MyGreatFest - Aaron Ash - The Man Behind Multifl0w and Barrel
by Joe White
September 17, 2011
The first jailbreak speaker of the day at MyGreatFest, Aaron Ash (@AaronAsh), is now on stage. He’s the author of Multifl0w and Barrel, two very popular jailbreak tweaks: The former allows users to easily multitask between open applications (this was before iOS 4, when Apple debuted its own version of multitasking); Barrel is an icon-effect tweak.
Aaron’s talking about how he makes tweaks, and how the initial idea eventually transpires into a fully-blown jailbreak tweak. He noted that one of the strangest, funniest points during the development of Multifl0w is when he got a call on his iPhone, weeks after the tweak had been released, and the caller ID read: “Palm, Inc.”
This is because the jailbreak tweak developed by Aaron Ash “took inspiration” from Palm’s mobile operating system, and the way it handles multitasking. Fortunately for Aaron, after emailing Palm and explaining his position, the company didn’t call back. Phew.
Interestingly, Aaron has mentioned a concept that involves running multiple iPhone applications at the same time, on an iPad. This is something we first heard about a while back. However, sadly the tweak isn’t nearing completion – Aaron has noted that the main issue he has encountered involves the orientation of the screens: If you have two portrait iPhone apps and one landscape app, you can’t interact with both the portrait and landscape apps at the same time.
Aaron’s working on figuring this out, but for the meantime, this concept is a work in progress.
From the Q&A:
Aaron’s jailbreak tweaks are available in Cydia.
Yes, a percentage of his users are pirates – in theory, he has lost money from piracy.
How long would it take to learn to develop? A long time to learn, but around one month to create a tweak.
He has not been approached by Apple.
His favorite jailbreak app is Barrel: “Honestly? I really like Barrel.”
Aaron Ash has left the stage. Next, there’s a giveaway – but first, there’s a 10 minute break.
