Tips

Customizing every nook and cranny of iOS 7 will soon be possible thanks to the latest evasi0n jailbreak. One tweak focuses on the home screen dock, making a variety of custom looks available for this part of the iOS screen.

DockShift keeps things simple, providing a toggle to enable or disable the tweak and a list of dock options. These range from completely transparent (no dock) to Dark Milk Glass. There are also options for blurring the background wallpaper to different levels.

Early jailbreakers of iOS 7 with evasi0n might have noticed an error that appears every time Cydia is launched. When updated package lists are downloaded, there's one repository that cannot be reached. This repo is included by default, however it results in the error "Failed to fetch" and "HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found".

The error continues, stating "Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead". While this error is not critical, it can cause an annoyance when using Cydia. Consistently ignoring this error can also mean that additional errors get lost in the mix. Here's how to eliminate the Failed to fetch error with a few simple steps.

Control Center is a great and fast way to access important settings in iOS 7, but it can be really annoying if you accidentally open it while playing a game or using an app.

iOS 7 allows you to easily open Control Center by swiping up from the bottom of your screen, which is the same motion a lot of games use for its touch based controls. This can cause a lot of headaches especially when playing endless runner titles, or other games that require you to swipe up to jump. Luckily Apple had enough foresight to offer an easy fix to this problem.

The auto focus and exposure in the stock iOS camera app gets faster and more accurate with each update. When shifting the frame to a new subject, the iPhone camera will automatically readjust these parameters and the white balance accordingly. Video is no different, with adjustments taking place while recording. There are some situations where a change in focus can be distracting, or an exposure shift detracts from the scene.

For this reason, ever since iOS 5 the built-in Camera app makes it possible to lock both the autofocus and auto exposure. AE/AF lock mode can be entered manually and will stay in effect during a photo session until it's switched off, or the Camera app is reopened. This means that multiple photos can be snapped without a change in the focus or exposure settings, regardless of what's in the frame.

Need some last-minute shopping ideas this holiday season? Apple's got your back. iBooks can now be used to send digital books as gifts, in the same way music and apps can be gifted. Once received, the books can be read with the iBooks app on an iOS device or OS X Mavericks.

The new gifting functionality comes just in time for the holidays. To send a book using an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, open the iBooks app and find the title you wish to send as a gift. Tap the share button in the upper right corner, then tap Gift from the pop-up menu options. Fill out the recipient's information, select a delivery date, and tap Next to continue.