Slightly less Sidekick hate.
Jan. 18th, 2011 08:40 amAlright, after a few days of futzing around with it I've managed to change quite a few things that Josh and the manual led me to believe weren't possible.
I've figured out how to change backgrounds and how to make custom backgrounds and themes. Which turns out to be ridiculously simple, IF YOU KNOW HOW, there appears to be no official assistance for that. I found it in a tricks section of a sidekick wiki that
crassy linked me to. I figured out how to make the directional button actually work like a directional button in the phone's menus instead of the default: "OH HAI IMA PAGE DOWN/SIDE BUTTON THAT NEVER PAGES THE SAME NUMBER OF OPTIONS EVER". Found the font size and have changed it to the smallest, which I like. Because, let's face it, the Sidekick Slide's screen, while bigger than my previous Nokia, seems postage stamp sized next to modern slide/full querty phones.
And I figured out how to turn off the constant blinky light. But I've gotten used to it now so did not do so. Green for all systems go; battery is still good, red for OMG BATTERY LOW, and blue for O HAI U HAS MESSAGE YAY.
It's taking a bit to get used to qwerty, I've been a T9 wiz for so long. But I have used this sidekick once before in an emergency (Nokia took a diet mtn dew bath, and was drying out and I had places to go from which I had to call/text for a return ride), so I have had a tiny bit of practice before so this time is not as annoying as before. I still try to hit some keys twice for words like "no" and such.
I am happy to have it more configured to my liking and looking forward to being back on mobile internets with it once we get that reactivated, but I still stand by my belief that I shouldn't have had to learn how to use it or spend so much time searching and researching on how to change very simple options. I expect more from a phone OS than this and was a bit spoiled by Nokia's Symbian OS.
But regardless I feel better about this being MY phone for now since I have no clue when I'll be able to join the Android world.
I've figured out how to change backgrounds and how to make custom backgrounds and themes. Which turns out to be ridiculously simple, IF YOU KNOW HOW, there appears to be no official assistance for that. I found it in a tricks section of a sidekick wiki that

And I figured out how to turn off the constant blinky light. But I've gotten used to it now so did not do so. Green for all systems go; battery is still good, red for OMG BATTERY LOW, and blue for O HAI U HAS MESSAGE YAY.
It's taking a bit to get used to qwerty, I've been a T9 wiz for so long. But I have used this sidekick once before in an emergency (Nokia took a diet mtn dew bath, and was drying out and I had places to go from which I had to call/text for a return ride), so I have had a tiny bit of practice before so this time is not as annoying as before. I still try to hit some keys twice for words like "no" and such.
I am happy to have it more configured to my liking and looking forward to being back on mobile internets with it once we get that reactivated, but I still stand by my belief that I shouldn't have had to learn how to use it or spend so much time searching and researching on how to change very simple options. I expect more from a phone OS than this and was a bit spoiled by Nokia's Symbian OS.
But regardless I feel better about this being MY phone for now since I have no clue when I'll be able to join the Android world.