The Best Jailbreak Tweaks And Apps For iPad

Now that you have jailbroken your first generation iPad, it’s time to start tweaking it to fit your liking. No matter what type of feature you’re looking for, there’s probably an app or tweak for it. Here are some of our favourites.

A number of tweaks and apps are available for both iPhone and iPad, especially if you’re interested in customising the look of the operating system or tweaking the lock screen. Check out our list of the best jailbreak apps for iOS 5 to find a good starting place for customising your jailbroken iPad. Still, a number of tweaks enhance the experience on an iPad specifically, so let’s take a look at a few of the best.

iUsers

iUsers is an essential app for anyone sharing an iPad around the house. With it, you can create multiple user accounts for your iPad and each retain different information, save files and data. We’ve outlined how to set it up, and it’s a simple process. It’s also handy if you just need to create a blank “guest mode” for when you’re passing off the iPad to visitors. It’s a bit slow to log in currently, but it’s still better than nothing.

Add cydia.iblogeeks.com to your repository and search for iUsers to install. Details and instructions are in the post linked above.

RetinaPad

The iPad will double the size of iPhone-specific apps, but for whatever reason, it doesn’t make use of the apps that support the higher resolution Retina-display when it does it. RetinaPad forces iPhone apps with Retina support to double in size and retain the higher resolution, making it look almost as good as apps created specifically for the iPad. It’s an essential tweak for anyone with a collection of older apps and games. The only downside? It costs $US3.

Search Cydia for RetinaPad to download and purchase this tweak.

FullForce

Where RetinaPad is a great way to enhance double-sized apps with a better resolution, FullForce attempts to completely edit the essential layout of iPhone specific apps so they display correctly on iPad. It’s compatibility fluctuates wildly compared to RetinaPad, but when it works correctly it looks fantastic. You can take a look at a list of the compatible apps in this Google Doc, but you’ll have to request access before being able to view it. Combining FullForce and RetinaPad ensures nearly all your iPhone-specific apps will have a home on your iPad.

Search Cydia for FullForce to download this tweak.

SplitMail

For whatever reason, I personally hate the fact the iPad’s default reaction when Mail is in portrait mode is to create a drop-down navigation box. It just doesn’t feel right. SplitMail is a small but simple tweak that makes portrait mode Mail look identical to landscape mode with two panels in a nice clean interface. It shrinks the text a bit, but at least it throws it all on one single screen.

Search Cydia for SplitMail to download and install this tweak.

iFile

iFile is one of the best file managers for iOS and it’s especially handy now that it includes Dropbox support. For developers, it’s a tool to edit code on the go, but for the rest of us, it’s a great file browser where you can make and edit files on the iPad itself. You can easily share those files over Dropbox and Wi-Fi. It’s not nearly as essential as it was before wireless syncing, but it’s still good to keep around.

Search Cydia for iFile to download a trial version.

F.lux

Yes, we mentioned F.lux in our list of the best jailbreak apps, but it’s good enough to get another mention here. F.lux is great on an iPhone, but it’s essential for iPad. If you find yourself thinking the screen is too bright and blue when you’re using Safari at night, F.lux tints the screen with a warm orange to make it easier to look at for long hours. If you’re an avid gamer, photo editor or artist, you can set F.lux to turn off for colour sensitive applications. It’s unclear what apps fall under the category, but it seems to work for a wide-variety of apps.

Search Cydia for f.lux to download this tweak.

There are plenty of other tweaks and apps for the iPad out there. Share some of your favourites in the comments.