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Knowlege Bomb

macrumors G4
Original poster
Feb 14, 2008
10,291
9,003
US
The last year or two I've always jumped on the jailbreaks when they're released but I've noticed that I spend less time theming and more often than not end up sticking with Apple's icons and format. It also seems like everybody feels the need to charge for themes even if they're extremely basic and never get updated (I know, it's their right, their time is worth money, etc.).

The real problem for me surfaced tonight when I happened to look back at an old thread for jailbroken homescreens for iOS 6 here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/post-your-jailbroken-home-screen-part-5-new-jb.1537665/

I mean, look at this. It's gorgeous, IMO:

image.png


It seems there was a lot more effort put into stuff back then and themes were never paid. I paid for tweaks like BiteSMS and Lockinfo/Intelliscreen because they were worth the money. Nowadays I've dropped money on several themes that now sit unused.

Anyhow, my point comes down to the trend that every business seems to be following (cheaper product, higher price) has invaded the jailbreak community.

Agree? Disagree?
 
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I only buy complete themes, meaning that the phone dialpad and passcode keypads are also themed. Auros is a great example, and anything by S1lex. Modmyi has started a new 6/6+ theme section that I check in on regularly. Agreed, it does seem that more time and effort was put into theming three or four years ago. People would b**** about the cost of a complete theme, but the amount of work these artists put into their work was astounding. I seriously doubt that any of them received what was rightful compensation. There are some new artists to watch - Ravenleigh and DreamDesign.

Talking about tweaks - it really depends on what you're looking for. HideMeX is wonderful - accomplishing what Springtomize did in a smaller footprint. Here's a site that's on my daily route: http://modmyi.com/cydia/search.php It shows all the just released tweaks, themes, and apps daily in Cydia. Then I go to reddit to see the pros and cons.

Just my .02.
 
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Disagree, themes are personal taste as far as how good one is. I think you can even see the screenshots on cydia for them nowadays, so you can look before you decide to pay. I never theme, only a tweaker.
I don't see nothing wrong with them charging money for work, you can see the work before you pay so IDK what else to tell you. TBH that theme you showed looks hideous to me, wasted space, bad fonts, ugly quick press icons, too dark background for proper icon display, just like almost all themes out there. Personal tastes. :)
 
I theme, but only the stuff I like for my theme. I take this and that from here and there and put it all together in the way I prefer - but not usually anything from a theme.

I have yet to find ANY theme that has everything I am looking for - and the problem with most themes is that it's either all or nothing.
 
I only buy complete themes, meaning that the phone dialpad and passcode keypads are also themed. Auros is a great example, and anything by S1lex. Modmyi has started a new 6/6+ theme section that I check in on regularly. Agreed, it does seem that more time and effort was put into theming three or four years ago. People would b**** about the cost of a complete theme, but the amount of work these artists put into their work was astounding. I seriously doubt that any of them received what was rightful compensation. There are some new artists to watch - Ravenleigh and DreamDesign.

Talking about tweaks - it really depends on what you're looking for. HideMeX is wonderful - accomplishing what Springtomize did in a smaller footprint. Here's a site that's on my daily route: http://modmyi.com/cydia/search.php It shows all the just released tweaks, themes, and apps daily in Cydia. Then I go to reddit to see the pros and cons.

Just my .02.

Thanks! I'll keep my eye on those resources.

Disagree, themes are personal taste as far as how good one is. I think you can even see the screenshots on cydia for them nowadays, so you can look before you decide to pay. I never theme, only a tweaker.
I don't see nothing wrong with them charging money for work, you can see the work before you pay so IDK what else to tell you. TBH that theme you showed looks hideous to me, wasted space, bad fonts, ugly quick press icons, too dark background for proper icon display, just like almost all themes out there. Personal tastes. :)

The issue with what I bolded in your post is that the previews generally show the stock icons themed and there's usually no information on how many icons are included. Obviously everybody uses different sets of icons so I know there's never going to be one that covers everything.

What would be nice is some sort of system to request icons. It would be different if things were free but if I'm paying for a theme I don't think it's too much to ask to be able to have at least the icons on my first page themed.
 
What would be nice is some sort of system to request icons. It would be different if things were free but if I'm paying for a theme I don't think it's too much to ask to be able to have at least the icons on my first page themed.

There have been a few free theme's on modmyi that creator's would share their psd's so you can create your personal app icons that the theme creator didn't make. Back in the day, theme creators would share their psd's even if you didn't pay for the theme... like Auros, Boss iOS. Those were fun threads when icon creators shared their version of icons within those themes. Theme creators don't share their psd's anymore because people would use their psd's to create a smilar theme, and pass it off of something they made. There are some theme creators that make pretty complete sets of popular app icons... like cocco26... which he also does do icon requests on his threads on mmi... same with many theme threads on mmi. People are pretty good when it comes to sharing there.

Another option is learning photoshop... a lot of the themes I buy (if I can't get the original icon psd's), I'll create my own psd's to make my own icons. I like my app icons to be 100% fully themed, so I like making my own icon psd's so don't have to bother the theme creator on requests... plus I like to challange myself on photoshop. If you want your app icons fully themed, modmyi is a good site to go to... people are constantly making icon requests there... and there is usually someone that will make a version of the icon for that theme. This is the wrong site if you want to make requests... theme creators and modders like myself won't share here. There are a lot of talented modders that post here too... but rarely do I see them share their creations here.

The only thing I'm disappointed with this current jailbreak is how long it's taking for SBHTML/GroovyBoard to be updated for 9iOS. I'm itching to make some SBHTML widgets for my SB, but not if it isn't stable. I guess I can make iWidgets, but I prefer my widgets to stay in place when paging through my icons.
 
There have been a few free theme's on modmyi that creator's would share their psd's so you can create your personal app icons that the theme creator didn't make. Back in the day, theme creators would share their psd's even if you didn't pay for the theme... like Auros, Boss iOS. Those were fun threads when icon creators shared their version of icons within those themes. Theme creators don't share their psd's anymore because people would use their psd's to create a smilar theme, and pass it off of something they made. There are some theme creators that make pretty complete sets of popular app icons... like cocco26... which he also does do icon requests on his threads on mmi... same with many theme threads on mmi. People are pretty good when it comes to sharing there.

Another option is learning photoshop... a lot of the themes I buy (if I can't get the original icon psd's), I'll create my own psd's to make my own icons. I like my app icons to be 100% fully themed, so I like making my own icon psd's so don't have to bother the theme creator on requests... plus I like to challange myself on photoshop. If you want your app icons fully themed, modmyi is a good site to go to... people are constantly making icon requests there... and there is usually someone that will make a version of the icon for that theme. This is the wrong site if you want to make requests... theme creators and modders like myself won't share here. There are a lot of talented modders that post here too... but rarely do I see them share their creations here.

The only thing I'm disappointed with this current jailbreak is how long it's taking for SBHTML/GroovyBoard to be updated for 9iOS. I'm itching to make some SBHTML widgets for my SB, but not if it isn't stable. I guess I can make iWidgets, but I prefer my widgets to stay in place when paging through my icons.
I'll have to check out modmyi. Do you have to download the themes from the website and upload them through SSH? Or how does that work?
 
I'll have to check out modmyi. Do you have to download the themes from the website and upload them through SSH? Or how does that work?
Usually the author has a Donate PayPal link and upon receipt you are given a download link. Those are for themes that you can't purchase through Cydia. Yes, you'd download the theme from the link and then SSH or use iFunBox to copy the theme folder to your iDevice theme folder.
 
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