For the first time ever I decided to jail break my iPad Mini and iPhone 5. It took 5 mins to jail break the 5 and 9 mins for the Mini.

I did a fair bit of research of the apps and tweaks I was going to install and I would say the end result has been really incredible.

Both devices had the following tweaks – activator, f.lux, mapsopener, opennotifer + premium, sbsettings, springtomise 2 and protube.

The iPhone 5 had the following extra apps – bolt, octopus keyboard, winterboard, ayecon theme, and pdanet.

The iPad Mini had the following additional tweaks – fullscreen for iPad, retinapad, splitmail.

So what have I found so far. Well on my iPhone 5 I now get icon notifications on my status bar, the blackberry z10 keyboard, a custom icon set and re skinned look using ayecon, 5 rows of icons and 5 rows in folders , resized icons made smaller by 10%, protube that offers downloads and tons more, a bolt in the status bar instead of a charging battery, the date in the status bar, newstand has gone, unused apps are hidden, pdanet gives me free tethering to my Mini, settings toggles in pull down notifications centre, and small tweaks using springtomise. And no reboots. I found that I preferred the default icons so winterboard is going to be deleted. But now the 5 does exactly what I want and I cannot see myself changing it. It really adds significant usability.

The iPad Mini has become a revelation. No themes installed just system tweaks. I have similar tweaks in the status bar, safari with a double tap goes full screen, protube as above , retinapad makes my old iPhone apps look retina and always load 2 x size. This has been amazing as now I can keep all my old games and apps that were just for iPod or iPhone on the Mini and most look crystal sharp. Splitmail gives me the same affect with the email app as the landscape view but in portrait.

Some of the tweaks that apply to both are mapsopener. Google Maps opens now instead of Apple Maps. Genius. F.lux is meant to adjust the screen to a softer light at night. Waiting for this to start but it looks slick. I also have an icon appear if the silent switch is on.

With the iPad Mini if you tried to go beyond 8 icons wide in landscape reboots would occur. Otherwise rock solid.

Below are some screen shots.