Apptray lets you launch apps directly from Notification Center

There have been a handful of jailbreak tweaks released for Notification Center in the past few weeks, but perhaps none more visually appealing than Apptray, by software engineerJoshua Lee Tucker.

The tweak, compatible with all iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices, adds a fourth tab alongside Today, All and Missed in Notification Center for opening apps directly from the notifications pulldown. An unlimited number of apps can be added to Apptray, configurable from the tweak’s dedicated menu in the Settings app… 

Apptray has a few other interesting options, including a slider for adjusting icon opacity and a toggle switch for enabling or disabling the tweak entirely. In order to ensure the security of iOS devices, the tweak cannot open apps from the Lock screen when a passcode is set. In that instance, tapping on an app icon will simply do nothing.

My impression of Apptray has been positive so far, as the tweak performs great on my iPhone 5 running iOS 7.0.4. As a bonus, it even works with themed icons. If you also have an iOS 7 device, Apptray can be yours on the Cydia Store for $1.49.

Aura is an upcoming custom icon theme that supports over 200 apps

While theme makers certainly face increasing challenges because of how iOS 7 is designed, we’ve still seen a handful of great themes for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.Aura promises to be the next. The upcoming theme provides well-designed custom icons for over 200 apps and counting, despite its creators—a five-person group called the iApex Team—stressing that it remains in beta with a lot of work to be finished. Even in its claimed infancy, Aura looks fantastic…

I have been testing a pre-release version of Aura on my iPhone for a few hours now, and my first impressions of the theme are very favorable. Each icon has rounded square edges, with support for all stock apps and a growing number of third-party ones: Cydia, Winterboard, BlackBerry Messenger, Google Maps, and more. The only criticism I have is the red-colored Calendar app, as the day of the week is listed in red text and the lack of contrast makes it hard to read.

I was also supplied with a matching Zeppelin logo for Aura, which definitely suits the theme. According to its designers, Aura has been submitted to the ModMyi repository and should appear on the Cydia Store soon. A sale will be offered in the first two days following the theme’s release, and then it will be sold for an undisclosed regular price.

evad3rs disable default TaiG installation in China until further notice

Following the backlash coming from the whole jailbreak community for bundling TaiG to theirevasi0n7 jailbreak, the evad3rs have decided to turn on the kill switch for this highly controversial feature in order to deactivate it while they investigate the piracy claims.

Earlier today, the evad3rs came forward acknowledging having inked a financial deal with Chinese installer TaiG. According to evad3rs, the agreement clearly required TaiG not to facilitate piracy, which turned out to be closer to wishful thinking than actual binding terms…

Apparently, TaiG didn’t respect its part of the deal as there were several reports from various sources about default repos clearly offering cracked and pirated apps to its users. Chpwn, for example, saw his entire catalog of tweaks offered as cracked versions in a default repo of TaiG.

In a tweet sent a few minutes ago, pod2g announced that the evad3rs have decided to remotely disable the default installation of TaiG in China until they can look further into the piracy claims. It’s actually good to know that TaiG installation can remotely be killed instead of requiring a repackaging of the evasi0n7 software.

As we discussed on the latest episode of Let’s Talk Jailbreak (to be available soon), I believe evad3rs had the best intention when partnering with TaiG, but they might have been played by this company from which we don’t know much, if anything.

But is it already too late?

It’s not necessarily too late to fix the mistake, but it might be too late for the evad3rs to regain the trust they might have lost from some jailbreak users.

iOS 7.0.4 is jailbreak safe

Following this morning’s release of iOS 7.0.4, we’ve been getting many questions regarding the safety of updating to the latest software version for those who are hoping to be able to jailbreak their device one day.

The good news is that it is completely safe to update to iOS 7.0.4 as it will not hinder your chances to jailbreak, should we ever get a jailbreak for iOS 7…

The news, which was first broken by hacker iH8sn0w, has been confirmed shortly after by MuscleNerd, although his tweet was a little more obscure and still contained the advice to stay away from it.

It’s good to know we can safely update to iOS 7.0.4. Now if only there was a jailbreak for iOS 7.0.4…

Absinthe jailbreak for A5 chipset gets a million hits in 3 days

As we reported earlier, it is now possible to perform an untethered jailbreak on an iPhone or iPad with the A5 chipset, as long as you’re running firmware 5.0.1 and below. In fact, over 953,232 people have done it in the opening weekend.

GreenPois0n, the group behind the Absinthe release for A5, as well as the Corona release for A4, were able to capture the specific numbers due to unique SHSH queries made to the Cydia jailbreak app store sent every time a user jailbreaks his or her device.

It is clear that many Apple users wish to extend their device functionality further than that provided by iOS 5, despite the risks. If you find yourself among that list, visit the GreenPois0n downloads page here