iPhone Tip: Get Home Screen Widgets for Quick Settings Tweaks [UPDATE]

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brdrck.me / Techland Illustration

The iPhone doesn’t do widgets, at least not officially. But thanks to developer Jeff Broderick, iPhone users can now add settings widgets to their home screens, providing shortcuts to airplane mode, brightness, Bluetooth and other options.

Here’s how to add a few basic widgets to the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, with no jailbreaking or hacking required:

  1. Go to brdrck.me/settings on your iOS device.
  2. Tap on any icon to begin installation.
  3. Tap “Install Shortcut.” Alternately, you can just add this page to your home screen, but the installation option seems to work faster.
  4. Tap “Install” when you reach the “Install Profile” page, then hit “Install Now.”
  5. Tap “Done,” and the widget will now appear on your home screen.

These iPhone widgets aren’t quite as handy as the quick settings widgets you find on Android phones, because they can’t adjust settings directly from the home screen. They’re basically just shortcuts to certain parts of the Settings app. Still, they’re faster than digging through a bunch of menus.

UPDATE: Enjoy it while it lasts, folks. According to AppleInsider, Apple will disable these shortcuts in iOS 5.1, which is currently in beta.

[via Business Insider]

MORE: Hidden iPhone Tricks: Secret Keyboard and Panoramic Photos