Prettifying the iPhone

I think owning a Mac isn’t just about the things you can accomplish with it but equally of value is establishing an aesthetic attraction to a piece of hardware that you have to look at everyday. Call it a psychology effect but we openly take more pleasure in occupying ourselves with things that appear better than average or at least different from what others might own so as to sweeten the deal when using it.

A fully stocked piece of hardware is all and well but when there’s opportunity for customization, we give in to it. Hence the popularity of applications like CandyBar that allows you to fully change any system icon on your Mac. Or perhaps the popular Deviant Art, a repository for any type of expressive wallpaper you can think of to download and decorate your desktop. We aim to make an untouched territory ours by changing what others settle for.

Roll this concept onto the iPhone and you’ll see what’s vexing about it. There’s only so much well crafted icons can spruce up the black canvas of an iPhone screen. It’s equivalent to placing new furniture in a space whose carpet or walls are never an option to change so that it can compliment the new goods. It’s just plain boring and quite frankly unappealing to look at times unless you already have intention of launching an app.

Bring on the Jailbreak

Technical definition of a Jailbreak is for user to gain access to the entire Unix filesystem. From this, you’re able to add additional applications to your iPhone and it does so through an app called Cydia. Once that’s up and running, the possibility to alter the icons, wallpaper, dock, status bar, chat bubbles, keyboard, along with any other aesthetic element is practically endless. 

This tactic has been frowned upon but unless Apple ever allows true customization to be made on their otherwise unalterable iPhone GUI, this would evermore be my alternative to prettifying a display that I have to interact with daily.

It’s simply attractive to look at and use and you’ll be lying to yourself if stepping back from your desk to admire the the icons and desktop on your Mac is not often a practice you find yourself doing. Now imagine feeling and doing the same with your iPhone.

2 years ago  /  1 note