Tips

Checking current weather conditions from the lock screen can be a one step process with Notification Center properly configured. Swiping down from the top of the display will show current conditions and describe the high and low temperatures in the Today view. What if there was a way to display this information directly in the lock screen?

Those with jailbroken devices can do just that with Forecast. The tweak has been updated for iOS 7 to completely integrate local conditions and forecast information from the stock Weather app onto the lock screen. Once installed, the unlock slider disappears and current conditions with high and low temperatures are displayed in the lower left corner of the lock screen.

Looking to spruce up the default iOS 7 color palette? Jailbreakers can grab Fancy for $0.99 and do just that. Customizations to global tint or individual components of iOS can be implemented directly in the settings, once Fancy is installed from Cydia. Custom colors include Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Light Blue and Purple.

Besides the Keyboard, other areas of iOS that can be tinted with a new color include Banners, Notification Center, Control Center, Dock, HUDs (such as Ringer shown below), Spotlight, and Assistant (Siri). Colors are applied to iOS 7 immediately, with no respring required once the new configuration is selected under Settings -> Fancy.

Using Mobile Safari on iOS 7 means up to 24 browser tabs can be left open. While this can be great for going back to frequently used web pages, it can also get messy fast. There is a trick using Private browsing mode, which closes all browser tabs in one shot.

Those with jailbroken devices can install the free CloseAll tweak for a more efficient solution to the problem. Once installed, there are no settings to configure. Simply pull up the 3D browser tab view and long press a black X in the upper left corner of any tab.

Fans of the Chrome web browser can avoid Safari on the iPhone with a simple jailbreak tweak named Open in Chrome. Once installed, a toggle in Settings will enable or disable the tweak. Using Open in Chrome results in Google's browser acting as the default across iOS 7.

This means links in notes, messages, email and other apps will always open in Chrome. Even links from Siri or home screen Bookmarks will use Chrome to display web pages. Of course, Chrome is required for the tweak to work properly. Without Chrome installed, the tweak does nothing and Safari opens like normal.

Notes are a convenient way to keep track of lists and other items on the iPhone. Even better is the ability to sync notes to a computer using iCloud. Developer JGTweaks has improved stock iOS notes even further, by making it possible to create a note from anywhere on the device.

No more pausing to stop what you're doing, and having to navigate to the Notes app. Jailbreakers can install the NoteCreator tweak from Cydia and choose any Activator action to create a new note. When the action is performed a dialog box appears, prompting the user to enter text for the note. Tap Done and the note is saved to the default account.