ColorKeyboard: theme the iphone keyboard without iAcces

Having written recent posts on theming the iPhone and jailbreaking the iPhone, it would be remiss of me not to note the recent release of a very cool theming tool for jailbroken phones called ColorKeyboard.

This is a paid for app on Cydia, but I think worth it for what it does. Those that are familiar with iPhone theming may know about an app called iAcces. This is an app that was originally designed to provide Asian language keyboards, but has been hijacked by theme makers to provide themed keyboards for their themes. However, there are a few drawbacks (at least from my point of view) of iAcces. First, it’s damn expensive. Secondly, it is it’s own keyboard “system”, so it effectively replaces the native keyboard, and behaves quite differently – it takes a lot of getting used to. Thirdly, it takes up a lot of RAM, which can be a problem on a device that has limited RAM. Fourthly, it drains my battery faster than it would otherwise with the native keyboard.

ColorKeyboard is different from iAcces in a number of respects. It basically themes the native keyboard, so all of the downsides to iAcces I’ve listed above don’t apply. Furthermore, customising the keyboard theme is very easy – although you will have to get your hands dirty in a bit of XML style configuration. The finished product looks pretty good. So if you’re into iPhone theming and want to take things a little bit further, download and start playing with ColorKeyboard. They have a good tutorial on their website on how to make a theme for it.

If you use the Prestige theme, here’s a copy of my theme file.