Loading ...Bringing Synch to the Sidekick
Those of you who own the T-Mobile Sidekick I’m sure have been following the story of “synch” or synchronization. Basically, many PDA’s and PDA-phone’s out there (The Blackberry, Treos, and various PocketPC phones as well as other “smartphones”) have had this capability for years. It is the ability to transfer back and forth data between your phone/device and your computer. Specifically, it allows you to transfer PIM data (contacts, calendar, tasks, notes, etc.) back and forth so that if you make a change or addition on your computer, the next time you “synch” it shows up on your phone, or if you make it on your phone, it shows up on your computer.
The Danger Sidekick is a phone that I’ve owned for a year and a half now. It has some great features like the ability to get pushed email like the blackberry, do AOL instant messaging via a very nice and fast interface, and do web-browsing fairly quickly where proxy servers downsize images and remove and reformat items to better fit the Sidekicks smaller screen. The keyboard is one of the best out there for a small device like this. It has all those PIM apps like Contacts, To-Do, Calendar, etc., and you can even import some of your data over the web, but it is only a one-way process and not a very flexible one.
Danger has promised full synch capabilities for the Sidekick since before it came out - almost 2 years ago. Rumors have abounded of it being ready for almost as long, but somehow it hasn’t been offered yet. Recently it actually was offered, but only to those using the Sidekick via another wireless provider, Cable and Wireless, which doesn’t offer service in the U.S. T-Mobile is really the only game in town for most U.S. Sidekick users and so we are beholden to them. It has been vitally clear on the Yahoo! Group I manage as well as on hiptop.com, the primary forum for Sidekick users, that synch is a critical and yearned for feature. Users have been clamoring for it for a long time. Yet it isn’t offered yet and we have no word from T-Mobile whether it will be any time soon. T-Mobile, perhaps, needs something more visible to show how many of its customers need this functionality and so in that vein I created an online petition. I am hopeful that if we get enough signatures, we can push T-Mobile into offering a functionality that is long overdo (and which they already offer via other devices like the Blackberry). If you are a current Sidekick user, or are considering buying one, I urge you to sign the petition and alleviate probably the most glaring ommission in what is otherwise an extremely useful product!