Enable "Developer options" on your HTC One X

Recently I noticed that the Developer options on my HTC One X was gone. I remembered before updating it to 4.2.2 it had the Developer options. Then I remembered that from Android 4.2 and higher the Developer options are hidden by default.

To get back Developer options go to "Settings > About > Software information > More". Once there tap on "Build number" seven times to enable it.

Create Facebook cover photo from your HTC phone

HTC provides a nifty option to crop the photos in dimension specified for Facebook cover photos i.e. 851×315.

1. Open the picture that needs to be cropped from your Gallery.
2. Tap on “Edit” and then tap on “Transform”.
3. Select “Crop” option.
4. Now tap on the overflow icon (three vertical dots) and select “Facebook cover”.
5. The cropping tool will now resize in proportionate to the dimensions specified for Facebook cover photo.

This option is present on my HTC One X running on Android 4.2.2 with Sense 5 and I am guessing here that it should be present in other HTC phones with Sense 5. If it doesn't then let me know in comments.

Authorization problem for Facebook in HTC One X

I recently started receiving error of "Authorization problem" on my HTC One X with my Facebook app. It seemed that HTC Sense was not able to access my Facebook account and this error message continually popped up in my notification.

New features in HTC One X with Sense 5 and Jelly Bean 4.2.2

Around 2-3 months back I upgraded my HTC One X to 4.19.720.1 which came with Sense 5 and Android (Jelly bean) 4.2.2. Its a bit of disappointment that this would be the last update for this phone.

The above screenshot lists down some major changes in software, but there are many more tweaks. Sense 5 is major upgrade over Sense 4 with lot of UI changes with almost every icon updated (read that as flattened).

Issue with Indic keyboard and SwiftKey on HTC One X

I recently updated my HTC One X with OTA Android 4.2.2 and HTC Sense 5. This new version comes with Indic (for Indian languages) and Vietnamese (don't know why was this added) keyboard. I prefer to use SwiftKey and have it installed on my phone. One issue that I found was that whenever my phone is rebooted ‒  either by me or some random crash ‒  my keyboard used to get changed from SwiftKey to Indic keyboard.

To let you know Indic keyboard is not the same as HTC Sense Input. Here's how it looks like.

Indic keyboard

Searching your contacts by Company name in HTC One X

Update 22 Dec 2013: This feature does not seem to be working in Sense 5 after I updated my HTC One X to Android 4.2.2.

While putting in contacts in my phone I generally put the Company name also. But to search by Company name you need to enable a setting which is not enabled by default in your People app of HTC One X.

Go to your People app and open the menu. Tap on "Settings".

Charging pattern on HTC One X

My HTC One X has a pattern in which it charges itself.

In the above screenshot of my battery usage you can see that from 10% battery level to 60% battery level my phone charges at a constant rate. But from 60% up till around 75% this rate dramatically drops and it takes much longer to charge. Then picks up again until around 90% and afterwards it charges very quickly. I don't know why does this happen and what is its significance. I contacted HTC support but there response was not satisfactory either.

So if you notice the same pattern while charging or a different one do post it in the comments.

New features in HTC One X after Jelly Bean update

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.

Making internet pass-through work after updating HTC One X to Jelly Bean

Update 22 Jan 2013: "HTC Sync" seems to have been discontinued so the download links given below will not work. "HTC Sync" is different from "HTC Sync Manager". For exact difference read on.

I recently upgraded my HTC One X to Jelly Bean via OTA update. After updating I was unable to use internet pass-through which used to work flawlessly before and I already had HTC Sync installed on my PC. I uninstalled, installed, uninstalled again and installed again to make it work. But it simply refused. It gave me error of "Either you do not have the latest version of HTC Sync installed on your PC, or another phone is already using Internet pass-through on your PC." on my phone.

From this discussion on XDA Developers forum I found that there is something called as HTC Sync Manager. This is different from HTC Sync which I had installed on my machine. I don't know why HTC did this but its really confusing. Here's how these two software look.

Customizing lock screen shortcuts on HTC One X

On my HTC One X I was trying to customize the icons which are present on the screen when it is locked.

After a bit of searching and experimenting I realized that these icons come from the launch bar.

So you have to customize the launch bar and the same four icons will be visible on the lock screen.

Improving battery life of HTC One X

HTC One X is an amazing phone and has got pretty good reviews from The Verge, Engadget and Gizmodo with Sharif Sakr from Engadget even going on to say that "No matter how hard it[Samsung Galaxy SIII] tries, it just isn't greater than the sum of the HTC One X's parts". I bought it myself and have been using for around 3 months now. But one really troubling aspect with this phone is its battery life which is further exacerbated by the fact that you cannot remove the battery of this phone. While HTC claims significant performance improvement in its battery, the phone seems to discharge very quickly and charge very slowly. So here are some tips to improve and conserve your battery life.

Updated 22 Jun 2012: Avoid using live wallpapers
Updated 5 Oct 2012: Limiting background processes and Setting network mode

1. Fully charge your phone before turning it on for the first time

This is is very important and there are people who have suffered because of this. If you didn't there is a good chance that your battery life would be poor. But all is not lost, follow these simple instructions to recalibrate your battery.

Taking screen capture in HTC One X

A simple trick to capture your screen in HTC One X which I got from here - press and hold power button and then press . The screen is saved in the Camera shots album in Gallery. And you don't need to install anything  from Google Play!