[Review] Change the Background Image of Notification Center

[Anthony Bouchard]

Now you can easily change the background of your Notification Center.

There have been numerous attempts to make the Notification Center customizable. Whether it be by themes or by SSH, neither situation was pleasant to deal with. Today, a new jailbreak tweak called Custom NC Background has found itself onto the Cydia store. It's by the same iOS developer that brought us Applocker; Ori Kadosh. Before you say that you could always do this in the past, read on and you will find out why this is a more viable and easy solution than what you have been exposed to.

Normally when you want to change a background image for Notification Center you would have to painstakingly SSH into your device, rename files, and add new ones. Additionally, if you ever wanted to change it, you would have to go back into that directory all over again. If you were one of the people that used WinterBoard themes to change the background, then you were running a piece of software that slowed down the performance of your iDevice and caused weird after effects with the icon names such as shadow problems. I wasn't happy with those results, so I turned to Ori Kadosh to see if he could construct a tweak that would let you set an image from your Camera Roll as your Notification Center background - not only that, but also for it to be as simple as doing it in your Settings application. Here is what it looks like:



Ori Kadosh did a beautiful job constructing Custom NC Background. As you can see above, it is as simple as picking an image from your Camera Roll and enabling the tweak with the switch. If you want the background to revert back to the default iOS Notification Center background, then all you have to do is disable the tweak. There is no respringing required, no lag, and it takes effect immediately. To avoid image mutation and stretching, Ori recommends that you use an image with a resolution of 640x960 for retina display devices such as the iPhone 4, iPod touch 4G, and iPhone 4S. If you are using any standard display device such as an iPhone 3GS or iPod touch 3G, then you should use an image with a resolution of 320x480.

Custom NC Background is compatible with all devices running iOS 5 only. This is because iOS 5 is the only firmware that lets you have Notification Center. Since the tweak only replaces the background image of Notification Center with another image, there is NO lag adopted from using it. Keep in mind that photographs taken with the camera are not of retina screen resolution and could be warped when setting them as the Notification Center background. You can use wallpaper applications from the App Store or search Google to find the wallpaper that is right for you. All you have to do is save them onto your camera roll either by screenshot or by some other kind of transfer method and you will be able to use it. It does what it was intended to do very well; nice job Ori!

Name: Custom NC Background
Price: FREE
Repo: Modmyi
Version: 0.0.2-5
Developer: Ori Kadosh
Editor's Rating: / 4.5/5

What are your thoughts about Custom NC Background? Will you be downloading it? Do you have any ideas for it? Share in the comments.

Sources: Ori Kadosh

[GunHo198]

Notification Center the way it should be.

[babyydaveyy]

I remember a tweak that blurred whatever was in the background when you opened Notification center. It's called "Blurried NC Background". Does said tweak cause lag? or would you recommend getting this tweak instead.

I only ask since I don't have a jailbroken iDevice to test on yet.
thanks

[KraXik]

Are you the Anthony that he credits for coming up the idea?

[Anthony Bouchard]

Are you the Anthony that he credits for coming up the idea?

Yes.

I remember a tweak that blurred whatever was in the background when you opened Notification center. It's called "Blurried NC Background". Does said tweak cause lag? or would you recommend getting this tweak instead.

I only ask since I don't have a jailbroken iDevice to test on yet.
thanks

Use this one if you want to use an image, or the other one if you want to customize transparency.

[DQEight]

I've gotten a retina resolution picture and set it up in the settings but my notification center does not change, I've even disabled winterboard theme and resprung to no avail.
Help anyone?

[pim-plex]

Don't work on ios 5.0.1

[Zokunei]

I've gotten a retina resolution picture and set it up in the settings but my notification center does not change, I've even disabled winterboard theme and resprung to no avail.
Help anyone?

I had to toggle it off and on the first time I used it.

[frijoleroh]

Doesn't work iOS 5.0.1

[Zokunei]

I really liked it until I realized it only looks good for one orientation depending on what you choose for a picture. Maybe there should be separate portrait and landscape settings?

[teej1410]

I disabled NC with springtomize. I never really used it anyway.

[cjori]

Hey guys, if you're having trouble with getting Custom NC Background to work and you have ********** on your device please wait for tomorrow's update. It fixes that issue. (Please don't pirate apps, though)
If you don't have and never had ********** just turning Custom NC Background off and then on should make it work.
Feel free to email me from Cydia if you continue to have trouble with this tweak (or any other tweak of mine :P)

Edit: Oops, it seems that ModMyi censors this app name, well, for a good reason. In any case: if you have the app used to pirate App Store apps then that's the conflicting app that ModMyi censors its name.

About the orientation issue, I fixed it in the update coming up tomorrow.

[Bigred4430]

Did not work on iOS 5.0.1 with no piracy apps at all. Sad day this is something id def use. Update please!!!

[Anthony Bouchard]

Update is coming out in Cydia right now. It works fine, but there are prerequisites (warez won't work with it). If you don't use warez, then follow the below steps to make it work properly:

To fix the issue open iFile and go to /var/mobile, then tap the blue arrow next to documents.

Next, where it says Access Permissions, Change both GROUP and WORLD to "Read, Write, Execute."

Now, go into the Custom NC Background settings, disable it, and enable it again. It will work.

Custom NC backgrounds doesn't work with warez. Sorry.

[sstroud]

it worked fine for me on 5.0.1. just had to disable and re-enable under settings.

[Spyruf]

doesnt work for me

[Anthony Bouchard]

doesnt work for me

Please follow the directions I provided above. OR wait for the update that Ori just submitted.

[DQEight]

Please follow the directions I provided above. OR wait for the update that Ori just submitted.

I hope the update fixes it, I've always wanted to change my nc background without all that hassle

[mmaboi21]

Doesn't work with iPad.

[Anthony Bouchard]

Doesn't work with iPad.

The iPad has a different Notification Center layout than the iPhone and iPod touch. I wouldn't expect support for the iPad until Ori gets an iPad to play with.