My Thoughts On Kit-Kat 4.4

[Mike S]

First off I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year as this will probably be my last post for 2014 ..... :540: :551:

 

J and I exchanged gifts last week at SM Cyber Zone Bacolod when we bought each other new cell phones for the coming year .... she wanted a new MyPhone Rio Fun and I got a Huawei Ascend Y-520 ....  we have been using MyPhones for about 6 years with extremely good luck but just for a change I wanted to try the Ascend as it has a Kit-Kat OS and 4g ROM plus a ton of other features like a 5mp rear camera with flash and 4x zoom ...... front camera is just plain vanilla but does what it was built for .... there are a ton of other features so if you are interested just check it on line ...... http://consumer.huawei.com/en/mobile-phones/tech-specs/ascend-y520.htm..... price was p3999 in the Huawei store SM 2nd floor .... J's Rio Fun was p2999 in the MyPhone store SM Bacolod

 

Well as I have had a week now to tinker with the phone here are a few of my thoughts .... first off Google Android is taking over more and more of our lives and most to me is not good ..... (read this article on Google Android and their so called open source) ..... http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/...... it is a real eye opener .... I found this article while searching for apps that I could use to replace their bloat and spy-ware .....

 

What you say bloat and spy-ware .... yup everything is so connected and intertwined with the different Google programs or apps it isn't funny .... and they require you to OK permissions for them to be able to do everything from:

 

Make Calls ...... Initiate Multi-party Calls .... Modify SMS .... Modify MMS .... Send SMS .... Send MMS .... Start Sound Recording ....Read SMS ..... Read MMS .... Read Contacts .... Read Call Logs ..... Get Position .... Turn On Data Connection .... Turn On WiFi .... Modify Contacts .... 

 

Those are just a few of the ones I could copy from my phone .... there are others .... now I know some are going to say "but you can change the permissions" .... yes that is true in SOME cases but with the Google programs already loaded onto you phone it is a whole lot harder and in some cases impossible .... programs like Google Play .... Google Internet ... and a whole lot more (depends on your phone manufacture as to what Google programs are loaded into memory) these can be almost impossible to change the permissions in ....

 

So what is my suggestion ..... research .... research ..... research ..... DuckDuckGo (I don't use Google anymore) is your friend tons of info is out there on how to work around Goggle Android .... I personally have deleted just about all the bloat and spy-ware that came with my phone (also increases your battery usages) I replaced them with 3rd party apps that work just fine BUT I denied almost all permissions and auto updates as well as keep my WiFi .... BlueTooth and Location turned off except when I am using them .... also for those that have Dual SIM cards if you don't use both all the time turn one off and then back on when you need it .... your battery will love you especially if you have one service with poor reception like I do with Smart .... it was eating my battery alive looking for a signal ....

 

I was able to extend my battery life by double just doing some of the things I mentioned above ....

 

BUT DON'T GO DELETING A BUNCH OF PROGRAMS UNLESS YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH WHAT YOU ARE DOING .... IT COULD RENDER YOUR CELL PHONE INOPERABLE

 

Do the research first especially for your make and model .... I ain't no wizz but I managed to do mine ... oh and I didn't Root my phone ... it still has a 1 year warranty ...... :hystery:  .... 

 

This will probably be my last cell phone unless I break it and if I do I won't be buy one with a newer version of Android like Lolly-Pop .... just to damn many things to remove and work around ...... JMHO .... :tiphat:

:cheersty:

Edited December 31, 2014 by Mike S

[robert k]

Mike, I hope you get lots of use from it. My Huawei phones seem to take a licking and keep on ticking. Just tonight I watched my girl drop my old Honor / Glory 2 from a height of 4 feet onto the tile floor. the back came free and the battery flew but she put it back together and it worked fine.

 

I know you wanted to try out the Kitkat. I have not updated my phone [mediapad X1] to 4.4.2 because right now I have everything I want and nothing I don't save, knock on. It's my sole source of internet and camera.

[i am bob]

Mike, I too am not too crazy with the way Google is going. I did find my old Nexus 4 was better than most phones as it didn't have the extra garbage the other manufacturers are putting on. When the Nexus bricked, I grabbed a Motorola 1st gen Motto G because it was cheap and didn't have very much garbage added on. When this one dies? I'm getting the best MyPhone I can afford at the time ( or maybe go back to a Nexus 6) and hoping that, by the time the warranty expires, Ubuntu will have their phone os available for general public use. Either that or I'll load the alpha/beta available. That way I'll be running a full computer os rather than android and can use anything I want.

[Mike S]

Bob .... I guess the best thing about getting a phone with Kitkat 4.4.2 is that it has forced me to not be so lazy and do a whole lot of research into the do's and don'ts of cell phone use .... damn I never knew so much about using my cell phone I used to just buy one make a few adjustments and that was it but not any more ..... just a quick example .... if you have dual SIM cards but don't use or need to use both all the time turn off the one with the weakest signal (in my case Smart) to keep your battery from being used up by constantly trying to upgrade the signal .... (think I mentioned that above :1 (103): ) .... if you have lots of apps from the Google play store set them not to auto update .... for 2 reasons ....#1 .. some will set themselves to check updating daily or in some cases hourly causing you to use up battery life more quickly and  #2 .. some apps may not work right after being updated and you won't know until you go to use them if they are set to auto update if you update manually you will know right away ....

 

Just go to Google Play Store click on the 3 vertical bar icon in the top header left hand side ... select my apps .... select an app and open it .... then select the icon in top right hand corner ..... 3 horizontal dots .... a box will open that says "auto-update" be sure it isn't checked if it is un-check it (that turns off auto-update) ... you need to do that for each app listed in "My aps" ..... that is if you want to ....

 

I'm lucky in that Huawei makes it easy to disable Google programs .... you can't delete them but you can disable them .... much better than MyPhone as they used to make it almost impossible to delete anything Google pushed on them .... there are tons of different 3rd party apps out there that work fantastically well with android .... I'm running about 10 at the present that take the place of pre-installed Google major apps .... and some Huawei apps ....

 

Anyway it keeps me off the streets ..... :tiphat: :hystery: :hystery:

:cheersty:

[deevey]

The one thing I hate about Kit Kat is that when you use pattern unlock it now requires slide to unlock and THEN pattern to unlock, apparently its common issue among tons of phones after the update and means 3 actions to get access to it, button/slide/pattern ... 

 

Some apps and games (which lets face it most people buying android are buying a smart phone for) ask for really ridiculous permissions - there is ZERO quality control on the play store to block malicious activity and for that reason alone I'll be swapping back to an iPhone again soon.   

[Mike S]

Some apps and games (which lets face it most people buying android are buying a smart phone for) ask for really ridiculous permissions

 

Exactly .... but Huawei or maybe KitKat 4.4.2 has installed a neat little program called "App Permission Management" in which you have 3 choices when dealing with apps YOU download .... with the ones pre-installed your SOL .... for each different permission the choices are .... Always Allow .... Always Ask and Always Deny ..... I've found that if it is really a vital part of their requirement and you deny access the program won't run and I just delete it ....

 

I always keep my WiFi and BlueTooth as well as Location and Data Connection turned off until I need them and again like I said above I update apps and programs manually .... it is a simple mater for me to just swipe down on the Home Screen and open my Owner settings .... everything I need to start or stop is right there with nice little icons and descriptions .... if the icon is gray it is off if blue it is on ....

 

I am now spending more time downloading and deleting app recommendations from the web and Google Store than I am actually using the phone but I'm just about got it tweaked to the way I want it .... found a killer camera app today called Camera Zoom FX Pro and it is awesome .... also Chomp SMS for messages and calling .....

 

When I finally get settled in I'll list the different apps I downloaded and what they replaced if anyone is interested .... right now I have 15 apps that I installed on the phone ...... only 3 are time killers .... :hystery:

:cheersty:

Edited January 4, 2015 by Mike S