Menu button issue to be fixed for all HTC One X and HTC One S devices
Probably one of the most exciting OTA updates we have seen recently came to the AT&T HTC One X this week. This update brought the HTC device from Android 4.0.3 to 4.0.4, but the exciting part is hidden in the settings. It allows users to re-map the task-switcher button to become the menu button. It is still rare to see the AT&T version get the update before all others, but According to HTC, this option will also be rolling out to all versions of the HTC One X and HTC One S.
HTC was praised for adopting Google’s new button strategy, which gets rid of the menu button. HTC decided to avoid sacrificing its devices’ screen real estate by adding physical buttons instead of on-screen ones, though. Something that brought upon a new set of issues.
As these are not software buttons, they can not accommodate to apps that have not been updated to support the new button configuration. If an app is not designed to have a menu button within its software (which, many aren’t), a bar with such functionality would appear at the bottom of the screen. HTC devices are hence forced to be pestered by the same issue the company tried to avoid – the bar is still taking a section of the screen.
With this new option, users can now enjoy every single pixel of the screen when using apps that have not yet been updated to support the new system. For now, only AT&T users can enjoy this, but the update should be hitting all other HTC One X and One S devices some time in the near future. There is no word on whether this will come to other HTC devices with the same button scheme (including the very popular HTC EVO 4G LTE), but odds are that most of them will.
Until then, we will just have to live with that custom on-screen menu button. Many of you have probably gotten used to it, but is this new option welcome?
[Via: Anandtech Image: Droid-Life]