News

The new jailbreak tweak AppUpdateNotifier ensures you will never miss another app update by sending you a notification when one is available. This seems like a decent tweak for people who use a lot of apps and are tired of missing updates.

The tweak sends notifications via Apple's built in notifications system even when your device is locked or asleep. You can set AppUpdateNotifier to check for updates hourly, daily, weekly or monthly, and you can even choose to ignore certain apps by placing them on the "Ignore List."

The iPhone 5 rumor machine is starting to warm up with obvious reports about 4G LTE and October launches. However, the biggest debate this year will probably be the size of its display. Will the next generation iPhone go big to compete with the current Android models, or will it keep the same 3.5-inch screen?

iMore claims that the iPhone 5's display will be closer to 3.5-inches. Meaning, Apple could decide to go a little bigger, but not Samsung Galaxy S II (4.65-inch) big.

Tweaks to Siri have been cropping up regularly thanks to the untethered iPhone 4S jailbreak. AssistantExtensions in the Cydia app store is available for free, and makes it possible to add all kinds of useful conversations to Siri's repertoire. We've seen add ons to ask SIri questions about jailbreaking and have her announce the latest sports scores and schedules.

Now thanks to BatteryLevelAE, iPhone owners can ask Siri battery-related questions such as "How much talk time do I have?" Siri will respond with a rough estimate of how much juice is left on the battery for both 3G and 2G network connections.

Good news for owners of the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 looking to downgrade from iOS 5.1. iH8sn0w announced the discovery of a loophole that makes it possible to downgrade any A5 device to iOS 5.0.1. Not only this, but the developer has successfully restored an iPad 2 to iOS 5.0.1 using the procedure.

Found a loophole in Apple's apticket system. Restored my iPad 2 to 5.0.1 from 5.1. Works on all A5 devices. :)

— iH8sn0w (@iH8sn0w) March 25, 2012

Downgrading an iPhone, from iOS 5 to 4.3.3 for example, requires saved SHSH blobs since Apple stops signing older firmware when an update is released. It's likely that the loophole iH8sn0w has found will also require saved SHSH blobs to work.

Has your iOS device been running slower lately? There are a few simple things you can do to help speed things up and keep your iPhone or iPad running faster. Like any other computer, Apple's mobile devices require some periodic maintenance to keep everything optimal.

Over time iOS may slow down or even do some strange things, which could mean several different things. Before you rush to Apple or go through the trouble of a complete restore with iTunes, try these steps and see if your iPhone or iPad starts running more smoothly.