Developing for the Sidekick 3


I finished my first application for the Sidekick this afternoon: a simple client that periodically reports the phone’s uptime to a script running on my server. I tested it extensively on the hiptop emulator provided with the SDK, and when I was satisfied with it, I sent it off to Danger as part of my request for a developer key (which is necessary in order to install unsigned software on the actual phone).

Within an hour or so, Danger had approved my request (on a Saturday, no less!). Now, for the small price of voiding my warranty, I can install whatever I want on my phone. Result!

I’m very pleased so far with the Danger SDK, their API, and especially the incredible support on the developer forums. Thanks to the excellent documentation, I’ve only had to resort to posting questions on the forums twice so far, but each time I got a helpful response from a real live Danger developer almost instantly, even after hours on Friday and on a Saturday. That’s pretty impressive.

My only real complaint is that the resource editor included in the SDK is a buggy piece of crap with an almost unusable UI (a real surprise coming from Danger), but I think I’ve finally learned how to avoid making it angry. When all else fails, I can at least edit the resource files by hand.