Editors Choice – Best Cydia Apps and Tweaks for 2012

We are firmly into 2012 now and since the A5 untethered jailbreak hit we have seen a flood of new and innovative content appear in Cydia. Sometimes it can be difficult to decide which ones are the most useful rather than having them all on your device.

This is my run down of the ones that I think are the best ones for you guys. In no particular order we start with…

AnyAttach ($1.99 – BigBoss repo)

For me, the one area that Apple continually lets us down is the lack of fundamental features in the Mail.app. Yes iOS 5 introduced threaded emails and rich text input but there are still a couple of key features that I for the love of god can’t work out why they are still missing.

One the them is the ability to mark all as read, yes I know I can select certain ones and mark them as read but that doesn’t cut it. But my main gripe is not being able to add an attachment once I am already writing an email. Yes I can go to the photos app and copy an image or start the email from the photo sharing menu but what if I decide to add something after I have started it? I shouldn’t right?

This is where AnyAttach shines! This Tweak developed by H. Samara and N. Bassen simply adds a paperclip icon to the subject field when composing an email. From there you can select any item from the file system, choose from the photo library and even from your Dropbox. Simple right? In my opinion this tweak is worth it’s weight in gold!

BiteSMS (Free ad supported)

BiteSMS is by far my favourite Messaging app. The developers offer a plethora of features without overcomplicating things which is how I felt using iRealSMS. I use it mainly for the Quickreply and Quicksend features which have been crafted to look like the native iOS 5 Tweet popup. Probably the best feature is that it uses iMessage where available, so you won’t get stung for unwanted SMS charges.

Other features include privacy setting, auto forwarder, sms scheduling, templates, signature, delay sending, contact pics in main app.

Although BiteSMS is completely free to use you can still purchase a license for £5.95 which will not only aid in further development of future releases but it also gets rid of the ad displayed in the main app.

BiteSMS is a must have for any hardcore multi-tasker.

Celeste ($9.99 – ModMyi repo)

Again we find a gaping hole left by Apple being filled by an app from Cydia. Celeste is a full featured Bluetooth file sharing app created by Cocoanuts that allows the sending and receiving of almost any file whether it be a song, image, video, zip file and many more. For a more detailed review go here.

At the core of Celeste is a plugin called Gremlin. This allows for received media to automatically be added to its rightful place i.e songs to your iTunes library and images to the photos app etc.

Unlike the bluetooth apps before Celeste, this one is developed by Cocoanuts, a collection of some of the most talented developers in the community. Currently there is no publicly working version for iOS 5, however, the beta is out and in the hands of those who have purchased Celeste so that bugs can be found and fixed as quickly as possible. I can already say that the progress made is huge and it shouldn’t be too long until we see it released to the public once again.

Color Keyboard ($1.99 – BigBoss repo)

Ever since 3.0(?) dropped it has become increasingly difficult to theme the keyboards in iOS. Pretty much the only option we had was an app called iAccess, but this has always been unstable and quite pricy ($15 upwards). Well back in April 2011, completely out of the blue, a developer called Yoo Seung Kim released a tweak called ColorKeyboard.

The tweak basically allows you to theme the keyboard by changing certain values in a plist file, which the app does for you, but if you fancy trying your hand at it there are full instructions available on his website here.

iFile ($4.00 – BigBoss)

No list would be complete without iFile making an appearance. This is probably one of the most downloaded applications in Cydia. The feature list is huge so to view it you can go here for a full review. Created by Carsten Heinelt, iFile has endless possibilities.

In essence iFile is a file manager that allows you to access your devices file system and add/remove/edit whatever you like basically. this can be useful for on device app testing, theming and so much more.

Zeppelin (Free – ModMyi repo)

For as long as I can remember, the process of replacing your carrier text with an image/logo has been sketchy at best, especially for certain carriers (like mine, Orange-UK). You can probably find many single carrier theme packages in Cydia which may or may not work properly.

Zeppelin enables this ability in a simple and well put together interface, and even allows you to add your own logos to it, which is a huge step forward.

Developed by jivhd, this is a fantastic addition to any iPhone/iPod and no longer requires a respring to change your carrier logo.

MyStrings/SIGnify ($1.49 BOGOF – ModMyi repo)

Time for some blatant self-promotion I’m afraid. Yes thats right, I am the developer of these two tweaks.

MyStrings is a handy tool for both users and developers. It allows you to change many aspects of the text elements found in the iOS including slider text, icon text (size/font/colour/shadow), popup text, application specific text, numeric wifi/signal etc. For theme developers MyStrings can help to test out various aspects as it features a manual entry for the icon and dock text, so with a little knowledge you can create great looking text effects.

SIGnify was the first tweak that allowed native HTML signatures without needing to use another third party app or a web app. It includes a preview tab so you can see your signature as soon as you have edited it. Although not advised, SIGnify will also survive a restore from backup, leaving you with your HTML signature on an unjailbroken device.

Flowtation ($0.99 -ModMyi repo)

This lightweight tweak created by cjori is more of a cosmetic tweak, but a great one at that. Normally when you pull down the Notification Centre tab, it appears to cover your springboard. With Flowtation, you get the effect that you are dragging the springboard down from covering the NC.

This is not an essential tweak but it is a damn nice one!

AssistantExtensions (Free – BigBoss repo)

It was inevitable that a whole host of Siri related tweaks would begin to emerge from the moment the iPhone 4s became jailbroken, and this one is by far the best one. Not only is it the most stable Siri tweak to date, it also serves as a developer tool allowing anyone to create compatible extensions. More info can be found here.

Up to now AssistantExtensions allows you to open apps, enable/disable system toggles, tweet and much more. There are also a couple of extensions already available so check them out in Cydia.

Springtomize 2 ($2.99 – BigBoss repo)

Created by Filippobiga, Springtomize allows you to customise your device in many ways. Some of these include custom animations, dock effects, icon layouts and a backup feature aptly called Time Machine. This allows you to backup icon layouts and wallpaper and even Springtomize settings themselves.

Zephyr ($2.99 – BigBoss repo)

Tweaks that improve upon existing features. Isn’t that what all this is about? Zephyr is a prime example of this. Thanks to chpwn, all it takes is a simple swipe upwards from the bottom of the screen to bring up the multitasking tray. Along with that great feature you can also switch between open apps by swiping horizontally from the edge of the screen.

You have to see it in action to realise how smooth it really is!

So that is my list of what I feel are the most useful and innovative tweaks/apps in Cydia at the moment, obviously there are many more deserving tweaks/apps but this would go on all day.