M4csDev is an experienced coder and an up and coming jailbreak tweak developer. Check out his full interview below.
Table of Contents
Q1. How and when did you get started with tweak development?
A. I started getting into tweak development actually during Electra. I had started to help people out in a discord for a tweak called Fluidity and we ended up getting like 3,000 people in there.
I and a few friends were mods and we would always just help people out and talk about tweaks. This kind of pushed me into wanting to make my own tweaks.
I’ve been jailbreaking since iOS 4 and I’ve never bothered learning Objective-C or Swift. I’ve been programming since I was little with other languages like C++ and the .NET Framework.
I decided I wanted to start learning Obj-C and creating tweaks when I saw the Silo source on Github from Andy Wiik and iOS Creatix.
They had these modules you could make and I started developing EzCC.
Q2. What led to Auxilium Development Team’s formation?
A. Auxilium Development Team was originally M4cs Development. I went by “M4cs” on Github and Discord so I named it after myself.
I started Auxilium with my friend Chilaxan who actually helped me finish EzRespring.
We decided to make a team of devs, inexperienced or experienced, and help the community. There weren’t many other Dev teams apart from #! and iOS Creatix.
I started M4cs with a few devs and after EzCC took off we started gaining more and more and now we are like a family.
We changed the name to Auxilium a few weeks ago because I didn’t want the team to be named after me. We are a team so why would it just be my name, you know?
Auxilium means “help” in Latin and that’s our goal for the community. We want to help people out in whatever way possible.
Q3. I tried ColorSwitcher on my iPhone and it completes my dark mode setup. How much time did it take you to develop it?
A. ColorSwitcher was an idea I came up with while messing around with FLEXible. I wanted to see if I could make the App Switcher background darker so I started messing with values.
This was just over a week ago at the beginning of April. I started working on it but it was giving me trouble because I was using really long, messy code.
I put it off to the side for a few days to clear my mind and when I came back I was able to make it “work” in 5 minutes from scratch.
When I say work, all I was able to make the background completely dark. Either way after a few days and help from ResearchOp, the dev behind ReformX, he helped me fix some bugs and I released ColorSwitcher which was just Dark Mode.
Thank you @ResearchOp for helping me figure this out! You are the best! ColorSwitcher coming soon 🙂 pic.twitter.com/I4qo4ILNFu
— Ｍ４ｃｓＤｅｖ (@auxmacs) April 10, 2018
Last night I actually got libcolorpicker working to make custom colors so it should complement any setup!
Q4. Are you currently working on any new project (may or may not be iOS-related)?
A. We are still working on the update to PAlert and a new tweak UltraLPM.
UltraLPM will be an app you can use when needing to save power that will disable a lot of battery killing processes. PAlert is almost done we are just tweaking some fixes.
Q5. Auxilium Dev Team only releases free tweaks. Is there any specific reason behind that?
A. We originally only released free tweaks but we are actually creating a payment system for developers called AuxPay.
This will be a basic tweak integration system to sell your tweaks and still have some DRM to combat piracy.
I don’t develop for money, I only develop for the community.
However, hosting and such costs money so I started a system where you can download the free tweak or buy it if you’d like. I just want to be able to help the community but I’m not complaining if anybody buys my tweaks.
Q6. Which Apple device(s) do you own? What are your favorite Cydia tweaks and App Store apps?
A. I have an iPhone 3GS, iPod 5G, iPad 2, iPhone 6S (Destroyed), my iOS 11 test device an iPhone 5S, and my daily driver, an iPhone 7 on 11.2.6.
I love the iPhone 7 and have never had any problems with it. Now that I’m accustomed to it, though all the other devices feel slow and lethargic, for obvious reasons.
Having an iPad 2 on an untethered jb (9.0.2) is pretty cool though and helps when testing with older tweaks.
Q7. What’s your stance on piracy in the jailbreak scene?
A. Piracy is everywhere you go. Music, Software, Movies, Art, anything.
People are going to pirate something if they have the chance too because everybody would rather get it for free then spend a dollar.
I don’t care if people pirate my tweaks. If they want to, then fine, it’s not hurting me at all. I don’t depend on money made by my tweaks.
I DO NOT condone piracy however and wish there was a way to get rid of it. DRM works but it often causes issues, especially recently.
Q8. What can the jailbreak community expect from you in the future?
A. The jailbreak community can expect big things from us.
We are working on a bunch of tweaks that will really customize your device and user experience. A few top secret projects, and maybe even some things with the exploits being released.
We have looked into them and have a few experts looking into them with us. So expect some awesome tweaks and maybe some exploitation coming from us!
Don’t forget to follow Auxilium Development Team on Twitter for latest updates on their upcoming projects.
