How to customize your iPhone or iPod Touch with SummerBoard

April 22nd, 2008 by Ross McKillop |  Print This Post

SummerBoard is an extension to the iPhone and/or iPod Touch SpringBoard user experience. SummerBoard adds a variety of useful and fun features to your iPhone/iPod Touch, including scrolling icons, wallpaper and themes.

Get started by installing SummerBoard - if you’re using the iPhone/iPod Touch firmware 1.1.3 or higher, you can use Installer.app. Otherwise, head to the SummerBoard home page and manually install it (instructions are found inside the .zip file).

1. Once SummerBoard is installed, you’ll have a SMBPrefs button on your SpringBoard


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2. Select it and from here you can customize your SpringBoard

SummerBoard Preferences

scroll down to see the rest

3. One of the first things you’ll want to do is check out some of the themes. Select the Themes entry from the top of the SummerBoard prefs. There are 4 themes included with SummerBoard - Leopard, Louie Mantia, Panther and SummerBoard


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Default SummerBoard Themes

Leopard Theme	Louie Mantia Theme
Panther Theme	SummerBoard Theme

4. To install more Themes, open Installer.app, select Install from the bottom button bar, and scroll down to Themes (SummerBoard).


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5. From here you’ll have dozens (hundreds?) of themes to choose from.


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6. There are a number of other things you can do to customize your SpringBoard with SummerBoard. One is to “Skip Last Row” - which will set your iPhone/iPod Touch to use one less row, increasing the “black” space between your apps and the Dock.

First screen of apps

Second screen of apps

7. You can also hide your Icon (app) labels..


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8. or hide your Dock labels.


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9. Play around with the various SummerBoard options until you’ve customized your SpringBoard to suit you