Reviews

So I’m giving the Sidekick 3 a spin. Yes, I said it, I’m trying the hiptop out. I had heard so much about the Danger platform, some of it from Steven’s blog, but never had a chance to really play with it, so I figured a 14-day trial would work just fine. And hey, maybe I’d even like it — after all, the device had finally reached a form factor that I could like. (The previous models being way too blocky.)

And what do you know: it’s a brilliant little communicator. Everything about it screams “we care about making complicated interactions easier.” Let’s run it down.

Multiple levels of user and system feedback

There’s lots of feedback, and it makes itself evident in multiple locations. Various levels of actions from receiving a message to responding to commands find their way into sound events, color statuses (via its translucent trackball), status icons and tooltip-style messages that don’t overlay your current working view. Not all at once, mind you, but there never seems to be an item that somehow gets hidden away. Maybe when I really start pumping items into it, but for now it’s perfect. (Sadly, a big shot like Walter thinks these are just “cutesy extras.”)

I had just started getting used to using voice notes on my RAZR but it was extremely odd to never have a status icon reminding me I’d left one in there for me.

High visibility of latest data

The device’s feedback lets you know to look at new information, but the system also provides quick shortcuts to seeing that information. The best example is in the “jump” menu of the device. Simply highlighting an option in this main-menu system shows a summary of the data contained within. And if there are only sub-menus underneath, it lists out those options.

Think about that — one of the biggest features that was added to PDAs in recent years was the “today” screen. No good organizer is sold without this feature now, whereas it used to be very common for devices like the Palm handhelds to ask you to enter the Calendar app first before seeing any calendar data (that data was then displayed like a traditional Filofax, showing all the empty time in-between meetings and appointments). Now you will always find some mode that gives you the quick rundown of what’s happening today. 11p meeting. 3p doctor’s. That’s it, no fluff. Want more? Then come on in.

So when I go to highlight the Notes app on the Sidekick, I see the first six or seven words of the actual notes in the main menu. If a note is a reminder, often times just seeing this much of it is enough to kick-start my recall. And this kind of at-a-glance access happens across the board.

Consistency (a.k.a. “Having standards”)

Across-the-board interface touches like the above points only happen when all the pieces are held to high standards that enforce consistency. Many of the hiptop-haters like to point at the fact that it is a closed platform and that Danger makes getting third-party software onto the device far more difficult than on other platforms. However, it is these same restrictions that guarantee that the user experience doesn’t change with new additions or new updates, and this is where Danger shines.

Evolved design

It’s also an amazingly comfortable thing to hold. It’s clear that the design of the device has been iterative, where the compromises between comfort and size have been carefully balanced. It’s rounded where it needs to be. It’s rubberized where it needs to be. Obviously this device could have been made smaller, but it would not have been as easy to hold or type on it. Talk to the Motorola Q users — people want thin and the Q gives it to them, but the thinness makes it somewhat uncomfortable to use to any length of time.

Sure I’d love it if the Sidekick was smaller, but it wouldn’t be as good. This comfort is one of the reasons PC World ranked the Sidekick 3 as the #2 best smartphone overall, ranked over the Treo 700w and the HTC Wizard… despite the limitations or smaller feature set of the platform.

A new approach for the web age

What you won’t immediately notice is one of the Danger platform’s most differentiating features — that it’s web based. When you first activate the device, you create an username and password on your cell provider’s server. That account establishes a push-email address where you get emails instantly, but it also links the main hiptop features such as notes, to-dos, and the calendar into a web-based “desktop” application. Make a new note on the device? It’ll show up on the web site. Add an event on the web page in Firefox? You’ll see it on the phone’s agenda. People (or some small businesses) who use websites like Backpack or Gootodo may love this approach. In this way, it’s a bit like the Web2.0 of phones, where all these actions on the clients create these little push and pulls that make your information accessible from anywhere via the internet.

However, there are haters

Now if only T-Mobile would change the marketing on this thing. There’s plenty of people who will avoid Danger’s device like the plague because it’s been so heavily promoted to the youth market. Some people who won’t use it just because Paris Hilton is so associated with it. Some people look at the big menus and colorful elements as childish… since adults don’t want systems that provide rapid acquisition or explorable interfaces that let them adapt to changing information faster? To those people, you’re really missing out. There’s no place that the interface talks down to you like a child — only the provider’s advertising does that.

But it’s not all wine and roses. You corporate types won’t like it since it doesn’t do Exchange, and all that push/pull stuff puts all organizer data on your cell provider’s servers, not yours. The Bluetooth implementation is limited to a headset profile only (at least, on T-Mobile’s firmware). The Sidekick’s font is well-designed for readability but it suffers from a small size and the low resolution of the screen itself. There are also seemingly arbitrary restrictions on data storage (such as the fixed cap of 2000 contacts or 6 MB of email). It’s annoying they used an illustration of a hipster couple for the phone feature when they could have used, oh let’s say, a telephone.

And yes… you’re going to have to flip it open to dial numbers (so if you make lots of voice calls that aren’t on speed dial, it won’t be right for you).

But overlooking these items, it’s a damn, damn good device.

10 days left to decide.

Edited 2006-07-31: Just a few things I wanted to add in hindsight: PC World seems to have consistently ranked the Sidekick high on their ratings, so their review of the “3” is not indicitive of any extreme improvements upon the “II”. In addition, 5thirtyone reports much disappointment with the improvements in the Sidekick 3, making it clear that my gushing review is mostly about first impressions of the device as a whole.

Just added a new review of MediaCentral 2.0 over on Uncabled — it just might be my longest Uncabled post to date!

If you’ve got the time, why not take a peek?

Just a quick summary/review of V for Vendetta (2006) from a fan of the original graphic novel:

Alan Moore’s graphic novel is about human nature, and how the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The movie, on the other hand, is much more deliberate about manipulation. Where the resolution of both the novel and of the movie is about people waking up from a nightmare and taking back control, the movie is quite literal about this in the political sense.

Is the movie a good movie? Absolutely. And by providing a clear antagonist and elements of conspiracy, it does help give a certain focus to the film that allows it to be enjoyed, well, like an action movie that gives you a hero to cheer and root for, and a villain to wish downfall on.

Moore, I believe, struggled hard to keep his novel from being entirely political. His story is about freedom from fear in the purest sense, and not simply the kind of fear implanted by a fascist government, and so in the novel he gets to comment on just how people can convince themselves they want a fascist government. Understanding this, I can see why he’d react so strongly against this version. V is anarchist in his novel not because he wants chaos, but because he doesn’t want leaders: he wants people to lead themselves.

So do yourself a favor—see the movie AND read the graphic novel as well, and you will see the story of V in so much more depth.

[Spoilers ahead]

The biggest hurdle Spielberg’s War of the Worlds had is our audience’s insatiable urge for everything to make sense.

When Superman was created, it was enough to say that he was an alien and in Earth’s environment he had powers. Today’s Superman? Well, he’s a huge solar collector, absorbing power from the radioactive waves of yellow stars blah blah blah…I don’t care. Why do people need so much realism in their escapism?

I finally rented Equilibrium after hearing again and again from websites and Netflix reviews that indeed this was a good film and that the critics were just really unfair with it. Since I feel the same way about the Matrix trilogy, I felt a need to see it for myself to support its passionate fans. Well.

The Wachowskis’ latest theatrical addition to the Matrix mythos proves one thing: you gotta have heart.

Reloaded, part 2 of an always-intended trilogy—so the directors say—does an exceptional job of changing our perceptions of what this fictional world is about but falls completely flat in making us care about what’s next.

What worked in part 1 was the audacity of the plot, the mind-bending scenarios, and the marriage of philosophy and Hollywood action. It was elegant, in a way, because the scope was simpler. We lived through the plot from our own perspective: someone unsure of the world we’re presented with, the true purpose of which is fully revealed to us by the story’s end. As Neo understood, we understood. It wasn’t that we were enthralled by Neo’s character but by the empathy that we felt since we were also in the same unknowing state, and that the mystery was so enormous.