[Giveaway] Want to Launch Applications From Your Lock Screen?

[Anthony Bouchard]

LockLauncher puts a configurable application dock on your lock screen.

LockLauncher has been long awaited to be released on iOS 5; now it's fully compatible! It's a tweak by developer Akhil Tolani that allows you to place an application dock on your lock screen. LockLauncher is configurable. You can have anywhere between one to five applications on your lock screen. You can also control where on the lock screen that the dock appears. I have it sitting just above my slide to unlock bar, however you can technically put it anywhere on the vertical axis. The settings offer you the ability to configure which applications show up on the dock. You get to control how many applications appear and also where it appears. You can even adjust how opaque the application icons are Here is the settings window:



You can pick any application on your iDevice to appear on your lock screen. It can be a Cydia application, an Apple application, or an App Store application. Once you pick the applications (1-5) you can adjust where the dock appears on the lock screen by using the icon height option. Moving the slider will adjust where the dock shows up on the lock screen. You can have it right under the lock screen clock if you want. You can also adjust how opaque or dimmed the icons are in regards to the background which makes this tweak very nice for IntelliScreenX users or Theme users. It's very user-friendly.

That's all there is to it! Very simple, fun functionality. I was able to talk to Akhil Tolani via email to ask some questions about LockLauncher:

Anthony: So, what's the story behind LockLauncher?
Akhil: I first had made a tweak named 'SuperSlider' which allowed the user to launch any app they want right from the Lock Screen. It was just one icon though. I got many emails to add support for even more icons and then someone suggested me to add multiple-app-launching (the main thing why LockLauncher is better than other apps that launch apps from the Lock Screen). He told me that if there are 5 icons and he presses all 5 icons the last app will launch and rest will be in, "queue" and rather than going to the home screen when pressing the home button the current app will close and the next app will launch and like that back to back until the fifth icon is launched. After that, the home screen if 2 app icons are pressed the first app will launch and when u press the home button instead of going to the home screen the second app you pressed on the lock screen will come up and then afterwards when u press home button you will get to the home screen (i know its wee bit complex logic :P).

Anthony: What was the hardest part about making LockLauncher?
Akhil: The hardest part was definitely multi-app launch.

Anthony: Are you planning any updates for LockLauncher?
Akhil: Yes there will a little update for LockLauncher within two or three days (1.3.1-1) to fix the alignment of the icons by about 2 pixels. :P Nothing huge, but as the bug remains.. I need to fix it. And if I get more suggestions I'll surely update it with the requested feature. :)

Anthony: What are your top five favorite Cydia packages that you're not responsible for?
Akhil: The ones I surely use are Activator, SBSettings, Graviboard, Dimmer, Callbar on my iPhone 4. My personal favorites. :)

As always, thanks for the cool tweak Akhil!

The Giveaway!

Akhil was generous enough to offer to giveaway TEN copies of LockLauncher to the wonderful Modmyi readers!

Here's how to win:

Follow me @BouchardAnthony
Follow ModMyi @Modmyi
Retweet this article with your Cydia number in the tweet; if you do not have the Cydia number in your tweet, you will be disqualified from the drawing. Within the tweet you must also mention @BouchardAnthony so that I can easily see who has entered the drawing. If you don't mention me, you will also be disqualified. The tweet must include the following text, "I entered a contest to win LockLauncher for iPhone!"

Winners will be announced on Friday, November 25. Good luck to all of you!

And... also, Happy Thanksgiving!

Sources: Akhil Tolani

[akhiltolani]

it doesnt bypass your passcode so you dont need to worry about security
if you have a passcode it will show the passcode keypad first then launch the apps, if you dont have a passcode then it will directly launch the app

[jobran]

Thansk, Happy Thanksgiving Anthony

[Xandu]

That totally defeats the purpose of a lockscreen -_-

[MrTax]

Happy Thanksgiving

[pim-plex]

thanks u

happy thanksgiving

[DaLsim]

cool testing it?

[Moi1970]

pointless app. Why not simply unlock if you want to run an app

[timbo]

happy thanksgiving everyone!!!!

[iNT3Rv3NTiONZz]

pointless app. Why not simply unlock if you want to run an app

How is it pointless, unlocking, then (possibly) scrolling through pages on springboard to launch an app is obviously not as quick as tapping the home button and then tapping an icon..

[nahzd]

Nice, to have.. but to troublesome when you have a passcode in the way

[delusion950]

no !

How is it pointless, unlocking, then (possibly) scrolling through pages on springboard to launch an app is obviously not as quick as tapping the home button and then tapping an icon..

You wouldnt scroll Sherlok. You have folders.

[Anthony Bouchard]

You wouldnt scroll Sherlok. You have folders.

Some people do, some don't.

[moomoochoo]

Can anyone tell me, what the second icon from the right is?

[Anthony Bouchard]

Can anyone tell me, what the second icon from the right is?

IntelliScreenX