BootLaunch was written as a proof-of-concept that it is possible to launch an app when booting an iOS device. It uses the voip key in its information plist to notify the system that it should start on boot, then tracks its own launch times and displays the most recent.

In the vast majority of cases, iOS apps do not start with the system, and there is no way to make them do so. One exception is made, for VOIP-enabled apps to establish connections and begin listening for incoming calls; all apps with the appropriate plist keys are launched on system startup, then backgrounded without user interaction. This behavior is documented by Apple.

Clone this repository, then install the app onto your own iDevice running iOS 5 or better. (In theory, later versions of iOS 4 work, but I haven't tested on them.) Once installed, launch the app once to verify it shows the current time as its boot time. Now reboot your phone. Once rebooted, reopen the app within a few seconds of booting up; you should notice that the time has changed, but that it is no longer as current as it was: the app was started by the system before you had a chance to interact with it (or even with Springboard) at all.

Why, yes. It's under the BSD 2-clause license:

Copyright (c) 2012, Tim Ekl All rights reserved.

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