iPhone Tweaks

The multitasking app switcher in iOS is great for quickly flipping between running apps. Over time, there are so many icons that pile up in the multitasking bar it can be tedious to manually delete them all. Several solutions exist to streamline and customize the process, including MultiCleaner which we've looked at before.

Now thanks to the ModMyi repo on Cydia, jailbreakers have a new option that provides simplicity. SwipeAway provides two settings for a gesture that clears all of the apps in the multitasking bar. The options are Swipe up or Swipe down, that's it. Once installed, you can open the app switcher then swipe in the direction that's picked in the settings to clear all of the apps.

As owners of older iPhone hardware are painfully aware, the iOS 6 update is limited on A4 devices including the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. Some of the features that iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 users enjoy include turn-by-turn navigation and 3D Flyover maps in major cities. Well now thanks to a new jailbreak tweak you can unlock full iOS 6 maps capability on a jailbroken iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS.

Apple made iOS 6 available on these older devices, however the company intentionally limits some features to keep performance optimized. That being said, iPhone 3GS users who are interested in turn-by-turn directions are turning this feature on at their own risk. Sluggish performance could occur because the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 hardware is significantly more powerful than the iPhone 4 and 3GS. Even though you can run iOS 6 maps on your device with this tweak, it could be slow or use up too much memory to function.

Ever notice there's no timer on the iPhone Camera? Setting the iPhone up somewhere so you can run and be in the photo might not be the easiest thing, but it would be nice to know you have the option. Now thanks to the jailbreak tweak CamTime you can use the iPhone camera just like a point-and-shoot with a timer.

CamTime adds a timer button next to the shutter release, and simulates pressing this button when the time runs out. You can enter the number of seconds you want the timer to run before it snaps the photo. In fact, because it simulates this button you can even set a timer in seconds to delay the start of a video if desired.

One thing that can be annoying is the default behavior of the iPhone status bar. For one, whenever you open the multitasking app switcher, the entire thing gets pushed off the screen. Is there really any good reason for this? Well now you can force the status bar to stay put even when you open the multitasking dock.

The way to accomplish this is a free jailbreak tweak from Cydia called Status Bar Switcher. In order to install this tweak your iPhone must be jailbroken. Once installed there are no settings to configure, just respring and the status bar will stop moving off the screen.

If you prefer Google Chrome (or any other browser) over Safari but use Safari because it's faster, I have the perfect jailbreak tweak for you. iPhone users can now give Chrome and other third party apps a speed boost with a new jailbreak tweak called Nitrous.

Safari is faster than other mobile browsers on the iPhone because Apple restricts access to the fast Nitro Javascript engine in iOS. Nitrous levels the playing field by unlocking the Javascript block for third party apps. This allows browsers like Chrome and apps like Tweetbot to perform much better.