Sidekicked

[rowyn]

Several weeks ago, I dropped my Sidekick into a bowl of water in a rather unlucky accident. (I put it down on the corner of the sink, and it fell off exactly so that it would land in the cat's water dish). Despite this, it had been performing like a champ for most of the intervening weeks. Except that it didn't work as a phone anymore. The microphone died. I could hear people when they called, but not talk to them. This made for the occassional amusing conversation:

(Koogrr forgets and calls my phone instead of Lut's)
Me: Hi, Koogrr. You can't hear me because my phone's microphone doesn't work.
Koogrr: Hello? Rowyn? Can you hear me?
Me: Yes, I can hear you fine.
Koogrr: Hello? Hello?
Me: But you can't hear me because the microphone's not working. You should call Lut's phone instead.
Koogrr: Oh, that's right, your phone doesn't work. Now I remember.
Me: Exactly!
Koogrr: I'll try calling Lut's phone instead.
Me: Good plan.

It's annoying to have a phone I can't use to call people, but I don't much need my SK as a phone anyway. Usually when I want to talk to someone, it's just as convenient to use Lut's phone.

As it turns out, I don't have any cheap options for replacing it. New phones are cheap with a new contract, but my contract runs through May of 2009, and that's a long time to wait. Without the contract discount and rebate, the new SK Slide is $375. There's an LE model for $250 or so and an LX for over $400. I've been debating if it's worth it. I have an old phone: I can take apart my SK and put the phone chip into the old phone and put it back together to make calls. It's horribly awkward but it works.

But my SK has been having more problems. Today it died, for a little while. I noticed just after I got through security. The screen would light but displayed nothing. I turned it off and on again, turned it off again to take it apart, put it back together again -- finally it revived. With nothing in it. No 'net connection, no phone access, no bank of saved emails, no notes, no contacts, no bookmarks. It had forgotten everything, even the presets it had come with. I was reminded of John's story about his Palm Pilot, the day it had run out of power completely and when he powered it up again it had lost everything. So betrayed ....

Then my Sidekick connected, and slowly it revived. All the things it had forgotten came back to it, downloaded from the 'net. It was startling and weird to watch it remembering. Retrieving 1168 messages .... (I really need to clear out my sent folder.) Some people don't like having their data stored remotely, and I sympathize: it is pretty disturbing to think how easy it would be to hack. But today I was grateful for the backup.

I don't know if the failure today was a random blip or a symptom of lingering problems that may be worsening. Still ... I think I ought to replace it after all. I'd be happier about getting a new Slide if I actually liked it as well as the SK 3. Maybe I can find an SK 3 online somewhere.

Comments

[skyflame.livejournal.com]

Can you live with a plain phone that just makes calls?

Or you can try this:

http://cheapsidekickphones.com/?gclid=CI627vz7xJICFQ4JPQod5wGNMQ

[rowyn]

I have a phone that works fine for phone calls, actually. I get a lot more use out of the sidekick that doesn't make phone calls, though. :) I may try buying a used SK that's fully functional, though, like you linked to. Thanks!

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

Links look good, some quite affordable ones there!

A working SK would be nice.

[level-head.livejournal.com]

"Hold together!" -- in Han Solo's voice.

===|==============/ Level Head