ActionSlider: Kill Background Apps, Launch Siri, Takes Screenshot & More [NC Widget]

A new feature-rich jailbreak widget ActionSlider for Notification Center has just hit the underground Cydia store which adds power to your slider. ActionSlider gives you two extra muscles (Right Middle, Left Middle) and instead of simply sliding to the right and left, you can slide only the middle of the right or the middle of the left. For each of the four slider positions (center position is non-functional), you can do any of the following actions:

• Close app – It just imitates the action of Home Button and simply closes the application you have currently opened.
• Kill app – Forcibly closes and kills the application you have currently opened from the App Switcher
• Kill background – kills background applications (such as navigation apps like TomTom), but not the application you’re currently in
• Kill background all – kills everything; the application you’re in and everything running in the background in one fall swoop.
• Show switcher – opens up the App Switcher
• Wiggle switcher – puts the App Switcher into jiggle mode so you can kill applications
• Now playing bar – opens up the App Switcher and displays the iPod controls section
• Activate Siri – Invoke Siri assistant so you can query something
• Capture screen – takes a screenshot
• None – does nothing

Some applications such as Skype and TomTom runs in the background and even when you hit the Home button, these applications keeps on running in the background which can quickly drain your battery life. In such case, ActionSlider tweak comes to your rescue, which allows you to kill all background apps in one fell swoop.

But there could be other application which you want to run them all the time – like when you want to keep your Messages and Mail app running in background. ActionSlider’s setting preferences lets you white list selected applications. This nifty feature comes handy in situation when you choose to kill all applications running in the background except a few white listed one.

Siri can also be launched via this NC widget without straining the home button. To configure any of the actions listed above, simply launch Notification Center and use the knob to drag either left or in right direction. You will then find the four locations where you can add the actions. ActionSlider for Notification Center can be enabled or disabled at any point of time by dragging it in and out of NC from the Notifications preferences pane in the Settings.app.

After you install this tweak, you must activate the new ActionSlider addon.  To enable any NotificationCenter widgets /add-ons, simply go to Settings -> Notifications -> (X). NC widgets are available on devices that are jailbroken and on iOS 5 (5.x) only (with the exception of native widgets that come with iOS 5).

Developed by Merlin Mao, ActionSlider widget is available in Cydia store for $0.99 under the BigBoss repo for jailbroken iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. We’d recommend you download it, and take it for a spin. If you enjoy spicing upNotificationCenter on your jailbroken iOS device, this is a tweak you don’t want to miss. Do not forget to share your thoughts.