Our Blog
Element Update
We wanted to take this opportunity to give everyone an update on Element. What started out as a simple Photoshop mockup has become somewhat of a thorn in our side and an obvious point of frustration for those waiting on it. Before we give the update we’d like to simply apologize for its continued delay. We weren’t trying to overhype it, we just made the mistake of sharing delivery dates given to us by someone outside of our company. We really should have just sat tight until we had an actual release to share.
Some background. We never had any intention of actually building it until Saurik, the creator of Cydia, gave us a call and told us he wanted to build it for us on a new platform he’d created called Cydget. Needless to say we got pretty excited about the fact the lock screen would soon be a reality. He figured it would only take a week or two to actually build. It wasn’t long after that we began to see some pretty serious set-backs. The first of which being that he got very ill and had to put the project aside until he recovered. Thankfully he’s okay but that set us back well over a month.
We eventually got word that he was still developing it but had to tweak the framework to which it was being built on. A few more weeks passed. It was on December 9 when we last officially heard on its status. He had everything working but SMS and weather but wasn’t quite ready to show us a package yet. Since then the only thing we’ve been able to find out is from his twitter account on December 24. It stated that he now had everything functioning except weather and that he was working on optimizing it. That takes us to today.
We aren’t holding back info or trying to mislead people. The simple fact is that everything is in Saurik’s hands and he is working on his own timetable. Saurik will let everyone, including us, know when it’s ready but at this point we have no idea when, or if, that will be.
I can’t wait to see this! A new improved homescreen is just what the iPhone needs, and so many people have written in to TUAW regarding this. It should be the new improvement in iPhone OS 4.0
[…] […]
Waiting on Saurik… It’s going to be awhile, he’s VERY slow at everything he touch’s.
:o
[…] Element Update | Teehan+Lax […]
Let’s all stop bashing saurik! Granted we have all waited a while, but no one else is coding it. Software gets delayed, I have been waiting for Starcraft II for years… I would rather have a polished product with better comparability then some half baked app. From what I inderstand, element may be freeware, so let’s cut mr saurik some slack.
@Babel: No bashing here. Saurik is a sharp, likable guy who likely has a ton on his plate. We’ve received countless comments, emails and tweets as to Element’s status. We’re just letting you guys know that it’s in his hands and that we haven’t heard much about it’s progress ourselves. Hopefully he frees up some to get out a release.
search for 235_theehanlax_lockinfo in cydia and you will find an element look a like lockscreen that works great.
sorry for this post but its that what people are looking for.
Just use lockinfo until this releases. lockinfo is constantly updated and works great!
Will you be adding the function to se birthday enteries from contact list? it would be nice. Thanks, waiting for this app. looks fantastic.
Does it support push notifications too? If not, i´m sorry, lockinfo will remain better
hey guys just wanted to say thanks for all your work especially Saurik. Hope you are feeling better and that this app rocks! can’t wait to try it out
Thanks for the update.
Eagerly awaiting release :)
Congratulations guys, it rocks !
happy to heard that this is concrete, there’s solutions about weather
actually tryin’ the “235 teehanlax lockinfo”, can’t wait for “Element”©
keep bangin’
Big up !
[…] Teehan+Lax Entradas relacionadas con la que acabas de leer:Cydget, los widgets de Cydia Cydget es el nombre […]
@teehan I wasn’t refering to you, more twards other people I have seen I’m the community getting antsy. I appreciate the update though
Had to reply, thanks for the heads up and please now that there are WAY more people actually eager and gratefully waiting for a release than the people who can’t be more patient. But for some reason, the latter category seems to speak out more. Even though I’m confident they will use this cydget once it comes out. In short, thank you and saurik and take all the time you need. Just my 2 cents.
Good things come to those who wait…
I prefer getting a working app beyond beta status… :-)
Saurik keep up your thorough work!
@ Jeff
You’re an idiot! You should be thankful for everything Saurik has done for the iphone jailbreak community.
People these days are so ungrateful…
@ Ronny
You said it !
Jeff…. i must agree with Ronny… you should appreciate Sauriks work..
Keep up the good work Saurik !
[…] van Cydia) opgepikt met het voornemen om het te realiseren binnen het kader van Cydget. In de blogposting valt te lezen dat teehan+lax in de maag zit met de vertraging die het project tot nu toe heeft […]
[…] This theme is based on a design created by this website: http://www.teehanlax.com/blog/ It was a genius idea and as a genius always is a step forward, they also thought about a complete application for that. (much more reliable and efficient) That application is called Element, and for several months there has been no infos on development. Now we have an update: http://www.teehanlax.com/blog/2010/01/11/element-update/#comments […]
@Michael, @All,
i agree also – but, it can not be, so many people are waiting for this great program and only one person can make it possible
I know, saurik is very busy and has to follow his own timeline, but this program has to have much more priority to work on
But no comment on twitter about it from Jay…
The last comment from saurik about this matter was on 23th of Dec. 09.
So, i think, there is not much priority about Element Lockscreen…
I beleave, OS 4 is comming out earlyer…
It’s worth waiting for! Thank you to all involved in designing it and making it a reality.
Man….all I can say is that EVERYONE needs to pause and take a breather. LOL Now, while we’re paused….just hold your horses. Good development takes time. Now, I’m sure they could release their “Element” lockscreen at anytime, but there would be a flurry of complain emails and blog posts because their phones bricked. Be calm. Saurik has a STRONG reputation for GREAT quality software…think about that.
Personally, I can’t wait for this, but I will be quiet and do so! Thanks guys! There is so much free AHSOME stuff out here in the jailbreak world!
Someelse allready made it happen – and it works fine – clue ame235
@ Joost:
I’m using ame235’s, and it is fine, but if Saurik’s past contributions coupled with Teehan+Lax’s mock-up are anything to go by, I am as excited to see something a bit more legit, more polished, and (I’m assuming) more feature-filled.
@ Teehan:
I do hope you all have submitted this idea to the big Apple themselves. If not, I will certainly point them in the direction of your initial blog post. Who knows what could happen…
@Geoff:
hum.. ain’t got no clue on how to make it with cycript in cydgets
maybe if i get some code snippets, i would be able to.
someone? information on how to develop cydgets??
forum links/google source/specific blogs…and most of all explanations:..
cecked spinCD.cydget, appearently this coding can do anything!!
would be great to use it, but as i was sayin’, got no starting point.
@ Teehan + Lax
Can we get a permanent URL for following information about this? Perhaps by giving all of these “iPhone unlock screen” posts a common tag?
So this would now lend itself rather nicely to the iPad…
I think it’s safe at this point to call Elements a “Concept Only” that will never see the light of day. Very disappointing though. Oh well.
Any updates?… this would be the best looking and most useful homescreen/lockscreen out there.
Lockinfo
I forgot to leave the picture of my fully functional homescreen.
http://i45.tinypic.com/2aj14sn.png
Guess we can pretty much count Elements as a pretty concept vehicle, huh?
I am dying of anticipation for this, like everyone else!! ANY updates????
@ Josh:
Josh, how did you get the 4 icons on the lock screen? are you using an invisible slider? also, do you know how to get the weather icon to be accurate? i set it up for my town and for 30min refresh, but it is hung up on 19 degrees for 2 days now!
thx
Rich
@ Rich
That is actually a screenshot of the first page of my apps.
Lockinfo has a setting that replaces the first page with that. Also changes the first page dot into a home icon which is quite nice.
As for weather icon, I just use the stock iPhone weather app for the weather choice instead of a third party one.
The winterboard theme is lockinfo 235
These can all be found in Cydia.
I haven’t heard anything about Element since the day Saurik updated us on twitter about Elements, so i guess the development is cancelled or something since theres already a Lockinfo?
My prediction: In May, Apple will release a big OS update along with the iPhone 4G, the update will include integration of the “Element” idea -all this before Saurik releases anything.
Now I am getting really curious: I get Twitter anouncements and overhere nothing happens…
I find your way of informing very peculiar….
The need for time for development of software is understood, but keeping quiet?
just my 2 c
from twitter
teehanlax Just saw first demo of Teehan+Lax unlock screen! Lookin awesome. Do want. #igniteTO /via @n8garvie
:(
@ Mr. Twitter
read that too… what kind of information is that???
http://vimeo.com/10141550
It LIVES!
I am just going nuts for this thing already. Saw the video and have been waiting for element since december. I know stuff happens and development takes time. I really hope this gets to at least a beta version this month. As great as lockinfo is, it just lacks a lot of little details that apparently element offers. Come on baby!!
Finally some news on this!! The ame235 theme progress has stopped altogether and is buggy. I REALLY WANT THIS TO HAPPEN
!
Thanks for the Update guys!!
ivoyage
Just watched the ignite toronto clip and element looks great with a lot of potential. Hopefully it clear up all the missing things from both lockinfo and intelliscreen: i like the look, setup , and features like clear missed calls and sms as well as plugins like the 30 day calendar plugin, and customization rss from lockinfo, but i like the way you can pop up a news,sports,or weather story from the lockscreen and get the whole story with links and not just a 2-3 sentence summary like lockinfo….. i am always of course concerned on battery and memory life.
Thanks
How about an update on this? I saw the video and would like to know what is the next step :) Been waiting for this!
It’s here
On my iPhone
What a good friday!! Thx for everything.
ELEMENT is available since today in CYDIA
Well, it is finally here but definitely still needs some work. Some fixes were simple such as adding header text (wasn’t even in the code). Others are going to be new to me like getting the dates to display correctly, Showing a totals count in the headers and programming it to not show old data; right now my element screen shows old emails, txts, and missed calls. At this point LockInfo is definitely better especially with the newest update. Now you can call back from lock screen. Anyway, my two cents but all the work is really appriciated. Sometimes projects like this just die and its nice to see that didn’t happen.
I must say very very very disappointing…
That can’t be all after all these months….???? I have been extremely patient, but this aint it!
No header text
wrong colours of categories in calendar
impossible to change order of elements on lockscreen
IMHO these are basics…
I am back to LockInfo with TeehanLax theme….
probably for good….
@Nicolas
It’s not even version 1 yet, it’s version 0.9 … expect bugs, I’d say. :) Like the fact my calendar entries don’t appear …
@ Philippe: three weeks later and not much has happened….
and that is exactly what I mean….
Pretty cool. Slow load time and lack of customizeableness making me switch back to LockInfo, though.
I’ve heard saurik programs on Linux with a severely outdated toolchain. It’s why he can’t keep up with the rest of the app developing community, and why Cydia is so scrappy.