T-Mobile USA has suspended sales of the Slide as of last Friday
evening (Nov. 16th) and issued this statement: “Motorola - the
manufacturer of the device - confirmed that some devices may
inadvertently power off when the slide door on the front side of the
phone is opened or closed. T-Mobile has taken this action to help
ensure our customers only receive devices we’re confident will perform
at their peak.”

Motorola also released a statement, saying that its “product engineers
are currently reviewing the facts and will investigate all possible
causes. We are unable to comment further on specifics until we have
fully investigated
the facts.”

T-Mobile has offered any current Sidekick Slide owner a free upgrade
to a Sidekick LX, made by Sharp.

Deafpagers.com already has taken early action, and has begun informing
customers about the issue with the Slide as of Monday morning (Nov.
20th).  We have been offering customers who ordered Slides over the
weekend the opportunity to switch to the Sidekick LX.  We strongly
encourage you not to order a Sidekick Slide from other dealers who
ignore T-Mobile’s instructions.  If you want a Sidekick Slide, please
wait until T-Mobile informs us that we are able to sell the Slide
again.

WARNING: We checked other deaf dealer’s web sites and most of them
continue to sell the Sidekick Slide against the wishes of T-Mobile
USA!  Please be careful!

Deafpagers.com Team

I’ve spent a couple of days with the Sidekick LX - a dark blue one to be specific. (It’s also available in brown) It still looks like a Sidekick and has the familiar flip-around screen that every Sidekick has had since the original Sidekick (other than the brand-new Slide).

Hit the link to read more on this new version of the Sidekick!

[Read more →]

Yesterday T-Mobile released their new Sidekick Slide, adding another device to the Sidekick lineup. This is the first time T-Mobile has had several different Sidekick models, which historically have been popular with deaf and hard of hearing users, available at different price points. The introduction of the Slide also marks the first time that there have been Sidekicks available from different manufacturers. Sharp currently manufactures the iD and the LX, while Motorola manufactures the Slide.

What’s the big deal about the Slide? Initial rumors had the Slide being a “Razr-like” version of the Sidekick, evoking visions of a very thin Sidekick with metal casing. However, this wasn’t to happen (yet). The biggest difference is that the Slide’s screen, well, slides up to reveal the keyboard, rather than the signature swiveling screen of the Sidekick series.

There’s a new keyboard that seems to resemble the Sidekick 3’s keyboard. The Danger OS has been upgraded, and like the LX, one new feature that many deaf users have been asking for is that the font size will be adjustable. Unfortunately, at this time, we are unable to find out what type of Hearing Aid Compatibility (HAC) T and M rating the Slide has. All documentation we have been able to find on the Slide does not mention the rating (probably because HAC testing was not completed when the documentation was written). It will be interesting to see if Motorola’s extensive experience in manufacturing wireless devices translates into a better Sidekick, especially for the deaf and hard of hearing!

At first glance, the Slide does look like a worthy addition to the Sidekick line. Stay tuned for more in-depth coverage on the latest Sidekicks!

I would like to share some exciting news with people who will go on the Deaf Freedom Cruise 2007 this weekend! I called T-Mobile Customer Care to ask about wireless coverage on the cruise ship for the Deaf Freedom Cruise, Freedom of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship. T-Mobile provides roaming coverage on this ship via the Cingular/AT&T network, and I wanted to see what the costs for using my T-Mobile pager would be while on this cruise. I could not believe what the T-Mobile rep said! Apparently, data only plans for Sidekicks are included for no extra charge on this cruise! However, do not take my word for this, since the rep I spoke to might be misinformed. I suggest that you call T-Mobile to make SURE that this information is true. As for myself, I will have a different person in my office call T-Mobile again to double check.

T-Mobile charges for roaming on Cingular/AT&T on the Deaf Freedom Cruise ship “Freedom of the Seas”:
Voice service: $4.99 per minute.
Text/SMS service: 35 cents per message up to 160 characters.
Data only plans: Apparently no charge (according to T-Mobile customer care rep).

Again, we strongly suggest you contact T-Mobile before you get on the cruise ship to avoid any expensive surprises when you return home!! Also don’t forget to check T-Mobile’s roaming coverage on the landfalls that the cruise will make on its route.

If you have had good experiences with T-Mobile roaming on cruise ships, please leave a comment explaining your experience (and don’t forget the name of the cruise you went on!).

Deafpagers.com will be along on the cruise. We will have a small number of chargers and cases, just in case you forgot to bring, break, or lose yours. Don’t worry! All you need to do is to just find Drew Gutches somewhere on the ship, and you can purchase a replacement! Selection will be limited to Sidekick and BlackBerry compatible products.

I would like to share with you what I learned today.  I was looking at the new Sidekick LX that was released today. Guess what? The Hiptop OS that comes with the Sidekick LX now features adjustable font sizes! No more squinting at your Sidekick because you can’t change its font!  Finally Danger has listened to its deaf customers! The complaints about the small fonts on Sidekick devices go back more than five years!

The Deafpagers.com Blog will have a complete in-hand review of T-Mobile’s newest Sidekick, the LX, also known as SK4 sometime next month.  Watch out for this review! If you have any questions regarding the LX, feel free to ask away and we’ll do our best to answer in our review.

Do you have a BlackBerry (BB) with a MicroSD memory card slot(Curve/8300/8320, 8800/8820/8830, or Pearl/8100)?

Do you wish you had time to watch all those great deaf-related videos online? Wish no more! The good news is that you will be able to convert Deaf-related videos into a format that you can watch on your BB with the built in BlackBerry Media Player!

You MUST have a good sized (512MB or larger) MicroSD memory card already installed in your BB, or you will not be able to watch anything on your BB. For easiest video installation on your BB, you will need to make sure you have the latest BlackBerry Desktop software (4.2 SP2) which comes with Roxio Media Manager.

Roxio Media Manager allows you to drag and drop video files to your BB, converting them automatically to the correct format needed to play it on the BB. You won’t have a problem with most MP4, WMV, and H.263 videos, per RIM’s note here. You will need to do a little more work if the video does not convert or play correctly, such as video from Google Video, YouTube, or iTunes, etc. Converting from one video format to another is called transcoding, and RIM has some information on transcoding for the BB Media Player.

Are some of the tools mentioned in the RIM transcoding article just not your thing to figure out? Do you have a DVD that you want to watch on your BB? Check this great BlackBerry Video Converter out! It’s free! However all the tools discussed here are for Windows. If you use Mac or Linux, you probably will have better luck using Handbrake with the settings mentioned in the RIM transcoding article, or using VMWare/Parallels to run Windows on your machine and use the tools mentioned here.

Of course, these tips can be used to convert any type of video, not necessarily deaf-related, for watching on your BB - but it’s gonna be neat to watch the latest deaf vlogs and videos on your BB, won’t it? Enjoy!!!

On a related note - making videos to watch using your BB - unfortunately, the BB’s can’t record video via their built in cameras yet. The Pearl 2 (8130) is supposed to support video recording to a media card, but it’s not available to the public yet.