iOS is an outstanding mobile operating system, but it often leaves a lot to be desired in themultitaskingdepartment, especially on theiPhone. Luckily, the jailbreak community usually has some sort of remedy for problems of this nature.
A new freejailbreak tweakcalledLaunchtronby iOS developerNepetais just one of such remedies; it’s fundamentally a quick-accessapplauncher that you’re able to summon from just about anywhere with a swipe. Furthermore, it can help you access apps more quickly than you could with iOS’ nativeApp Switcher.
As depicted by thescreenshotexample above, Launchtron is a circular app launcher interface. You can swipe in from either side of the display to invoke Launchtron and then spin the app wheel by swiping up or down on it. As you might come to expect, tapping on an app icon from the app wheel launches that app.
Once installed, Launchtron adds a preference pane to the Settings app where you’re able to configure the tweak for your particular use case:
Here, you can:
The developer also includes two buttons at the bottom of the preference pane; one forrespringingand saving your changes and another for restoring default settings and respringing.
We also appreciate how the user can choose to use Launchtron for recently-used apps or a small subset of favorite apps. Furthermore, we like that you can customize how Launchtron appears and how many apps it displays at a glance.
You also might have noticed that you’re able to disable the swipegesturethat’s naturally used to invoke Launchtron. This might seem counterintuitive, but the developer provides this option because you can opt to useActivatorfor invoking Launchtron instead; doing so requires the free Launchtron Activator Action package fromCydia:
Overall, Launchtron seems to be an excellent work in progress – we say this because the developer says more features are coming soon, such as support for both theLock screenandHome screen, and an improvedbackgroundblur, among other things.
If you’re interested in trying Launchtron, then you candownload it for free from Cydia’s Nepeta repository. The developer has evenmade the tweak open sourcefor anyone interested in learning what makes it tick. The Launchtron Activator Action packageis also a free download from Cydia’s Nepeta repository, andit too is open source. Both packages supportjailbrokenhandsets running iOS 7 through 11.
What are your thoughts about Launchtron and what it can provide? Share in the comments section below.
