Cydia

Good news for those who may have been running into issues trying to jailbreak an iOS device with Absinthe 2.0. The iPhone Dev-Team has officially updated all of their jailbreak tools with the iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak. The official announcement details all of the specifics, but the main tools highlighted are PwnageTool 5.1.1 and redsn0w 0.9.12b1.

Other tools that are now updated include cinject 0.5.4 (still rocky-racoon but with added updates) and ultrasn0w 1.2.7 (this includes no new baseband support, but it does make ultrasn0w iOS 5.1.1 compatible). Dev-Team states that if you've already installed rocky-racoon, there's no reason to reinstall unless you're having problems.

Ever notice how your iPhone reverts to a black background every time you plug it in to charge? Jailbreakers now have the option to continue displaying their lock screen background wallpaper thanks to a tweak called ChargingBackground.

Once installed, iOS will stop displaying the black background behind the green battery meter. You can find the package in Cydia under Sections -> Tweaks or use the Search function to find the title. ChargingBackground is free and has no settings to configure at all.

One of my biggest gripes with Siri has been fixed thanks to a new jailbreak tweak called PersistentAssistant. The new jailbreak tool allows Siri to keep listening after you ask her a question. This eliminates the need to keep tapping the button every time you want to use Siri, allowing you to have a continuous conversation with the voice assistant.

This is the perfect tweak for impatient people who are always turning Siri on and off before she has time to do her job. It's also great for those drunk nights when you're trying to show her off to your friends because it makes her much easier to use. You can tap Siri a second time or let her automatically shutdown if you only have one question.

For those iOS users who have been enjoying the 5.1.1 jailbreak in a tethered state, you can now convert your jailbreak to untethered without restoring your device. This means no more booting connected to a computer with redsn0w.

iOS 5.1.1 tethered jailbreakers with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 3rd and 4th generation, and original iPad can take advantage of the Rocky Racoon package on Cydia. For those with A5 devices including the iPad 2, iPad 3 and iPhone 4S, you can now jailbreak untethered with Absinthe 2.0.

Here is a great Cydia add-on for international travelers. International Locations for Siri allows Siri to perform local searches outside of the U.S.. While Siri can speak several languages, and is also available in other countries, location based services are currently only available in the U.S..

I obviously can't test the tweak without leaving the country, but the $0.99 investment may be worth the risk to some frequent travelers. The add-on is available for download via the BigBoss repo. If you do not already have AssistantExtensions it will be installed when you download the tweak.