Previously, we brought you news of the Samsung Galaxy S III Toolkit by mskip. The toolkit includes various features and makes many otherwise tedious tasks easy. Since then, another version of the Galaxy S III was released, known as the Galaxy S III I9305. It’s quite similar to the I9300, except it comes with a LTE-enabled quad core Exynos processor. Now, it has been added to the Galaxy S III toolkit.

XDA Senior Moderator and Recognized Developer mskip has updated the regular Galaxy S III toolkit to include support for the I9305. It has all of the features of the regular version, including:

Install drivers automatically
Backup/Restore a single package or all apps, user data and Internal Storage
Backup your /data/media (virtual SD Card) to your PC for a Full Safe backup of data
Perform a FULL NANDROID Backup of your system via adb and save in Custom Recovery format on your PC
Pull /data and /system folders, compress to a .tar file and save to your PC
Auto Update ToolKit to latest push version on startup (donator feature)
Backup/Restore your /efs partition
Dump selected Phone Partitions, compress to a .zip file with md5 and save to your PC
Install BusyBox binary on phone
Root any public build INCLUDING JELLY BEAN (different options available)
[B]Root with Superuser (ChainsDD) or SuperSU (Chainfire) via CWM (works on ANY build)
Flash Stock Recovery
Flash CWM Touch Recovery (thanks to TeamEpic) or CF-CWM Recovery (thanks to Chainfire)
Rename Recovery Restore files if present
Flash Insecure Boot Image for adb mode
Flash Stock Boot Image back to your phone
Create tar file to flash via Odin with 1-click process
Download, Extract and Flash Stock Rom (full DETAILED steps) ESSENTIAL FOR WARRANTY RETURNS
SIM Unlock phone to any Network (thanks to Adam Lange)
Rip cache.img to zip file in CWM format for editing and flashing (thanks to Adam Lange)
Install a single apk or multiple apk’s to your phone
Push Files from your PC to your phone
Pull Files from your phone to your PC
Set Files Permissions on your phone
Dump selected LogCat buffers to your PC
Dump BugReport to your PC (if installed)
Help, Information Screen for various tasks
Mods Section to Modify your phone
Reboot Phone options in adb mode
Change background, text colour in ToolKit
Activate Donator features from within the ToolKit

That’s a very, very long list of features. If you have an I9305 and you’ve been looking for some help on how to the above, this is a toolkit for you.

For more details, check out the original thread.

With the official update to Jelly Bean imminent, most rooted users with the Samsung Galaxy S III are pretty much already running it. Whether it be one of the leaks directly or one of the ROMs based on the leaks is inconsequential, Jelly Bean is Jelly Bean. However, there are a few features that didn’t quite make it to the Jelly Bean ROMs—one of which is Samsung’s Smart Rotation. Now there is a method to get it back.

Thankfully the method isn’t overly difficult. It will require that you know how to decompile APK files, which is easy to learn. Users will need to decompile the SecSettings.apk to get started. Then, users must navigate to smali/com/android/settings/DisplaySettings and make a few code adjustments. After that, it’s a matter of putting everything back together and pushing it back to your Galaxy S III.

The method was written up by XDA Forum Member Препод, and shouldn’t take users very long. Once done, you’ll have the Smart Rotation option in your Display settings. If you’re not up to the challenge of making the necessary changes yourself, there is also a couple of ClockwokMod flashable zips to use. They won’t work on all ROMs, but they should at least work on the stock ones.

For more details, check out the original thread.

When it comes to fixing bricks, be they hard or soft bricks, we usually have our own way of doing things. Whether it is creating jigs to force phones into download mode or unbrick mods that bring dead phones back to life, we’ve always operated in such a way that we haven’t really needed OEM support. That isn’t to say that we wouldn’t like OEM support, but they rarely hand out their repair guides.

XDA Senior Member Net.silb has managed to get a hold of the official bricked repair guide for the Samsung Galaxy S III. It is definitely an exciting read, and it outlines how Samsung handles bricked Samsung Galaxy S III devices. It is a very involved process and requires both hardware and software expertise to fix. Therefore, it is not recommended for beginners. According to the manual, you’ll be walked through the following process:

- Brief JTAG process for GT-I9300
1) Copying JTAG(bootloader) file to external SD Card, using normal GT-I9300.
2) inserting the SD card to ‘No Power’ phone, and copy the bootloader file to the defective PBA.
3) After downloading bootloader file to the defective phone, enter the download mode with the phone, and download Full S/W.(PIT, PDA, CSC, PHONE files)

In short, you will put the bootloader on a SD card, put it in the phone, use a few hardware tricks to get it to download to the phone, and use Odin to flash the firmware. There is also a picture and reference to the elusive Samsung Anyway Jig. Additionally, it is shown that when you use this method, you’ll be flashing the bootloader over something called SDCard Mode.

If you follow the process, you’ll have a functioning Galaxy S III from a previously soft-bricked device. However, that is only about half of the significance of this document. The big prize here is seeing how the Samsung techs get it done. If you’d like more info, check out the original thread.

Update: However, as Elite Recognized Developer AdamOutler points out: “This is not JTAG. It is a replacement for Joint Action Test Group and has nothing to do with JTAG. It boots Odin from SD after you short a resistor. Its closer to UnBrickable Mod than JTAG.”

Modifications always have the capacity to cause problems. Software mods can cause bugs and hardware mods can cause a new hardware problem. Usually these problems aren’t as annoying as the original problems that got fixed, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t annoying. There are Samsung Galaxy S III users who are going through something similar to this right now. The issue is that if you use a cut down SIM card in the SIM card try, it sometimes gets stuck in there.

Normally, getting the card out requires some interesting tactics. Some suggestions include toothpicks with super glue and completely disassembling the phone. XDA Forum Member Nicholas68 has found an easier way. It isn’t the most technologically advanced way, but at least it doesn’t require using super glue.

It does take time, though, and a lot of it. What Nicholas68 suggests is using a thumb tack—or anything with a small, sharp point—and use the hole in the SIM card tray to move it a millimeter at a time. Tedious? You bet, but it will also help get the card out of the tray with minimal damage to both. It seems silly, but when the alternative methods is super glue and phone disassembly, it’s probably a good idea to take the long route.

For more details and pictures, check out the original thread.

Not too long ago, we featured Directory Bind, a handy Android app that lets you bind directories your phone to directories on other partitions. It is especially useful for using your external SD card to store app data that normally resides in the internal SD card.

While it was originally built for the Samsung Galaxy S II, Directory Bind was reported to work on several other devices, including the Galaxy S III. However, several users came across problems with using it on the S III. That’s why XDA Recognized Contributor bala_gamer wrote a comprehensive guide on how to properly use it on Samsung Galaxy S III.

This step-by-step newbie-friendly guide details the configuration options you have to edit and the entries you have to add, along with screenshots of the entire process. It also offers a few handy tips to help you use Directory Bind most efficiently.

You can find the complete guide at the forum thread.

Do you have the BELL variant of Galaxy S III SGH-I747M, and find yourself jealous of owners of all the other variants who have been getting leaked Jelly Bean builds for their SGSIII devices? Your wait is over, as a leaked Jelly Bean build has appeared for the device.

The I747MVLALI2c build is based on Android 4.1.1, and is an internal Samsung leak for the BMC Region. It was posted to the forums by Senior Member AdamLange. Being a Samsung-created build, it’s running TouchWiz. Note that it’s in the form of an incremental update, and thus you need to have Samsung’s official latest I747MVLALH1 build already running on your device to be able to flash it.

More details can be found at the forum thread. XDA Senior Member mixxy has also provided us with a step-by-step tutorial for getting it up and running—including instructions on getting back to the latest stock ICS build if you are currently on a custom ROM.

When you buy any of Samsung’s newer devices, you have a choice to make. If you stick with stock firmware, you can use either  S-Voice or you can go with Google Now. However, when using Google Now, you may still find that S-Voice is still around doing things even when you don’t want it to. Now, there’s a way to get Google Now running and turn S-Voice off for good.

The method was posted by XDA Senior Member Ghstudent. Despite being released for the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S III, it should be compatible with all Galaxy S III devices and possibly even non-Galaxy S III devices with S-Voice in their ROMs.

It is a pretty easy method to use. Users will need to be rooted, of course. From there, it is a three step process where users install Google Now, activate it, and then replace all instances where S-Voice is used with Google Now. Users will need at least a root manager application and home2 shortcut, which helps remap the home button so that a double click will launch Google Now. Once completed, users should have a number of ways to get to Google Now and should be able to avoid S-Voice.

For more details, go to the original thread.