Xen is a revolutionary new tweak from developer Matt Clark (@_Matchstic) that’s currently in beta for $4.00, and available through his new app called Beta Vendor. It’s a relatively new process for accessing a beta, however, it’s pretty neat and this Reddit post explains how to install Beta Vendor and then Xen.

It should be noted that Xen is the spiritual successor to the tweak Convergance which Matt made after being inspired by some comments by Sentry (@Sentry_NC) about the iOS 7 lock screen. He will still support Convegance for people who’s purchased it on iOS 8 and below, but Xen is the new direction he’s taking.

I personally found the process rather delightful, Beta Vendor is very well designed and seamlessly integrated into Cydia even though it’s a separate app altogether. Once you go through the steps to pay via Paypal you’re directed to the package in Cydia.

You need to install Matts special repo for Xen of course, however it’s all lined out in that Reddit thread linked above. Trust me though, it’s well worth it. Also, if you don’t have a PayPal you can contact Matt and he will work something out with you.

Once you’ve installed Xen to your device you’re greeted with an elegant set up screen that walks you through the process of picking which widgets you’d like to access on your lock screen. You can even add your Notification Center Widgets to a page on your lock screen just like in iOS 10!

While it’s not exactly the same, there’s enough similarity for me. With this version of Xen, Matt has included five different widgets: Launchpad, Toggles, Calendar, Weather and NC Widgets. There’s currently plans to create more as time goes on and also is going to provide an API for developers to create their own as well.

Launchpad is basically a GridSwitcher-type screen with some user chosen apps to display for quick launching from your lock screen. Toggles is a Control Center style screen that replaces the need for it on the lock screen. Calendar is a minimalist view of your week with an optional agenda view to quickly see what you’ve got coming up.

Weather is identical to the page that the tweak Forecast provides and looks and acts almost exactly like the weather app itself. Finally, NC widgets lets you have all of your Notification Center Widgets available right on your lock screen which was one of the cooler features of iOS 10 if I do say so myself.

One of my favorite features is called ‘Morning Summary’ (pictured above), which greets you at a configurable time and provides a little forecast that’s similar to the one found in the Notification Center. Another feature I really love is his redesigned notifications (shown to the side), they don’t look exactly like iOS 10 and that’s on purpose. I think they look better than iOS 10’s notifications, but that just me.

Xen will be in beta for a little while longer, but word has it that it’ll be available on BigBoss once it’s done and anyone who’s participated in the beta will get the tweak for free once it’s released.

Be sure to check out the JailCast episode with Matt as a special guest if you’d like to know more and hear us talk about a bunch of jailbreak related stuff, he’s a really great guy.

Everyone loves to have their iPhone reflect a bit of their personality; whether or not that is a fully jailbroken and customized device or a completely stock look and feel, it still reflects the owner in some way. One of the easier ways to customize your device is the wallpaper and there’s a lot of options out there. You can choose from one of the many that are shipped with your version of iOS or even use your own pictures.

iDeviceWalls is a site made by my good friend Junior of JunesiPhone.com that specializes in collecting beautiful wallpapers for your iOS devices. While the website is good, the iOS app is even better. Available only through Cydia, it allows you to browse the site and then apply a wallpaper directly to your device without saving it in your camera roll. For me this is huge because my camera roll is already bloated with all my screenshots from articles and photos from other sources.

This feature is really neat and available only through the app, as it uses iOS’s own function for applying wallpapers. As someone who likes to regularly change their wallpaper I find it very handy. You can save the wallpaper to your camera roll if you’d like, just tap on ‘Save’ and it will do the rest. I have always found myself searching for more sources of wallpapers to use and I feel like I’ve hit a gold mine with this app.

If you’re like me and love beautiful wallpapers, check out iDeviceWalls for free in Cydia on the MacCiti repo and of course Junes own SuperSecret repo. If you’re not jailbroken for whatever reason then you can still use your browser to access iDeviceWalls.com.

I’ve known about LockPlus for quite some time, however, it didn’t initially draw me in due to the fact that I’m not much of a theme guy when it comes to jailbreaking. I mostly like to add new functionality to my device rather than flashy new looks. When I have dabbled with themes in the past it never turned out very well for me as I could never could get all my icons themed or I’d have small problems with the way it looked.

It was with great trepidation that I installed this tweak. That being said I have no regrets and haven’t looked back yet, even made a few themes myself using his web based creator. The creator itself is a remarkable achievement as it’s a complete WYSIWYG editor. You can literally see what you’re creating as you’re making it, without any coding experience.

LockPlus and all of Junes’ other tweaks can be accessed when you donate to him. Normally it’s ten dollars and you’ll get lifetime access to his repo which includes some unreleased stuff as well as early versions of his tweaks that he eventually pushes to the public repos. However, if you use the code ‘jailcast‘ you can get 50% off and show some support for my podcast at the same time, everyone wins, yay! Just scroll to the bottom of his repo page in your browser and enter the code.

Here is a simple theme I created a few weeks ago to go with that wallpaper I found on Reddit. After seeing the image I thought “that would look really cool with a mini widget in the black part of Saturn”. With Junes’ simple editor I was able to make it in under an hour after work. It can be as simple or as complex as you’d like it to be.

In the series of videos above June shows a few tips for using the editor to give users a better understanding of how it works. For a more in-depth understanding of how it works, go check out this video where June walks you through pretty much everything the editor has to offer in an extensive 30 minute walkthrough. After watching those videos you should have a thorough understanding of how to use the editor and LockPlus as well.

It should be noted that you’ll need to do a bit of set up before you’ll be able to play with LockPlus on your device. June has a write-up about it on his site.

Two additional things I’ll note is that June just got rid of the need to install DockAdjust and NoPageDots7 by making a tweak called OPW Clear which hides the dock and page dots. The second part is that Matt Clark (@_Matchstic) just released the beta of XenHTML which will replace LockHTML if you buy the beta for two bucks.

This is one of my favorite themes right now and I’ve gone back to it a lot after playing with other ones. It’s super minimal, leaves plenty of room for your incoming notifications and has minimal badges for calls, messages, and mail at the bottom. Simple, elegant and everything you need right there on your lock screen.

Go check out LockPlus today and let your creativity be shown on your lock screen.

Login, a new tweak from developer Brandon Salgado (@ImBrandDev), adds a MacOS style login page to your iPhone with a ton of options. The tweak allows you to customize the blur to your liking, chose your own image to display, and change the buttons among a lot of other things. It’s compatible with most lockscreen tweaks such as Lock+ and Xen, as well as Touch ID. While Login doesn’t necessarily change how you’re going to use your iPhone, but it sure does look damn good.

The preference pane (as seen below) is very elegant and straight foreword, better yet you can even set a password for it. As shown by the design and settings it’s pretty clear that a lot of care went into the design of Login, as well as the deep level of customization. It’s minimal and unobtrusive, yet adds so much.

Login will require you to have a passcode enabled and to enter it before going into the settings. From there you can setup your own password for Login itself. For those wonder, it’s due to the tweak using libPassword which allows tweaks to control passcode requirements and tweaks like AndroidLock XT, a long time favorite among jailbreakers, use it to the same effect.

I wasn’t sure exactly how I felt about Login when I first saw the announcement on Reddit. I knew I liked what I saw design-wise, but I didn’t know if I’d use it on my daily driver iPhone. After testing Login I am completely sold and it will stay installed until further notice. It’s like when you’re trying to judge something by a picture you see on the internet, sometimes you just have to hold something in your hands before you can tell if it’s for you or not.

Login is a commercial tweak available for $1.99 and can be purchased on the BigBoss repo, and personally, it’s worth every penny.. If you want to add a beautiful new login screen to your iPhone go buy Login today.

JailCast, ran by our good friend and contributor Josh Pasholk, recently had on special guest JunesiPhone for episode 13. Best known for his tweak Lock+ and various add-ons to iWidgets, June joined Josh not too long ago to discuss various topics in the world of jailbreak and even answer questions from readers as well.

Despite jailbreak-related articles on PocketFullOfApps being in a lull right now, it’s still something very important to both Josh and I. If you’re missing Josh’s regular jailbreak content here, checking JailCast would be an excellent alternative in the mean time.

Word on the street also says that if you’re interested in getting access to June’s repo full of tweaks and other jailbreak goodies, there’s a 50% off discount code that can be seen here. According to Josh, the picture above is his lockscreen (left) and homescreen (right) using various tweaks from June. Pretty impressive.

Even though I’m not personally heavily invested into jailbreaking much anymore, I found the episode to be quite informative and highly suggest checking it out. There’s also a follow up episode, number 14, also featuring June discussing updates but episode 13 is the actual interview. Like earlier though, jailbreak content here has been lacking so I highly suggest checking out JailCast to get your fulfillment of jailbreak-related content from Josh.