Converting Videos For Sidekick

The Sidekick LX got an update for video playback a few months ago and the new Sidekicks (08 & Tony Hawk) both come with video playback capabilities. The video quality is not all that so I hadn't bothered with it but I know a lot of people are interested in putting videos on their Sidekicks so I figured I'll show you how. If you already have the videos you want to put on your phone on your computer, all you have to do is download eRightSoft SUPER to encode the videos. Any video converter will do the same job but SUPER is free and already has codecs integrated so you won't have to download codecs in order to encode the videos.

If you don't have any videos to try this with, the video below shows you how to download your favorite videos from YouTube and encode them for playback on your Sidekick. The settings I used on SUPER may not be the optimal settings because I'm not sure what encoding format provides better playback on the Sidekick but in my other attempts, I had problems with video lagging at higher quality and audio ending up out of sync at lower quality. The settings shown in this video are simply the ones that I believe yielded the best results for me. Video and audio settings may differ depending on the source of the original video but the video scale should always be set to 400 x 240 for full screen video. If you have tried any other encoding format that you believe provides better quality videos feel free to leave comments and suggestions.

Download eRightSoft SUPER

Download YouTube Videos Using URL
**Add "&fmt=18" at the end of URL to download HQ (MP4) version of videos**

Louder Hinge Sounds on Audacity

A lot of people been complaining about their hinge sounds being too low. The reason why my hinge sounds are loud is because I use a limiter to make them as loud as possible. I didn't include how to do this in my hinge sound tutorial because it is not necessary to do this for hinge sounds to work and this procedure is for more advanced users. Hard limiting and amplifying can cause clipping and possibly permanent damage to your Sidekick's speakers if not done correctly. In this video I will show you how to maximize the loudness of your hinge sounds on Audacity while preventing clipping. If you're unsure about your understanding of this video, I suggest you ask questions before you start testing loud sounds on your phone.

**This Video Does Not Explains How To Make Hinge Sounds**
Click Here for The Hinge Sounds Tutorial for Audacity
Click Here for The Hinge Sounds Tutorial for Adobe Audition.

How To Add Key Guard To Phone Splash

I recently posted some phone splashes for the sk08, now I'm posting some splashes for the LX and the Slide. I figured nobody really wants the default LX & Slide phone splashes but I've also included splashes for the Slide Scarlet and LX Tony Hawk which might come in handy if you like phone splashes in your themes. The real reason why I'm posting these splashes is for customizing. Obviously, If you wanted a theme with the default splash, all you have to do is not use one and the default will be loaded but what if you can make your splash match your actual theme or/and shell? I'm sure more people will be using splashes specially sk08 users.

The video below will show you how to customize the phone splashes to display the same key guard you have on your phone replacing the default T-mobile/Hiptop key guard usually on the splashes. In the beginning of the video, I also showed an easy way to change the shell color of your phone splash to match your real shell. You'll notice in this video I used a different splash for the sk08, similar to the one that comes with themes from the Danger Download Catalog. You can download the new set below! The key guard used in this video is from the Kidrobot x The Simpsons theme.

Custom Sidekick 08 Shells

Everyone knows the hottest thing about the Sk08 is that you can change the shell on it. I'm sure most of the Sk08 users are already aware of custom shells & sidekickshells.com so this is not a tutorial video or anything like that but I thought It'll be cool to show you how you can make custom shells out of your favorite Sidekick themes. I've already ordered a couple shells, the quality is not pristine but they look decent for $14.99.

In this video I made shells to match three of my recent themes, all the pictures I used to make the shells are included with the themes so if you like how it looks, download the theme by clicking on one of the images below and create your own! The images to use will most likely be BG1, BG2, foldec, and phone splash depending on the theme. This can be done with any theme from Sk08themes.com and SkLXthemes.com.

Graduation Shell
(click on image for the theme)


Hi Hater Shell
(click on image for the theme)


Juicy Couture Shell
(click on image for the theme)

How To Make Sidekick Icons

Making icons for the Sidekick is the same as making icons for any other purpose. Icons are just small images used to represent a program, file, and etc. therefore any image can be converted into an icon. The only difference between regular images and icons is that regular images do not contain an alpha channel. The alpha channel is used to represent up to 256 levels of transparency. When you add the alpha channel to a regular image you can make parts of that image be transparent or semi-transparent. If you look at the default instant message icon image on your Sidekick you will see a yellow smiley, but if you open the image in Photoshop or GIMP you will see the yellow smiley inside a squared transparent background. If you were to save that same icon in JPG or BMP format the transparent background will become white, that is because JPG and BMP do not store alpha channel information.

I've seen many themes posted with icons with a squared black/white background, that is becuase they have uploaded JPG or BMP files to the theme creator on the SkLX/SkSlide websites. The theme creator does not remove backgrounds for you, so do not expect to get an icon with a transparent background from there unless that's what you're sending. Formats that support the alpha channel include PNG, ICO, PSD, GIF and others, for Sidekick themes you only need to work with the PNG format.

In the video below I will show you how to add the alpha channel to regular images so that they can be saved in PNG format and used as icons. Part 1 of the video shows how to do it on Photoshop & Part 2 shows how to do it on GIMP. If you're watching this video I assume you already know Photoshop/GIMP basics and I will not go into detail about resizing and fitting the images. This video is no way near a tutorial on how to extract images (remove backgrounds), there are hundreds of ways to extract images, If you do not know how to extract images, I suggest you watch videos on how to do it because in this video I'll use the simplest method which does not necessarily yield the best results. If you're watching this video to learn how to make icons for your Sidekick themes, you should download one of the theme templates below:

Sk Slide Template

Sk LX/2008 Template

The icons made in this video can be found in my PACMAN theme.

Sidekick Screen Shot Creator

When I first started making Sidekick themes, I was only making themes for the Sidekick LX. Once the Sidekick Slide came out I started getting requests to convert my themes, I did not own a Sidekick Slide so I was not comfortable making themes for it because I didn't even know how they would look on the device. I decided to start making fake screen shots for the Sidekick Slide. The fake screen shots will not only help me assure that the theme will look good on the device, but also allow me to show people what the theme will look like before they download it. The screen shots for every theme I've posted for the Sidekick Slide so far are fake, but you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a real screen shot and a fake one. Now I've organized my psds so that you can also create your own screen shots. The psds are compatible with both Photoshop and GIMP but only on Photoshop you will be able to edit the signature on my custom top bar. Watch the video below if you're not familiar with layers so you can understand better how to use the psds.

Download:
Screen Shot PSDs

Sk Hinge Sounds On Audacity

I already made a video on "How To Make Hinge Sounds" with Adobe Audition, but since Audacity is Free, I decided to remake the video on Audacity. The process is basically the same, the hinges can be in any audio format as long as they do not exceed 100 KB.

Download Audacity:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Audacity needs a plug-in to export MP3 files so you'll also need:

Lame MP3 Encoder

In this video I show you how to make hinge sounds from a sound file already on your computer. If you would like to make custom hinge sounds by recording them, watch my video on "How To Record What you Hear". Although that video is made with Adobe Audition, The process in Audacity is exactly the same, All you have to do is go to Edit... Preferences... and Under "Audio I/O", Select "Monitor Mixer" as your Recording Device, the rest is exactly the same, just play the sound and hit record on Audacity.

Remember once you have your hinge sounds done to make sure they do not exceed 100 KB and to add the hinge sound string to your Theme.txt file. The strings should look like this:

sound system-hinge-open-sound FILENAME.mp3
sound system-hinge-close-sound FILENAME.mp3

Editing Sidekick Theme.txt File

Have you ever downloaded a great looking sk theme with annoying hinge sounds? Maybe you downloaded a great looking theme with no hinge sounds at all, or you just simply want to change a theme's name so it's easy to find on your phone, you can do all of that by simply editing the "Theme.txt" file on that theme. The Theme.txt file is found on your theme's folder and is used to tell your Sidekick what to do with the files in the theme's folder. All you have to is remove a string pointing to a file, and your sidekick will never look for that file again. The lines below point to hinge sounds by the name of "hingeopen.mp3" and "hingeclose.mp3":

sound system-hinge-open-sound hingeopen.mp3
sound system-hinge-close-sound hingeclose.mp3

If you remove these two lines your phone will no longer look for hinge sounds and the default hinge sounds will be used. You can also make one file point to more than one place on your phone, The lines below tell the Sidekick to use "bg1.png" for both ring background and folder background.

bitmap ring-background bg1.png
bitmap ring-folder-background bg1.png

If you only point to one background and remove the second background string, you will end up with a custom background (bg1.png) and the default background on your phone for second. You can also use the Theme.txt file to hide images. The way to do this is by using a transparent image file. The most common case is hiding the phone splash, Most Sidekick theme maker's use a transparent phone splash image so they can take their theme's screen shot on the phone splash screen. If you need a transparent phone splash, my free bubbles have a transparent phone splash image included. Bubbles, icons and zoom effects can all be made transparent but If you use a transparent background, the result will be a white background. If you want to learn more about the theme.txt file watch the video, it is based on the sample theme.txt file available under downloads. The theme I used to make this video is "TDK Joker", If you like the theme follow the links at the end of the post.

Sidekick LX - Sidekick Slide - Sidekick 3

How To Make Sidekick Themes

The question I get asked the most by Sidekick users is "How Do I Make A Theme?". The Truth is that it isn't really all that hard, Anyone with a little time on their hands can make a Sidekick theme. I'm not saying that everyone can make a master piece but you can definitely make your own favorite theme. In order to make things easier, I created theme templates for the Sidekick LX & Sidekick Slide. The template is a regular theme but it contains information instead of images of your favorite clothing brand or music artist. When you put this theme on your phone you can identify all the images so you know exactly what goes where. The idea is once you know where every image goes, you can replace the images with whatever you want. When I first made a theme, that was the way I did it, so it shouldn't be any harder for you. All you have to do is duplicate the theme template and replace everything in there with whatever you want!

This video has two parts, In the first part I will show you how to make a theme with the theme template and the help of image editing software (remember GIMP is free); In the second part I'll show you how to make a theme with SkLXthemes' or SkSlidethemes' theme creator. Making Sidekick themes with the theme creator is a lot easier and faster but you will not be able to use hinge sounds, zoom effects or SMS icon with this method. This video is meant to show you how to put a theme together and it doesn't go into details about making bubbles, or hinge sounds, If you need help with that you should watch my other videos.

SkLX Theme Template - SkSlide Theme Template


Sidekick Theme Creator:

Sidekick LX
Sidekick Slide
Sidekick 3

How To Record What You Hear

I've already made a video on making hinge sounds with Adobe Audition but I know a lot of people are wondering where do I get good sounds from so I made this video. I get hinge sounds from anywhere on the web, basically any sound that I can hear coming out of my PC can be recorded and saved. I use a M-AUDIO Audiophile 2496 audio card for my recordings but the process is the same with any audio device. I am using Adobe Audition on this video but most recording programs are capable of recording what you hear if you select Monitor/Mixer as the input. You can use this process to capture sound from anywhere, If it plays on your computer, you can record it! This video only explains how to record the sounds you want, If you want to use the sounds you record as hinge sounds for your Sidekick, you need to watch my other video on "How To Make Hinge Sounds".

How To Put Themes On A Sidekick

Most people who come to my blog already know how to put themes on their Sidekick, but everyday new people get Sidekicks and have no clue how to put themes on their phone; This video is meant for them. If you're wondering were to get the themes from, you can download my themes from this blog or go to one of the sites listed below for thousands of free user made themes!

Free Themes for Sidekick LX

Free ADULT Themes for Sidekick LX (18+)

Free Themes for Sidekick Slide

Free Themes for Sidekick 3

Free ADULT Themes for Sidekick 3 (18+)

Making Bubbles With GIMP

I've already posted a video on "How To Make Bubbles With Adobe Photoshop" but since not everyone is able to afford this program, Now I will show you a similar tutorial for GIMP.

GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.

In this video I will show you the basics on making a clear (see-through) bubble on GIMP and how to recolor it to black. Once again, this is only basics and is not a standard procedure. The bubbles can be done in other ways, you have mix what you learn and your creativity so you can get exactly what you want!

How To Fit Images

It sounds like something very simple to do yet, It seems many theme makers still can't figure out how to fit images. The easiest way to fit an image is obviously resizing it, but resizing doesn't always work. If you take a squared wallpaper of a ball and resize it for a rectangular shaped screen, the ball is going to start looking more like an egg. In this video, I will show you how to use the aspect ratio lock feature on Adobe Photoshop to keep the proportions of your images. This video also includes a couple tips you can use for filling space when the image doesn't fill up your wallpaper space. The wallpapers I made in this video are for the Sidekick LX, you can download the finished wallpapers below!

P.S. I used the Lil Wayne wallpaper below for Tha Carter III theme which can now be downloaded for SkLX & SkSlide.

How To Make Hinge Sounds

This is a basic tutorial on how to make hinge sounds for Sidekicks with Adobe Audition, the process is the same in other programs, Audition is just my preferred application. Please notice it is very important that you verify that the final file size for your hinges is less than 100 KB, anything bigger than that will not work. In this video I used the MP3 format because MP3 compression allows you to make longer sounds with a smaller file size, and I find that the 56 kbps, 22050 Hz format sounds really good on the sidekick but the sidekick is NOT limited to MP3 and other popular audio formats will work as long as the file size is less than 100 KB.

How To Make Bubbles

This is a basic tutorial video on how to make bubbles similar to mines on Adobe Photoshop. You can use what you learn from this video and your creativity to make your own bubbles. In this video I did the 68 x 68 bubbles but the process is the same for all of them, only the image size changes. If you start-off with the biggest size first you can just shrink the same bubble to the smaller sizes, the other option is to redo all sizes from scratch.

Download This Bubble