If you peruse XDA, you’ve likely installed custom ROMs on your phone. Often we find the perfect ROM when it comes to the features, but would prefer it to have a different look. Many times that can be changed with themes, but those can often vary from ROM to ROM, and not everyone may want to apply all the aspects of a theme.

XDA Senior Member rehpyc has come up with a way of customizing the look of your ROM installation right from recovery. The mod is built on the AROMA Installer, and it puts you into the driver seat—letting you choose your own modifications right from a touch-based GUI in recovery. Currently, you can choose the following styles:

• Battery style
• Clock position
• Brightness slider
• Placement of the date/clear button bar
• Transparency % of the notification area
• Number of lidroid toggles shown without scrolling
• Text labels shown or hidden below those toggles

The mod is currently only available for the Galaxy S III, and being an initial release, it has its limitations. However, given the active development, and the possibility to integrate this into ROMs directly, there is a good amount of future potential.

To learn more and get started, head over to the original thread.

The Samsung Galaxy S III has been widely touted as one of the best Android devices currently available. As such, we here at the XDA Portal have been reporting on it extensively for quite some time. However, there are still some kinks to be worked out, even on this massively successful device, and one of those kinks just got fixed. Now, users can monitor their CPU temperatures in real time.

It seems like such a trivial thing, and no one can really explain why Samsung didn’t enable this in the first place, but that doesn’t matter anymore. XDA Recognized Contributor bala_gamer has posted a thread where users can enable CPU temp monitoring. The original method was discovered by XDA Senior Member viking37.

Initially it was thought that you had to have a stock kernel to get real time CPU monitoring, but after further research it appears as though all kernels support it. From there, you install System Tuner Pro with the Notifications Package. For more info, check out the original thread.

Overclocking your CPU can be a lot of fun. When successful, one can experience anything from increased performance to less game lag. Despite the hit to battery life, overclocking is a pretty popular activity among electronics owners. Something that not so many people know, though, is that overclocking a mobile device can involve more than just changing the processor clock. Many kernels also allow one to change the processor voltage and sometimes even overclock the GPU as well. For Samsung Galaxy S III owners, you now have a guide to help you make sense of it all.

The guide covers pretty much all of the basics including the advantages and disadvantages of overclocking and underclocking, the advantages and disadvantages of undervolting, and a list of commonly stable overclock and underclock values along with their stock voltages, though one must keep in mind the highly variable nature of individual pieces of silicon. Of course, most are aware of the advantages of overclocking. Usually it means a faster GUI, faster application load and response time, and just all around improved performance. However with that comes some risk, such as blowing out your hardware entirely. Written by XDA Recognized Contributor bala_gamer, the guide covers pretty much everything and includes everything you need to get started, such as an overclocking-compatible kernel and all the necessary tools.

For more info, check the original thread.

Having your SIM locked doesn’t usually cause a lot of problems. Sure, it means you’re stuck on whatever carrier you’re currently on, but otherwise it doesn’t really hinder things like root, flashing ROMs, etc. That isn’t to say that unlocking the SIM isn’t useful. Those who travel or simply want to remove carrier restrictions can benefit from SIM unlocking a device. Now, Samsung Galaxy S III owners can have their SIMs unlocked so that they may do as they please.

The method comes in the form of a zip that contains a few files that must be moved to the Galaxy S III EFS folder. Released by XDA Recognized Developer zohawkish, the method is very easy to do. As zohawkish explains:

- First you need to backup your “EFS FILE” in safe place.
- you must be in unlocked stock firmware like BLG8 (using voodoo app + libsec-ril.so (mike1986 fix))
- unzip the attached zip “efs.zip”
- copy the files (.nv_core.bak, .nv_core.bak.md5) to your EFS file
- reboot and enjoy !!!

Of course, there are some potential complications. As stated, you’ll want to backup your EFS file in case something goes wrong. Additionally, you’ll have to restore your backed up EFS if you ever want to update to a future Jelly Bean release. Aside from that, users have reported that the mod works perfectly.

Note from the editor: the actual thread is no longer being supported by the OP and as such it has been closed.

It’s been a big week for the Samsung Galaxy S III and its US variants. Not only has the Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III had its bootloader unlocked, but the International version got a Jelly Bean leak. This gives credence to the rumor that Samsung is releasing the update soon. However, many don’t want to wait that long. Now, there’s another way to get the leaked build.

XDA Senior Member Jack Barrett has re-released the leak in a useful manner for those wishing to flash without Odin or Heimdall. Instead, Jack Barrett has released the Jelly Bean leak via a Nandroid backup. In short, Jack Barrett got the Jelly Bean leak on the device, wiped everything, and made a backup. To install it is actually pretty easy:

How to install:
Extract the zip in SDCard –> clockworkmod –> folder (for example JB) –> files here

Go to CWM –> Backup & Restore –> Restore from internal storage

The ROM is NOT rooted.
You should root it yourself.

Those interested can visit the original thread.