Pictured above: LockInfo 2.0, Tenuitas Winterboard theme
LockInfo 2.0 (Diego looked at 1.x here) has been released for $4.99 on Cydia/Rock. The new version isn’t a huge overhaul in terms of looks, but it does make the app a little more powerful than before. In addition to the calendar, SMS, Phone, and Mail notifications, the app can now handle Push stuff, too. That means incoming Beejive messages and Facebook notifications will now show up under a collapsible list on your lockscreen. It’s definitely neater than having five different pop-ups, but I’m not completely sold on the idea yet.
You can also mark SMS as read, and you can even preview entire Mail messages right from the lockscreen. No quick replies, though – LockInfo is still all about offering and marking information.
Hit the jump for more details and impressions of version 2.0.
One of the things I keep asking myself whenever I load up an app like Lockscreen is: is it just sexy, or is it sexy and useful? Screens like the one that LockInfo offers are very common on Windows Mobile, and I used to love playing with different skins to get different combos of alerts and notifications onto one screen. The thing is: I almost never needed that much information accessible at one time.
However, one thing LockInfo is excellent for is displaying notifications you received while you weren’t using your iPhone. Coming back to a couple of texts, a missed phone call, and three e-mails is no big deal when you have LockInfo to sort everything out for you on one screen.
SMS
For users who don’t use a separate jailbreak texting app (I use iRealQuickSMS), LockInfo provides you with a way to mark a text as read right from the lockscreen. You see the whole text, and you can see multiple texts from the same sender in the order that they’re received. You’ll still have to load up the SMS app to follow a conversation, though, since LockInfo doesn’t have a “launch SMS” function.
You can turn off the pop-ups for texts (and other notifications) in the LockInfo settings, but I found that this only really worked if you use LockInfo on the lockscreen. LockInfo can now be displayed on your home screen as your first page, and pop-ups display very briefly before minimizing and displaying on LockInfo instead. The SMS field also doesn’t play very nicely with iRQSMS, since I still got a few text pop-ups despite having marked all of my SMS as read on the lock screen.
Mail
I haven’t used the Mail app on my iPhone in a while (I’m using Gmail Push), but I did re-activate my Gmail IMAP account to take a peek at what LockInfo’s previews are like. The previews worked very well in my brief testing, and I think LockInfo might even give apps like Intelliscreen and Elert a run for their money in terms of speed and simplicity.
Push Notifications
This is the feature that could make LockInfo really stand out if it were to improve a bit. It makes a lot of sense to show push notifications in a collapsible list on your lock screen, because notifications aren’t always things you want to act on immediately, and it’s good to see them all at once. However, the pop-up system for notifications on the iPhone isn’t all bad, and it can be useful to have them around when you’re using the iPhone.
What I mean to say is that it makes sense to have things displayed all in one space while you’re away from the iPhone (LockInfo), but it can be better to have instant, in-your-face notifications while you use the device, too (default pop-ups).
However, the one thing that’s really missing from LockInfo 2.0 is the ability to act on any of those push notifications. Gmail Push pop-ups, for example, usually have a button to load up the app to view the rest of an e-mail. If you start using LockInfo and block pop-ups, you’ll have to unlock the device and then load up Gmail Push manually. I think it would make a lot more sense if push notifications within LockInfo gave you the option of loading up the related app.
Two Other Apps
To really enjoy a LockInfo experience, I think it’s best to leave it on the lock screen. There are also two extra jailbreak apps that you can get to make the experience as seamless as possible: Dim Delay and Clock Hide. These apps let you set the amount of time that the lockscreen displays before the device goes back to sleep, as well as hide the giant clock at the top of the screen to help keep a more uniform look for LockInfo.
Extended Trial
If your trial for LockInfo 1.x expired, you’ve still got another chance to try out version 2.0. Just re-download the app and tap on “check license” when you first boot it up in Settings. I’m still on the two-week trial version of the app myself, but I’m grateful that it’s a fully featured trial. I’m still not sure if this one’s a keeper, but it’s certainly good to have another lock screen option out there.
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A correction to one of your notes: LI does support multiple SMSs from a sender. It will group them under a single sender header, but have the SMSs in most-recent-first order.
making change now – thanks, David
Not enough emphasis on the calendar in my opinion! I've been using LockInfo for a long time now and, to me, it's main attraction is showing your calendars. It's fully customizable to pick and choose which calendars to show entries from and you can also choose the range of days. Now that we have options to have multiple exchange accounts tied to our phones, this has made my life so much better. Being able to have both my personal and work calendars show on the lock screen saves me a ton of time. I have all my friends birthdays and other misc. appointments in my personal calendar and of course all my meetings in my work calendar. I don't even have to unlock my phone to see the call-in numbers for work conference calls and I have no excuse to miss peoples birthdays anymore!
good points, sysrage. I just focused on the parts I played and that I noticed had changed. I'm not big lockinfo user, so I didn't try to call this a review or even a quick look.
Liking the new version so far, good work David. It's great having everything I've missed in one place that is easily accessible. The ability to preview, etc. is an added bonus.
How well does it interact with Tlert?
I'd assume that it doesn't notice Tlert, since Tlert seems to use a different pop-up that can be moved around the screen. So you'd likely still see the Tlert pop-ups on the lock screen, but I haven't tried this since I use iRQSMS now.
Thanks for the blog poston Lockinfo … I just purchased it ..
I actually want the big giant clock displayed on my lockscreen, but it wont allow me to do it. Does anyone know which settings i have to toggle with to get it up?
There is a lockinfo plugin you can download to get a big clock. It’s free on Cydia.
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