iPhone homebrew – BossPaper v0.93: an alternative wallpaper app
Renowned iPhone developer BigBoss is back on the scene to release BossPaper, an alternative wallpaper application for iPhone similar to Winterboard but uses less memory and processor power. Currently the app is in Beta. There are still some features that are planned to be implemented that are not in this version.
Renowned iPhone developer BigBoss is back on the scene to release BossPaper, an alternative wallpaper application for iPhone similar to Winterboard but uses less memory and processor power. Currently the app is in Beta. There are still some features that are planned to be implemented that are not in this version.
Developers note:
I have been working on a new FREE app called “BossPaper”. This is a very configurable advanced wallpaper app that lets you control what wallpaper shows up on your SpringBoard. You may be saying, “But Winterboard does that!” Sort of, but not like this. BossPaper can work with Winterboard (or without). Read on for details.
Last year, Saurik released Winterboard. This enabled some new features none of us have ever seen before such as rotating desktop wallpapers via Javascript HTML pages. While this was revolutionary for us iPhone owners, it also came at a cost. Performance running these themes sucks. There are a few ways the Javascript based images can be implemented and all of them have problems. If you load them all into memory, Springboard uses a signficant amount of memory. If you fade them, Springboard uses a lot of CPU. Javascript is very memory / CPU heavy. In addition, the Javascript runs behind all applications and while applications run. This impacts performance heavily and causes apps to lag even while youÂ’re using them and not on SpringBoard. In addition, the script continues to run even while the iPhone is locked draining battery.
I have had it on my list to solve this for a while. The result is BossPaper. BossPaper is an advanced wallpaper manager that puts total control of wallpapers into your hands. BossPaper has these features:
You control which images are displayed. You can use camera roll, installed themes, or a combination of! With Winterboard, you could only install a theme and use what came with it. Now you can use images from many themes or other sources such as BossPaper packs.
You can use your own images from the camera!
BossPaper stops rotating images as soon as an app launches. This prevents battery and CPU drain.
BossPaper stops rotating images as soon as the iPhone is locked. This prevents battery drain.
BossPaper uses very little memory and CPU! It does not inject into apps only SpringBoard so you should not notice any application lag running it.
BossPaper can use one of many transitions such as fade, water drop, page curl – you configure which one(s) you want. Configure how long the transitions last.
BossPaper lets you control when to rotate images. You can rotate it on a timer you configure or you can rotate when an app closes, or both!
BossPaper lets you hide icon labels so those that do not want to install Winterboard can use it without.
BossPaper lets you dim the wallpaper.
Features missing in the current BETA release are:
1) Ability to select a single image. If you want a single image make a folder with that image for now.
2) Ability to exclude a single image or images. For now you have to delete it off the folder. In future you will have a way to tell it to not load that image again.
3) Photos – Camera roll is working because these are photos. If you sync pictures using iTunes, these are actually no longer images but an sqllite database of images. Therefore, you cannot use these images. (I havenÂ’t tested this very much. So it could be in accurate).
4) I may examine lock background as well, although I am worried about performance. The lock background should be stationary so that you dont drain your battery while locked. I will think about this more.
In order to test it, you must install the bigboss beta repository, which I have also released into Cydia for those of you that said you are a “hacker” or “developer” when you loaded Cydia the first time. BossPaper will automatically install logmailer because if you have any problems, I would like a logmailer output of your syslog. If you don’t plan to send syslogs to me when having problems, well then you should not try to beta test this. Of course the first non-beta repo version will not require logmailer. If you hate having logmailer icon, you can hide it for now using SBSettings.
Based on the success / failure of this release, I may move it into a public repository before adding the remaining features.
Currently, the app requires 3.0. I am not sure if I plan to support 2.x or not. Every day there are less 2.x users and more 3.x users. It makes little sense to focus on 2.x for a new app.
Related article:
Via BigBoss
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