Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, Jailbreak/pwnage
Found Footage: More new Stack features for jailbreak iPhones
Looks like Stack for Jailbreak has some new improvements. For those of you unfamiliar with the application, Stack adds a quick-launch menu directly to your iPhone dock, letting you expand your dock space to hold all your favorite apps. With it you can add 16 items (using grid view) or 5 items (in fan view) for easy access in each stack. And stacks are not just limited to the dock. You can add stacks anywhere in the home screen as well.
As this video shows, you can now rename your stacks as well as use drag and drop editing. So you can create a 'Games' stack, an 'Internet' stack, and so forth. Removing items from a stack is just as easy as adding them. Just drag them out from the stack for an Apple-standard "puff of smoke" animation.
Stack, which is developed by iPhone expert Steven Troughton-Smith is donor-ware. Although not ready for public release, he has regularly been seeding early alpha builds to people who have donated to the project. But as you can see, it's making great progress.
Stack is a jailbreak-only product as Apple does not permit this kind of OS-based enhancement in App Store. That's a pity, because the relative difficulty and fear of jailbreaking keeps this kind of groundbreaking software away from the general public. It's an enhancement that Apple really should have built into the iPhone -- and hopefully someday will.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
caleb said 6:31PM on 6-29-2009
I'm curious how the badges work for stacks. If I have 5 new emails and 3 voicemails and I put the Email app and the Phone app in the same stack, what happens?
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Zachary Waldowski said 6:42PM on 6-29-2009
Since it's just a MobileSubstrate extension, it should be (and is, I think) built to show the app as if it were on the homescreen... badges intact. At least, I've seen Mr. Troughton-Smith's work enough to think he's that much of a perfectionist. You'd have to ask him, but I think significant effort was put into making sure things like the calendar day and such were included.
Jim Danner said 7:00AM on 6-30-2009
I think what the question meant was: If you have those 5 emails and 3 missed calls and those apps are in one stack, does the stack icon have a badge with an 8 in it?
Abcmsaj said 6:40PM on 6-29-2009
That's a JB 3G S too... That's just too tempting :(
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Alex said 6:42PM on 6-29-2009
Is that a jailbroken iPhone 3GS? I'm assuming since the Compass app is there.
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Zachary Waldowski said 6:43PM on 6-29-2009
It looks to just be an/the emulator.
SeB said 12:17AM on 6-30-2009
There's an app in Cydia that puts a fake compass app on your homescreen. That could be it. Also, the 3G S can be jailbroken (using the same process that was used to fully jailbreak the iPod Touch 2G) but the Dev Team hasn't released their jailbreak yet. Here's the info on that, straight from the dev team:
http://blog.iphone-dev.org/post/131932341/the-needs-of-the-many
Zachary Waldowski said 6:45PM on 6-29-2009
I applaud and thank TUAW for reporting on jailbroken apps and such. But, seriously, now: "relative difficulty and fear of jailbreaking"?! You mean the caveman-easy apps redsn0w and QuickPwn? And fear; seriously, WTF?! Fear?
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Hobbes said 6:56PM on 6-29-2009
Of course fear. It's not so much to do with how easy or how difficult it is. Pretty easy with the current tools, but if something goes wrong with your jailbroken phone how do you troubleshoot it? Is it the iPhone OS or is it something to do with it being jailbroken? This is what keeps me from jailbreaking my phone. At least if something goes wrong with the iPhone OS I can always report a bug to Apple and have them look at the issue with peace of mind.
Zachary Waldowski said 7:09PM on 6-29-2009
Your argument is flawed threefold:
1. Apple listens to your bug reports?!
2. What's the worst that could possibly happen? If something you installed goes bad, you remove it. Just like on any computer.
3. You troubleshoot by restoring. You could literally flash bad files to your device and a restore could fix it.
ant said 11:58PM on 6-29-2009
Hobbes is absolutely right that many don't jailbreak for fear of bricking the phone or making it unstable. The emphasis there is "fear", regardless how the current state of jailbreaking is. If you paid a boat load of money for the phone, have a long time left on the contract, and/or it's an essential tool for business, the risk of jailbreaking it just for a couple of luxuries isnt worth the risk or hassle. And this stacks feature, cool as it looks, actually adds little benefit in terms of total touches to launch a given app. Plus you can upgrade to newer official firmware without tiptoeing around or worrying about the upgrade process.
Point being, there are reasons for not jailbreaking. Just as there are reasons for jailbreaking. Hobbes's comment is perfectly valid.
Aaron H said 6:53PM on 6-29-2009
I haven't jailbroken my phone in quite a while because my needs eventually were covered by the app store and it was always annoying when a software update came out. However, this looks so ridiculously cool I'm pretty sure I'm going back there once the 3GS jailbreak is out and stable.
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blachole said 7:02PM on 6-29-2009
I want this. Apple should be building this in from the start. Maybe they can steal it for 3.1 release?
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cowfodder said 7:59PM on 6-29-2009
The new cut and paste seems to be based on the method used by the jailbreak app Clippy, so I wouldn't be surprised if apple eventually implements something like this.
Matt Robell said 7:20PM on 6-29-2009
Doesn't work on 3.0 iPhone 3G. The one default stack is in the middle of mail and safari and you can't move or edit the stack at all. Pretty disappointed seeing that it would be a cool feature if it actually worked.
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Jeffrey said 7:45PM on 6-29-2009
If you follow the link in the post, you should know this version (3.0) is in private alpha. The version you downloaded is probably the old one unless you donated.
Martin said 8:51PM on 6-29-2009
Yes, 2.1 does not work with 3.0. We'll just wait patiently. These guys pump out code pretty damn quick.
Greg Wasserstrom said 10:57PM on 6-29-2009
Yeah! I'm having the same problem. What's the deal with this. Anyone know what the conflict is or have any idea how to get it working?
bassplayer2408 said 8:56PM on 6-29-2009
With all the people owning iPhones, I don't know anyone with a jailbroken phone. Give it up with the jailbreaking already. It's like chasing a bikini model you'll NEVER get... and for God sake, Dev Team, get out of your parent's basement :)
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oliver hart said 9:29PM on 6-29-2009
just because you live in your parents attic doesnt mean you can look down on us basement dwellers