Apple
has been using ideas that originated in the jailbreak community for
years. A jailbreak tweak called MobileNotifier enhanced push
notifications in iOS 4, and Apple hired the guy who made it and released
Notification Center in iOS 5. Jailbreakers were doing multitasking and
tethering before Apple too.
Looking ahead at iOS 7, I honestly
have no idea what to expect from Apple. Jony Ive has never really been a
big fan of skeuomorphism, so flatter and more minimalist graphics
wouldn’t surprise me. Some truly innovate ideas for enhancing the iOS
experience have arisen in the past year, and I think it would be foolish
for Apple to not at least draw inspiration from these three.
Better App Switcher
A jailbreak tweak called
Auxo
started as a concept online. The idea got so much attention that the
designer decided to try his hand at creating it for jailbroken iPhones.
Auxo
is an utterly brilliant app switcher replacement. It’s not perfect, but
it’s way better than what Apple had by default. Card-like tiles show
live previews of the apps you have open, and swiping down on a tile
closes the app. Swiping to the left gives you access to system toggles,
like screen brightness and WiFi. You can customize which toggles are
displayed. Swiping to the left again gives you access to enhanced music
controls.
While I’m not convinced that multitasking should be
confined to a bottom tray in iOS, there’s something great about the
fluidity of Auxo. The tiles make better use of the iPhone’s screen while
the switcher is live. Take note, Apple.
More Control Over Notification Center
Abstergo
is a more recent jailbreak tweak who’s name means “to wipe away” in
Latin. Notification Center is decent, but you don’t really have fine
control over managing notifications. Abstergo lets you swipe to clear
each individual notification, and you can swipe up and over to clear all
unread notifications from the lockscreen.
Another handy part of
this tweak is the ability to set reminders for individual notifications.
Tapping and holding a message cell lets you set a specific time to make
the notification push back to your device. Reminders also work in the
Messages app, which is super handy. Apple could easily adopt something
like this using the architecture that is already built into iOS.
Customizable Lockscreen
Slide
to unlock. The iOS lockscreen is boring. There’s a lot that can be done
with this part of the experience, and jailbreakers have been
experimenting with it for years.
A newer lockscreen tweak called atom
is my favorite so far. Many tweaks for the lockscreen add widgets for
things like RSS and Mail, but I think the first screen you see on your
iPhone needs to remain simple. And simple does not mean boring.
Quickly
launching a short list of favorite apps is the activity to add to the
lockscreen, and atom does it beautifully. The unlock slider is replaced
by an elegant little button. Tapping and holding the button unfolds a
group of app icons you pre-set. Dragging the button over an icon and
letting go instantly opens the highlighted app.
Apple probably
won’t implement something exactly like atom, but it’s clear that the
lockscreen has plenty of untapped potential, like the rest of iOS.
