I smell an architecture astronaut.

[dolari]

My Sidekick 3 mobile phone is getting on to about 2 years old now. I'd wanted one since the Sidekick 1 days thanks to ghostangel and katrus telling me how lovely theirs were back in 2001.

I picked it up finally just two years ago, since I 'd had a land line all that time, and I don't know what I'd do without it now. Internet everywhere (including telnet!), weather radars, games, music player, and thumb drive wrapped up in one. Better have all that - the phone itself cost me $300.

I ended up getting the "extended insurance" on it, and decided to use it now that the trackball is losing some sensitivity to clicks. Man, was that ever a mistake. I called T-Mobile, who wanted to troubleshoot the device. I knew it was a physical issue, so I went through the motions and sure enough, the trackball didn't work a after a few tries. So they sent me to the Insurance company...who sent me to another tech to troubleshoot. We did the exact same tests, and as soon as something failed I got the whole "Hmmm..that's interesting. Let me send you to my L2." Same test again and "Huh, we need to run this by my supervisor." Same test again. "Let's send you to this tech over here."

After running around several times and realizing they were just playing a waiting game, I gave up. The trackball isn't dead yet, and my contract with T-Mobile is coming up. The Sidekick 3 has been good to me, and I'm considering upgrading to the Sidekick LX (And maybe giving the Sidekick 3 to Emily who is impressed with the Internet Everywhere option (Assuming that's available in Canada)). We wont be getting the "extended insurance."

Still the Sidekick 3 has some surprises after these years. I was moving music from my laptop over to the Sidekick's 4GB card for the upcoming trip (it gets boring in a truck with no radio when the other person is asleep (poor Emily)), and I filled it up WAY faster than I intended (stupid Dave Matthews and his 10 minute long songs).

So I used the built in file manager to delete songs here and there...and if I play the song using the preview function in the audio player, the built in vibrator acts like a rumble pack and the trackball glows according to the music! I played Seven Nation Army and when you get that THUMP THUMP THUMP of the percussion, the phone shook in my hands and the trackball lit up like a supernova. Doesn't do that if you use just the music player. :)

That's NEAT.

Prolly eats the heck out of the battery, but it's NEAT!.

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[ghostangel.livejournal.com]

Oh the Trackball <---Try these things, it gets mine working fine. Its REALLY easy for it to get pretty badly gunked, think of a mouse ball that isn't easily popped out, and that's the state of that ball. Mine periodically gets stupid, so it just needs cleaning (try canned air for this, with the machine off too, that might work better than just blowing).

[caitclawtooth.livejournal.com]

yay Sidekick!
They are immensely popular in the Deaf community so I wound up getting one as well. I am so used to it as an internet device though that I always have to do a double take when it rings for an incoming call (more often than not, a wrong number).

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize you were deaf (not that it matters, since we always talk via text). But yeah, the Sidekick gets about 3 or 4 minutes of talk time on it. The rest is all internet for me. I loves my Sidekick. :D

[caitclawtooth.livejournal.com]

LOL! No, my partner is Deaf so it is how we stay in touch. It is funny how much the Deaf community uses them though. When there were protests at Gallaudet the other year there happened to be several of us at the same non-Gallaudet place (both Deaf and with ties to the Deaf community). We were *all* doing chattering away on sidekicks.