This week Cydia’s repositories were hit with a good number of nice themes, but we think that Notebook
by Bluemetal was the greatest of them all because of the amount of
detail that brings the theme into a sense of graphical realism.
Notebook
doesn’t play around. The theme was created to resemble that of a
personal notebook – as the name implies. The lock screen looks stunning
and resembles that of a cover of a personal notebook that includes a
built-in RSS feed and weather summary. The slide to unlock slider gets a
whole new look as well as the camera grabber. When you start charging
the device, you will be surprised by a neat lock screen picture.
The home screen can be divided into sections of your 'notebook' that are
labeled by part of the theme that relies on a jailbreak tweak called
PerPageHTML+. There are tons of sections that come with this theme,
including one for Internet-based applications, one for game-based
applications, and one for Jailbreak-based applications (jailbreak page
shown above). You will also find options for home screen widgets.
Notebook uses a combination of the jailbreak tweaks Iconoclasm and
Gridlock to place the application icons exactly on the home screen as
pictured above so that it looks like the application icons are tucked
into pockets on the notebook-based background. The notebook-based
background sits on a nice wooden wallpaper that resembles a nice wooden
desk that just adds to the beauty of the whole package.
Notebook also themes Notification Center, the Status Bar, the
multitasking App Switcher, and application interfaces to match the
colors provided on the lock screen. The icon work done in the
application interfaces looks great and it's obvious that a fair amount
of time was spent on making the icons. With every application that is
launched, you are shown a beautiful wooden loading screen.
If themes that re-create a realistic appearance while maintaining a
gorgeous appearance are something that you like to see on your iPhone's
display, then Notebook is a must-have for you. It includes more than
just the wooden wallpaper, but this one was by far our favorite. It can
be found on the ModMyi repository for a cost of $2.99 (jailbreak tweaks
to enhance the appearance are sold separately).
Honorable Mentions
Apart from this week’s winner, Notebook, we would also like to mention two other themes that were released this week.
1. TempER HD Purple by ZFrost.
TempER HD Purple is hosted on the ZodTTD & MacCiti repository for a
cost of $2.99. The theme comes complete with a lock screen makeover that
includes the weather, date, time, today’s high and low temperature, and
a nice background to go along with it. The information is nicely tucked
to the right side of the screen and the weather is shown at the bottom
of the screen.
When you unlock the device and see the home screen for the first time,
the theme will surprise you with a widget that tells you the current
weather conditions, estimated time for sunrise and sunset, and the time
and date. Of course, the theme’s name is proudly embedded in the
background as well. Any icon badges are changed to a gray, square-like
look and they look great with the surrounding colors. The multitasking
App Switcher resembles the look of the home screen’s background however
the buttons for closing applications are round.
Application navigation panes, icons, and switches are all universally
changed to go along with the look of the theme. Notification Center gets
a new background, the Status Bar gets a brand new look, and a loading
screen will appear each time you launch an application.
The theme is purple, so if you have a girlfriend that loves playing with their iPhones, why not give them this as a present?
2. Buzzz by maustincoulter.
Buzzz is hosted on the ModMyi repository for a cost of $1.99. Buzzz is a
theme that makes everything look more realistic. Starting from the home
screen, you will notice that all of the application icons resemble a
photograph right out of real life with the exception of a couple such as
the App Store, Cydia, and iTunes. Buzzz includes a nice background for
the multitasking App Switcher and some new close buttons.
Buzzz gives Notification Center a new background and grabber that
resembles the camera grabber on the lock screen. The lock screen will
show you your battery level when charging using two rows. At around 50%
battery, only one row will be illuminated. The slide to unlock bar will
pulse with a color of your choice and the slider gets a new boxy
appearance.
Application interfaces like Safari, Messages, and Music all get a new
look with Buzzz to match its rather boxy-like appearance. Navigation
panes and buttons are changed to a darker color, but icons such as those
in the Settings application remain unchanged from before the theme is
enabled. Our favorite part about this theme is the beauty of the
application icons, but overall, it’s a nice simple little theme for the
right price.
Be sure to catch up with next week's best theme only on ModMyi!
If you missed last week's Theme of the Week staff picks, you can take a peek here.