All iOS devices come standard with a finely-polishedWeatherapp and a Weather-centricNotification Center/Today widget, but wouldn’t it be nice if that same weather information appeared in places that actually mattered?
Asteroidis a new freejailbreak tweakdeveloped byMidnightChipsandThe Caslethat brings live weather information to various interfaces found throughoutiOS, such as theHome screen, the Lock screen, and the Weather app icon itself.
If the concept sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because it draws a lot of its inspiration from aging jailbreak tweaks like Forecast andMeteorfrom previous jailbreaks. Asteroid is essentially the spiritual successor of these popular jailbreak tweaks and was built with iOS 11 in mind.
In thescreenshotexamples above, you’re able to gaze upon some examples of what the live weather information looks like on the Home screen and on the Weather app icon. Be sure to take note of the weather-orientedwallpapers(which animate precisely like the background in the Weather app) and the dynamic weather app icon.
But as we said earlier, Asteroid also displays live weather information on the Lock screen. From here, the tweak can provide you with a customized greeting, the weather forecast, and the temperature outside, among other things. Check out the examples below:
After you’ve installed Asteroid, you’ll find a preference pane in the Settings app where you’re able to customize a wide variety of features included in the tweak:
From the first preference pane, you’ll find a toggle switch for enabling or disabling the tweak on demand, and you’ll also see five individual cells that divide the tweak’s extensive feature set – those five cells are General Settings, Lock screen, Home screen, Live Weather, and WeatherAppIcon. We’ll outline all of those for you below:
General Settings
From the General Settings cell, you’ll be able to adjust the weather information refresh rate with a slider. Keep in mind that a faster refresh rate will consume morebatterylife, so try to find yourself a happy medium here.
Lock screen
From the Lock screen cell, you can:
You may need to put some elbow grease into customizing your Lock screen, as it’s one of the most essential displays you’ll see. Keep in mind that there are options embedded within options here, and some appear and disappear depending on what you have enabled.
Home screen
From the Home screen cell, you can:
These options are particularly useful for making the animated weather wallpaper more visible. They remove obstructions such as the Dock background and Folder backgrounds.
Live Weather
From the Live Weather cell, you can:
Weather Icon
From the Weather Icon cell, you can:
With these options, you can choose between having a livedisplayof the weather as your Weather app icon’s background or selecting a static background color. Either way, you can have the live weather conditions appear as a glyph on top of the background.
The developer includes a convenient Apply button in the first preference pane to save all your settings after configuring them, so you should be sure to use it andrespringafter making any changes.
If you’ve been searching for a fun and quirky new way to customize yourjailbrokeniOS 11 device, then Asteroid is something you should check out. We particularly enjoy the feelings of nostalgia we get from trying a jailbreak tweak like this, especially given how in-depth customizations of this nature are considered a hallmark of jailbreaking.
If you’re interested in trying Asteroid, then you candownload it free of charge from the Dynastic Repoin Cydia. The tweak is intended foriOS 11devices andthe source code is available on GitHubfor anyone interested in learning more about what makes the tweak tick.
Will you be installing Asteroid on your jailbroken handset? Let us know why or why not in the comments section below.
