Cydia

The new jailbreak tweak HomeSpringPage allows you to create a blank page on your iPhone's Home screen to use with Dashboard X widgets. Dashboard X is another Cydia tweak that allows you to add Notification Center or user made widgets to your Home screen.

After you have installed Dashboard X ($1.99 via the ModMyi repo) and HomeSpringPage, the first page of your iPhone will be completely devoid of any app icons. This gives you the free space to add any Notification Center or jailbreak widgets you own. You can also use a combination of apps and widgets on the new page.

There have been a lot of useful jailbreak tweaks released this year. For example, I love AssistantExtensions, which allows you to make Siri even better. However, SwipeSelection is quickly becoming my new favorite jailbreak tool.

The tweak is based on a YouTube video created by Daniel Hooper. Hooper published a concept video that demonstrated how editing text on an iPad could be easier. The jailbreaking community responded by creating SwipeSelection based on his ideas.

It's a simple tweak that makes typing on your iPhone much easier by allowing you to drag your finger to move your cursor. You can use one finger for a more precise cursor drag, or two fingers to move faster. You can even select text easier by holding the shift key and dragging your finger. All of this is demonstrated by Hooper's video posted below.

The highly anticipated jailbreak tweak that allows you to add Notification Center widgets to your iPhone's Home screen is finally available in Cydia. Dashboard X is available for download for $1.99 via the ModMyi repo. It's compatible with all iOS 5 devices, and works with all existing Notification widgets.

Dashboard X is easy to use: Just tap and hold to enter wiggle mode. Tap and hold again to access the "Add New Widget" screen. This will display a list of all the Notification Center widgets that you currently have installed on your device. Select the widget you want to add, tap "Add Widget" and it will appear on your Home screen. Position the widget wherever you want, and hit the Home button to exit and lock the widget into place. You can delete the widget by going back into wiggle mode and tapping the (x) like you would normally do to delete an app. You can also remove widgets from the Settings menu by going to the "Enable Widget" panel.

Apple released iOS 5.1.1 a few days after iOS developer pod2g announced that his jailbroken iPhone 4 running iOS 5.1 was untethered. Of course you will want to avoid the update if your device is currently jailbroken. For non-jailbreakers the update brings improved reliability for the HDR option when accessing the camera app, and a few bug fixes. Here is a complete list of changes:

Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut.

Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks.

Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances.

Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List.

Fixes an issue where ‘Unable to purchase’ alert could be displayed after successful purchase.

Some iPhone owners are nervous about jailbreaking their devices due to Apple's no jailbreaking policy. To discourage iOS hacking Apple does not offer customer support to users who jailbreak their phones, and jailbreaking also voids Apple’s warranty. Until today jailbreakers had no way to insure their iPhones, even through third-party warranty providers. That has all changed thanks to SquareTrade. The third-party provider has expanded its coverage to jailbroken iPhones. This is great news for jailbreakers who would like to protect themselves from cracked screens and other iPhone mishaps.

SquareTrade does not cover hardware mods (e.g. filed-off serial numbers) but any software modifications are fine. SquareTrade's VP of Strategy Vince Tseng told GigaOM.com, that SquareTrade does not care what Apple users do to their software. "Our general philosophy is that if a device hasn’t been played around with on the inside we don’t have a problem with that. We are here to help the Apple community, and if they want something Apple doesn’t provide we are here for them," said Tseng.