Few questions about the Kyocera Rise

Traijan · May 19, 2014

Hi,

I'm really late getting to the party as this is my first "smartphone". I've been stuck in the dark ages with all the little flip style phones that I've had over the years but since the CEO of one of the companies that I do contract work with wanted me to get a new phone with texting capabilities I opted to get this one as I really didn't use my past mobile phones hardly at all, so since I could get this one for $30 with no contract that's what I did.

Anyway, I have a couple questions about this particular phone as well as how the whole android app / game systems work on a mobile phone, please excuse the newbness of my questions, but as I said, this is the first smartphone that I've owned.

1. Are there any apps that you would consider necessary for this phone?

2. Are there any utility apps that you would consider necessary or at least very good to have to try to make using the phone quicker or easier or gives more control over it?

3. What is the proper way to exit out of an app or game?

4. I have found that I can move some of the games and apps that I've downloaded to my SD card. I replaced the stock 1 or 2 GB SD card with a 16GB SD card (since I found one at the local piggly wiggly store for $1.99) and since this phone only has about 1GB internal storage, I'd like to move as many of the apps and games that I downloaded from the play store to the SD card as is possible. But some of the larger games that I've downloaded don't give me the option to move them to the SD card.

Is there is a utility app that would allow me force any downloaded apps/games to the SD drive?

5. Last question for the moment... Are there any apps that come on this phone that people recommend for me to uninstall / remove so as to free up some of that internal storage space?

Thanks for the assistance.

divinebovine · Jun 1, 2014

1. Nothing specific to this phone, except my answer to 2.

2. http://androidforums.com/kyocera-rise/735955-rise-extremely-slow.html#post6418972 <--sounds like snake oil but, amazingly, it works.

3. Some have "Exit" in the menu, but for most you keep using the Rise's Back touch-button repeatedly. If you use the Home button it is not requested to exit, but if you use the Back button it is. The Home button requests it to stay running. If you want to be absolutely sure, press the button for the running apps list and drag the app's thumbnail off the right side of the screen. Mobile operating systems like Android and iOS are not made for people who are interested in closing programs, they're made for people who have no idea why they might not want to leave apps running, so some apps are never satisfyingly closed.

4. Android is moving away from allowing you to install apps to SD. It never worked well anyway; only a little bit of it went to SD, most of it was still on internal storage. If you really want to do that you need to root your phone and use something like Link2SD. You shouldn't need to on the Rise though; its storage is small, but sufficient if you're not careless. Choose small apps/games and don't install every single thing that looks interesting (much of it is going to run all the damn time anyway and slow the phone).

5. I can't remember what I uninstalled after I rooted. If you don't root you won't be able to uninstall anything whose removal will hurt the phone. If you do root then you'll have the power to break the phone by uninstalling the wrong thing. You can probably find a thread telling you what's safe to remove, or you can post to ask about specific apps. There's not a lot of people reading here in the Rise forum so be patient.

So, how are you liking the big bulky computer that acts as a sub-par phone after coming from a sleek, purpose-made, flip phone that was an expert at phone calls and had long battery life? To be honest, when I had RingPlus's free plans I kept a qwerty slide dumbphone for texting and calling and a flip phone for calling in situations where I wouldn't be texting...

divinebovine · Jun 1, 2014

Someone else did post a list of apps to remove from the Rise:
http://androidforums.com/kyocera-rise/814420-tried-lag-fixing-methods-still-lags.html#post6541578

Traijan · Jun 1, 2014

divinebovine said:
So, how are you liking the big bulky computer that acts as a sub-par phone after coming from a sleek, purpose-made, flip phone that was an expert at phone calls and had long battery life? To be honest, when I had RingPlus's free plans I kept a qwerty slide dumbphone for texting and calling and a flip phone for calling in situations where I wouldn't be texting...

First off, thank you for the response.

I've already learned a lot since i posted the OP in this topic but your answers were helpful.

The thing that makes me the happiest was to root the phone and rename the boot animation and the boot sound files so that it's a silent boot now. That startup "noise" was driving both me and the wife insane, already gotten to the point of having to take it into the bathroom when I get up super early for work to turn it on so that it doesn't wake her up.

Well, this isn't a terrible phone (although, obviously I have no personal knowledge to compare it to something else) other than a few oddities about it for me. For example answering calls and even when I don't put the phone up to my ear (using speakerphone) the screen will go black so if I need to do anything like end the call I've got to press the power button to bring it back to life, or hell... Even just not being able to do something like double or triple tap on the screen to bring it to life really kind of bugs me, but I guess for those that put these in their pockets it makes more sense to have to press the power button to bring it to life.

The low battery life (compared to a flip phone) is a bit annoying to be honest. I've got to remember to put it on the charger at the bare minimum when I go to sleep at night, sometimes though several times a day depending on how much I'm using it for other things besides telephoning.

I've got my old flip phone sitting here next to me that I had the service turned off about 6 months ago. I turned it on earlier today to get some contacts out of it and it's still got half the battery life charged up. Good thing considering I've lost the charger for it.

But yeah I've learned that I had to go get a car charger for this Rise if I'm going to use it for things like Navigation etc.

But at least it's a very inexpensive lesson to learn that I should really research what phone to get since it was only $30 at the local Target store, next time I'll research the phone that entices me for sure.

This one isn't terrible but it doesn't have the oomph to do neat things like add on a different launcher unless I wish to stand around waiting for the launcher to load up.

Anyway, thanks for the response.

divinebovine · Jun 3, 2014

Yeah, I hate noisy boot animations too. Actually I find boot animations, even silent ones, to be gratuitous and unnecessary. I can usually mute it by holding my hand over the speaker, but I always root and delete the stupid thing anyway.

There are options for the screen shutoff behavior.

I think there's one setting that lets you end calls with the power button.
You could of course change how long it takes to shutoff so it stays on for longer than your average call.
You can adjust the sensitivity of the proximity sensor so it stays on if you don't hold it directly to your ear.
There are probably apps to modify behavior in other ways too.
There are apps that let you program other buttons to do stuff like end calls or wake the screen.
I think the digitizer (which is the part that accepts touch input) is off whenever the screen is off, but on the other hand I vaguely remember an app that can do exactly the thing you want where the screen comes on with a touch.
Then of course there are general-purpose automation apps like Llama and Tasker that you can program with custom behaviors based on all kinds of criteria.

Although I ranted about battery life, I find the Rise's battery life to be WAY better than other cheap smartphones that I've used, and better than a Motorola Droid Razr I have (but its battery is old and may be worn). I use it lightly and I can plug it in just at night, or sometimes even every other night. Other phones I have to keep plugged in all the time, and heaven forbid I'm away from power for a few hours.

gogomouse1 · Jun 11, 2014

divinebovine said:
Someone else did post a list of apps to remove from the Rise:
http://androidforums.com/kyocera-rise/814420-tried-lag-fixing-methods-still-lags.html#post6541578

The Rise is a lot smoother after rooting and removing any unnecessary apps. I also changed my boot animation, and removed the boot start up sound as well.

I just bought a Motorola Moto G last week, but I still carry my Rise with me sincethe G doesn't have an SD card slot, and I have tons of music on my Rise's SD card, and I use it as an MP3 player on my commute to work.

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Few questions about the Kyocera Rise

Traijan

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divinebovine

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divinebovine

Android Expert

Traijan

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divinebovine

Android Expert

gogomouse1

Well-Known Member

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