An Interview with tweak developer Squ1dd13

Developer Squ1dd13 talks about tweak development, piracy, Apple, and the iPhone jailbreak scene. Check out the full interview below.

Q1. How and when did you get started with tweak development?

A. I started early last year, after getting annoyed by the fact that I could only do to my device what developers made for my device.

I decided, given that I have always been into computing, that I would try my hand at some Objective C (the language in which tweaks are written in).

When I started, I really struggled to get into it, but after a while of hard work, I learned Objective C quite well and really started challenging myself with bigger tweaks.

Q2. You only release free tweaks. Is there any specific reason behind that?

A. I only release free tweaks because I do not have the money to purchase tweaks myself.

From time to time, from small donations, I will purchase a paid tweak. However, I only get those donations because I am a developer.

The people who install the tweaks are mostly not, and I think it would be unfair to rule out some people by charging for tweaks.

Q3. Are you currently working on any new project (may or may not be iOS-related) or a jailbreak tweak?

A. At the moment, I am working on a tweak called Quotifications.

This is a tweak that gets quotes from the internet and replaces the “No Recent Notifications” text with a random one. I am getting through it well, and am currently testing it.

Expect a public beta soon!

Q4. Have you ever felt that tweak developers deserve more money for developing tweaks?

A. I think that it depends on the tweaks you make. A developer who dedicates weeks and weeks to write a tweak and works incredibly hard on it should get paid for his work, definitely.

Although sometimes I see tweaks and think: “Should that really cost money?”. Sometimes developers go for the wrong decision between free and paid.

Q5. How many Apple devices do you own and currently use?

A. I use 7 at the moment, in order to test tweaks on different displays and iOS versions. This helps a lot because people are always asking for iOS 10 (and sometimes 9) support for my tweaks.

Q6. If yes, what are your favorite Cydia tweaks and App Store apps?

A. My favorite Cydia tweaks are probably Cylinder and Activator.

When I jailbreak a device these are probably the first tweaks I install, swiftly followed by iCleaner and NewTerm 2 for the more functional side of things.

As for apps, I don’t really use apps that much. Those that I do use the most are probably BBC Sport and Discord.

Q7. What’s your stance on piracy in the jailbreak scene?

A. Ah yes. Piracy. Piracy is a hard thing to stop in the jailbreak scene, and I think that it will always be that way.

Sure, developers write DRM, (I wrote my own recently, but it was just for practice and I do not plan to use it) but DRM will always be cracked in the end.

Obviously, I would rather people didn’t pirate developers’ work, but I don’t think there is a way to prevent that.

Q8. What can the jailbreak community expect from you in the future?

A. In the future, I honestly have no idea what I will be doing. My recent work has been mainly focused on the stuff that goes on behind-the-scenes, as I find that more challenging and fun.

I think I will move on to more and more of this, and away from simple UI tweaks like Glacier.

That’s it for now, folks! Hope you enjoyed this interview and don’t forget to leave your thoughts and comments below.