with another carrier, all you have to do is contact the original carrier to request an unlock, which is usually granted in a few days. Unfortunately, you need to meet specific criteria to officially carrier-unlock your iPhone, like paying off the ...more
If you want to play games that aren't in the iOS App Store, Apple makes it pretty tough for you. Usually, the only solution is to jailbreak your iPad or iPhone, but that's something most avoid because it will void the warranty and may cause potential bricking issues. In some ...more
From my experience, the recent contacts in the iOS 8 app switcher is a love-hate feature. On the plus side, it's a speed dial for not only phone calls, but messages. On the downside, it's a way for others to see your favorite contacts and who you've contacted most recently. W ...more
One of the biggest reasons we jailbreak our iPads and iPhones is to add and change themes. Apple locks down a lot of how we can personalize our devices, and while the stock look is easy on the eyes, sooner or later we may realize how boring it can be. Now, it doesn't have to b ...more
One of the best things about iOS 7 is the Control Center, which gives you quick access from anywhere on your iPhone to turning on or off Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and more. It also makes it very easy to adjust the brightness of your display, and gives app shortcuts for ...more
Removing unwanted apps from your iPhone is a straightforward affair — long-press an app's icon, then hit the delete button once it appears. Unfortunately, the same can't be said when it comes to uninstalling tweaks from a jailbroken iPhone. Many tweaks aren't very polished, a ...more
To reduce stress on internet bandwidth during the COVID-19 pandemic that the novel coronavirus is causing, Google decided to set YouTube's default video quality to 480p. That said, even when you could stream at HD quality without adjusting anything, you still couldn't switch t ...more
Dark mode is simply a way of life these days now that both Android and iOS officially support it. Most major apps now use the system-wide setting on Android and iOS, and many had their own dark themes in-app before Google and Apple got with the program. But the social media gi ...more
In the iPhone modding scene, the Checkm8 bootrom exploit, by developer axi0mX, led to a powerful jailbreaking tool known as Checkra1n. With it, you can jailbreak a variety of iPhone models without worrying about it getting patched later on. But in the past, it required you to ...more
Apple has tools built into iOS to help parents monitor the iPhone habits of their children. However, those same tools can be used by everyday iPhone owners to both hide apps they don't care about, as well as restrict features they don't need or that infringe on privacy. Whethe ...more
Apple's iOS 11 is finally here, and while they showed off several of the new features it brings to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch back at WWDC 2017, they've only just touched the surface of what iOS 11 has to offer. There are a lot of cool new (and sometimes secret) feature ...more
For those interested in jailbreaking their A4 Apple devices (iPhone 4, 3GS, and 4th Gen iPod touch), a new update has been released that makes things a little easier. Unlike the previous Redsn0w iOS 6 jailbreak, the newest version, 0.9.15b1, comes with full support of the Cydi ...more
The most significant customization aspect of the iPhone is most definitely the home screen. Before iOS 14, Apple only threw in a feature here and there to appease those who like a more personal touch on the most visible part of the operating system. Now, there are great custom ...more
Unlike the iOS App Store, which is a one-stop shop that lets you search for and instantly download apps on your iPhone, jailbreak apps found within Cydia are far more fragmented and not as easy to source. In fact, Cydia only comes stock with a fraction of the apps and tweaks t ...more
Maps is great for getting turn-by-turn directions in unfamiliar territory, but how many times does your favorite song have to be rudely interrupted by that navigation voice telling you to turn left or right? Yes, you need those spoken directions to get to where you're going, b ...more
The Master System, more popularly referred to as the Sega Master System, or SMS for short, is a video game console that was released in the mid-1980's as a direct competitor to the original Nintendo (NES). While it was given credit for playing a role in the development of its ...more
The sovereignty that's granted when we jailbreak our iOS 7 devices can only be described with one word—liberating. With this freedom comes countless themes and apps that let us manipulate our devices to really own them and turn them into something that is truly ours. Activato ...more
Normally, you'd have to jailbreak your iPad or iPhone to play any games that aren't available in the iOS App Store, like the now-extinct Flappy Bird game. But this isn't the case if you want to play some of your favorite old school Nintendo classics. There's a web app called ...more
Installing tweaks or themes onto your jailbroken iOS device is a pretty fun and exciting experience, but if you do it for long enough, you're bound to come across a bug that will cause your operating system to crash. Instead of panicking, troubleshoot the problem by entering ...more
Unless you are or know a developer, you'll have to wait until sometime in September for the official iOS 8 to hit your iPad or iPhone. However, that doesn't mean you can't get some of iOS 8's new features on your iOS 7 device right now. For example, the new Notification Center ...more
Good battery life is one of the most important things any phone or tablet should have, but iOS 7 isn't always that great at handling power consumption. That leads to tunnel vision on the status bar's battery meter. After all, you don't want to be stranded in the middle of nowh ...more
Apple has acknowledged a problem with the sleep/wake key, better known as the power button, on a certain number of iPhone 5's manufactured through March 2013. As a result, the company has announced the iPhone 5 Sleep/Wake Button Replacement Program, which will replace the powe ...more
Apple does not provide a native way to lock apps on your iPhone behind Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode. For a long time, we've wanted that option for improved privacy and security, but Apple does allow developers to use its authentication protocols. Apps like Messenger, Ou ...more
The only official way to record your iPhone's screen before iOS 11 was to hook it up to a Mac and use QuickTime Player to do the recording for you. If you wanted to record your iPhone's screen without an external device, there were unofficial apps you could use, like AirShou, ...more
People are going nuts with their iOS 14 home screens. One look on social media shows just how creative people can be with their home screen widgets and customized app icons. That said, maybe you aren't looking for a crazy setup. Maybe you're someone who wants a simple, clean h ...more
Live Photos is an interesting new feature introduced by Apple on the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus models that captures the moments immediately before and after you snap a picture in the Camera app, resulting in a GIF-like animation. But unlike a conventional GIF file, a Live Photo d ...more
Now that there's a working jailbreak for every iOS 6.1 device, there are more and more people jailbreaking their iPhones (including me) for better customization. But for those of you who have no desire to jailbreak, you can still do some pretty cool tweaks. One such non-jailb ...more
Today we are pleased to announce the end to the Apple vs. Android war. About a year ago, our Gadget Hacks team started working on a top-secret project to dual-boot both Android and iOS on the same phone—and we couldn't be more proud to announce that we've finally succeeded! Y ...more
A massive leak appeared the web today, and it's got some huge security implications for every iPhone on the market. On the plus side, it also has some potential for enabling deep-level modifications and jailbreak tweaks. GitHub user ZioShiba posted the iBoot source code for i ...more
As far as customization goes, there's nothing you can do to change the look and function of the Control Center on your iPhone. By default, you can't alter the system toggles, but if your device is jailbroken, it's a completely different story. With the help of a tweak from dev ...more
Hiding apps that you don't want or don't use is a no-brainer, but with Apple's mobile iOS, they try to make it virtually impossible without a jailbreak. Now, with a few downloads and clicks, you can finally get rid of that pesky Newsstand or Stocks app without jailbreaking! A ...more
The horizontal dotted icon in your iPhone's status bar serves as an indicator of your device's network strength. And while it does help provide an approximation of how strong your signal is, swapping it out to display an actual numeric value is a lot more precise and can chang ...more
Apple hates game emulators. Go ahead, look around in the iOS App Store, you won't find any. But who needs 'em anyway? Anyone with a jailbroken iPad or iPhone can install emulators for practically any classic gaming console they want. Hell, you can even do it without jailbreak ...more
Apple is set to release its latest operating system for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch this fall, and if you haven't noticed yet from our iOS 7 softModder guides, it's going to be pretty slick. Gone are the boring old icons that have remained basically unchanged since the very ...more
An average user's smartphone tinkering doesn't go much further than taking their phones out of the box, signing into their account, and installing apps. But some of us want more functionality and customizability than the basic experience provided by Android and iOS. Thankfull ...more
When iOS 7 was released, there were actually news reports of people getting disoriented and sick due to the motion of the parallax effect, along with the speedy animations when opening and closing apps and folders. Reducing motion in your Accessibility settings can help calm ...more
Remember the live fish wallpapers from iOS 9? They may be a fading memory at this point since Apple removed them all from the iPhone in iOS 11, but there is a way to get those fishies animated on your device again. They'll be live photos for your lock screen, which is as good ...more
Nintendo fans rejoice! Not only can you play classic NES games on your iPad or iPhone without jailbreaking, you can play Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color games. And that's not it. Now, thanks to @angelXwind, we can add Nintendo DS to our list of non-jailbreak emulators for ...more
Even under normal circumstances, it's almost impossible to speak to a representative for a government agency or company in just one try. Many systems will put you on hold for long periods or ask to call you back when someone is available, but there are still some out there tha ...more
Unlike fully untethered jailbreaks such as Yalu's iOS 10.2 method, semi-tethered jailbreaks require users to re-enable the mod each time their device is turned off. Fortunately, the process of kickstarting a jailbreak is easy to do, since it's already embedded in your iPhone's ...more
Unruly customers. Crazy exes. Horrible bosses. When you need proof of insanity or just want it for your records, recording a phone call is a must. Problem is, it's not the easiest thing to do on an iPhone — but it's completely possible. Even though there are plenty of legit r ...more
Some elements of iOS's design, like its minimal color palette, are what make Apple products unique, helping to produce a clean, sleek user experience. But after you jailbreak, that all goes out the window. Once you've tried things like theming your status bar, changing your ic ...more
Lock screen notifications can sometimes be overwhelming and difficult to manage, especially in the morning when I receive a massive influx of emails, texts, reminders, and social media alerts. At some point it's not even worth scrolling through all of them on your lock screen ...more
A banner alert for notifications is like the Robin to our iPhone's Batman—they're taken for granted and don't really get the recognition they deserve. Yes, they can be disruptive at times, but just like Robin, they can be necessary for getting things done. I can't count the m ...more
As an avid reader, I come across a plethora of words I don't know, but my iPhone is always right there to help figure out their meanings. If you're reading an article or email directly on your iOS device, just highlight the word in question and tap on the "Define" option. If ...more
Depending on who you ask, the icons on your iPhone have either improved or taken a serious dive since the iOS 7 update. They're flatter and cleaner, which I really appreciated, but the neon colors are a little too bright, and the grays are a little too dull. Many of you have ...more
Before you sell your old iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to a buddy or a company like Gazelle, it's vital that you wipe the entire device of all its content; including sensitive material like contacts, messages, pictures, and videos. There are two easy ways to wipe your iOS device ...more
If you've ever tried to record a Snapchat video of a song playing in your car, you know that it's impossible to do if the song is playing on the same device that you're Snapchatting with. I connect my iPhone to my car stereo via Bluetooth to play music, but if I try to record ...more
The lockout feature in iOS 7, which securely locks your device after a few incorrect passcode entries, can be a real pain in the ass sometimes. My friends are jerks and routinely lock me out of my iPhone for entertainment, and my poor mother has a horrible memory and recently ...more
YouTube is a giant platform — over 300 hours of video are uploaded every minute. It can be difficult to keep track of your favorite videos in such a chaotic sea of content. Difficult, but certainly not impossible. Let's say you want to start a collection of the funniest video ...more
Apple's iPhone 6 packs a powerful 4.7-inch Retina HD display with 1334-by-750 resolution, and it's so incredible in person that it almost looks fake. However, as awesome at this display is, it can always be better. As long as you're jailbroken, you can get the same 1920-by-10 ...more
Back in the days of iOS 6, iPhone users were able to send a quick tweet from their notification center, but that has long since been removed. This convenient feature was missed enough on iOS 7 for devs to create a jailbreak tweak in its absence. Thankfully, due to the new widg ...more
Hi all, in this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to block and delete unwanted adds (even those in apps, videos or music stream) without having to install an application or jailbreaking your iOS device. To do so, we're going to use a free service called speedmeup. Step 1: ...more
If you've ever wanted to download YouTube videos directly to your iPhone, there's an easy solution — just update to iOS 12 and install Apple's new Shortcuts app. With the Workflow-replacement app, you can add a shortcut that lets you download any YouTube video you want, withou ...more
If you're reading articles in bed or scrolling through Facebook before trying to fall asleep, you'll spend much less time on your iPhone before drifting off into slumber as long as you're using the right display mode. Our brains are very reactive to the light our eyes intake. ...more
Apple's latest update for iPhones, iOS 13, introduces over 200 new and exciting features. Many of those changes come to Siri, resulting in a better, more useful version of the digital assistant we've known for years. If you simply look at iOS 13's webpage, however, you wouldn' ...more
Jailbreaking gives iPhone users almost unfettered access to their devices, offering a slew of customizations, new features, and improved apps that you just can't get elsewise. Unfortunately, Apple has clamped down hard on the latest iterations of iOS, making jailbreaking extre ...more
With Touch ID on iOS devices, it's a little more difficult to lock yourself out. However, it can still happen if you don't use it, have a busted fingerprint scanner, or use an older device that doesn't have Touch ID, which means you're passcode dependent (unless you have zero ...more
Downloading YouTube videos for offline use to watch later has always been a problematic endeavor. Dedicated third-party apps don't last long in the App Store, web-based converters aren't very functional on mobile, and rogue apps outside the App Store are tricky to sideload and ...more