After several months of rumors and speculations, we will finally get the first glimpse of iOS 7, the next generation mobile operating system for iPhone and iPad at the WWDC 2013 Keynote that kicks off at 10:00 am PT on Monday, June 10.
Every year Apple adds new features that have been inspired by jailbreak apps or tweaks, so we take a look at the jailbreak inspired features we hope Apple will include in iOS 7.
1. Quick Settings
A feature inspired by SBSettings and Notification Center based tweaks like NCSettings that give you quick access to Settings toggles from anywhere in the iOS. It will allow users to enable or disable commonly used settings without going through the hassle of exiting an app, if you’re in one, launching the Settings app, navigating to the setting and then enabling or disabling it.
2. Message on Steroids
We really hope Apple adds new features such as Quick Reply, Quick Compose, delivery reports for SMS to the iMessaging service that are available thanks to jailbreak tweaks like biteSMS.
Features like Quick Reply and Quick Compose allow you to reply or compose a message from anywhere in the iOS without leaving the app you’re using currently.
3. Improved App Switcher
When Apple introduced the multitasking feature in iOS 4 (or iPhone OS 4.0), the app switcher seemed like a quick fix as a lot of the screen real estate was left unused. It looks worse on devices like the iPad, iPhone 5 and iPod touch 5G.
Unfortunately, even after two major updates Apple hasn’t fixed it. So not surprisingly, over the last few years, we have seen jailbreak tweaks such as Auxo, MissionBoard, Proswitcher, Aero etc that have improved the app switcher. We hope Apple takes inspiration from some of those tweaks and re-imagines the app switcher in iOS 7 to make better use of the screen real estate along with the ability for more types of apps to run in the background. We must admit that we really like the way this is implemented in Android.
4. Actionable Notifications:
Currently, the notifications are kind of read only, when you tap on them, they launch the relevant app, that allows us to take the appropriate action. However, that’s too basic. If we get an email we would want to be able to reply to it, delete it, mark it as spam or set a reminder to check it later right from the Notification center, the banner notification or the lock screen. Tweaks such as LockInfo, IntelliScreen X, Abstergo have brought some of these features to jailbreakers.
5. Gestures
Some may argue that it was the simplicity of iOS that has made iPhone and the iPad so successful, and adding gestures will kill what made these devices successful in the first place.
However, gestures designed to increase productivity can greatly improve the user experience of an operating system. The gestures should be designed in such a manner that they help in improving productivity of those who are willing to learn them such as the four-five finger multitouch gestures available on the iPad, but at the same time they do not increase the learning curve for a regular user.
The jailbreak tweak, Activator, is a good example of how Apple could bring gestures for power users and at the same time hide it from a regular user.
6. File Manager for iOS:
We need a better way to manage the files on our iOS device. We essentially need something like the Camera roll for files, so that we can access files that we have received via email or files that we’ve downloaded (assuming it will be possible in iOS 7). The files should also be synced or available across our iOS devices via iCloud, so we can access them from all our devices. It could be a dedicated app like iFile or the Finder app in OS X.
The Mail app should be able to hook into the Finder like app, and let users attach any type of file while sending emails.
7. More Lock screen shortcuts
Ever since Apple added the Camera shortcut on the lock screen to give us quick access to the Camera app, we’ve used the app a lot more to capture those golden moments.
We hope that Apple extends this functionality by adding shortcuts for more apps on the lock screen. Jailbreak tweaks such as Atom, JellyLock, Grabby and Axis have shown us how it can be done in their own innovative ways.
8. Find My iPhone+
Find My iPhone service is great in tracking your lost or stolen device, but it is not fool proof. Jailbreak tweaks such as iCaughtU and iGotYa that take a photograph of the person who enters the wrong passcode using the front camera and PowerGuard, which prevents someone from turning off your device, makes it a lot more fool proof. There have been several instances it has helped catch a thief who is oblivious of such hacks. We hope that Apple adds these features to Find My iPhone service.
9. Blacklist
While Apple has added a number of useful call management features to the Phone app in iOS 6, it still lacks the ability to block a caller. iBlackList – a popular jailbreak tweak allows you to block calls and text messages.
We really hope that iOS 7 provides us with a feature to block calls, FaceTime calls and messages from telemarketers.
These are some of the jailbreak inspired features we hope make it to the final iOS 7 feature list. Let us know which jailbreak features you would like to be included in iOS 7.
Image credit: acutalidadiPad
