Capacitive buttons aren’t generally the most tweaked items in the Android hacker’s arsenal. While they can often be too dim, many find them way too bright.

Having the backlight too bright can distract users attempting to use their devices to read or play games in dim environments. After all, it’s a little hard to concentrate with that home button glowing at you. In fact, the capacitive buttons being too bright was a major issue causing light leakage for the HTC Amaze 4G. Now owners of the HTC Rezound can lower their brightness as well.

XDA Senior Member rsage has released an easy-to-install script that will lower the brightness of the Rezound’s capacitive buttons. The idea came when rsage found a script that permanently turned the lights off or on. He then figured that this would be a nice in-between solution for Rezound users.

The installation instructions are pretty basic. Place the update.zip on your SD card, flash in recovery, and reboot. The modification is currently only compatible with Sense 4.0 ROMs—as any version below that is actually compatible with LeeDroid Tweaks, which includes a similar mod.

For additional info, visit the original thread.

New development often means that older work may have issues. New firmware can break root, for instance, and new ROM bases can make themes not work properly. Unfortunately, when a bootloader is unlocked, the recovery occasionally goes bonkers. There’s nothing quite as frustrating as not being able to restore Nandroid backups or mount your SD card from recovery when it’s something you’re used to being able to do.

For those using Amon Ra recovery on the HTC Rezound, you know what that’s like. Fortunately, there is now a fix available thanks to XDA Senior Member carm01, who posted a couple of fixes that should fix the Amon Ra Recovery problems and set everyone right.

The fix for the Nandroid backups requires users to erase their internal SD card—twice, actually. Users need to reflash Amon Ra V3.14, wipe the SD card from within the recovery, and finally boot back into their ROM and erase it again. Presumably, users should make a backup of all the data they want saved, but after these wipes, Nandroid backups should work again.

The mounting issue is a little different, and requires users to reformat the SD card using all the default settings. However, this may not work for everyone, so the only way to know if it’ll work for you is to try it. Once all the fixes are applied, users should be back to their usual recovery awesomeness, able to restore their data to their internal SD card without issues.

To fix your recovery woes, head on over to the original thread.

Flashing a radio can greatly affect your device. It can improve signal strength, improve data speeds, or even help with things like call quality and alleviating dropped calls. On some devices which have radio bugs on release, such as complete loss of signal, a radio flash can alleviate these issues and restore stability to signal. However, and especially on HTC devices, a bad radio flash can easily result in a very expensive paperweight.

With that in mind, XDA Forum Member nolimitzr2 has posted a thread with the latest radios for the HTC Rezound, pulled from the latest Android Ice Cream Sandwich RUUs. The radios, which users can install using pre-compiled PH98IMG.zip files in the bootloader or individually, come in multiple flavors including the tried and true Gingerbread radios as well as the new leaked ICS ones. Users would do well to download both in case they should want to switch back to the old radio. Users intending to use these should proceed with caution, says limitzr2:

Your mileage may vary these havent been tested in every combination of Hboot\Firmware\OS so there may be issues. However I will do my best to update this post of any known issues.

So there could be some compatibility issues depending on what your individual Rezound is running as these radios are largely untested. Also, as many HTC owners already know, a botched radio flash can cripple a phone and leave it bricked so be sure to check the MD5 and be sure your phone is in no danger of accidentally turning off or losing battery mid flash.

For more information, the download links and the thread discussion, check out the radio thread.

Acquiring S-Off is the Holy Grail of all root for HTC device owners. With S-Off, users can flash unsigned firmware images and obtain permanent root. For those who would like to go even further, you can always flash the Engineering HBoot, or ENG HBoot for short. This offers even more fun, such as extended Fastboot commands. For many HTC owners, flashing the ENG HBoot after obtaining S-Off is a priority. This can now be done on the HTC Rezound thanks to XDA Recognized Developer con247, who has posted a thread allows users to have the ENG HBoot, with all associated perks.

As with any HBoot installation, be sure you read everything very carefully. Says con247:

If you try to S-ON the device with this HBOOT on it, it will BRICK. Restore the original hboot first via RUU.

And another warning added on by XDA Elite Recognized Developer jcase

If this is the eng hboot I posted, avoid flashing it unless you know exactly what you are doing.

It may have issues with newer ICS radios.

So if you’re running ICS radios and/or aren’t yet S-Off, do not install this. If you’ve fulfilled all the safety requirements, then the process is actually relatively simple. Download the modified PH98IMG.zip, double and triple check that the MD5sum is correct, and install via the bootloader. Once done, you have gotten the ENG HBoot.

For more details, thread discussion, screen shots and more, check out the original thread.

While it is very convenient to be able to unlock any HTC device on the HTCdev.com website, it is still quite a difficult task for some who either just can’t get it to work right or aren’t as Android savvy as they’d like to be. It is for these people that most developers will create an auto-unlock or auto-root tool. So even those who don’t have the time to learn Android can share in the rooted magic.

XDA Forum Member fenguepay has done just this with an auto unlocker tool for the HTC Rezound. The tool, once run, will automatically unlock the bootloader, giving users the ability to flash ROMs, flash tweaks, and any number of other things. The tool itself is still in beta mode, so don’t be surprised if there are a few bugs. As fenguepay says:

It is only v1.x so it is sure to have some errors.
If you find any, post them here If i don’t respond to them then PM me.
I will try to find and fix as fast as possible.

So do know that if you run into an error and report it, fenguepay is on it and will try to get it fixed. Currently, the bugs for the application aren’t extensive, and recent versions are much more stable and streamlined than the earlier versions. So even as a beta, users can be confident that this won’t damage their phone permanently.

For additional information, download links and more, feel free to hit up the original thread . It is a root/unlock method, so be sure to exercise the proper caution and make sure you follow all the steps, and ask if you have questions.