I have added a special repo for beta testing SBSettings. In it, I have put an update to SBSettings and SBSettings toggles. I am looking for testers that are interested in testing things out. However, there are some rules you must agree to before doing this:

1) This is a beta repo. It should never be given out. It must never appear in any “all sources” packages. As soon as that happens, the repo will be removed. Steffwiz / pwncenter already *ruined* my last beta repo.

2) If you install anything from this repo, you are not going to look for tech support. You will need to be able to send syslogs if there are any springboard crashes or major problems. You can do so with logmailer. If you do not know how to do these things, please do not install the beta repo.

3) If there are issues, you must be capable of describing them well with details and willing to work through them to solve the problems rather than just reverting to an old version with “it didnt work”.

4) As this is beta software, I cannot guarantee its stable (although its working well for me and initial testers). Therefore, if you have a 3gs with no 3.1.2 SHSH stored in Cydia, I suggest you do not bother with the beta tests as long as there is no 3.1.3 jailbreak out.

Ok now that has been said, if you are interested in testing and helping out, please add the repo at this address: http://thebigboss.org/betarepo

Whats new so far:

• Added app sorting in hidden icons and dock applications section of more app.

• Added ability to switch to max 2 rows. This keeps smaller window for those that want it. Find the option in extras in more app. On firmwares 2.x max of 8 toggles would be the limit. On 3.x you would be able to scroll pages.

• Added “App Folders” section to the more app to get the path to a specific app folder. Useful for trying to fiddle with appstore apps that have cryptic locations.

• Added Activator support. You must have rpetrich’s activator v1.3 or newer. Also beta. We are waiting on the thumbs up from the sbsettings beta test and then this all goes live.
  
• Removed EDGE toggle which only worked on 2.x devices and replaced it with DATA toggle that should work on all devices.
  

ILogManager Basic 3.1 is out. Both trial and full versions are available at Big Boss repo. The users, who are all using 3.0.1 are advised to update to the new version immediately. In this new release, we addressed, critical memory and table scrolling issues with the contact images. Real cool news: As we announced in [...]

I’m glad to announce the recent updates of most of my software for the iPhone OS: SBSchedule allows you to make profiles according to SBSettings toggles and activate them at given times or on the fly (via a configurable shortcut). With the latest update you can also set your device’s backlight as well as the [...]

Today, developer TheZimm has released a very cool free task switcher called Circuitous. Mainly for 3gs users that have enough memory to background apps, Circuitous + Backgrounder make a fantastic team. Current version requires you to install backgrounder manually, but the next update will auto install it for you if its not installed.

As you may know, there are severe limitations imposed on AppStore apps. One of these is “no background processes.” This means that if you have an app, such as a music streamer, and you press home to do something else such as check your email, the app is closed out. You are disconnected. Your music stops playing.

Backgrounder is an attempt to fix this. Backgrounder allows you to select an app that you want to allow to run in the background. Then when you press home, that app will keep running. Perfect for an IRC app (try flowchat + backgrounder) or such that you do not want to get disconnected everytime you tap the home key. This adds critical functionality that you cannot get unless you jailbreak! On 3gs, you have plenty of memory to use this fully!

Circuitous is another launcher / manager that goes along with backgrounder to let switching tasks be easy and elegant:

With this you can background and kill apps easily. While composing an email, quickly look something up on the web without closing your email program. Uses are endless.

Hello every one, good news to all of you!!! We received some complains that IlogManager Basic 3.0.1 is using much RAM of  2G and 3G IPhones. In the ground level testing we observed that, if the IPhone has more contacts (some one told that he has 2K contacts in his address book )  and each [...]

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Many users, including me, have gotten the iPhone System pop-up: “Warning: You are running low on memory…etc” in the past few days. Unfortunately for me, my phone did a hard crash when my wake-up alarm went off this morning and I had to do a full restore (I was planning on upgrading from 3.0 anyways).

The culprit? Rock App

Why? It seems that Rock is not clearing out the log\cache file, so it constantly grows larger, indefinitely.

Solution.

1. SSH into your phone or use iFile\Diskaid and locate /var/mobile/Library/RYP/logs
2. Delete rockapp_{date}.log

Some users have indicated that their log files have totaled from 1gb to over 8gb in size!

I have not confirmed this, but a user told me that going into Rock and clicking “Clear cache” will fix this problem.

I am not sure if there was a date bug, but it seemed that it has recently hit everyone that has Rock (and extensions) installed.

Update: kwickone has stated that a Rock update is out that will fix this problem. Update Rock to see if the problem is resolved, if not, delete the log file as mentioned above. I had to fix my friend’s phone and I could not even launch Rock. After deleting the logfile, rebooted, everything was back to normal

I have removed the firmware 313 spoofer from Cydia and instead placed a firmware 313 spoofer *app* into Cydia. This time, rather than rely on cydia to copy the files, I have an app that will let you load it and toggle the firmware from 3.1.2 to 3.1.3. Note that it does require a reboot after toggling in order for this to take effect. In hindsight, having Cydia copy the files was a bad idea because it seems Cydia has crashed on some installs or the scripts have not completed for some reason causing problems on uninstall. The new app will solve that as it removes all the scripts from cydia.

The app still just edits the file at /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist, which you can manually edit if you so choose.

If you installed the previous version of firmware spoofer, I suggest you do not remove it (ever) as there was a bug in the uninstall script that could remove your firmware plist. Just use this new app instead to select which firmware you want. Selecting 3.1.2 and rebooting is equivalent to uninstalling the old tweak

App is basic but functional:

And some quick comments to some questions I keep getting:
1) No, this does not actually update your firmware to 3.1.3
2) No this does not impact tethering tweaks or other tweaks. It just changes the *reported* firmware version
3) No this does not break your unlock or cause “no service”

Remember that you have to reboot for this to take effect even though the settings app shows the version change immediately.

Final note: if you want this to remain permanent you can uninstall the app after selecting the firmware so you don’t have to have the icon. The last firmware you have chosen will remain. If you wish to change it later you can always reinstall the app and change it again.

Take full control of your SpringBoard! Two tweaks from chpwn, the recently released Infiniboard and Infinidock, allow you to scroll your home screen in ways not seen since firmware 1.x — or ever before. Both are available in the Cydia Store now! Infiniboard lets you scroll each page on your home screen up and down, [...]

ScreenDimmer 1.20 has been released. It is now offering you the option to set different time intervals for dimming the screen and turning off the backlight. Also, apps with disabled idleTimer won’t lock anymore if you allow them to dim. if you don’t know about ScreenDimmer: ScreenDimmer allows you to save battery life by automatically [...]

Do you know that IPhone’s mobile application doesn’t allows to delete recent calls (I hate this , while all other basic phones has this basic function but the IPhone doesn’t!)? If you’re searching for an app that would allow to “Delete” a call in call list, here your search comes to an end. “ILogManager Basic” [...]

ScreenDimmer allows you to save battery life by automatically dimming your device’s screen after a pre-defined time; or if you wish by turning the backlight off. Most users suffer unnecessary battery drain while having their iPhone not on standby. Setting auto-lock to a short time makes it better, but is an inconvenience most of the [...]

Update: Appsidy will issue a refund to everyone that bought this in the next 5-7 days.

Today some developer released a “pay” package called “Vroom” which sounded too good to be true. Unfortunately, it is. Do not install this package. Not only does it not do what it claims, but it is also somewhat dangerous and will wear out your iPhone with limited use. Read below for details. (Note: Zodttd has removed this package from Cydia, but it may creep up somewhere else).

First, this package claims to speed up your iphone, increase your free memory by managing your daemons, and increase your battery usage. Sounds amazing right? Who wouldnt want this?

So what does it really do? It enables memory swap on your device.

What are the results of memory swap on your device? The free memory will appear to be better. That’s because it is using your disk as memory.  But that’s not all. This package is actually just a stolen file that is already on your device, renamed. So that means the “developer” decided to take a file off his iPhone, rename it, and sell it to you for $1.99.

Here is proof that the file is stolen. The original file is dynamic_pager that is provided by Apple in your /sbin folder. The new file from this app is called Vroom_data. Check out the md5sum of both proving that the files are identical:

BigBoss-iPhone:~ root# md5sum /sbin/dynamic_pager
e57afa9289e98fbd336eff14b996370a  /sbin/dynamic_pager
BigBoss-iPhone:~ root# md5sum /sbin/Vroom_data
e57afa9289e98fbd336eff14b996370a  /sbin/Vroom_data

Ok so the package is fraud.

But if you already have dynamic_pager, whats the harm in enabling it? The reason you don’t want memory swap enabled on your iPhone is this:

1) Memory swap will create a disk file on your flash disk. The CPU will need to spend I/O cycles reading and writing to this disk file. The I/O cycles will cost you battery because it takes battery power to do disk writes.

2) Flash disk has limited life span. They say some 100,000 writes per sector then it is dead. Having a swap file running will be quickly writing to the same sectors wearing out your flash disk.

3) Writing to a page file takes some CPU cycles.

Now, lets examine the developer’s claims and compare them to what the package actually does:

Claim #1: Increases memory.  Sort of. It creates a disk swap. Result is iphone will appear to have more memory. Some apps may crash less. This isn’t all bad. (I think I will release a free package that enables disk swap with a strong warning on it for those that want this).

Claim #2: Manages your daemons. FALSE / lies. It is the apple dynamic_pager file. It does only that. It does not manage your daemons.

Claim #3: It speeds up your device: FALSE. In fact, disk swap actually slows down the device because there are extra disk write used in order to access memory.

Claim #4: It provides better battery performance: FALSE. In fact it actually causes your battery to drain faster because of the disk write I/O cycles and the extra CPU required.

Claim #5: It allows your iPhone to boot at 2% rather than 15% battery. FALSE. This is built into the device not the iPhone OS. (Just like DFU mode). You cannot make changes to this.

Claim #6: It allows your iPhone to run until there is 1% battery rather than 5% before it shuts off. FALSE. See #5 above.

Finally, the package in Cydia was packaged incorrectly. Daemon plist was owned by user 1000. Launchctl will not load any daemon not owned by root. This caused the daemon to not start. With that bug, the paging system is not even enabled resulting in no change in performance! (LOL again). Anyone claiming to install this and finding a boost in speed, battery, etc is experiencing the placebo effect.

This all reminds me of the scam last year with the fake app I dont crash. At least that guy wasn’t trying to charge you money.

Note: enabling memory swap also seems to break google maps app.

Autolock is sometimes annoying. Most users use to set a long time interval until locking or even have disabled autolocking. Only problem: this consumes a lot of battery, especially if autolocking is disabled. But now there will be an app for that: ScreenDimmer From now on it doesn’t matter if you forget to lock your [...]

SBSchedule is a new program for your iPhone / iPod Touch which allows to setup profile groups of SBSettings toggles. You can then schedule those profiles to fire at a given time or activate them anywhere via a shortcut you can trigger. The possibilities here are limitless, as almost any on/off toggle you have for [...]

Firewall iP is a very powerful tool. It’s abilities have been extended since the first release and some documentation is needed. So I’ve created a short HowTo for every option in the app: Firewall iP How To In case you don’t already know about Firewall iP: Firewall iP is the only security app of it’s kind [...]