After several months of anticipation, Jaku for iPad has been soft launched on Cydia. This new WinterBoard theme, the work of Canadian graphic designer William Szilveszter, is inspired by the extremely popular original Jaku theme for iPhone. With a pixel-perfect icon set and other meticulously-crafted iOS elements, including the dock and notification badges, Jaku for iPad customizes nearly every aspect of the user interface.
“With the release of the new Jaku for the Retina iPad, I wanted to touch base with everyone that is flying it on their iPad,” said Szilveszter. “Firstly, thanks for the immense support. I know a ton of you have been waiting for this day and have stuck with me for over a year (flying the original Jaku for the Retina iPhone). You guys made all this possible.”
It’s important to note, however, that Jaku for iPad isn’t nearly as fleshed out as its iPhone counterpart yet. The theme doesn’t skin the lock screen, and there are custom icons missing for a number of popular apps. Nevertheless, Szilveszter is fully committed to his product — as he was with Jaku for iPhone — and will be working hard to release updates with additional icons. If you have a particular icon that you would like to request, please post its Bundle ID and icon file name in the comments section.
Szilveszter also warns that this early version of Jaku for iPad will have some bugs that need to be ironed out:
“Secondly, I want to apologize for the slew of bugs that will inevitably follow this initial release. To protect my work and ensure a launch befitting an Apple product, I elect not to use beta testers. This makes my life much harder but it also guarantees that Jaku will not be leaked and will be impactful upon release. You take the good with the bad.”
Even in this early stage, Jaku instantly becomes one of the best themes available for a jailbroken iPad. Jaku for iPad is available exclusively on the Cydia Store, within the MacCiti / ZodTTD repository, for $2.99. Version 1.0.1 of the theme has already been submitted for approval, which will include more icons and bug fixes. Full details wil be available in the changelog.
