FilippoBiga

LivelyIcons Status Update

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 20:53:10 +0200

So, it’s time to let you all know how my cancer fund is going. LivelyIcons was released almost 2 months ago, and I must thank all the people who purchased it from the Cydia Store!

First of all, I must thank Saurik, who decided to help me with this cause, by changing his normal fees on LivelyIcons:

I have set the LivelyIcons fee calculation at 14/86 
(instead of 30/70) based upon doing some math for "at cost" 
and sent you a payout for this product.

The payout he’s referring to consists in $5,344.70. Today, I’m proud to announce that I’ve donated the first $2,500.00 to Because of Ezra, the charity founded by Kyle and Robyn Matthews.

In the next days, I’ll be donating 2.200€ ($2,885.31) to La Città della Speranza, an italian association focused on cancer research. As usual, I’ll keep you updated.

Please, spread the word as much as you can and let your friends know about LivelyIcons and how they can help cancer research.

LivelyIcons for Research

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:06:00 +0100

Hey everyone, I think you probably already heard about my new upcoming tweak, LivelyIcons: I posted a small video preview on Twitter a couple of days ago, and many people seemed to like it.

However, what I will be telling you in this post is not strictly related to the features of the tweak, nor I will speak about any technical detail: what I want to tell you today is how you can help other people by purchasing LivelyIcons.

In fact, I had a plan for this tweak right from the beginning: gather funding for research, in particular pediatric cancer research.

Research is important, but many people tend not to realize it until they are directly involved in such things: as Federico Viticci recently wrote on his blog:

> […] keep in mind that while obtuse governments around the world are cutting research funds to fatten their other interests, science is that thing that beams a bunch of photons into your body to kill cancer. Read that again.

As Federico says, the underestimation of research if often tied to how governments deal with this topic: especially in Italy, research is really underestimated and it’s the first field whose funds get cut off.

As a developer, I thought that this could be a good way to help people: make something and donate the incomes. And the idea I had (which eventually became LivelyIcons) was just perfect for an initiative like this.

However, to make this whole thing work, I need the help of everyone in this community: spread the word as much as you can!

If you have a jailbroken device you should give LivelyIcons a try: at the end of the day, I think it’s actually a little, funny tweak which makes your icons less boring! ;P

Below you can find some FAQs that I thought people should know. Feel free to contact me on Twitter if you have other questions and I will update this post accordingly.

Don’t panic if I won’t answer you directly, just check back this page :)

• Why do you do it?

Because I think it’s a great way to help other people and at the same time ‘give something back’ to the ones who donate: at the end of the day, you can get this new, little, fun tweak and at the same time do something good for all of us!

• How much will be donated?

Price point: $1.99
Net gain (-30%): $1.39
Paypal fees (-7/8%): $1.28
Italian taxes (-27%): $0.92 (the so-called ‘aliquota’: that sucks, I know)

So, I can officially announce that I’ll be donating $1 for every copy of LivelyIcons sold.

• Who will you be donating to?

I will donate to 2 different foundations, both focused on pediatric cancer research:

Città della Speranza, an italian association based in Padova.
Because of Ezra, a non profit pediatric cancer research foundation run by Kyle and Robyn Matthews

I won’t spend much time speaking about any of them, you can look up all the details on their site.

• Why did you decide to focus on pediatric cancer research?

Personal reasons: it’s probably one of the things I feel more important to me.

• Will you post a proof of the donation?

Obviously yes! The first donation will be sent 4-5 weeks after the launch of LivelyIcons, as I need the time to receive a couple of payments from SaurikIT.

Since sales will lower after the initial rush, the second donation will be sent 6-7 weeks after the first one.

(If you’re asking yourself why I will be waiting to send the donations, the reasons are two: to make things easier for me and to reduce the amount of taxes)

Springtomize 2 v1.4: iOS 6.x support!

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:55:09 +0100

iOS 6.x support!

Springtomize 2 v1.4 is a FREE upgrade, which brings Springtomize to iOS 6.x, with all the features you loved on iOS 5.

This update contains many improvements: most of the code has been rewritten from scratch to improve performances and to extend the feature set which makes Springtomize one of the most comprehensive tweak available on the Cydia Store.

FAQ: http://filippobiga.com/springtomize/v1.4_FAQ.html

Many new features are coming with the next updates, stay tuned! You can find the obligatory changelog below.

Changelog

Fixed:

restored the old “Hide Knob” option to hide the lockscreen slider
doesn’t conflict anymore with f.lux settings
switched to ‘uicache’ to clean icons cache
crash when uninstalling apps

New:

you can now apply different effects to your wallpaper image! (Grayscale, Sepia, Negative, Faded Colors, Psycho, Red Ascendant, Green Ascendant, High Contrast)
many new effects for icon images! (Negative, Faded Colors, Psycho, Red Ascendant, Green Ascendant, High Contrast)
disable icons dimming when opening folders or showing the switcher
improved method to check whether an automatic backup has to be performed or not
faster loading

Springtomize & iOS 6

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:29:20 +0100

Springtomize 1.3.99 with iOS 6 support is now available on the beta repo.

To install: - Add the beta repo to your sources: http://filippobiga.com/betarepo - download and install Springtomize 1.3.99.

Please note that this is a beta version, so it will contain bugs. This public beta is meant to further test the many feature of Springtomize and fix the bugs before a public final release.

To report a bug, send me an email from the “More” section inside the app. I will reply to emails only if I need further informations about the bug / crash / whatever.

Moving on

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:23:08 +0200

Yesterday I came back home from WWDC: it was amazing. Anyway, my journey in SF it’s not what this post is about.

The main scope indeed is to clear things up about some of my apps: in other words, announcing that some of them are now discontinued and will no longer be updated.

• Springtomize (for iOS 4.x)

iOS 5.0 has been live for almost a year now and it’s really time you update your software or your device: I no longer have the ability to test updates nor spend time researching on iOS 4.x.

• FreeSync (along with @qwertyoruiop)

This feature has been implemented by Apple in iOS 5.0, even though with less customizations. There is no point in supporting it anymore.

• MyVolume

Some of its features have been implemented by Apple, and the amount of adopters is very low: not many people were using it anyway and there is no point in keeping working on it, also because it would need a major update for the latest iOS versions.

• Tweetbot Tweaks

This is not something new, but I’ve been asked not to develop them anymore: moreover, Tapbots made some structural changes inside of the app which tend to make these tweaks much more unstable.

• SMS+

This is probably the one I’m most sad to abandon. It’s been almost a year since the first version was published, and I couldn’t have imagined that things would have changed so much over this period. What was at the time a “complete solution” for SMS on iOS is now something incomplete and not up to date with Apple and other competitors: the subsystem that manages messages on iOS has also changed very heavily and a lot of work is needed to bring iMessage support in the right way.

Moreover, Intelliscreen worked on their own solution, which (even though it’s a little bit pricey) offers many more options and supports iMessage: I don’t have the man power to work on this and at the same time update my other apps.

Conclusions

I’m still unsure about what to do with them speaking about the visibility in Cydia and I will have to speak with the repo manager and Saurik first.

With that being said, I would like to say that I won’t publicly release any iOS6-targeted update to any of my other apps at least until the GM (and a public, stable jailbreak for it) is live.

Springtomize 2 - 1.1: Polyglot!

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:32:00 +0100

Here’s the changelog for Springtomize 2 version 1.1:

New

now localized in 16 different languages! (arabic, catalan, german, greek, english, spanish, french, hebrew, hungarian, italian, korean, polish, portuguese, swedish, traditional chinese, dutch)
improved respringing and settings reloading methods
option to hide padlock from status bar
option to disable notification center
change lock screen clock color
full Infinidock support: enable the DockFlow option to see your dock with a scrolling cover flow effect!

Fixed

always show wallpaper not working
various bug fixes and improvements

Yes, as you can see, Springtomize is now localized in 16 different languages! I’d like to thank all the translators, because they really did a great work!

hungarian: @capta1n0bv10us

french: @JeaniPhSoft

traditional Chinese: @Commandor

spanish: @ErMasLoko

catalan: @XusBadia

malay: @crazydash84

swedish: @jontemalm

hebrew: @App1eNerd

polish: @dliwski

german: @swisshttp

dutch: @davidoff_frere

arabic: @4shad0w

turkish: @AkramDurdi

korean: @beedulgy

portuguese: @jordaonet

greek: @SomniusX

I couldn’t test all the translations neither fix / correct them (since I don’t know all those languages :p), so if you notice something wrong, please contact the translator directly over Twitter.

I’ve just submitted this update and it will be live shortly in Cydia.

Springtomize 2: submitted!

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:33:49 +0100

Many of you already know it, but I’m glad to announce that Springtomize 2 has been submitted to Cydia and will be available in the next few days.

I would like to thank all the ones who helped me in various way during the development, that is going on since the last July:

Sean Berlin, for the graphics he made for Springtomize 2
Mike Beasley, both for being an awesome tester and for his great work on the documentation
Joshua Tucker, for beta testing since beta 1, his work on the documentation along with Mike and for all the little chats we’ve had in this months
Qwertyoruiop, for his help and daily chats, for the web hosting and support and for everything else you could think about
Jeff Benjamin, he started the hype with his awesome trailer
Stefan Moellenkamp, for the invaluable help provided (especially on the php backend!) and for the countless hours spent on IRC discussing about anything
All the other beta testers, who played an essential role during the development. I really can’t thank them enough, especially since Springtomize provides so many options that makes it really difficult to test with all the possible configurations. In order: JiXeR, TrivonT, Gary Britton, Chris Wagers, Tahir Patel (I hope I didn’t forget anyone!).
Optimo, from the BigBoss repo, who provided an invaluable assistance over IRC for anything regarding the submission.

That’s all.

I think you’re really going to enjoy Springtomize 2.

Springtomize 2, what's coming?

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 09:37:00 +0100

I think almost everyone of you know it, at this point: I’ve been working on Springtomize 2 for a lot of time. It’s a complete rewrite of Springtomize and it is compatible with iOS 5.0 or higher.

When the first teaser was published, I started getting a lot of questions by any of you (well, that was expected): I’ll try to answer to many of them in this post (yes, ETA included!).

When will Springtomize 2 be released?

I think that if nothing wrong happens, I’ll be submitting it on the 2nd of December.

How much will it cost?

The price is one of the thing that I thought about most, but I finally came to a conclusion. There will be a “launch period” (first 10 days), where Springtomize 2 will be 0.99$ for Springtomize for iOS 4 owners and 2.99$ for anyone else.

After that period, the normal price will probably be 3.99$ and the update price 1.49$. Remember that this is a complete rewrite, from scratch, not a simple compatibility update. All the others updates will obviously be free.

What new features have been added?

This is actually a problem to explain. I’m still writing the documentation, so you’ll see it as soon as I’ve finished. Overall:

performances have been dramatically improved from Springtomize for iOS 4
new sections (Time Machine, Notification Center, Advanced management)
new options for every section
icons hiding
on-the-fly settings reloading

and more.. (as I said, sorry but it’s a long list!)

Will there be a lite version?

No, I’m sorry. I’m not going to support the development of a lite version, and all the problems it includes.

I think I can say that it’s worth waiting. You won’t be disappointed :)

MobileSubstrate Tweak Tutorial with Theos.

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:16:00 +0200

UPDATE: Since this tutorial was taking in too many clueless people, I’ve decided to remove the explanation. However, I hope you can still find useful the few info provided here.

Making tweaks shouldn’t look like an easy task to beginners, even though Theos makes things much easier. I’d suggest to gain a good knowledge of C, Objective C and its runtime before diving into tweaks making.

Gettings Started with Theos

The best thing I can suggest is just to “learn by doing”, nothing else. There are plenty of open source tweaks you can learn from on Github.

CleverPin - Passcode protection made smarter

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:40:00 +0200

How many times did you disable passcode, because you didn’t really need it in that situation? For example, I don’t need it when I’m home. Or I don’t need it while I’m listening music. Here comes CleverPin. CleverPin allows you to make your iPhone ask for passcode intelligently: you can choose to automatically disable it while you’re connected to your home network (more than one network supported, add the network you’re connected to with only 1 tap), listening music or charging battery. You will never need to waste time again to disable the passcode (even decreasing your own protection), because you’re iPhone will ask you for it only when it’s actually needed. You can also choose to automatically re-activate the passcode after a certain time of inactivity.

It will be out in Cydia Store in the next few days, for 2.99$.

Check out the Video Preview and the Screenshot Gallery.

Springtomize 1.4-2

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 07:58:05 +0200

Version 1.4-2 has been submitted. As usual, changelog:

Bug fixes:

fixed magic battery
other bugs fixed

New:

adjust the brightness with volume buttons only while the home button is pressed

For those that don’t know: Springtomize | ThemeIt Contest

Springtomize 1.4

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 16:01:00 +0200

I’ve just submitted Springtomize 1.4. This is the biggest update since 1.0, and includes lots of improvements and new features. Read the full changelog below.

Bug fixes

icons labels reappearing randomly
spotlight not disabling correctly
fixed a bug which was causing SpringBoard to crash if a folder was placed in the dock
fixed “Hide top bar” for 4.2.1
finally fixed the wallpaper not hiding while charging even if option was disabled
fixed “Hide Inactive apps” in switcher to actually show only multitasked apps
fixed a bug with SBRotator and the “Start with iPod” option for Switcher not working properly
fixed Fake Carrier
improved performances and other small fixes

New

added first support for iOS 4.3.1
battery theming
5 rows in SpringBoard
status bar custom color also applies inside apps
improved preferences; added Documentation
7 new capabilities to manage! (SMS, Telephony, Contacts, Battery Percentage, GPS, AppStore, Magnetometer) *

*note: you may notice a few apps missing if you were using custom capabilities with Springtomize 1.3-1. Just go into Settings > Capabilities and enable the new capabilities that are disabled by default.

FreeSync 2.5

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:04:18 +0200

While working on improving Springtomize and preparing the 1.4 update, I finally found a little bit of time to work on FreeSync, the tweak I and @qwertyoruiop made to let you use your device while syncing. Here’s the full changelog for version 2.5

Bug fixes:

fixed a bug which was causing the HUD not to hide properly
improved performances to avoid crashes on older devices and to decrease memory consumption

New:

new “Wake on Sync” option to undim the screen when sync starts

Springtomize 1.3-1 & 1.4 Preview

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 21:26:00 +0200

Bug fixes update. Changelog:

Bug fixes:

fixed ‘Start with iPod’ for 4.2.1
fixed icon spacing w/ 5 icons per line in SpringBoard and inside folders!
fixed a bug with SBRotator
spotlight keyboard appearing randomly
fixed Spotlight lags
hide alarm icon didn’t work in 4.2.1
fixed “Always Show Battery” behavior
fixed icon name not showing in Spotlight and uninstall-alert

And here’s what Springtomize 1.4 will bring: Lockscreen battery theming! You’ll be able to do your packages & customize the battery without Winterboard :)

Springtomize 1.3

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:32:46 +0100

Here’s the full changelog of Springtomize 1.3:

Bug fixes:

appswitcher icons wrong spacing if custom number was disabled
unable to launch apps if you disable lockscreen and a passcode was set; now you’ll need to manually disable the passcode
fixed and reimplemented “Always show battery”
when spotlight is disabled, also the page indicator is hidden
the label for the ipod icon remained when no dock icon labels was selected (and other problems with icons labels)

New:

double tap an icon to clear its badge
show power alert via activator
delay lockscreen dimming
hide inactive apps from switcher

Springtomize 1.2

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:21:46 +0100

Full changelog, props to @qwertyoruiop for providing me a full working method for appswitcher icons rotation.

Bug Fixes

silly bug in 1.1-3 preventing sync with iTunes sometimes

New

rotate switcher icons
disable paging in app switcher
start app switcher in iPod controls
start app switcher showing closeboxes
dim inactive apps in app switcher
change carrier name
buttons management section:

adjust brightness with volume buttons
vibrate when they are pressed
make sleep button only dim screen instead of locking

Springtomize 1.1-3

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:08:41 +0100

I’ve just submitted Springtomize 1.1-3, and here’s the full changelog:

Bug fixes

wallpaper while charging not working
tv lock sound pausing music
dock icons spacing
spotlight page not dimming as usual
custom icon number for switcher not working on 4.2.1
SpringBoard crash into safe mode

New

added disable folders preview

Springtomize 1.1-2

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 06:58:52 +0100

Ok, so Springtomize 1.1 fixed lots of bugs for everyone, but due to an error occurred sending the package, that version disabled all your capabilities by default. I’ve already sent the 1.1-2 update, here’s the full changelog:

Fixed disabled Capabilities bug
Fixed a crash on 4.2.1
added “Hide Alarm” in the Status Bar
improved memory management again

Springtomize 1.1

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 19:55:39 +0100

I’ve just submitted Springtomize 1.1, which will fix many reported bugs and also add a few new features; you can read the full changelog below.

Bug fixes:

fixed quarter-screen apps bug
improved performances: removed any springboard lag
fixed crashes for various reasons
hopefully fixed the always-wallpaper on lockscreen
fixed a bug which was causing the device to block with a line on the screen if the lock button was pressed while the Old TV animation was running

New:

added sound to the OldTv animation
added more elements to hide from the status bar
extended animations also inside apps

Springtomize

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 17:16:05 +0100

FAQ

Does Springtomize depend on Winterboard?
No.
Does Springtomize replace Winterboard?
No.
Does Springtomize work on the iPad?
Yes, but some isolated features are causing problems to some people.
How can I ask you questions / suggestions?
Use the email from Cydia, please. if you need to report an issue, read the how-to below. For quick suggestions you can use Twitter: http://twitter.com/FilippoBiga
I have this problem please help me?
Read below
You’re not replying to my emails?
Maybe I’m in a different timezone of yours; I reply to every email sent via Cydia written in English - sorry but I don’t know japanese or taiwanese yet

HOW-TO Custom Docks (Instructions for themers)

Springtomize support custom docks, to let you change the appearance of your dock.Building packages to add new docks is really simple. Once you have your dock image, rename it to “Dock.png” and place it in a folder called “YourDockName”.

Now, you need to create a deb package with the following structure:

-YourDockPackage
— DEBIAN
——- control
— var
——mobile
———- Library
————- Springtomize
—————— CustomDocks
——————— YourDockName
———————— Dock.png

in the control file, make your package “Depends:” on “com.filippobiga.springtomize”. You should build a different package for iPhone and iPad. Note that the upcoming lite version does /not/ support custom docks!

HOW-TO Save / Restore Icon State

To save your Icon State:

go into Settings > Springtomize > Icons
Tap “Save IconState” and type a name for the saving.

To restore a previously saved IconState:

go into Settings > Springtomize > Icons
scroll down
select “Saved Icon States”
select the IconState you’d want to restore
Respring

HOW-TO Go to safe mode while crash loop or solve a crash

You need to only one of the following things to go into safe mode if you can’t use your device for an unknown reason:
1) Use ssh from a shell and type the following command:
ssh root@IP_OF_YOUR_IPHONE “killall -SIGSEGV SpringBoard”
2) Use SBSettings > Power > Safe Mode

To solve a crash:
1) use ssh and remove the file located under: /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.filippobiga.springtomize.plist, then respring
2) if it still crashes, remove these 2 files:
/Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries/Springtomize.dylib
/Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries/Springtomize.plist
3) go into safe mode and remove Springtomize with Cydia

HOW-TO Submit an issue

Install “syslog to /var/log/syslog” from Cydia.
reboot your iPhone
replicate the crash and email me the file /var/log/syslog, including:

the model of your device
the iOS version you’re running
the list of packages installed from Cydia
how to replicate the crash / what you did before the crash

PS: Since lots of person are asking question for support / help / instructions etc, I’ll probably start asking for the paypal / amazon email before looking your email. So If you can, forward it to me with the request and you’ll be sure to have an answer as soon as possible.

KNOWN BUGS / GLITCHES

screen-quarter apps [SOLVED]
random safe mode after changing settings [SOLVED]
icons spacing in dock
springboard lags [SOLVED]
Magic percentage shows 0% and empty battery when battery is really full (only random users)
Text overlapping in the lockscreen while Syncing
Always showing wallpaper
block with OldTv animation if the lock button is double tapped

NEXT VERSION

hide bluetooth on battery [DONE]
hide padlock status bar [DONE]
hide alarm clock icon
improve memory management [DONE: now Springtomize works smoother also on older devices]
completely hide date

FUTURE PLANS

theme battery in the lockscreen
theme the slider

I’ll keep this updated.