I spent the night at the emergency room with my soon-to-be-90-years-old grandpa. While in the middle of a phone call to my mom through the relay, my Sidekick decided to stop working.
The radio GPRS “detached” from the phone, and would not reattach, even with restarting and other troubleshooting. I could not connect to the internet, much less make a phone call through relay on AIM. I have had ongoing problems with the sidekick for the last two months, if not the last 4 years (30+ replacements within warranty periods). Sidekick b/w, Sidekick color, SKII, and now the new Sidekick 3…each one has had so many problems and negatives to it, that I have yet to hear enough positives to outweigh it. The new one isn’t any better.
To make a long story short, I had to retrieve my mom’s ancient, bare-bones cell phone from her car, because I had her car with me, use the speakerphone, and try my best to have a conversation with her, because the CI is not compatible with the phone, but I can hear with the speakerphone. I’m amazed that this simple piece of technology is so reliable and works fantastically, compared to this high-priced, overhyped gadget that is nothing but trouble.
The conclusion to all of this is that I am not going to get the Sidekick 3. I’ve started doing some research into other smartphones/PDAs, because I am not at the level where I am ready to understand speech and have a conversation on the phone. But as far as I am concerned, the Sidekick is never going to be a reliable phone, no matter how many incarnations they make of it.
Basically, this whole situation just deepens my resolve to be able to hear and understand speech. This is what the CI is for. I want to be able to pick up a phone ANYWHERE and be able to have a phone conversation with anybody, without having to rely on a keyboard to type my words out and get my message across. I don’t want to rely on other people to have to “voice” my message or “type” it for me onto a screen. I want to express myself and I want to hear others express themselves.
I want independence.
P.S. I think the Blackberry Pearl will be my choice, as Blackberries have been totally awesome (spoken as a previous user of the RIM 850, which I had first, before the SK), not to mention reliable due to their primary audience of government and major corporate clients. It comes out on Sept. 18th on T-Mobile, but a full-QWERTY keyboard is not expected until Q1 2007. Reliability, same features as SK3, and a cost of $199 vs $350 for the sidekick and its unreliability? I think I’d take the crackberry, only if it is CI-compatible.
P.P.S. new sound: listening to the college freshman almost continually vomit from drinking too much, as the paramedics were holding his head outside the room my grandpa was in. yay first week of school parties.
Makropulos,
I want to design my own cell phone, haha. :-p
somebody should seriously talk to the deaf/hoh community and ask them what THEY want in a cell phone.
Once they address the needs of the deaf/hoh community, then they will have the makings of a kick-ass phone…and then they can insert their phone parts into it to make it into a full cell phone. Woot.
But make sure that it’s HA and CI compatible!
Yes – that’s exactly what they should do, but I’ve a feeling they never will. As you say, if they got all the bits right for deaf/hoh, then all they need to add is stuff that works for voice phones. And whatever the makers claim, I don’t think I’ve yet found a cellphone that is genuinely HA compatible. It just shouldn’t be difficult – my amplified regular phone is totally HA compatible, and goes so loud that I can actually make voice calls using it
Now, a cell should be able to do that too. One of the problems with the SK is also that GPRS is a hopelessly unreliable way of getting a signal for email and the web, but I guess we can’t blame t-mobile for that (oh, but I’d like to! – they screwed up royally earlier this month by claiming I had international roaming activated – but it didn’t work – not even in Geneva airport, which is full of – you guessed it – t-mobile ads…)
Stef,
this has been ongoing since my 2nd year of college…first my grandma, now it’s my grandpa.
so yes, I know how it goes for you.
life doesn’t suck, just that night sucked. thanks girl.
Jess,
Grah, that sucks when a device interferes with your work life!
As for the Treo, Mike says to stay away from the Treos, and he does tech/computer support. But yes, research is the key.
My problem with the sidekick is that:
a) it keeps detaching the GPRS/radio
b) it won’t log into the network
c) the battery won’t charge, or says its charged, but then dies a few minutes later
d) text messages show up several days later or not at all.
e) it keeps logging me into AIM/doing things I didn’t tell it to do.
I am most interested in the Blackberry Pearl…unfortunately, the full-QWERTY keyboard doesn’t look like it will come out until Q1 2007. Hmm…
Eep! Sorry to hear about your ER visit – hope everything is OK now?
As for the SK, I know what you mean. The GPRS is incredibly unreliable over here in England/Europe, and dies randomly, usually when it’s most needed. At least mine hasn’t fallen to pieces, but still, a great phone it isn’t. The problem is…what’s the alternative for decent SMS, email and web-browsing on the move? Any ideas? All the phone people are useless of course – they think actually making voice calls is important, but I’ve only made one the whole time I’ve had my SK and as far as I could tell, it worked for that.
I have a Sidekick II myself. And yes it does create problems. But I doubt that I use it as much as some people do. I basically keep it around as a way to be able to (sometimes) contact somebody when I’m in an emergency. I was given the sidekick as a xmas gift. I wasn’t actually researching this, but oh well. I was researching other cellphones with text messaging added into it. But I’ve got it now, so oh well.
Sorry to hear about your grandpa. Many hugs to you. Sorry to hear about the sidekick too. What a bummer!
aww allison i loves you. and i know what your going though and just know i am allways here for you. AND dont forget to find laughter in everthing because with out it life just all around sucks and I dont want life to suck for you.
I LOVE YOUUUU!!
Sorry about the hospital visits, I hope everything is ok
Blackberry. It’s all about the Blackberry. Sidekick is so 90’s….
freaking agree with you about sidekicks, it has been failing me lately for the last few weeks- I was paged several times by coworkers for me to come over and help them out with a client
am thinking about getting the treo as soon as I do my research about it
I ran across your blog entry while I was looking for other reports of interference between the Sidekick III and cochlear implants; I have a CII (implanted in 2002) and was dismayed to find out that my Sidekick III produces a buzzing/clicking noise when held up to my ear, much like the 2.4 Ghz cordless phones in the house did. I was hoping to find a solution, but found your blog.
I’m glad to see someone else out there is forging ahead!