[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] SoHardcore:
As today was my last opportunity to return the phone, I was debating on whether or not I should keep it or exchange it for a Note 2. The only real reason I was considering the Note 2 was mainly for the 2 GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. The Torque's 1 GB of RAM and 1GB of internal storage are essentially the only things making this a "midrange phone". Accessing external storage is definitely a battery drainer, and it sucks that I have to whittle my apps down to practical limits... but I guess it forces me to be organized and really tweak this phone like there's no tomorrow.

I decided to keep the Torque mainly because it feels way better in the hand, the Torque is definitely built WAY better, the power button is in a much better position than the Note 2's placement on the right side, I prefer the Torque's physical hardware keys versus the Note 2's soft-touch "keys" (which are accidentally triggered fairly easily for such an awkwardly bulky device), and the dedicated camera button. I love hardware buttons. And I can't believe I finally moved away from a real hardware "thumbboard", but swype isn't terribly bad after a 2-week adjustment... but certainly bad enough that I'm going to cause an accident if attempting to swype while driving. :cyclops: But besides the overall feel, build, ruggedness, dependability, etc.... the "speaker" is probably what pushed me over the edge. I really don't think I can live without this speaker now. The Note 2 requires you to cup your hand while holding it in order to hear it, whereas I can hear the Torque at 10% volume while holding it in any position in front of me, because it has front facing speakers (more than 1; possibly 3, but definitely more than 1). The "Sonic Receiver" not only transmits call audio through earmuffs in noisy environments, but it is also what causes the phone to vibrate in speakerphone mode and turns the entire phone into one large speaker.... in addition to the speaker(s) at the bottom, by the grill. It's incredibly loud and there's actually a great deal of bass that makes music rather enjoyable to listen to. Louder than my laptop. Louder than my buddy's iPod docking station, which I couldn't fit in TWO pockets sewn together. I decided to keep this phone for practical reasons, yes -- ruggedness, hardware keys, and clarity. I already knew what I was getting into [for the most part] before buying the phone, but it's tough to imagine a phone without these features now. I think I'll be able to make it 21 more months without the extra memory.

P.S. - There are numerous camera apps that grant the ability to auto or tap to focus the camera. I think the decision to remove that feature was pretty dumb, but there are nearly a dozen camera apps I've got that I'll be replacing the stock camera app with. Just not sure which one yet. And I did notice the phone resetting itself in the middle of the night, around 3 AM the first couple days I had the phone, but I haven't noticed it since (maybe I've actually been sleeping since then, tho?). I thought this was related to a faulty (i.e. - loose) sd card slot or something like that, but now I'm thinkin that perhaps this late night, early morning resetting business is actually a "feature"?? It's about to be 3 AM here shortly, so I'll be able to see whether or not it's an ongoing thing, but I really don't think so. This thing is pretty loud, so I think I'd notice the boot noise if it really was rebooting every night.

....................

ANYWAY, enough of that review. We're all here to root this phone.

I posted a link to the Kyocera Echo 1-Click Root app earlier. Now how about a couple different Kyocera Rise rooting processes???

- http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2307306

- http://forums.androidcentral.com/misc-android-phone-chat/229764-guide-root-your-kyocera-rise.html

That first one looks really promising and perhaps reminds us of a few "first steps" that need to be taken, regardless of which latter steps we choose to root the phone. I'm not sure if that Poot-debug(W100).apk download is the one we need, but it could potentially work with the Torque, also!!

Unfortunately, I'm not goin to be the first one to try it out as this phone is currently my daily driver.... so if VicFreeze or someone else would like to take a hack at it, that would be awfully swell. :cowboy: