BossPaper v1.1.1 is going into Cydia now. It’s a bug-fix release only. I hope it solves all the issues that some people experienced on v1.0, although I cant be sure as I cannot reproduce any of the missing icon issues. In any event, the changes are:

1) Fixed background location to include statusbar again.

2) Fixed help screen to talk about how to use the new “Under Winterboard” feature. See Help, then Feature Description.

3) Made some changes internally to try to make things more like how 1.0 worked for those that were having problems with layering when using winterboard. I verified this fixed the problem for one person, (thank you Scott). I still cannot reproduce this issue so can only hope for the best.

4) The change to #3 above also impacted dimming if you had a winterboard theme behind the bosspaper. On v1.0 the winterboard theme was covered but on 1.1 the paper dimming let the theme show from behind it.

If anyone is still experiencing the missing icons issue, I need someone that is SSH savvy to help me debug it further or anyone that can give me enough details to reproduce it on my own (a complete list of your winterboard themes and which ones are applied and in what order for example, also disable all winterboard themes and test, etc).

BossPaper v1.1 is released. The main addition is the ability to select whether or not you want BossPaper to be on top of or underneath your winterboard background.

BossPaper v1.0 overlays over winterboard. This means if you have a javascript date / time widget you want to run, you cant it will be covered up by bosspaper. This also has some benefits though for example, you can run a theme with one image and icons then use bosspaper to rotate backgrounds.

BossPaper v1.1 defaults to the same mode as BossPaper 1.0 where the wallpaper image is on top of winterboard. But it has a new switch called “Under Winterboard” where when “ON” the BossPaper wallpaper will be rendered underneath winterboard backgrounds. This lets you have a date / time widget or some other interesting javascript widget in winterboard while using bosspaper to rotate images. (Some theme makers have requested this).

I have explained this in the apps help and covered various scenarios. Those that understand winterboard really well can also make a transparent 320×480 png image and move it to the top of winterboard. Then put bosspaper below winterboard and winterboard will always show the blank wallpaper but behind that you’ll see bosspaper running. This would allow you to run themes that have both icons and backgrounds but have the background be ignored. I did not include a transparent 320×480 theme but I may release one as an addon if it is required and does not confuse people.

I released v0.95 with some help file updates as v1.0. It’s now officially out of beta and into major repo. Enjoy.  !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:'https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);lang: en_US

Edit (Aug 10): Added v0.99 into the beta repository as a 1.0 release candidate. I fixed a couple issues:

• Large camera roll images are too zoomed to see them
• Added solid color option (by request)
• Fixed broken longer time durations (like in hours) so that the image would change even though you lock the device and load apps in that time frame.

I have done some testing on 2.2.1 with BossPaper. It *mostly* works but there are a few problems: 1) The image doesn’t stop rotating because the springboard API to detect when an app is loaded changed. 2) Some settings app gui problems 3) My routine to copy dock is broken. I am not sure how much effort I am going to take to fix these things.

As it stands, I plan to release v1.0 as 3.0 only sometime later tonight baring any major issues with 0.99 reported. So far all issues seem minor.

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I have released a new BossPaper to the beta repository tonight. If there are no major issues, I will open this up by adding it to the main repository later this week. There are still a few things to be done, but the major feature is added: allowing to select individual images. Here are the changes for v0.95:

• Used better randomization algorithm. The images seemed to be repeating too often.
• When locked, image was switching one more time. Fixed this so that the image did not switch on lock.
• Added sequential ordering option to show images in order rather than randomize.
• Added Wallpapers folder to images to select folders.
• Added some explanation on dock replacement screen when winterboard is installed that winterboard will be used to replace the dock.
• Added single image(s) selection. You can select images by browsing the folders on the flash disk. If both images and folders are selected, all will be rotated. If you have folders selected, you must delete them if you wish to show only images. You can also preview the images.
• Made the prefs app switch paper when closed if a preference reload is required so the user “feels” like something is happening.
• Took some extra steps to make sure no timer is running if only 1 image is selected.
• Added a “delete all” button for image mode. (Note this button is intentionally difficult to press).

Here is the current status:

Bug Reports:

1) Icon labels are grey – Status: Investigating.This is default color of icons. Winterboard themes make this white. I have not yet decided if I want to touch this.

2) Lag introduced on springboard when not using fade transition – Status: Investigating. I cannot reproduce this at this point.

Feature Requests:

1) White icon label switch – Status: Investigating. Theoretically this could get into “let me choose the icon label color” which was out of scope for the project since it focuses on wallpapers, but I may do it anyway.

2) Lockscreen wallpaper – Status: Investigating.

3) Release for 2.2 – Status: Investigating.

4) Cube Transition – Status: Investigating. (I do not want to use any opengles in springboard).

5) Lock Screen Wallpaper With home button to change – Status Investigating. I like this idea and will probably get to it.

Issues reported closed out:
1) Cydia issue after installing BossPaper – Status: Closed. This is an unrelated issue. See other Cydia bug reports. The comments in this post (not the post itself) offer suggestions for resolving these issues.

2) Theme Icons – Status Closed. Icon theming is out of scope and makes bosspaper become a full winterboard replacement. I may, however, create something that allows for a pick-and-choose for various winterboard themes (this is on my todo list).

3) Image swaps while on lock screen – Status: Closed. This was not a battery issue. The image just changed one more time. I fixed it in the latest 0.95 anyway (mainly to avoid emails by concerned users). If this is a battery issue, I will consider it urgent for a fix.

4) Dock swap is confusing – Status: Closed. Added some text to the new version explaining that if winterboard is installed, winterboard handles the dock swap with a theme added by BossPaper.

5) Allow for sequential display not just random – Status: Closed. Implemented in v0.95.

6) Allow single image select – Status: Closed. Implemented in v0.95. In addition, you can pick and choose any number of images not just one. (Or just one if you want).

7) Import from stock wallpaper folder - Status: Closed. Implemented in v0.95.

I have decided to open a post specifically for BossPaper Beta tracking. I may periodically clear the comments as I integrate them into the main post to keep it clean looking. Here is the current list of reports and their current status. I will update the list as I take comments from this post and move them into the lists below:

Bug Reports:

1) Icon labels are grey – Status: Investigating. I think that the light grey is standard icon color and winterboard themes make the icon labels white. I added a feature request below.

2) Lag introduced on springboard when not using fade transition – Status: Investigating. I cannot reproduce this at this point.

3) Image swaps while on lock screen – Status: Investigating. Still researching if this is a battery issue or if it transitions just one more time after locking. If this is a battery issue, I will consider it urgent for a fix.

4) Dock swap is confusing – Status: Accepted. The dock change feature when winterboard is installed can generate some confusion. The dock is inserted as a winterboard theme and moved to the top. There is no way inside bosspaper to resolve this without opening Winterboard Prefs. But there is nothing that tells the user to do this. I will work something out to solve.

Feature Requests:

1) Allow for sequential display not just random – Status: Accepted. Will be implemented in future version.

2) White icon label switch – Status: Investigating. Theoretically this could get into “let me choose the icon label color” which was out of scope for the project since it focuses on wallpapers, but I may do it anyway.

3) Lockscreen wallpaper – Status: Investigating.

4) Allow single image select – Status: Accepted. Will be implemented in future version.

5) Release for 2.2 – Status: Investigating.

6) Cube Transition – Status: Investigating. (I do not want to use any opengles in springboard).

7) Import from stock wallpaper folder - Status: Accepted. This is obvious. I cant believe I missed it. You can still import wallpapers using “Browse Folders” and get to /Library/Wallpapers, but this should be a default option.

8) Lock Screen Wallpaper With home button to change – Status Investigating. I like this idea and will probably get to it.

Issues reported closed out:
1) Cydia issue after installing BossPaper – Status: Closed. This is an unrelated issue. See other Cydia bug reports. The comments in this post (not the post itself) offer suggestions for resolving these issues.

2) Theme Icons – Status Closed. Icon theming is out of scope and makes bosspaper become a full winterboard replacement. I may, however, create something that allows for a pick-and-choose for various winterboard themes (this is on my todo list).

I am releasing BossPaper v0.91 BossPaper v0.93 beta tonight for testing (if you grabbed anything < 0.93, please update). There are still a few features that I plan to implement that are not in this version, but I think it is a good idea to start getting feedback.

In order to test it, you must install the bigboss beta repository, which I have also released into Cydia for those of you that said you are a “hacker” or “developer” when you loaded Cydia the first time. BossPaper will automatically install logmailer because if you have any problems, I would like a logmailer output of your syslog. If you don’t plan to send syslogs to me when having problems, well then you should not try to beta test this. Of course the first non-beta repo version will not require logmailer. If you hate having logmailer icon, you can hide it for now using SBSettings.

Based on the success / failure of this release, I may move it into a public repository before adding the remaining features.

Currently, the app requires 3.0. I am not sure if I plan to support 2.x or not. Every day there are less 2.x users and more 3.x users. It makes little sense to focus on 2.x for a new app.

Features missing are:

1) Ability to select a single image. If you want a single image make a folder with that image for now.

2) Ability to exclude a single image or images. For now you have to delete it off the folder. In future you will have a way to tell it to not load that image again.

3) Photos – Camera roll is working because these are photos. If you sync pictures using iTunes, these are actually no longer images but an sqllite database of images. Therefore, you cannot use these images. (I haven’t tested this very much. So it could be in accurate).

4) I may examine lock background as well, although I am worried about performance. The lock background should be stationary so that you dont drain your battery while locked. I will think about this more.

5) Other things I didnt list here.

I am also releasing some BossPaper paper packs to go along with it.

Other developers: I have a beta repository so if you want to use this service you can submit beta level apps for the beta repository to get early feedback before going “live”.

I have been working on a new FREE app called “BossPaper”. This is a very configurable advanced wallpaper app that lets you control what wallpaper shows up on your SpringBoard. You may be saying, “But Winterboard does that!” Sort of, but not like this. BossPaper can work with Winterboard (or without). Read on for details.

Last year, Saurik released Winterboard. This enabled some new features none of us have ever seen before such as rotating desktop wallpapers via Javascript HTML pages. While this was revolutionary for us iPhone owners, it also came at a cost. Performance running these themes sucks. There are a few ways the Javascript based images can be implemented and all of them have problems. If you load them all into memory, Springboard uses a signficant amount of memory. If you fade them, Springboard uses a lot of CPU. Javascript is very memory / CPU heavy. In addition, the Javascript runs behind all applications and while applications run. This impacts performance heavily and causes apps to lag even while you’re using them and not on SpringBoard. In addition, the script continues to run even while the iPhone is locked draining battery.

I have had it on my list to solve this for a while. The result is BossPaper. BossPaper is an advanced wallpaper manager that puts total control of wallpapers into your hands. BossPaper has these features:

• You control which images are displayed. You can use camera roll, installed themes, or a combination of! With Winterboard, you could only install a theme and use what came with it. Now you can use images from many themes or other sources such as BossPaper packs.
• BossPaper stops rotating images as soon as an app launches. This prevents battery and CPU drain.
• BossPaper stops rotating images as soon as the iPhone is locked. This prevents battery drain.
• BossPaper uses very little memory and CPU! It does not inject into apps only SpringBoard so you should not notice any application lag running it.
• BossPaper can use one of many transitions such as fade, water drop, page curl – you configure which one(s) you want. Configure how long the transitions last.
• BossPaper lets you control when to rotate images. You can rotate it on a timer you configure or you can rotate when an app closes, or both!
• BossPaper lets you hide icon labels so those that do not want to install Winterboard can use it without.
• BossPaper lets you dim the wallpaper.

Here are some screenshots of the “in progress” configuration app:

I plan to release a beta of this app in the next couple days in Cydia. Keep on the lookout.