The iPhone Lock Screen is Coming

November 9, 2009 • 140 Comments • •

iphone_home_build_preview

It seems the screens we shared of an alternative home screen for the iPhone created some buzz. We had no intention of taking it any further than a blog post but we figured this was something worth seeing through.

We got in touch with Jay Freeman a.k.a saurik. He’s the guy behind Cydia, an application for jailbroken iPhones that allows you to browse and download apps outside of actual app store. He’s crazy smart, passionate and geeky – three things we love here at T+L. Jay is going to be instrumental in making this happen.

If you haven’t already figured it out, getting this on your phone will require you to jailbreak it. That may not be an appealing option for many, but for the 2 million plus out there who have already done it and for those that are comfortable with doing it, this can be a reality.

The app and the underlying technology to make it happen are still in development so what comes out the other side will differ from what we originally proposed. The biggest change will initially be that it will render only on the lock screen. We went down this road for a number of reasons, primarily because of its relative ease of implementation, though there’s nothing easy about it. Jay is creating a framework to write custom lock screens called Cydget. Our concept will act as the guinea pig.

No word on an actual release date yet due to a last minute crash bug, but from what we hear it’s not far off. We’ll make an official announcement once it’s available. You can follow @teehanlax,
@gteehan and @saurik if you’re looking for more detail since we tend to tweet about this stuff more frequently than we blog about it.

Geoff Teehan

written by Geoff Teehan

Comments 140

  • Tony

    That mock up is so freaking sexy. I can not wait to have this on my phone. And I am SO glad that I never paid for intelliscreen…

  • gregord

    really hoping this rocks enough to kick intelliscreen off its high horse. Not pleased with how buggy intelliscreen is. Changelog keeps claiming the mail issues are fixed but they never are. Good opensource code from saurik will be awesome. that man is a coding god. cycript is quite a piece of work.

  • Geoff Teehan

    Stability is a top priority for us and especially for Jay (Saurik). It won’t be feature rich to start, but in time it should be, we’d love to tie in other apps.

    Can’t speak to the free/pay issue just yet.

  • Ernest T

    This is the greatest lockscreen that I ever seen.. Really looking forward to it.. Good job.. Keep it on.. I will supports you guys when it’s released…

  • iComment

    “Tony said:
    That mock up is so freaking sexy. I can not wait to have this on my phone.”

    I 2nd that!! I’ts concept is so clean and sleek! It’s like the best theme already installed.

    http://www.teehanlax.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/slide_unlock.jpg

    I would like it to be scrollable when locked and maybe it would be nice if the trigger buttons (>) were active when the phone is locked since there too small to accidently unlock your phone.

  • Timbot

    Hi guys, really cool stuff!
    May I ask though, why you went the jailbreak route rather than going to an open platform such as Android that was devised for the kind of customization you are looking to do? Was it the other apps available for iphone, outside of the OS itself?
    Don’t get me wrong, I love what you’re up to. Can’t wait to see it, shoot me a line if you want some testers!
    -timbot

  • Francesco Minciotti

    I used to be an early-jailbreaker, way back to my iPod touch 1G (when you had to manually overwrite the whole file system and blahblah). As of now, with my iPhone 3Gs 3.1.2, I don’t have many reasons to jailbreak again, except for 3G VoIP calls and profiles (as in Nokia’s cellphones). A loss I can live with.
    Today, with your announcement, my perspective is going to change: I’m going to be gladly back again on the jailbreaking train, as soon as this awesome beauty will be published on Cydia.

    Great, great stuff!

  • Chad Engle

    I am excited to see that this is being produced! I think it will be a welcomed addition to any iPhone. I know this next part is going to be a long shot however, I would like to see it played out.

    I think you guys should approach Apple about using this as their new home screen. The current home screen does nothing except tell the time and if the phone is locked or not. I would like no, love to see this carried over the platform and would be a vast improvement over what it has now.

    That being said, I know how they are with app approval process so there is probably no chance they would hear you out. I do wish they would and let you produce the home screen. Jailbreaking will be the next best thing and I am excited to see how well you all do! The beginning concepts are amazing.
    Cheers,

  • Murtaza

    Any ideas on price (hopefully free?) ? and will you have a public beta?
    Also, your pictures show it as a gray background. If you have a lock screen wallpaper will this be transparent and on top?

  • Geoff Teehan

    @Murtaza The beta may be free but something this useful should be worth buying. It won’t cost as much as others (intelliscreen) but we’ll likely need to charge for it. If we gave it away for free we’d be far less likely to care about its quality or its continual improvement.

  • Murtaza

    Great to hear. I understand where you are coming from when it comes to charging for it, I look forward to the release.

  • dsi r4

    That’s very cool. I use the Gruppled lock info set up on my phone and it takes a while (and ssh) to configure it all. Hopefully something like this is just a Cydia install away with no need for any other programs to configure it.

  • Joost

    I think it will be in Cydia under Section/Cydgets (Lock), as a Cydget and you choose it in the app. Cydget/settings – Lock Cydget Order.

  • The Spirit

    can´t wait to see a first beta build.
    when will you have a first beta available via cydia? which repository?

  • Bill

    I currently use Intelliscreen and am pretty happy with it, though it does have some quirks. Your mock-up does look much cleaner, but one feature I’d need to have in order to consider switching would be the reminder and notification enhancements from Intelliscreen (or something similar). I’m talking about the persistent notifiers of appointments, missed calls, etc. that show up on Intelliscreen and beep at regular intervals until you acknowledge them.

  • Aaron

    This looks wonderful. You would gain a lot by making the “Slide to Unlock” element fade gradually to black as you get closer to the bottom of the screen. It might necessitate changing the particular image you use for the sliding throbber. The problem with lockscreens that display information past that break is that the visual transition is abrupt, and it’s not always immediately clear that there is additional information if you but scroll down. Just my 2 cents.

  • Geoff Teehan

    @Stephan Glas: Lockscreen to start.

    @Bill: That sounds very interesting. The initial beta won’t have that functionality, but once we start using this thing we’ll be looking to make changes and improvements. We can keep this in mind.

    @Jonathan: We’re at the mercy of an external developer who also happens to be building out the framework. Unfortunately this makes things very hard to nail down in terms of timelines. Apologies for that.

    @Aaron Makes sense Aaron. It won’t be like that to begin, but like I said, once we actually use this in the real world we’ll be looking to make improvements.

  • Joost

    Geoff Teehan said:
    We’re at the mercy of an external developer who also happens to be building out the framework. Unfortunately this makes things very hard to nail down in terms of timelines. Apologies for that.

  • kan

    any word from your developer? Is there an email list you can put me on to notify me when this is good to go?

  • jakob peters

    I’ve been looking into how to develop this concept on both android and iphone. all it needs to be is a notification collector that allows the user to choose what apps will show their events on the lock screen! for iphone, it would merely need to interact with the push system to get it working for IM. the framework is much more readily available on android since it already has a well thought out notification system, but just no preview method.

    here’s my design concepts:

    *Preview notifications on the lockscreen: The preview panel replaces the lock screen, and allows you to see your notifications. Mainly this is useful so you can quickly check what your waiting messages say with just one press of the lock button to light up your screen. It’s faster and simpler than having to unlock it and launch your notification panel.
    *Customizable: check only those programs you wish to see in the locked-screen notification preview. Any program you have on the device which uses notifications will be available. You can also customize further to specify whether you want the LED and what type/color.
    *Different unlock options: choose from standard lock button + slide, double press lock button, or lock button + shake of the device

  • Geoff Teehan

    Just a quick update to say that we haven’t heard from Jay Freeman (the developer) in a bit about this. It’s been a challenge to say the least trying to get this product out there. Apologies for the continued delays and I’ll continue to provide updates here (and on twitter) as they become available. Hang in there!

  • Georgios

    Geoff good morning. I know that it is hard working software especially if you want to have it as perfect as possible following this kind of anticipaction from the people globaly.

    Please advise us that it is not just a mere marketing trick. The anticipation i.e.

    Best regards
    Georgios
    Greece

  • Joost

    Jay Freeman don´t even answer mails about items in Cydiastore anymore – I´ve been waiting for two weeks – no reply at all.

    @Teehan W´ll hang in here – globally!

  • Spuernova

    I hapen to know Jay Freeman. First he got this nasty swine flu, and due to complication, he had to be hospitalized. I think there is an infection in his heart muscle, and that is why he hasn’t been around much. I have to check on him again to see if he will be reased from the hospital sometime soon.

    Best wishes to Jay, and happy recovery.

  • Marco

    From an education perspective I am frankly shock that Jay would have any time left for outside projects, considering he is a Ph.D. student… they are extremely busy. I am rooting for him to finish this… get well soon Jay!

  • Debts

    Right now I like the way that LockInfo and Cydget are working together, and I went ahead and paid for LockInfo before the trial ran out. However, those pictures show a very classy lock screen that I would love to have. Can’t wait to see how this evolves. Take your time guys and get a full release of this out.

  • jtchurch

    I heard a rumor that he is not sick, just ashamed of announcing the Element too early and not being able to follow through yet.

  • Ryan

    If you want I can get this to work with the home screen like you first imagined.

    I’ve managed to hook in to SpringBoard’s icon scroll view and overlay something for just the first screen, and it works, so if you want just contact the email I put in the box above.

  • Mio Navman Spirit S500T

    The Teehan+Lax iPhone home screen concept is about to become a reality thanks to saurik. Initially the concept will materialize as a lockscreen widget via saurik’s new Cydget framework. Dubbed Element, a beta will hopefully be available by next week. This will only be available to those of you who have jailbroken your iPhones.

  • Peter Daugulis

    This truly is a classy and functional setup. I hope it is available from the repo soon. I too have purchased “Lockinfo” and have been encouraged by the community including “Grumpler”.

  • Syed Gangsta

    teehanlax-235 lockinfo is on cydia been using it and have to admit I’ve fallen in love, but this prelease does have a bug that seems not clear weather info when new info is rendered resulting in scrambled text and image of weather icon, rest seems to work as it should.

  • christian,

    Syed Gangsta: The software you are talking about is a simple knock off (but I admit it’s well carried out). Been using it myself for a couple of days.

    I hope, like everyone else, Elemental is released soon.
    From what I’ve heard, Jay is finishing it up. He’s just having some problems with the weather function.

  • Christophe

    for weather watch lonckinfo of madrippeur sorter and we urgently programe can not wait done soon !!!!!

  • Georgios

    Many happy returns of the day. Looking forward to this so expected release.
    Seasongs Greetings – Georgios Greece

  • Mikke76

    Hi,
    is there someone that has teehanlax-235 lockinfo? I’ve, but I can’t change the default weather icon (Luxemburg), in some posts I’ve seen this path:

    Open up the config.js file found under:
    /Library/Themes/235_teehanlax_Lockinfo.theme/Bundles/com.ashman.LockInfo/
    but, what is this? Do I need a SSH connection?
    Please help me!

  • Josh

    I agree Celf. Or if anything, they hype this once had is gone.
    I’ve given up waiting for this.

  • Manager

    @Josh – yes, i feel with you.

    i just payed for IntelliScreen, because of the ending trial period.
    I use my Iphone for business work and need a tool like this.

    Remember:
    Nov 16: a first beta version will be available next week…
    - Where is it ???

    I agree with Celf and Josh…

  • Jeremyu

    Hello Mikke76

    When you find config.js file, you have edit something.
    First open config.js file with your text editor (ex. Textedit something)
    Then find ‘WEATHER SETTINGS’ section,

    The point is your have to change var locales,
    My region is seoul, korea. so i changed that region code like below,

    var locales = [ "ASI|KR|KS013|SEOUL" ];

    you can find proper location code from http://accuweather.com

    Good Luck ;)

  • christian,

    Manager, Josh & Celf: don’t blame this extremly delayed release on these guys. It’s Jay Saurik who is developing Element for them, as a cydget. If you follow their Twitter you would have known this.

    But I must say that I to are getting aggrevated about this. The lockinfo theme
    sure work fine, but since it’s a HTML theme it consumes a lot of battery.

  • Nicolas

    Better to have an app that runs instead of a halfcooked alpha status release blowing our beloved toys…

    Am I right, or am I right?

    Patience is a gift ;-)

  • jeff

    I was so psyched for this, actually one of the main things I finally caved to JB my phone for. I’d like to hope this was serious but if it was that close to being done, and that was an actual screen shot, then I kinda think everyone is correct in saying this was mock-up at best. Please proof me wrong!

  • Mikke76

    Hi Jeremyu ,
    first, thank you for your help. I’m not very found in this things so my problem is where I can find config.js ? In my phone or I have to download it? Is texedit downloadable from Cydia?
    Thank you again
    bye bye

  • Jeremyu

    Hello Mikke76

    Why don’t you try release website ^^
    This is link..

    http://www.ame235.com/ame235/2009/12/05/lockinfo-theme-release/#more-604

    you can find lots of information about teehanlax-235 lockinfo
    i promise ^^

    Additional,
    Yes you have to download config.js file from iphone
    In case of me, i use Cyberduck software. (i am mac user)
    Connect sftp protocal use WIFI you’re iphone, then download config.js file.
    and Edit then, overwrite again ^^

    Good Luck.. buddy :)

  • bashpunk

    I still don’t beleive this is a hoax – here’s a Twitter post from Saurik: “I have not figured out what to do about Weather yet, but everything else in Element works. I am working on optimizing it now.
    10:22 PM Dec 23rd, 2009 from web in reply to xxxxxxxx”
    (Note the timestamp…)
    So – patience is a gift.
    Btw I think that LockInfo is great, but as we all know it consumes to much power… I’ll wait…

  • Celf

    I think this page is abandoned. This “program” isn’t even subject of their twitter feeds (anymore?).

  • Augure

    1) Design. Don’t forget the buzz and the appeal comes before all from the design of this app

    2) Why abandonning the function on the springboard ? What’s the point in this app if this is not to bring the only missing thing to other lockscreen solution ?

    3) Stability. The recurent problem about jailbroken app is stability. Compare performance, battery and fluidity to other lockscreen solution.

    4) Widget/Cydget. This is big, it means than one can bring any website or software to the lockscreen: facebook, linkedin, twitter, netflix…

  • wongnog

    in the default LockInfo 2.0.0-7 screen, there is a little “x” next to new emails that you can click to mark the mail as read, then it will disappear from the lock screen. Is this something that can be implemented in your theme? I tried to look at the config.js for a setting, but couldn’t find one. Also for calendar events, how do I remove the “In 2 Days” or “In 4 Days” messages?

  • Mark Tomlin

    Element is now on the Cydia store now, and it’s free.

    You can find it by tapping on the sections part in the bottom bar, then going to CyGadets, and clicking on Element.

    Looks great, however the implementation could of been better. There are some small things that put you off such as the text -slide to unlock- while you scroll the screen this part freezes and takes away from the polish. Also I don’t see why the home screen image is now while this is installed.

    It still looks stunning tho. Very nice work.

  • Tobias Platzer

    Hey Guys!
    I’m using the Element-Lockscreen on the iPhone 3GS. But I think, one thing is left: To control the iPod-Music via Element-Lockscreen.
    Sorry for my English, but I’m from Germany ;)
    Would be nice, if I can get an answer from you :)

  • Debt

    Gotta say I was super excited when I first read about the iPhone LockScreen and now that I’ve used it I’m even more impressed. Nice and slick!

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