The Battle of the Home Screen (dramatic cleanup of my iPhone)
Having recently broken out of jail during the night of blackra1n, I was quite surprised to see how many icons lay idly upon my home screen. As I swiped past the first, second, third, and fourth page of applications, I became more and more unsettled by all the icons in disarray. My eye twitched in its socket and I vowed by mQuickDo and Spotlight that I would bring some semblance of order back to my screen…so that I could once again call it Home.
The shocktroopers, the trusted front line applications that I rely on, now reside inside of mQuickDo so that I may call upon them whenever they are needed. Clock, Camera, Evernote (elephaaaaaaant!), Things, and Beejive stand ready along the bottom of the screen while iPod, Phone, and Mail (loaded in the background) cover the right flank. Long live mQuickDo!
Other apps lie in ambush — icons hidden, functionality at the ready, waiting only for the call of the Spotlight to spring into action. I have selected them based on function. Some are jailbreak applications that run silently (Elert, Tlert, Universal Search) in the background, and only provide an icon to customize their settings. Others are the various Jailbreak Installers (Rock Your Phone, Cydia) and as well as the iTunes store. All are easily hidden, and yet easily recalled because of how often they are used.
The battle started off as well as could be expected, but I must remember to keep my own zeal in check, for not five minutes earlier I found myself holding the screen for longer than I intended. The apps literally started to tremble for fear of deletion, and it wasn’t until I pressed Home that they were re-assured that they were not the enemy.
Using this strategy, I have banished one and a half home screens to the abyss in a mere 30 minutes, and I feel as though a great change has come over my iPhone. Though it has lost none of its former functionality, it is now a clearer, more pristine place.
This battle is not yet over, but I leave this, a detailed account of my plan, in the hopes that it will help others fight against the chaos and disorder of their screens and take back their Homes.
WELL SAID. Want to write a couple of papers for my college classes?
In all seriousness. Very Well Done!
I swear Thomas, u could be a comedian! Is that your part-time gig?? Lol
Very good commentary. I said it the other day on Patrick's post about upgrading and 'making it rain' how I have a love/hate relationship with the process. It is such a great feeling to know that I can start from a clean slate. It's my time to do an evaluation of my app usage, and decide what's not gonna make the cut back to the phone. On the flipside, this whole process usually takes a day or two. One to update and rejailbreak, and usually the next getting everything back finalized(returning app selections, redownloading all Cydia programs, setting up themes and layout, u know the drill). I have 200+ apps in my iTunes, and making selections can sometimes be difficult besides my "key" starting lineup. But I try to base it on usage. How many times today did I use this app…none? In the last week…none? See ya! Prolly don't need ya! And if I change my mind it's still there to put back. But I like to keep my iPhone experience as streamlined and unclutterred as possible.
Thank you for this article! You put a comical spin on a topic that causes me alot of internal conflict….and I think you just changed my whole outlook! Thanks!
@ssschmidt
bahahah thanks and NO THANKS – had enough of college papers! and this piece wasn't even nearly long enough to count for any grade
@Shobizz
thanks and ditto! I mean I was hamming the problem up a bit, but I do want to make my iPhone easier to navigate and just make the whole process tighter. I'd say I have about 30-60 iPHone apps in my iTunes and I only keep the ones that I might check out an update for.
2-3 pages of APA format (lines double spaced, 12 point times new roman font, 1inch margins ) yeah it would have. LOL. Looking forward to your next installment.
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