Filed under: iPod Family, Hacks, How-tos, iPhone
Enable App Hiding on your iPhone
TUAW reader Ian Donaldson discovered that the SBEnableAppReveal preference allowed you to double-tap hidden applications to reveal them--and double-tap them again to re-hide them. I decided to see if I could extend this behavior to other applications. After a bit of testing, I discovered the SBIsRevealable preference in the three keynote applications: YouTube, Safari and iTunes. So after modifying plutil to allow it to set Boolean values as well as strings, I went ahead and issued the following command:
iphone # plutil -1 SBIsRevealable /Applications/*.app/Info.plist
After restarting, I was pleased to find that pretty much all my applications were hidden and could now use the double-tap-to-reveal trick. The three holdouts? Photos, Camera, and iPod, all three of which use special "roles" in their Info.plist files. These roles let the Slideshow app appear as both "Photos" and "Cameras" on the iPhone, and MobileMusicPlayer as "Music" and "Video" on the iPod touch and "iPod" on the iPhone.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Fernando said 5:17PM on 11-29-2007
what?
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Reid Sorenson said 5:58PM on 11-29-2007
More to the point: Why?
Think Adrian said 2:52AM on 11-30-2007
I second the what amd why...
love that dock, though
Jurjen said 6:08PM on 11-29-2007
How can you make sure an application you decide to want to 'not show' does this on default. I have an SSH icon I want to hide (so I added the SBIsRevealable key to the Info.plist of the SSH.app file), but I can't seem to set is to cloak itself when the phone is turned on. It's just there. Allthough I can double click to cloak it offcourse, I would rather see the app cloaked by default (just like the Safari, Youtube and the MITMS apps do on default when you add the SBEnableAppReveal to the Springboard plist)
Erica?
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Josh said 6:16PM on 11-29-2007
I can't seem to get this to work. I add the boolean to certain Info.plists and restart and they still show up? I set the boolean to No. What else is required to make the icons not show?
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Jurjen said 6:22PM on 11-29-2007
Did you add the SBEnableAppReveal-key to the com.apple.springboard.plist? If not, you need to add it, make it Boolean and set it to true. You can find the springboard plist in your home Library folder: /var/root/Library/Preferences/com.apple.springboard.plist
Jurjen said 6:27PM on 11-29-2007
Oh, and I guess you need to set the Boolean in the Info.plists to true..
Seth A said 6:38PM on 11-29-2007
Any chance we will get an app in Installer that will make this easier? I kinda want to try it but I hate to spend the amount of time I know it would take me.
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Jonny said 6:47PM on 11-29-2007
gawd i love that leopard dock.
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SnO2 said 7:21PM on 11-29-2007
Can anyone post a video showing this in action? This could be a nice, but not great, way to prevent people from reading all your messages and recent calls when they play with the phone.
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donnacha said 8:07PM on 11-29-2007
So ... would it use this to design an app that, once installed, would remain completely hidden until a specified part of the screen was tapped, say, 3 times?
I mean, in theory, could it be included within the app installer, without the user having to hack anything themselves?
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Matt said 10:50PM on 11-29-2007
The Customize app from Installer does this as well, just the tap of a finger too.
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Jhone said 10:55PM on 11-29-2007
Thanks for this great find Erika. could you make a gui program for those that are not technical expert like your Make It Mine app. Thanks in advance
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Ian Donaldson said 1:38AM on 11-30-2007
Hey thats sooo cool! I am mentioned in there in the first sentence! Oh ya I figured out how to hide the Photos & Camera Icons. All you have to do is edit the info.plist file and add SBIsRevealable into each of there separate roles! This also works for the iPod as well. Now every icon can be hidden!
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Robert Brown said 2:23AM on 11-30-2007
Can someone tell me how I even connect to the iPhone without using iTunes so I can customise it in the ways various threads on TUAW say you can.
I have a UK iPhone (latest firmware).
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Think Adrian said 2:55AM on 11-30-2007
Are you this guy Mr. Spam?
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richard said 12:55PM on 11-30-2007
How in the world did you get the Leopard dock? It looks amazing!
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Samuel said 4:20PM on 11-30-2007
Once the SDK comes out do you think that this will be possible? Making everything dissapear except for the chosen few that slide to the centre of the screen (or stay put) only for them to be revealed one by one (in quick succession) once the home button is pressed.
This would be so nice to see!
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doug said 9:15PM on 11-30-2007
how do I get the plutil to work with integers I keep getting an error for the 1
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mark Gordon said 5:34AM on 12-01-2007
HI can someone upload a modified plist i have no idea how to edit one
cheers
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