HexaTasker Displays More Icons In Your Jailbroken Device’s App Switcher

Traditionally, the app switcher on an iOS device displays four icons at once. This limit is set by default within iOS and can’t be changed through the Settings app. While this limit isn’t the biggest inconvenience, there’s a new Cydia tweak that will expand your app switcher’s capacity.

HexaTasker will add six icons to your app switcher. It’s a pretty simple tweak with no settings to configure, and it looks quite nice. The icons overlay each other to create more space, but it doesn’t look too cluttered. You can also open or close apps just as you would with the traditional four icon layout.

The only downside is, if you only have two apps displayed in the app switcher, they’ll still be somewhat stacked on top of one another at the edges. It would have been nice to see the tweak eventually expand to its icon layout when the space is needed, but it’s not a huge issue.

HexaTasker is available for free via the BigBoss repository and is compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. Check our our video walk through below if you’d like to see the tweak in action.

Emblem: OS X-Inspired Notifications For Your Jailbroken iPad

A new jailbreak tweak to hit the Cydia Store is Emblem, which can apply OS X-style notifications to a jailbroken iPad.

After downloading and installing the tweak, incoming notifications will “pop-up” on the top-right of the iPad’s screen, just like how OS X notifications appear on a Mac. Touching such a notification launches the respective application (i.e., the Messages app for iMessage notifications), and swiping the notification dismisses it.

If more than one notification appears at the same time, Emblem will first display the notifications separately, and will then combine them to create one cluster of notifications. Swiping through this notification cluster will display each individual message, which is a nice touch.

All in all, Emblem is an impressive jailbreak tweak. If the iPad notification system doesn’t cut it for you, consider downloading and installing this replacement system from the Cydia Store (via the BigBoss repository). Currently, Emblem is available for $1.99.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook apologizes for Apple’s Map app

Apple has been hit hard by the critics and users regarding the Maps app in iOS 6. Apple removed the Google-powered iOS Maps application and replaced it with their own in-house app that’s powered by Tom Tom. The biggest drawbacks of Maps are the inaccurate mapping data, lack of public transit routes, and missing street and addresses that caused controversy since it was released.

News organizations have compared the problems with Maps to the previous iPhone 4 “antennagate” problem that happened days after Apple launched their iPhone 4 2010. The matter has gained so much criticism from bloggers and customers of iOS devices that Apple’s CEO Tim Cook published an open letter on the Apple website to publicly apologize “for the frustration this new Maps in iOS 6 has caused our customers.”

Tim Cooks promises that Apple’s Maps will get better over time as his company focus on its service and obtains more accurate map data. Mr. Cook’s own comments seems to confirm earlier reports from TechCrunch that claimed that Apple is on a hiring spree to lure away Google Maps engineers to work for Apple that will help them improve their own map application.

The full letter from Tim Cook is included below:

To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.

Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO