Zephyr by chpwn has been updated to version 1.0.2-1 with a few more enhancements. For starters, you can now disable gestures in any app you choose. This is handy for games and apps that may cause you to unintentionally invoke a gesture. It looks as if he’s gotten help with this feature from Ryan Petrich, creator of Display Recorder, one of my favorite jailbreak apps.

Other features added include the ability to enable per-gesture commands as opposed to them all being global by default. So if you want multitasking gestures on your iPhone, you can find Zephyr in Cydia for $2.99.

While jailbreaking already provides tons of functionality, there’s still room for improvement and expansion in 2012. Last year I did a list of jailbreak concepts Apple should implement and low and behold, they implemented quite a few of them. But that’s part of the game. Part of what spurs more innovation is creativity and pushing boundaries. And at the end of the day it’s really the user base that is the most useful when it comes to helping developers out. They can’t create it if they don’t know we want it. So this is our list of the top 5 things we’d like to see jailbreak accomplish in 2012.

A jailbreak for A5 devices

We already know pod2g is working on this. While we will most likely get one in 2012, I’m not excluding it as one of the biggest wants for many users. We just received an untethered jailbreak for A4 and older devices. Hopefully a jailbreak for the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S aren’t that far behind. While an untethered version would be epic win, I’d take a tethered version for starters.

Cydia updates

While Cydia is probably one of the most used apps on my iOS devices, it can become rather frustrating at times. Saurik made some updates to Cydia in 2011 but nothing to get too excited about. Cydia could use a facelift and some speed enhancements.

While it may not be at the top of saurik’s list right now, I know Cydia is frustrating for many users on a day to day basis. Not to mention the organization of packages is rather daunting for many new jailbreakers. They have no idea where to start or what apps they should be downloading. Sure, they can always come to TiPb but for those not familiar, how about adding a jailbreak starter pack in Cydia? I know several new users revert back to stock quickly out of confusion and frustration.

I’d like to see Cydia step up its game to show users what jailbreak is all about. It isn’t about pirating apps and installing illegal software at all. It’s about enhancing and customizing your experience.

More iPad compatible apps and tweaks

While there is support for jailbroken iPads, it’s very minimal. I’d really like to see that change. As of right now, I really can’t find a good reason to jailbreak my iPad. A lot of this could have to do with the lack of support for current iPad 2 users. Jailbreak developers may not want to put the time and effort into supporting the low number of jailbroken iPads.

Hopefully a jailbreak for A5 devices will create more interest in jailbreaking the iPad. Even though there are a few good reasons to jailbreak the iPad, I’d like to find a reason I can not live without. I’d like to have a reason or find a jailbreak application compelling enough to make me not want to live without my iPad being jailbroken.

If I’m missing out on some to die for jailbreak utilities for iPad, please let me know. I’ve yet to find them.

More support updates from developers

After iOS 4 was released, Cydia was plagued with tons of apps and utilities that were never updated to support it. Even though jailbreak tool after jailbreak tool was released supporting almost every device on the market, tools were left to collect dust. Some of them were actually very useful utilities that I really missed using after updating. Things like changing keyboard styles were little tweaks that were left untouched for months.

Some developers are extremely good about updating their tools. Others are not. Where that happens, I’d really like to see new jailbreak developers step up and come out with new solutions. Heck, just improve upon someone else’s idea. It seemed as if the jailbreak community was left with a ton of tools that were left in limbo. A package may work, it may not, it may just crash your springboard. I’d like to see less of this.

Maybe this is something that needs to come bundled with updates to Cydia. This is another reason jailbreak may be off-putting to some new users. They download tweaks that aren’t compatible with their devices and when it isn’t stable, they restore and never give jailbreak another chance. We need to avoid experiences like this as developers.

A more unified jailbreak process

This one may be asking a bit too much but heck, I’ll throw it out there. While redsn0w and tools like it are pretty user friendly to begin with, there are tons of tools out there and that’s confusing to new users. What tool do they use? Is one not compatible with their device? Programs like ipswDownloader aim to make it easier for beginners, but a lot of beginners won’t know what an IPSW is let alone what the tool does, where to find it, or know why they need it.

If jailbreak developers could come together to make a great tool that accommodates all users, I think the jailbreak community would see a great benefit and many more users. I see tons of people in my office every day that bricked their device or jailbroke it with an incorrect tool. I also see people that searched and researched jailbreak online, became overwhelmed, and would rather come and pay me to do it correctly than mess something up themselves. I know there are tons of other users out there that are put off by the overwhelming amount of information and tools out there. Working together to find a way to make the process more streamlined would be time spent that would pay off in the long run.

Bottom line

I think my overall outlook on jailbreak is this – people buy Apple devices because of the experience and the ease of use. If jailbreak complicates things too much, they’ll stray away. Of course there will always be power users and ninjas that will put in the time to make it work. But the bottom line is that most iOS users just want their device to work and work well. If jailbreak developers can find ways to make the process and overall experience better, I think they’d see a lot more users willing to give it a try or a second runaround.

What do you guys want to see jailbreak developers aiming for in the coming year? Let us know!

AlbumArt on AppSwitcher does exactly what the title says – adds album art to your app switcher. I personally like having this functionality because I have a tendency to forget what songs come from what albums. This way I don’t have to jump into my iPod app, I can simply bring up my app switcher and look without having to stop what I’m doing.

Once installed from Cydia there’s nothing to configure or set up, it should just work. It’s available for free and requires iOS 5.0 or higher.

Free – Cydia Search Link

If you’re jailbroken on iOS 5 you’ll definitely want to check out the newly released Springtomize 2. It’s by far one of the easiest ways to customize your device running on iOS 5. To start customizing just purchase Springtomize 2 in Cydia then pop into your Settings app and start tweaking every little aspect of your springboard easily and directly from your device.

Springtomize 2 allows you to tweak icons, folders, animations, app switcher, dock, and much more. If you’ve purchased it already, what are your thoughts? Anything else you’d like to see the ability to customize in a future update?

$2.99 – Cydia Search Link

If you’re jailbroken on iOS 5 you’ll want to check out BlurriedNCBackground, a neat little tweak that makes Notification Center that much cooler. BlurriedNCBackground simply makes the background of notification center blurry instead of the default Apple background. Once you install it there’s nothing to configure. Just drop down Notification Center to see the new look.

If you want to change the blur level and customize it further you can do so via Settings. BlurriedNCBackground is available now and is a free download from Cydia.

Cydia Search Link

Infiniboard has been updated and it now fully supports iOS 5. Infiniboard is a jailbreak tweak which allows you to add as many icons as you like to a home page. You can then vertically scroll up and down with a simple flick.

The new version also includes a lot more customization settings, bug fixes and performance improvements. Infiniboard is available through the jailbreak installer Cydia and costs $0.99.

Source: @chpwn, iClarified

There will no doubt be a flood of them soon but for right now, right this minute, here are a list of our favorites, the ones we think are the best — TiPb’s Top 5 Jailbreak apps and tweaks that will help you get the most out of iOS 5!

SBSettings

SBSettings has not only been around forever, it has remained one of the most useful jailbreak utilities available. It allows you to add quick toggles for commonly used features such as brightness, 3G, airplane mode, bluetooth, and more. While SBSettings comes with a lot of the more commonly used toggles built in you can download even more from Cydia. You can also download themes to change the look of SBSettings as well.

Now with iOS 5 compatibility it has never been easier to access quick gestures and manage your device. Simply enable SBSettings in Notification Center and it’s right there whenever you need it.

Free – Cydia Link

Activator

This is yet another utility that’s been around almost as long as iOS has. But for most jailbreakers this is a tweak you’ll definitely want to have. You’ll probably end up using it anyways whether you realize it or not. Some apps even require that you install Activator in order to use them.

The whole point of Activator is to make it easier to get to things you use most frequently. If you send a lot of texts you may want a gesture that allows you to bring up a BiteSMS quick compose screen. Activator allows you to do this by simply assigning certain gestures to specific applications. Tons of jailbreak applications and utilities have built-in support for Activator.

If there is ever a period of time I have to suffer with a stock iPhone I still find myself trying to open things with gestures only to frown when it doesn’t work. I still find myself wondering why shortcut gestures have not been more heavily implemented into iOS considering the wide adoption rate of Activator among the jailbreak community.

Free – Cydia Link

Dreamboard

While I think iOS has the cleanest and slickest interface out of any smartphone on the current market I still get bored from time to time and feel the need to switch it up. While a lot of long time jailbreakers have used tools like Summerboard and more recently Winterboard, the jailbreak scene just gets better and better. While Dreamboard is a newer app in its early stages it shows a lot of promise.

The ability to customize and create themes comes built into the app. You can replace and swap out icons and customize until your heart’s content. For jailbreakers who are rather picky about themes and want the ability to have more control over “the little things”, Dreamboard may be just what you’re looking for. I’m sure we’ll start to see Dreamboard extensions and downloadable themes cropping up in Cydia pretty quickly. At the time of writing this I already see over 15 themes available for Dreamboard. This is definitely a jailbreak utility to keep your eye on.

Free – Cydia Link

IntelliScreenX

YouTube Link

While I’ve always been a huge fan of LockInfo by David Ashman I have to admit that the guys over at Intelliborn really stepped up to the plate with their new version of IntelliScreen for iOS 5.

The tight integration with the already built-in Notification Center is really what makes this version stand out. You can just tell that a lot of thought and energy went into the project. While Notification Center is good, IntelliScreenX makes it great. It adds the functionality that Apple left out. Everything from accessing all your information from the lock screen to having a top shelf feature for toggles has been re-worked from the ground up. Intelliborn is definitely giving apps like LockInfo a lot to live up to with their next release.

The down side is as of writing this it has not yet been released. Until then you can check out the video above to see it in action. This is one I keep checking on and can’t wait to try out for myself. A few other sites have been able to get a early hands-on with it and have walked away quite impressed. It should be available this Thursday or Friday to the public. We’ll add a link and update when it’s readily available for download. Let us know if you see it up!

Free trial, $9.99 – Will add link when publicly available

BiteSMS

I’ve tried several messaging replacement apps but I always find myself coming back to Bite. When it comes down to it, it just works. It gives me the control I want and then some. And the update for iOS 5 is no different.

This time it’s coming back around with a new face lift and even tighter integration to iOS. Not only will BiteSMS play nice with iOS 5 but it will also handles Apple’s new iMessage protocol. The app just feels a whole lot cleaner this time around. I also like that users are now given the option to natively re-skin the Bite icon to the default Messages icon and hide the stock icon.

The iOS 5 compatible version is still in beta but it’s public. In order to use it you’ll need to add the following repository in Cydia –

http://test-cydia.bitesms.com/

Just a reminder that since it is still in beta you should expect a few bugs here and there. I’ve been using it for a bit now and haven’t experienced too many issues outside of a crash here and there.

Free trial, $9.99 – Cydia Link

Your top Jailbreak app or tweak?

While this is our list of must have jailbreak apps we know you guys all have your own lists. Feel free to let us know of any cool jailbreak apps or utilities you’ve found as well. And if you’re thinking about jailbreaking but have some questions first make sure you check out our TiPb jailbreak forums for all the help you need and answers to many commonly asked questions.

If you are currently jailbroken on iOS 5 you can now return to skinning and theming your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your heart’s content — Saurik’s most recent update to Winterboard (0.9.3901) adds iOS 5 compatibility.

Although Winterboard is now compatible with iOS 5 it still isn’t safe to assume that all themes and skins are. As always, make sure you’re reading the descriptions carefully. In most cases themes just don’t apply properly if they haven’t been made compatible but it’s still good to check.

Anyone found any awesome themes that work with iOS 5 they want to recommend? Let us know!

If you use Safari rather frequently on your jailbroken iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch you may want to check out BackForwardList for Safari. The main purpose is to enhance the functionality of the back and forward buttons.

Instead of tapping to go back a page, you can hold down on the back or forward button to gain quick access to your history. I’ve found this useful when I want to go back to a site I was browsing a few pages back. It’s much easier than just tapping on the back button multiple times.

The tweak doesn’t add any shortcuts or icons to your springboard and there are no setting to configure. Just download it from Cydia and you’re good to go. You can also swipe sideways within your history to delete individual items. BackForwardList for Safari is a free download from the Cydia store.

[Free - Cydia Store Link]

Wondering how to easily and quickly adjust the transparency of your icons or turn off labels? If you Jailbreak, you may want to check out Alphacon. Other apps like Winterboard allow you to do this but if you want something much more simple, Alphacon is it.

Once installed it will appear in your settings. You can choose to turn transparency on and off and further customize what icons you want the settings to apply to (home screen, dock, folders, etc). So if you’d like for your dock icons to not be transparent you can just tick off the transparency option for the dock. Same deal with icon labels. You can choose to turn them all off or just some. I personally still like to see my folder labels so I leave those on but turn off icon labels for everything else.

Alphacon is currently available in Cydia for free.

[Alphacon - Cydia Store Link]

CallBar and Apptivator are just two examples of the Jailbreak community being in full flurry this summer with what has been the most productive and innovative season of Jailbreak tweaks to date. At a time when people question the current value of jailbreaking with iOS 5 on the horizon, the jailbreak community have spoken up and demonstrated that they continue to advance and innovate where Apple stops short.

With a vast amount of new Cydia tweaks, thanks majorly in part to @rpetrich’s TweakWeek challenge, I will be talking about only two recent tweaks that demonstrate to any non-believer that Jailbroken iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches are the way to go!

CallBar (by E. Limneos & J. Tucker)

E. Limneos has been involved with TweakWeek and when J. Tucker approached him with this dynamite idea they made an immediate knockout hit that some consider an “essential” tweak to any Jailbroken device. What CallBar does is extend the concept of the nonintrusive notification to phone calls and FaceTime alerts, integrating it into what Peter Hajas developed for iOS with MobileNotifier (also a Cydia tweak) and Apple synthesized and adopted in iOS 5′s Notification Center.

Intrusive notifications have always been a weak point for iOS and have long since been taunted by the Android and webOS community. CallBar brings what iOS 5 only begins to unveil at a notification level, and that is a nonintrusive and clean way to receive phone calls – further solidifying the concept that our iDevices are small computers that happen to receive phone calls rather than phones that happen to behave like small computers. Writing an important email and a call ruins your train of thought? Not anymore. Watching the latest Harry Potter movie on your iPad and a FaceTime alert just interrupted an important scene? No longer a problem. CallBar demonstrates that Cydia tweaks are not just gimmicks and tricks, but truly useful, innovative, and downright essential to heavy iDevice users.

With a good amount of options to make any user happy, CallBar is available now in Cydia for only 3.99 USD.

Apptivator (by n00neimp0rtant)

Apptivator takes the functionality of Activator and applies it to your homescreen and icons, using a double-tap action instead of having to rely on multiple gestures.

For instance, you can set a double-tap action onto your phone icon to immediately call up the keypad or the contacts list – whichever you use most. You can also create events that allow you to double-tap an icon app to open up a related app instead – such as double-tapping the Camera app to open the Photos app. Using events currently possible in Activator, n00neimp0rtant demonstrated in his YouTube video of the tweak (see above) of double-tapping the iPod icon to start and top a current track. Better yet, you can trigger SBSetting toggles using Apptivator – such as double-tapping the MyWi icon to toggle MyWi on and off. The amount of customization this tweak brings is limitless. As powerful and innovative as Activator has been, it’s a breath of fresh air seeing Apptivator using the same principles on icons without the need to memorize gestures that are limited and can be unintuitive at times.

At first glance, this tweak reminded me a lot of the new feature in Windows Phone 7 Mango where you can now pin actions onto the homescreen – which some touted as a brilliant feature and very innovative on the part of the WP7 team. With jailbroken phones, we are able to see features from other Mobile OSes and see the concept further bloom and thrive, and Apptivator is a clear example of this.

On Twitter, @n00neimp0rtant informed me that more functionality is coming to Apptivator and I am more than excited to see what’s in store next.

Apptivator is available now in the Cydia Store for 2.00 USD.

Austin Bradley, better known as K. Nitsua, is the Jailbreak theme designer behind iNitsua Z Twilight 3volution. You can hit him up on Twitter @Kanaca_Nitsua

iQuickCall is a jailbreak tweak which allows you to use gestures to get to your favorite contacts. Do you live in a city where it is illegal to be on your mobile device while driving? iQuickCall makes it easy to get to that favorite contact with just a simple gesture!

Hit the jump to lean more about this great tweak!

iQuickCall allows you to have to have access to that favorite contacts with just the tap of the status bar or a swipe across the springboard. You can fully customize what gestures you would like to use.

To use iQuickCall, simply enter in the phone number and email of the person you would like to assign as your iQuickCall contact. Once you have done that, you simply choose the gesture you would like in order to activate iQuickCall. After you are are set up with the correct number, email address, and gesture, you are now ready to use it!

When you use the gesture you previously assigned you will get a pop up box with the option to call, text, or email. Another great feature about this tweak is it also gives you the option to quickly type a number or email address into the a pop up box and it will call or email that number or email address right from the springboard.

For only $0.99 I thought it was definitely worth the purchase! In future updates I think I would like to see the option to have more than one contact offered for a quick call. What do you think? Are you going to purchase this tweak? Let us know in the comments!

Jailbreak developer chpwn is at it again and plans on releasing his new tweak VoiceActivator hopefully this week. VoiceActivator will allow you to take full control of your iPhone or iPod touch’s voice control feature. It will allow users to launch apps, open URLs, use Activator actions all within the standard voice control feature.

As of now all we can tell you is he plans on releasing it sometime this coming week through Cydia and we are yet to hear anything as far as pricing goes but it should be well worth the money if you are jailbroken and have a lot of apps and many things you do daily that causes you to tap through folders and menus. If you want to follow to the status of this tweak, follow @chpwn on Twitter.

We want to hear from all you jailbreakers on who is interested in this new tweak. Also do you think Apple should have already included this as part of iOS out of the box or do you think they will include it in the next generation of iOS? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below! Check out a video of this awesome new tweak after the break!

[ @chpwn ]

SBSwitcher is a new mod in the Cydia Store that allows you to relocate all SBSettings toggles to the iOS 4 app switcher dock. Just scroll to the left to reveal all your toggles! The tweak is very useful, especially when you’re in system apps (like Cydia) that don’t allow you to use SBSettings from the status bar. Additional features include the ability to call up the app switcher from the lockscreen, letting you manipulate toggles or get into a running app without even unlocking your iPhone!

One small caveat is that you don’t have the ability to respring from the app switcher without going into SBSettings from the status bar. An easy way to side-step this is by setting Activator to respring by using one of the available options, making it easier to respring on command without the need of getting into SBSettings whatsoever.

SBSwitcher is available in the Cydia Store for $2.99. Unfortunately for now, the mod doesn’t work with the iPad. Check out the full feature list and screenshots after the break, and let us know what you think in the comments!

• Set SBSwitcher to default to the Now Playing section of the app switcher.
• Exit the app switcher by pressing the home button instead of exiting the app itself when hitting home.
• Hide the volume slider (iOS 4.2.1 only).
• Easily turn on/off your WiFi, 3G and Bluetooth radios from the app switcher.
• Quickly get back into an app or manipulate an SBSettings toggle right from the lockscreen — no need to unlock!

No, we’re not talking cut/copy and paste, nor MMS, video recording, or any other of the slew of major feature omissions tech pundits can’t go an article without kicking, dead-horse-like. (There must be songs and drinking games about them — enough already!) We’re talking the minor stuff, the small things, the tiny little tweaks Apple could roll out in a 2.2.2 or 2.3 OS update that would make our iPhone experience just that much better and more enjoyable on a day-to-day basis.

Apple has done it before, of course. Double-space to add a period. Double-tap Home to get to favorite phone numbers or the iPod app. Tap Home to slide back to the first/primary/main App screen. Having Apps update in-place rather than shoving them back to the first empty slot.

And they could do it again, perhaps even with minimal effort, and sooner rather than later.

iPhone OS 3.0 will be previewed next tuesday, March 17, but likely won’t be delivered to users until June or July. Here’s what we’d like to see from Apple in the meantime, after the break…

1. Page to End

System wide, we can currently tap on the very top info-bar to hyper-jump to the beginning of that page. Whether it’s a long list like our inbox or reams of text like a web page, we can save ourselves immense “flick to scroll” time with a single tap. Jeremy would like to see this applied to the other extreme as well. Granted, not every app has a constant and consistent bottom-of-screen element the way they do the top info bar, and many also have controls arrayed down there, but if the geniuses at Apple could figure out a way to distinguish a quick bottom of the screen tap as a jump-to-bottom it would save just as much time “flicking to scroll” down. Jeremy wants it, our commenters want it. Make it so Apple.

2. Home Button Triple Click and Click-and-Hold

Click the lonely hardware Home Button and we go back to the Home Screen app launcher (or return to the primary home screen). Double click it and we go to Phone favorites or the iPod app. What about triple-clicking? We’ve seen Apple pull out all manner of morse-code inspired control schemes with their new headsets and the new iPod shuffle, so Chad wants them to work just that kind of magic on the iPhone Home Button and let users assign it to whatever app we’d like.

Triple-click to go straight to Mail, or SMS, any extra quick-launching ability would be appreciated. As another example, Dieter would also like to see some extra Home Button functionality — click and hold to toggle Airplane Mode. Rather than turning on, swiping to unlock (perhaps entering a passcode), clicking or swiping to pull up the home screen with the Settings icon, tapping on Settings, and then flipping the Airplane Mode, this would be a one-step solution. Of course, click-and-hold could also be more than just Airplane Mode, but user-assignable like the triple click.

3. Landscape Lock

The iPhone is the best iPod Apple’s ever made. They’ve said so themselves. But when it comes to traveling with an iPhone in the car, the rotation activated by the accelerometer combined with the lack of fine controls available in landscape mode, can make it a frustrating experience. Also on Dieter’s list, then, is a Settings toggle to disable the accelerometer rotation in the iPod app for those times when you want to experience your media the way you want to experience your media. Of course, no need for this to be restricted to iPod — it would be welcome in Safari at times as well.

4. Turn Off Notifications During Call

This one comes straight from CrackBerry Kevin’s round robin review, where he was flabbergasted (and almost scared out of his bright orange socks) to find his iPhone 3G pinging and buzzing repeatedly in his ear while he tried to have a phone conversation. While not everyone would agree with him, it would be nice — more than nice — if Apple gave us a a toggle switch for “turn off notifications during call”.

A vibrate only mode for event notifications would also be appreciated. Sometimes when we’re talking to people, having an iPhone ping away in our pants every few minutes isn’t exactly the epitome of cool…

5. Add Search to iPod App

We know, you want search in Mail — heck, we want it in every app, system wide, leveraging Apple’s Spotlight technology. However, that’s likely not a small change. Why would iPod search be easier to implement? Apple has already added it to the Apple Remote app.

Why should searching your iTunes or Apple TV library be possible and not the potential 16GB of media you’ve loaded up on your iPhone? (Especially for hardcore songsters who may have thousands and thousands of tracks filling their iPhone — or iPod touch).

Conclusion

So there they are, 5 small changes we think Apple could make in iPhone OS 2.2.2 or even 2.3 before we eventually get iPhone OS 3.0 next June or July (or whenever it is released).

Did we miss any? If so, let us know what tiny tweaks you’d like Apple to give us sooner rather than later.