Some time back I updated my HTC One X to Jelly Bean (JB) using OTA update. The update takes your Android version to 4.1.1 and Sense to 4+.
Its been almost a 2 weeks with this update and the most noticeable improvement I can see is of battery usage. My phone lasts 1-2 hours more than it used to before. Well done HTC! There also some additions (and deletions) which I am going to describe here. Now I not an Android expert so I don't know all the new features in JB itself, so you may find a feature new in JB listed here. Also you won't find Google Now and Google Play Music here as I know they are new to JB and not HTC One X.
1. Camera
The camera interface now includes a button to switch between front and back camera.
Also in the settings the self-timer now has three options of 2 / 5 / 10 seconds (previously it was only 2 / 10 seconds)
2. HTC Sync vs HTC Sync Manager
Previously with Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) to make internet pass-through work you needed HTC Sync but now you are required to have HTC Sync Manager. This is very confusing for end users like us and I had to go through a lot of trouble before I was finally able to use internet pass-through on my phone.
3. HTC Media Link
The Settings now include an option of HTC Media Link to share your photos and videos to your television. As of now I am yet to try out this feature.
4. Power settings
The power settings have been completely modified. Previously I could see how much battery my screen has consumed. But now it is gone. Probably because the screen time consumes the maximum battery power and battery usage of apps in front of screen time seemed puny. Now it only shows how much battery was consumed by my apps.
Even the graph showing battery usage over time has also been modified.
There is also an power saver option in settings which can help you to get maximum from your battery.
5. Removal of Friends Stream widget and HTC Hub
Previous to update there was a widget from where I could update my status on all my social networks at once. That has been removed. There is another Friends Stream widget from where I can do that but it displays my entire stream on home screen itself (and thus running my data plan dry), but I don't want that. I just want a simple text box on home screen. Also HTC Hub (HTC's own Android market place) has been removed.
6. Removal of duplicate sharing options for Facebook and Twitter
In HTC One X with ICS the sharing options used to display duplicate options of Facebook and Twitter, the duplicate one showing "with HTC Sense". It seemed a bit odd but I was a heavy user of sharing via "Facebook with HTC Sense" because it was much faster. This is another thing that I miss.
7. FM Radio
The FM Radio app has been updated with a new look and additional functionality moving between frequencies, adding favorites.
One more enhancement is that now you can access radio even from lock screen.
8. Gallery
The gallery app has been updated to includes your photos from applications on your device.
9. Calendar widget
The calendar widget has been updated so that it can be reduced to height of two rows of icons unlike previously which used to be height of three icons.
10. New clock and calendar widgets
HTC has added some new widgets for clock and calculator with wooden theme.
11. New Keyboard
HTC has updated the keyboard to include some new settings. One interesting feature I noted was that when I type colon and right parenthesis (to put in a smiley) using special characters keyboard it automatically gets converted into picture of smiley. But the same action does not happen when I use long press 'm' & 'b' to do the same thing.
Update 12-Dec-12:
One the readers commented that arrow keys are not visible after JB update. Actually the keyboard settings now has a new option of showing / hiding arrow keys.
In the keyboard settings you will find a new setting of "Show arrow keys on portrait keyboard".
12. Notifications
The look of notification panel has been updated to include a giant clock in it and options to turn on / off the Power Saver. But previously notifications were categorized as "Ongoing" & "Notifications". This allowed to me to remove the ones under "Notifications" category as they were already completed. But now it shows everything together and I have search which notifications I need to remove.
13. Infinite looping on home screen
HTC has introduced infinite looping on home screen so that swiping over the last panel would bring up the first one and vice versa. A really nice feature which would be useful to someone with more than 5 panels on home screen. But then detractors would say this was always present on Samsung's TouchWiz.
14. New skins
New skins of Steel, Graphite and Concrete have been added. But none of them appeals to me.
15. Removal of "Insert smiley" option while typing SMSs Update 30-Dec-12
Darren pointed it out that the "Insert smiley" option has now been removed from the menu while typing SMSs.
Its been almost a 2 weeks with this update and the most noticeable improvement I can see is of battery usage. My phone lasts 1-2 hours more than it used to before. Well done HTC! There also some additions (and deletions) which I am going to describe here. Now I not an Android expert so I don't know all the new features in JB itself, so you may find a feature new in JB listed here. Also you won't find Google Now and Google Play Music here as I know they are new to JB and not HTC One X.
1. Camera
The camera interface now includes a button to switch between front and back camera.
Also in the settings the self-timer now has three options of 2 / 5 / 10 seconds (previously it was only 2 / 10 seconds)
2. HTC Sync vs HTC Sync Manager
Previously with Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) to make internet pass-through work you needed HTC Sync but now you are required to have HTC Sync Manager. This is very confusing for end users like us and I had to go through a lot of trouble before I was finally able to use internet pass-through on my phone.
3. HTC Media Link
The Settings now include an option of HTC Media Link to share your photos and videos to your television. As of now I am yet to try out this feature.
4. Power settings
The power settings have been completely modified. Previously I could see how much battery my screen has consumed. But now it is gone. Probably because the screen time consumes the maximum battery power and battery usage of apps in front of screen time seemed puny. Now it only shows how much battery was consumed by my apps.
 |
| Battery usage in HTC One X with JB |
 |
| Battery usage in HTC One X with ICS |
Even the graph showing battery usage over time has also been modified.
There is also an power saver option in settings which can help you to get maximum from your battery.
5. Removal of Friends Stream widget and HTC Hub
Previous to update there was a widget from where I could update my status on all my social networks at once. That has been removed. There is another Friends Stream widget from where I can do that but it displays my entire stream on home screen itself (and thus running my data plan dry), but I don't want that. I just want a simple text box on home screen. Also HTC Hub (HTC's own Android market place) has been removed.
6. Removal of duplicate sharing options for Facebook and Twitter
In HTC One X with ICS the sharing options used to display duplicate options of Facebook and Twitter, the duplicate one showing "with HTC Sense". It seemed a bit odd but I was a heavy user of sharing via "Facebook with HTC Sense" because it was much faster. This is another thing that I miss.
7. FM Radio
The FM Radio app has been updated with a new look and additional functionality moving between frequencies, adding favorites.
One more enhancement is that now you can access radio even from lock screen.
8. Gallery
The gallery app has been updated to includes your photos from applications on your device.
9. Calendar widget
The calendar widget has been updated so that it can be reduced to height of two rows of icons unlike previously which used to be height of three icons.
10. New clock and calendar widgets
HTC has added some new widgets for clock and calculator with wooden theme.
11. New Keyboard
HTC has updated the keyboard to include some new settings. One interesting feature I noted was that when I type colon and right parenthesis (to put in a smiley) using special characters keyboard it automatically gets converted into picture of smiley. But the same action does not happen when I use long press 'm' & 'b' to do the same thing.
Update 12-Dec-12:
One the readers commented that arrow keys are not visible after JB update. Actually the keyboard settings now has a new option of showing / hiding arrow keys.
In the keyboard settings you will find a new setting of "Show arrow keys on portrait keyboard".
12. Notifications
The look of notification panel has been updated to include a giant clock in it and options to turn on / off the Power Saver. But previously notifications were categorized as "Ongoing" & "Notifications". This allowed to me to remove the ones under "Notifications" category as they were already completed. But now it shows everything together and I have search which notifications I need to remove.
13. Infinite looping on home screen
HTC has introduced infinite looping on home screen so that swiping over the last panel would bring up the first one and vice versa. A really nice feature which would be useful to someone with more than 5 panels on home screen. But then detractors would say this was always present on Samsung's TouchWiz.
14. New skins
New skins of Steel, Graphite and Concrete have been added. But none of them appeals to me.
15. Removal of "Insert smiley" option while typing SMSs Update 30-Dec-12
Darren pointed it out that the "Insert smiley" option has now been removed from the menu while typing SMSs.
autorotate was better before update,and I miss arrows on keyboard
ReplyDeleteIn the keyboard settings you will find a new setting of "Show arrow keys on portrait keyboard" which would allow you to show the arrow keys. I have updated my post to include that. Regarding auto-rotate I would agree it was much better before, now even a slight tilt and my screen rotates.
DeleteAlso it would be better if you would comment by any ID (Gmail, OpenID, Wordpress) or at least leave your first name so that I would be able to credit you in my post. :)
Naveen,
ReplyDeleteDo you use your phone as music player?
Jelly Bean is definitely a change for the worse from ICS, music player-wise, I'd like to ask you for advice please.
Thanks,
P.
Plamen,
DeleteI do use my One X as music player, but I tend to stay only in the "Albums" view :)
I didn't notice anything new there so I would like to know what change in music player has made it worse for you?
Regards,
Naveen
What about the insert smiley option? Unless you know what to type you cannot insert smileys or am I wrong? Any assistance workld be great
ReplyDeleteDarren,
DeleteI did use the "Insert Smiley" option once when I had ICS. Now (after JB) when I checked the option is no longer there. I guess the only way now is to do that via keyboard (#11). Thanks for pointing that one out :)
Regards,
Naveen
guyzz...after upgrading to jellybean, USB mass storage is not recognizing something like MTP error is coming, please any one help me... :) thank you
ReplyDeleteI had similar error while trying to connect by phone to internet via internet-passthrough. I blogged about it here. Basically you have to install "HTC Sync Manager" which is different from "HTC Sync".
DeleteGood to find this blog - very helpful. I did this update in Jan and lost all calendar entries (not backed up of course). This forced me to investigate sync manager but calendar still dodgy. Best for me is to put all items into the autosync exchange calendar which is syncing to google account without using sync manager.
ReplyDeleteToday was just looking for an answer about the lost emoticons, so thanks.
Any idea what the new icon at the top is? It looks like two interlocking hooks and shows right next to my WiFi indicators. Great post.
ReplyDeleteThe interlocking hooks generally are indications of link, basically used to display linked accounts with phone numbers in phone book. Can you describe how you go there like "Settings > ..."?
DeleteUnder Settings select More. Uncheck NFC.
DeleteI'm trying to figure out what a new icon means. It looks like two interlocking hooks and shows right next to my alarm icon at the top. Any thoughts?
ReplyDeleteThe interlocking hooks generally are indications of link, basically used to display linked accounts with phone numbers in phone book. But I don't see this in Alarm clock. Can you describe how you go there like "Settings > ..."?
DeleteI see it too. It almost looks like an N. What is it!!!???
DeleteWhich icon are you talking about? Any screenshot would be a lot of help!
DeleteIt's the icon for NFC, which is now enabled by default after the update. As Len Haertter states a couple pqosts above, simply go to Settings > More > NFC and uncheck it and the icon will disappear.
ReplyDeleteHow do I get rid of the keyboard? the little icon that looks like a keyboard with an arrow is gone now. I can't figure it out?
ReplyDeleteIf you are talking about the keyboard icon in notification bar when keyboard is active, I don't think you remove that.
DeleteI came on this post to find out the exact same thing. I believe what he means is on the keyboard itself. There use to be an icon so you could make the keyboard go away, in order to say read the screen easier, and then go back in to continue typing. Now its gone. So there is no way to hide the keyboard once you go into it.
DeleteOkay, now I get it. Yes there used to be a small keyboard icon on the virtual keyboard itself, which made the keyboard go away. That icon has been removed after JellyBean update. If you want the same functionality then you can simply press the back arrow (<) to hide the keyboard.
DeleteI don't think there is an option to revert just the keyboard. I shifted to SwiftKey and have liked it.
DeleteIs it possible to uninstall the update? I don't like it at all....
ReplyDeleteI am afraid you cannot unistall it. I called up the HTC service centre once and they said even hard reset does not rollback the updates.
DeleteHas anyone found an app that allows us to have the scrolling wallpaper?
ReplyDeleteI don't think this would be the right place to ask this question. You could either search on Google Play or raise your question on Android Enthusiasts.
DeleteI noticed I was able to see emojis on my Twitter but I can't insert any . And I can't find any option to add a emoji keyboard . Any idea ?
ReplyDeleteSorry, not much info on that one.
DeleteI can't figure out how to reduce the number of pages on my home screen. I use to be able to hold the home button to do this but now it goes to some kind of Google search. Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteJust pinch on your home screen with two fingers and it show all the pages. Press and hold the page to remove and drag it to Remove icon.
Delete