Deck For iPhone Adds A Sidebar Action Menu For Quick Access To Your Favorite Apps

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For established or up and coming iOS developers who are considering releasing something for download on the Cydia store, my advice would be to make sure that it is either entirely unique and innovative, or if it does offer similar functionality compared to an already available package, then make sure it dramatically improves upon it. With new packages being sent to repositories on an almost hourly basis, it stands to reason that we are ultimately going to see a slow down in unique creations and begin to see ideas regurgitated.

SBCoders have managed to hit the Cydia store with a package that not only looks great but but also functions extremely well. Deck, as the package is known, is one of the latest offerings to become available through Cydia, which offers users the ability to launch applications in a quick and efficient method. Quick launch tweaks are not alien to the Cydia store and in the past we have seen software which has added launch features to the lockscreen, Notification Center and various other places through iOS, but Deck takes it to the next level and manages to stand out from the rest with its approach.

After installation, Deck has its own dedicated preferences panel which contains all of the configurable options needed to set the tweak up to the individual user’s needs. Deck also hooks directly into Activator, like how many premium pieces of software do, meaning that it can be invoked using any supported gesture method that the user sees fit. When invoked, the Deck bar animates in from the right hand side of the device’s screen, providing quick and easy access to a number of settings.

All of the settings can be configured through the settings panel, and includes things like commonly used system toggles such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cellular data. The tweak also has the option of setting up a number of applications from the list of installed apps which allows quick launch. Tapping on the various icons in the main Deck sidebar will bring about different actions, an example of this is selecting the ‘@’ symbol which brings up an email menu, or selecting the ‘Phone’ symbol which brings up an alert view, containing options such as powering down the device, rebooting or locking the screen.

Deck doesn’t necessarily bring any mind blowing features or things that haven’t been done before. What it does bring however is a combination of features all mashed together into one extremely attractive, very functional and very polished package. Deck is available to download now from the ModMyi repository at a cost of $1.99

Of course, you will need to jailbreak your device to install this tweak. For jailbreaking the latest iOS 5.1 (tethered), follow the instructions posted here to jailbreak using Redsn0w, or here for Sn0wbreeze. For jailbreaking iPhone 4S and iPad 2, you can simply follow our step by step tutorial posted here to jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 using Absinthe on Windows or Mac. Those of you with an iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad 1, and iPod touches can use Redsn0w or Sn0wbreeze to untether jailbreak on iOS 5.0.1.

Be sure to check out our iPhone Apps Gallery and iPad Apps Gallery to explore more apps for your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

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Admin Tools Quick Access and More Found in Windows 8

Windows 8 has been criticised by some IT Pros and businesses for, seemingly, forgetting all about them.  Now though it is beginning to emerge that Microsoft hasn’t forgotten about them after all.  On the face of things access to the full Control Panel, Administrative tools and Computer Management Console are difficult.  It’s not easy to access the Run panel or start the Command Prompt with Administrator rights.

If you mouse to the bottom left of your screen though and right-click (yup, this is a mouse only action) you get a menu giving you quick and easy access to all of the administrator tools and more.  Here you will find Programs and Features for uninstalling software, Network Connections, Power Options, the Event Viewer, System, Device manager, Disk Management, Computer Management, the Command Prompt (also with Administrator rights), the Task manager, Control Panel, Windows Explorer in case you accidentally unpin it from the Taskbar), Search and Run.

This will be welcomed by a great many people as, to be honest, it makes accessing some of these tools even easier than in Windows 7.  Previously you could right-click on Computer in the Start Menu to bring up the Computer Management Console or simply access the full Control Panel from there.  Some more advanced features however were slightly more complex to access.

The removal of the Start Menu from Windows 8 meant that on the face of things some features and software would be harder to access.  It is good to see that Microsoft have addressed this problem in a sensible and common-sense way.  This bottom-left screen right-click works in both the new Start Screen and the desktop.

It is interesting to note that in the Group Policy settings for the Consumer Preview the references to both the Start Menu and the Classic Start Menu still exist.  This bodes well for people looking for third-party hacks to turn them back on.  No doubt many more useful information will be found in Group Policy and the Windows Registry in the coming weeks.

Additionally the screen grab feature has at long last been improved with WinKey+PrntScrn now automatically saving a screen grab for you in your Pictures folder.  There’s no longer any grabbing and saving of an individual window using this feature meaning that it’s still no alternative to third-party tools, but for casual use this will be welcomed by many.

One of the most useful, and most hidden, tools in Windows 7 has also survived in Windows 8.  The Problem Steps Recorder, that can only be accessed by searching for PSR, takes screenshots of your desktop when something changes, automatically highlighting the change and annotating the image(s) with technical details of what is going on at the time.  This is an incredibly useful diagnostic tool for Windows and was originally only intended as a temporary tool for the Windows 7 beta, thus explaining why it never made it into the Start Menu.  Testers and IT Pros liked the feature so much though that Microsoft agreed to keep it in the final product.  It is very nice to see it is in Windows 8 as well.

Here at Windows8News we’ll continue to keep you up to date on everything that’s found in Windows 8.  Why not tell us what you think of this features in the comments below?

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