theNeocell.com

SBSettings Vs. BossPrefs

May12

So there’s still a lotta’ searchin’ goin’ on on the site about SBSettings, and a popular one is “SBSettings vs. BossPrefs” and also “SBSettings performance”. So let’s get into that.

SBSettings vs. BossPrefs. Which is better and which should you use? First, know that SBSettings is sorta’ like an upgrade of BossPrefs. Think of SB as Windows Vista and Boss as Windows XP. SB and Vista can both do more than Boss and XP, but runs down your system to a point where it’s really not worth it. Windows XP (BossPrefs) technically does less, but people don’t use Windows Vista (SBSettings) because of how horrible it runs. That’s kinda’ a good way of comparing the two.

BossPrefs is just an app you quickly open and turn things on and off. What the developers decided to do was make a “better” version that, instead of you having to open an app, they would make a program run in the background where you could swipe your finger across the screen and bring up your little on-off buttons.

The reason the developers think SBSettings is far better than BossPrefs is the fact it runs in the background, but that’s actually the reason that makes it bad… it runs in the background.

The iPhone OS can only handle so many things running in the background and when you have things running in the background, it of course slows things down some. I talked about it in detail before, and SBSettings does slow your sytem down.

SBSettings and BossPrefs both have the same things, they can hide icons and a bunch of other stuff. But there’s one thing SBSettings can do that BossPrefs can’t; brightness. SB can give you quick access to your brightness. BossPrefs can’t.

With BossPrefs, you can double tap your home button and bring it up, but it closes out the app you were working on. SBSettings, you can bring it up over your app, turn something on or off or change brightness and go right back into your app. But, SBSettings eats into your performance in order to do this. You’ll actually use SBSettings less than 1% the time your on your iPhone, yet it runs in the background 100% of the time your using your iPhone. See what I’m sayin’?

When comparing the two, I do love SBSettings, but I don’t recommend it to anybody… any-body… over BossPrefs. We need to find ways to keep our jailbroken iPhones as quick as regular iPhones, not find ways to slow them down.

Peace, J

Ryan

Thanks for this post. I had SBSettings installed and it suddenly became as slow as shit. Now I've removed SBSettings and installed BossPrefs instead.

johnbbaird

Hey Ryan, I'm glad I could help. I no longer have a need to run a jailbroken iPhone, but I hope BigBoss continues its development of BossPrefs.

Now with multitasking, I'd think it'd be easier to use BossPrefs by simply activating the app switcher, switching to it and then activating the app switcher to switch back to what you were doing. Given the advancements of iOS 4 (and the greater resource requirements), now more than ever jailbroken iOS devices really can't afford the performance hit of SBSettings. Stay away from that crap.

Peace, JbB

Raggsthedr

I am so relieved to read this article by you, had installed Bossprefs but was confused since every article on net was praising sbsettings but thanks to you my mind is clear now...I just want to keep my iPhone simple and use it for calls/messages only....as it is I regret hitting the upgrade icon in itunes and then JB my iPhone:(....the only problem left unsolved is regarding NOTES....it does not open and i can't view my previous notes....can u please help me with that?

Regards,
Raggs.

Raggsthedr

I would also like to add two things here

1. 'E' sign is till showing on the screen even after turning EDGE off with BossPrefs.

2. Cydia does not open now that ive installed BossPrefs....Should I just leave it like that or whtr I'll be requiring cydia in future....as I mentioned earlier I just use my iPhone for calls/sms and listening to music.

johnbbaird

Hey Raggsthedr. Man, your notes app ain't workin'? That sucks. One good things is that I actually don't recommend people use Notes anymore. I recommend they download the free Evernote app and use it as your notes program. Evernote (http://www.evernote.com) is a cloud-based notes solution. Evernote is free to use and all notes you create on your iPhone (when your connected currently to the internet) are synced to the cloud. So your notes are backed up automatically (like Gmail or Google Docs is) and you can access your notes or create notes from evernote.com or the iPhone app. Best of all, if your iPhone gets messed up and you have to restore, your notes are backed up via the cloud. (Just don't use it for anything other than text notes, as voice memos and pictures are meant to make you pay a monthly upgrade charge.)

The edge symbol ("E") still showing issue... There's nothing you can really do about it, but it's important to make that BossPrefs really is turning your cellular data off (browse a web page; if it loads, it's not off). If it's not, you can turn off "Cellular Data" via Settings-General.

Cydia not opening? That would be a deal breaker for me. Being a jailbroken phone, Cydia is a MUST. It is the only way to install / uninstall jailbroken apps.

My advice is to backup your phoneand restore your phone via iTunes (which it won't be jailbroken anymore), since you said you regret the issues happenin'. Then, don't jailbreak (but do upgrade your apps via the iTunes app as there's nothing problematic about upgrading apps).

But just make sure you do plenty of research on how to backup your iPhone and do a proper restore. Then if you don't notice any goofy issues like you did when you were jailbroken, you good baby. Don't bother jailbreaking.

Peace, JbB

Raggsthedr

Thanks a ton :)) for all your help...you're doing a gr8 job...keep up d gud work

God Bless.
Raggs :)

BigBoss

Actually SBSettings does not run in the background (which I believe is the whole premise of this article). Instead, it hooks springboard functions. When certain events inside springboard occur, springboard (which is a single process already running without sbsettings installed) causes the sbsettings window to open. When you close the window, it goes back to being idle again. It uses about 1mb of memory to exist but does not run in the background, does not slow the device down, and does not cause performance issues. It would be very nice if some research could be done before posting these sorts of articles :(

johnbbaird

I'm not an iPhone coder, but I will repeat what I said in that yes, it does run in the background. I won't attempt to explain how it does its thing. But it does run in the background. The fact that your able to activate SBSettings from anywhere in your iPhone (by swiping the top of the screen) clearly proves that.

The performance issue is not when activating SBSettings, it's when it's not being used. Why does SBSettings slow down other functions of an iPhone when you don't have SBSettings open? Because is does, in fact... run in the background. If it didn't, you wouldn't be able to bring it up at any time. This is a fanboy mentality about SBSettings that I've discussed before and not everyone's buying it.

http://www.theneocell.com/say-...

I've done by own research that this does slow down an iPhone by simply using it with SBSettings installed and using it without SBSettings installed. A simple Google search shows that.

It's unfortunate because I have to turn wifi and bluetooth on and off the hard way compared to the easy way of SBSettings, but it's not worth the performance hit, even with the Neocell 3GS, as I mentioned here...

http://www.theneocell.com/nece...

Peace, JbB