iPhone 3G performance tweaking

Since I have recently given up on the benefits of running iOS3 via Whited00r on my iPhone 3G and I am now on iOS4 I needed to find a way to tweak my phone to get back some of the performance that I previously had. Running Whited00r on my 3G gave me a pretty good idea as to how I could get this performance back... and then some. So this post will be dedicated to tweaking the 3G to get some of your speed back on iOS4 and some neat features thanks to some great programs made available to a jail broken device.

Requirements:

• A jailbroken 2G/3G/3GS, running iOS4. 
• Multifl0w: Expose type multitasking for the low price of 4.99 at Cydia () 
• Backgrounder: Available for free via Cydia. 
• iFile: Usable version available via Cydia. 

Post-Jailbreak: 

After putting your device back to iOS4 you will need to jailbreak your phone, to do that, I recommend you restore your device back to iOS4.0.1 and use jailbreakme.com. It is dead simple and always works, it is also way more reliable than the other untethered jailbreaks. Once you complete the jailbreak, you will need to do some minor tweaking to get your background wallpaper (if you care), but NOT mutli-tasking. I have found over time with the iOS version of multitasking keeps a very looooong list of applications that were previously used and despite what people might say I am convinced (but with no proof) takes up a ton of memory (and only we that are stuck with older phones would notice). Rather than rely on this method of multi-tasking we will let 'Backgrounder' do the work and leave the Apple multi-tasking off.

So if you don't already by this point have Multifl0w, Backgrounder and iFile, just hop on over to Cydia and grab them. Now if you have iFile, use it to navigate to '/System/Library/CoreServices/Springboard.app' and locate the file: N82AP.plist. If you are using iFile you can select the file and then click the 'Text Viewer' and then click the 'Edit' button. Add the following lines:

<key>homescreen-wallpaper</key>
<true/>
<key>multitasking</key>
<false/>


Once you are done click 'Save' and then power off your phone and power it back on again for the configuration changes to be read by your phone. Now that all the necessary programs are installed and configuration completed, we can proceed with the software configuration. 


Multifl0w: 


Multifl0w doesn't really need to be configured anywhere but Activator, so there is not much work to be done here. The sole purpose of using Multifl0w is so that we have a task switcher available when we have disabled the native iOS utility. It is possible that there are other free ways to do this, if there is, let me know. But the interface for Multifl0w is quite nice, so it is most likely preferable. 


Backgrounder: 


Backgrounder will be one of the 2 icons that will be placed on your phone once the installs have completed. Before we get into any extensive configuration (via Activator) we should take care of how multitasking is done. 


Open Backgrounder by clicking the icon. You will be presented with 4 choices: - Global - Overrides - Control (via Activator) - Documentation You will first want to go into the 'Global' section and configure how Backgrounder is going to behave. Configure it in the following manner: 


Global: 

• Backgrounding method: Forced. We want to make sure that we aren't using anything that would try and use the native multitasking.
• Fall back to native: Off. This will ensure that every application you load will by default quit when you go back to the home screen. We want to make sure that the apps we want to keep are forced into the background by us.
• Background state (there are 2 settings): Enable at launch, disabled. We want to make sure all applications are set not to stay in the background at launch. Stay enabled, On. We want to make sure that if we select something for the background, that it stays enabled until we say otherwise.
• Indicate state via (there are 2 setting): Badge, on: This will tell you on the app icon whether or not it is backgrounded. Status bar icon, on: This will show that there are backgrounded apps in the status bar. Activator should come with the installation of Backgrounder, so you should see an 'Activator' icon both on your home screen and in your settings.
• Minimize on toggle, off: This will prevent the app from automatically minimizing when you put it in the background. 

Overrides:

If there are some applications you do not want to follow the default rules, you can specify them here. By default this will put in iPod, Phone, Safari and Mail so that they will default to the regular iOS backgrounding they seem to have even if multitasking is not enabled. I recommend deleting everything but phone so that you have control over what is lingering in the background, also, iPod seems to screw up the multitasking so this fixes it.

Control via Activator:

This defines how you want to enable an application for backgrounding. I believe by default this is 'Short Hold', which is what I have left mine as. So any time I want to put an app in the background I just have to hold the 'Home' button for half a second and it will tell me that the app is now enabled in the background.

Activator:

This configuration can be complicated or easy, depending on how tweaked you want your phone to be. I, for example, have enabled the following:

• Hold status bar = Open settings.
• Double tap status bar = SBSettings (highly recommended) 
• Swipe from bottom left = Hootsuite for messaging 
• Swipe middle = Camera 
• Swipe left = Opera 
• Swipe down from top = Mail 
• Power button double press = Respring 

But to make things simple, I will just describe how to enable multifl0w here:

• Open Activator by clicking on the home screen icon. 
• Select 'Anywhere' 
• Under the heading 'Home Button' select 'Double Press'

Summary:

This configuration has saved me quite a bit of trouble and made my system a lot more responsive. Does wonders for the 128MB of awesome RAM the device has.

There are other good programs that are really good as well... you can check them out here: http://jailbreakzone.com/2011/09/30/cydia-10-tools-to-start-with/

I highly recommend Manual Correct, SBSettings and Action Menu.