iPhone Tweaks

One area of iOS that begs for customization is the app switcher. Ever since multitasking came to the iPhone, jailbreak developers have devised ways to easily quit all apps. The alternative is manually swiping to quit each app card individually. Clear Background Apps is just one example of such a tweak.

Now iOS 8 users can grab Slide2Kill8 Pro for a bevy of app management features. Once installed, Slide2Kill8 adds a ghost button to the lower right of the app switcher. Tapping this button provides three options, kill all apps, open the Control Center, or open the Notification Center.

Some iOS 8 users have reported Wi-Fi problems such as slow speeds and other performance issues. Developer Mario Ciabarra suspects the Wi-Fi inconsistencies are because Apple is "using Bonjour over AWDL" and "constraints" of the Wi-Fi hardware make this difficult. Click here to see Mario's detailed write-up on the issue.

The good news for those with jailbroken iOS 8 devices is Mario has released a tweak called WiFried to solve the problem. Once installed, WiFried provides a toggle in Control Center AirDrop settings. The toggle will disable AWDL (Apple Wireless Direct Link) support, allegedly improving Wi-Fi performance. Note that while AWDL is disabled, AirDrop will not be available.

For some iOS users, making the most of the home screen can mean eliminating the dock. With the dock removed, another row of standard app icons can be utilized on each home screen page. Abeo is a jailbreak tweak designed to customize the iOS 8 home screen in this way.

With Abeo installed and enabled under Settings, the dock disappears, which spreads the rest of the app icons out to fill space. In order to maximize the number of icons on the home screen, the number of rows and columns can be customized under Settings -> Abeo.

Adding a three dimensional effect to the iOS home screen has been a hobby of jailbreak developers for some time. With the release of iOS 7, Apple got in on the act and created a parallax effect on the home screen background. While this 3D feature can be disabled, the jailbreak tweak ShadowBoard takes things in the opposite direction.

ShadowBoard adds drop shadows to all of the app icons on the home screen, including the dock. Thanks to the accelerometer, when the iOS device is tilted the shadow moves, simulating depth. This 3D effect adds another layer of dimensionality to the iOS 8 home screen.

Quick Reply is a great addition to iOS 8. Messages can be read and responded to right in the banner notification. Wouldn't it be even better if third-party messaging apps could use the same trick? Enter the jailbreak tweak IMN for iOS 8.

With IMN installed, the same convenient Quick Reply functions that work with the stock Messages app are applied to other apps. Currently Facebook Messenger, Kik, and LINE are fully supported by the tweak.