How to have my stock GS3 dialer initial screen be Recent instead of Keypad Is it possible to have the stock dialer on my GS3 start on the Recent tab instead of the Keypad tab?
You can use an app called xshortcut (in Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ex.chinyang.android.xshortcut )

Follow the following steps: 


Install xshortcut 2.0.x 
Open xshortcut's Editor. 
Switch to Component page
Use the following data to create the shortcut you want.

Component Package: com.android.contacts

Component Class: com.android.contacts.activities.DialtactsActivity

MIME Type: vnd.android.cursor.dir/calls