Every iPhone users are always looking for new ways to enhance the great smartphone they possess. Today, I want to share two jailbreak tweaks that are simple and easy to install yet it gives color to your iPhone while in the lockscreen mode.

LabelSlide
LabelSlide is a jailbreak tweak that will change your default “slide to unlock” text on the slide button to whatever text you may want. Available for free in the BigBoss repo, LabelSlide can be downloaded and installed immediately after searching it. After you have installed this tweak, you can go to your Settings app so you can change and activate the text you may want to show in your lockscreen. There is an added feature wherein you can replace the text with the current date. But obviously you may not want this since the date is usually displayed on top. Here is a video for more information on LabelSlide.

LockSecondsIndicator

Although this tweak is not the first of its kind, it however caught my attention. This is because when I tried it on my iPhone, it does run smoothly. With less memory used in this tweak (about only 47KB), I can sincerely recommend this tweak if ever you want to enhance the default time display on your lockscreen. That is, it will add seconds in your time with real time indication. To install this tweak, search through Cydia “LockSecondsIndicator” and install. Your iPhone will respring. Go to Settings App and activate the tweak.

There you go; two tweaks that will customize your lockscreen. Tell us how you think about this tweaks by writing comments below.

In the jailbreak community, RedSn0w is the second most popular tool for jailbreaking aside from the JailbreakME 3.0. This is because RedSn0w is easier to use than other tools (except jailbreakME) and is always updated to support for the latest iOS from Apple.

And now, it has been updated again to its latest version RedSn0w 0.9.9b1 which is available for both Windows and Mac. The news came out from MuscleNerd via Twitter that a new update is available for everyone. Although the update doesn’t provide untethered jailbreak for the latest iOS, it certainly prepares the Dev-Team to the upcoming iOS 5 sometime this October. We really hope that it will not take too long to wait for the jailbreak once iOS will be released so we can then update and maintain a jailbreak. Here are the highlights of the RedSn0w 0.9.9b1 version.

• uses DFU mode to try to automatically determine which device and FW you have

• fetches pieces of public IPSWs from Apple (once). Non-public IPSWs must be provided manually (once).  It then caches those pieces for future use.

• “Just boot” is a tethered boot.  Uses whatever “Preferences” you’ve set for boot logo and kernel boot-args

• “Pwned DFU” puts your device in a pwned DFU state for some of the iTunes stuff detailed below

• “Recovery fix” gets past 1015 types of errors (when baseband portion of restore fails).  Should work on iOS5 beta too

• “Select IPSW” is for picking non-public IPSWs, or overriding auto-detection

•“SHSH blobs” has a bunch of options…

• “Fetch” – fetch current PARTIAL blobs on device.  Should complete in under 10 or 15 seconds.  Puts the set of PARTIAL of blobs on your computer as a plist.  Checks if Cydia already has a full set for this device and build.  If not, it submits this PARTIAL set and returns Cydia’s acknowledgement or rejection

• ”Verify”  - cryptographically verifies existing blob files from either redsn0w, TinyUmbrella, or Cydia server.  You can select a whole bunch of blobs to verify at once if you want (like the TinyUmbrella directory)

• “Submit”  - both verifies and submits one or more blob files to Cydia.  This lets you copy your entire TinyUmbrella cache of blobs up to the Cydia server

• ”Query” – queries the Cydia server for all available FULL or PARTIAL blobs for a given set of ECIDs

• “Stitch” – stitches either FULL or PARTIAL blobs to a STOCK or CUSTOM IPSW

1. FULL blobs stitched to a STOCK IPSW gives you a completely self-contained signed IPSW that iTunes will accept without any tricks (no need to go into pwned DFU mode, no need to start TinyUmbrella TSS server, no need to redirect to Cydia server for blobs).

2. PARTIAL blobs stitched to any IPSW requires you to go into pwned DFU mode before running iTunes.  No need to start TU or use Cydia though.

3. stitching either FULL or PARTIAL blobs to a CUSTOM IPSW also requires a pwned DFU start before iTunes restores.  No need to start TU or use Cydia though.

4. stitching is NOT yet supported on iPhones (well, at least not tested).  Need to work out the baseband part of the restore process.

5. will eventually support fetching the blobs directly from Cydia instead of a file on your computer.

You can visit our guide in RedSn0w jailbreaking right here in iPhoneShine. The process for jailbreaking with the latest FirmWare versions is quite similar. For anyone using iOS 4.3.3, you can use JailbreakME 3.0 to jailbreak easily.

As I have promised in my last article, I will continue to share some tips to save battery life in your iPhone. With more and more exciting apps, jailbreak tweaks or games added every day, no wonder why our iPhone drains out faster than before. That is; if you want to run the most powerful smartphone in the market, you are going to accept a heavy toll on your iPhone battery life.

As it turns out, there are things you can do to conserve battery life in your iPhone. Some of these solutions will limit your iPhone’s full potential, but can be very useful in times you really need to extend your battery life throughout the day.

Turn OFF Notifications. If you have enabled Notification Option, your iPhone will always search for the latest notifications you may have, like for Facebook or Twitter. So, turning this option OFF will save your battery more. Go to Settings app and select “OFF” under Notifications.

Delay or Turn OFF the Data Push and Fetch Features. After turning Off Notifications, go a step further by making the Mail and other apps check in with the servers less frequently. To increase fetch interval, go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars and select “Hourly” from the option of Fetch New Data. You cannot get mail or calendar invitations unless you will do it manually.

Learn to use Airplane Mode. Enabling this option will disable all network connections making your iPhone functions just like an iPod. This helps save your battery life since Bluetooth, WiFi and 3G greatly stresses your battery.

Install Running Indicator. Running Indicator is a jailbreak tweak that will let you know which apps are running by the glow. You can then turn this app OFF so you can save a little bit of extra energy in your iPhone battery. Make sure to add http://rpetri.ch/repo in your Cydia repo and search for “running indicator” to install this tweak.

Please let me know for more tips on how to save battery for your iPhone by making a comment below. Thank you and enjoy!

With the rumors going around these days regarding the upcoming iPhone 5, perhaps you might ask “what’s new with iPhone 5?” The iPhone 4 is a great smartphone and stands on top among its competitors. But wait, it has something that needs to be improved in the upcoming iPhone 5. That is, its battery!

Admit it; your iPhone sometimes doesn’t get you through the rest of the day after rigid use. You need to charge again before the day is done. So, what if you don’t have access to power source immediately? Well, maybe these tips on how to save battery life in your iPhone will help.

Adjust lower the screen brightness. To adjust brightness, go to Settings app and tap on Brightness. You need to have a jailbreak tweak SBSettings so you can quickly adjust the brightness of your iPhone by just sliding your status bar from left to right.

Always lock your iPhone when not in use. The iPhone has an auto-lock feature that can be set up for 1 minute to automatically turn your iPhone into sleep mode. Why wait if you can immediately tap the sleep button to make your iPhone locked?

Turn OFF “Ask to Join Networks” feature in the Network Settings. Your iPhone is constantly searching for WiFi networks available in your surroundings. Turn this option OFF so you can save battery life. You can still join a network manually. To turn OFF “Ask to Join Networks” feature, go to Settings app and open WiFi option.

Disable 3G Network. Although 3G will help you browse the internet faster in your iPhone, it will also drain your battery faster. So, turn OFF 3G when you are not using the internet or if you have a WiFi connection.

More tips on how to save battery life in your iPhone will be discussed in the next article. Enjoy!

Repositories are independent distribution channels that offer Cydia packages to customers from different developers. These repositories (or repos), also known as online hubs, contains the apps/tweaks for quick and easy access and installation. The Bigboss repo, for example, is a popular repo in Cydia that contains majority of the tweaks and are conveniently listed for easy browsing of customers.

While larger repos also contains a huge number of packages that sometimes flooded with garbage apps, it is nice to know that you can now create your very own repository so you can collect your favorite apps and tweaks which you can share with your friends. This is because sharing Cydia apps can sometimes be impossible with attaching in emails, that’s why creating your own repos is the best way.

iRepo is the new jailbreak tweak will allow you to create repos on your own and will host .deb files in your own iPhone or iPad with iOS 4.2 or higher. The following are the steps:

1. Purchase iRepo from Cydia through the BigBoss repo for $1.99.

2. iRepo will install and reboot your iPhone. A new icon will be present in your springboard.

3. Open up iRepo icon to start the app and you will be greeted with the configuration settings.

4. Input the name of your repo as you want it, a description or a codename for its contents. You can also add a password for secure access.

5. Tap on “Save” and go back to Status to enable your repo.

6. To add .deb files, you can SSH your iPhone in your computer under the “packages” option or use iFile so you can add anytime and anywhere.

Making your own Cydia repo is not too hard for a beginner!