# Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Sidekick II Comment

Mexijew got a Sidekick II, and apparently I had something to say about it:

Welcome to the world of the Sidekick II

I'm sure you've seen the adverts where Paris Hilton, Snoop Dog, Wee Man, Wayne Newton, and I all share tips about life via an application that doesn't really exist. And we love it!

Honestly, my Sidekick is my sidekick. Just got my bill and I used over 13MB of data this past month. On T-Mob's unlimited usage Sidekick plan that's great, on other networks, with less appealing tech, that could double or triple my monthly costs with overage.

Here are a few warnings, however:

  • The $10 sync package is worth about that. It doesn't auto-sync like a PDA or Blackberry, and if you sync too much the app tell you that you must wait before you can sync again (with no guidelines on what "too much" is).
  • You can't use the Hiptop (Danger's name for the device) ability to save .WAV attachments as phone rings due to T-Mob's restriction that ensures proper licensing of music tones (read extra cash in their pocket)
  • The web browser leaves a bit to be desired. It goes through a proxy, and they reduce the size of pages to make it appear better on the sidekick, but trying pulling up my site and you'll see what happens when their proxy guesses wrong. I now need to figure out how to make my site viewable again. Oh, and no javascript. This increasingly becomes an issue, and many things just can't be done on the SK (like refilling scripts at CVS, or a Starbucks card)
  • The sound profiles only affect the volume not the actual ring.
  • The Yahoo IM client is not as polished as the AIM client. If it drops you and reconnects, any status is wiped and you're once again available. If you log in elsewhere, the SK will log back in unless you've ended the connection. And the [menu]+. hotkey that closes AIM doesn't work for Y!M
  • A few months ago, without my approval, T-Mob started charging .15 per international SMS message (it was treated as one of my 1000 included before then)
  • The ToDo list, when "deleting" actually moves the items into a trash can that needs to be emptied. I had to figure this out when I reached the device's limit and couldn't understand why I couldn't add anymore ToDo items...

The Apps that I've downloaded/bought include:

  • Time Traveler (free at the time, meh)
  • Calculator (still free I think, handy but the interface is clunky)
  • Apples to Oranges (about $5, but helpful when talking to my wife)
  • Y!M (free, great way to “talk” to my wife)

All-in-all I love my Sidekick, and feel that the SKII is close to living up to my expectations. If the SKIII adds Bluetooth (for a hands free), a better web browser, and G3 Internet speeds, I'll be loving it even more...

[ Me ]

I guess I just should have blogged this one to begin with...

gadgets
#    Comments [1] |
Thursday, January 06, 2005 10:22:07 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Hello David,

I do love the Sidekick. I've actually been following it since before it came out. I was a picture of it from CES (I think) a few years back, and instantly fell in love (despite the fact back then it was black and white, had a camera attachment, and the design was a bit too... boxy.). Just as the original Hiptop came out, I'd re-signed a contract with Sprint, so I figured it would be pretty dumb for me to terminate a new contract and switch over to T-Mobile. So, I've waited, and I'm pleased I did -- the Sidekick II is way better than the first gen.

I'm not into getting the sync package. First of all, I use a Mac, which always complicates the syncing of any device (whoa this Windows world...). Secondly, the mini USB to USB cable for my digital camera fits perfectly in the Sidekick II's mini USB slot, so when I'm ready to do software builds from the SDK [i](My best friend and I are creating a piece of software for the Sidekick -- e-mail me and I'll send you to the website I've setup for the project, with screen shots and all that jazz)[/i], all I need to do is plug my USB cable in and use the htConsole app from the SDK. Plus, almost all of your data on the Sidekick automatically sync's with your T-Mobile "Desktop Interface" on their website, so really there's no need to sync at all.

Figured the WAVs wouldn't be savable. I've been browsing around developer.danger.com and discovering that they are a bit anal about stuff like that, especially with their new "process" to obtain a production key.

The web browser does have some issues. The first thing I did after I activated the phone was create a developer.danger.com account and start reading about making websites for the Sidekick. As you said, Javascript is out (as is DHTML and most CSS). The trick to making a website read well in the Sidekick's browser is making the side Web Standards compliant, like Mexijew.com is. When you go to Mexijew.com and turn off the style sheets, the site is still readable and easy to use. That's the best way to make a site usable for the Sidekick.

Never used Yahoo's IM client, so, not worried there. ;) Also don't know anyone who I'd SMS internationally, so I'm safe there, too, but that's good to know they charge extra for international SMS.

The ToDo List and the Note's work the same way in regards to "deleting" tasks/notes. Not great, but it's good if you accidentally delete something.

The calculator app should've been included on the Sidekick, and not as a free download. I'm loving LED Football and AOLMail is a wonderful app to check my AOL account on the go. I've found AIM to be wonderful to use, and it's really helping to keep me connected.

I agree 100% with your final comment, about how wonderful the Sidekick II is, and if the browser is fixed up and bluetooth is added for the SK III, I'll be putting down another few hundred for it. It really is a wonderful machine.

BTW, I believe T-Mobile will go G3 sometime in late Q2 or early Q3 of 2005. I certainly hope they do.

(dual-posted at [url]Mexijew.com[/url] and [url]DavidKearns.com[/url])
Scott
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