SpringBoard

【SpringBoard】

　　Springboard, or Home Screen, is the standard application that manages the iOS home screen. Other tasks include starting WindowServer, launching and bootstrapping applications and setting some of the device's settings on startup.

　　On jailbroken devices, unsigned applications (applications installed through Cydia) cannot be deleted by the traditional method of holding a finger on the application and selecting delete. Instead, they need to be removed through Cydia, unless CyDelete is installed, which allows for that method to be used.

　　Researchers found that on mobile devices users organize icons on their SpringBoards mainly based on usage-frequency and relatedness of the applications, as well as for reasons of usability and aesthetics.

　　In iPhone OS/iOS versions 1.1.3 and beyond, Springboard natively renders third-party icons. Jailbroken applications are stored in /Applications, instead of Apple's native third-party application folder of /var/mobile/Applications.

　　The Springboard on jailbroken devices can also be customized with themes or skins. Themes are applied through WinterBoard, an application from the jailbroken third-party installer Cydia. Applications and user interface elements of Springboard can be manually themed but most users choose to use WinterBoard as it is more stable, easier, and offers features such as being able to enable/disable themes whenever the user chooses. Cydia can be downloaded via third-party applications such as evasi0n or redsn0w.

　　As of iPhone OS 4.3.3, Springboard looks for applications in the /Applications and /var/mobile/Applications directories of the iPhone's filesystem to display on the home screen.

　　Mac OS X Lion included a new feature called 'Launchpad". This feature was based on the Springboard feature in iOS software. It included the same features (like folders) but was not made as the home screen, more an extension on the dock (like Dashboard).

　　Before the Developer Preview of Mac OS X Lion, Launchpad was named Springboard. Even though the name displayed in the dock remains the same, the images used to make up Launchpad are still named "Springboard" (or "sb"), and can be found in /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources.

参考：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpringBoard