just thought id write a few words of encouragement and advice to those who are still unsure to take the plunge and jailbreak their device.
this has been my first jailbreaking attempt. luckily for me, it has all gone very smoothly and i am extremely happy with the results. yet, there was a learning curve which is not reasonable - topped with a few *doom and gloom* posts i encountered along the way which made it all even more dreadful...
once i got over the dread of watching how my iphone downloaded evasi0n, and lines of code ran past my black screen before a couple of restarts, i was presented with the same homescreen (called *springbooard* in this JB world - i learnt) I had previously - with the exception of the Cydia App store icon.
Initial connectivity issues notwithstanding, i began scrolling through the theme pages to see what was going on there. most of the good themes come at a monetary cost (around 2.00 or 3.00), however it is possible to make your phone look stunning without spending a cent. and no, i am not talking piracy. what really good paid themes (complete) do is merely offer you a fast solution bundle. it will save you loads of time; but in time you may come to see that personalising your device just how you want it involves using several themes and tweaks. in any case, i thought i would research in macrumors and elsewhere what themes were really popular before committing.
my first frustration began at the layout of the pages. forget about the nice orderly presentation of the App store. pages here were reloading constantly and sometimes you need to wait a few seconds before some crucial information loads completely for each screen. additionally, there are no thumbnails in the categories section so i was faced with an endless list of themes with a similar icon. browsing each and every one of them was out of the question. i later learned that browsing each one would have been a complete waste of time - since most of them are not yet compatible with iOS 6.
Which brings me to my second frustration - you will find everyting and anything in there. I believe there are tweaks and add-ons dating back to 2007 or what not.
So research is a must. There are sites out there and forum posts here in macrumos describing the most popular apps, add-ons and tweaks. Go for those. In my reasearch i also came across the *dark side* of jailbreak - that is sources besides Cydia that allow you to download extra (or equivalent) stuff. i wont go much into this for obvious reasons but suffice to say my head was exploding by the time i read someone post on another forum site that app "X" was available through one of these *repos* (as they are called) but with no obvious explanation as to how to set it up. In my eagerness to learn all there is about this world, i did eventually learn the secret, after a couple hours.
in this journey i also came across new terms - such as SSH. As explained earlier, I was reluctant to commit to a new theme before knowing exactly what i wanted. And I wasnt too sure how i would install it either - so i browsed google for themes. I came across a free theme which i could install via (or by?) SSH. I soon discovered this was just a way of editing my phone files using an app akin to Windows Explorer. So I began my hunt for an app that would do this (for my Mac) and settled on iExplorer.
To make a long story short after a few more hours i had my first LS theme installed. and I was happy.
Yet, it was very simple and unimpressive compared to what people were posting in the *post your jailbreak lock screen* thread. And i too wanted something more flamboyant.
Eventually I realised i had downloaded an old theme which thankfully worked alright and didnt fry my phone.
But before you turn back and decide not to go through all this trouble - let me tell you - its a complete waste of time. I was glad i learnt what i did, but, again, the easiest way is just to read the posts here - make a list of good and established apps, tweaks, add-ons, and experiment with those. Likewise with themes. The cydia app store is really just meant to use the search feature and typing in exactly what you are after.
Luckily, early on i came across a post with this link:
http://www.ijailbreak.com/cydia/best-ios-6-cydia-tweaks/
which helped me understand the essential of Jailbreaking (i would add adblocker to that list). Does this mean you need all that? No. Just see what inspires you and go for those tweaks that allow you to do just that. This page also introduced me to *Winterboard* - the theme manager par excellence. This should be your first download from cydia if you plan on getting themes. Located in your iOS settings, you can here activate or deactivate themes.
So after many trial and errors - tweaks that worked, others that didn't as expected; a few sweats and loads of learning, i finally manage to get my phone looking as i wanted - and it works very well. it really feels as if you just had gotten a new device; enhancing your experience every step of the way. and the best part of it all, once its all done, it will feel second nature to you. you will be able to make adjustments here and there accordingly without the need to enroll in a jailbreak PHD course.
my complete phone:
this has been my first jailbreaking attempt. luckily for me, it has all gone very smoothly and i am extremely happy with the results. yet, there was a learning curve which is not reasonable - topped with a few *doom and gloom* posts i encountered along the way which made it all even more dreadful...
once i got over the dread of watching how my iphone downloaded evasi0n, and lines of code ran past my black screen before a couple of restarts, i was presented with the same homescreen (called *springbooard* in this JB world - i learnt) I had previously - with the exception of the Cydia App store icon.
Initial connectivity issues notwithstanding, i began scrolling through the theme pages to see what was going on there. most of the good themes come at a monetary cost (around 2.00 or 3.00), however it is possible to make your phone look stunning without spending a cent. and no, i am not talking piracy. what really good paid themes (complete) do is merely offer you a fast solution bundle. it will save you loads of time; but in time you may come to see that personalising your device just how you want it involves using several themes and tweaks. in any case, i thought i would research in macrumors and elsewhere what themes were really popular before committing.
my first frustration began at the layout of the pages. forget about the nice orderly presentation of the App store. pages here were reloading constantly and sometimes you need to wait a few seconds before some crucial information loads completely for each screen. additionally, there are no thumbnails in the categories section so i was faced with an endless list of themes with a similar icon. browsing each and every one of them was out of the question. i later learned that browsing each one would have been a complete waste of time - since most of them are not yet compatible with iOS 6.
Which brings me to my second frustration - you will find everyting and anything in there. I believe there are tweaks and add-ons dating back to 2007 or what not.
So research is a must. There are sites out there and forum posts here in macrumos describing the most popular apps, add-ons and tweaks. Go for those. In my reasearch i also came across the *dark side* of jailbreak - that is sources besides Cydia that allow you to download extra (or equivalent) stuff. i wont go much into this for obvious reasons but suffice to say my head was exploding by the time i read someone post on another forum site that app "X" was available through one of these *repos* (as they are called) but with no obvious explanation as to how to set it up. In my eagerness to learn all there is about this world, i did eventually learn the secret, after a couple hours.
in this journey i also came across new terms - such as SSH. As explained earlier, I was reluctant to commit to a new theme before knowing exactly what i wanted. And I wasnt too sure how i would install it either - so i browsed google for themes. I came across a free theme which i could install via (or by?) SSH. I soon discovered this was just a way of editing my phone files using an app akin to Windows Explorer. So I began my hunt for an app that would do this (for my Mac) and settled on iExplorer.
To make a long story short after a few more hours i had my first LS theme installed. and I was happy.
Yet, it was very simple and unimpressive compared to what people were posting in the *post your jailbreak lock screen* thread. And i too wanted something more flamboyant.
Eventually I realised i had downloaded an old theme which thankfully worked alright and didnt fry my phone.
But before you turn back and decide not to go through all this trouble - let me tell you - its a complete waste of time. I was glad i learnt what i did, but, again, the easiest way is just to read the posts here - make a list of good and established apps, tweaks, add-ons, and experiment with those. Likewise with themes. The cydia app store is really just meant to use the search feature and typing in exactly what you are after.
Luckily, early on i came across a post with this link:
http://www.ijailbreak.com/cydia/best-ios-6-cydia-tweaks/
which helped me understand the essential of Jailbreaking (i would add adblocker to that list). Does this mean you need all that? No. Just see what inspires you and go for those tweaks that allow you to do just that. This page also introduced me to *Winterboard* - the theme manager par excellence. This should be your first download from cydia if you plan on getting themes. Located in your iOS settings, you can here activate or deactivate themes.
So after many trial and errors - tweaks that worked, others that didn't as expected; a few sweats and loads of learning, i finally manage to get my phone looking as i wanted - and it works very well. it really feels as if you just had gotten a new device; enhancing your experience every step of the way. and the best part of it all, once its all done, it will feel second nature to you. you will be able to make adjustments here and there accordingly without the need to enroll in a jailbreak PHD course.
my complete phone:
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