No voice mail for lefties on Motorola Droid!

[placidsailor]

I'm left handed and I have a Motorola Droid. I've only had it a few days.
When I try to check my voice mail and try to enter my password on the screen dial pad - the screen goes black, not dim or dark, but black. I went to two Verizon Wireless stores today and tried three other Motorola Droid phones - all with the same result. It seems that there is a light sensor in the upper left hand corner - when the phone is held in the portrait mode - and when I hold the phone in my right hand and bring my left hand across the phone to type on the screen pad I come over the light sensor and the screen goes black. The techs in the stores tried getting into their voice mails, left handed, and they seemed surprised when they got the same black screen. They also said that no one had brought this issue up before. They said there was nothing that they could do, and that I should contact Motorola. If I keep the phone I guess I'll have to learn to be a Righty. Does anyone know of any fixes for this? Thanks

 

[On Droids]

Not to be rude but from the looks of this thread below no one here seems to care..I'm sure voice mail won't be the only left-handed problem


http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr.../5506-screen-blackout-unscientific-study.html

 

[cereal killer]

go into your settings/call settings/voice mail settings and after *86 put 2 ,'s (those are pauses) and then your pasword.

so it would look like this. We'll use 1234 as your pw for demo purposes.

*86,,1234

now you dont have to dial your password and worry about that.

 

[RosarioM]

Or you could forward your voicemails to Google Voice and have it transcribe them for you. The transcription isn't too good, but you can play the messages from the google voice app without dialing into voicemail.

 

[Remnever]

I'm left handed and I have never had this problem. The sensor is on the upper left corner of the screen. If you just keep your thumb off the screen it won't block the sensor. I just have my thumb on the side of the phone. I'm surprised you don't hit all kinds of stuff accidentally if your fingers are always touching the screen unintentionally.

 

[stiggy]

How about not using portrait mode to check vm? Problem solved, $10 please.

Lefties are the only ones in their right minds.

<-- is a lefty.

 

[elmezzo]

I am right handed and phone goes instantly black when checking vm. Wtf? This is a pain in the a$$

 

[Z-Droid]

i suspect thumb placement is the issue. but hey, maybe you guys are just on the no calls list!

 

[hookbill]

go into your settings/call settings/voice mail settings and after *86 put 2 ,'s (those are pauses) and then your pasword.

so it would look like this. We'll use 1234 as your pw for demo purposes.

*86,,1234

now you dont have to dial your password and worry about that.

Brilliant idea, and I'm not saying that just because CK's a mod. I'd of never thought of that.

 

[ethancays]

Is it bad engineering designed? Haven't they thought of that? Or maybe there is a simple setting to solve the problem for lefties. I am sure it is not the helpless.

 

[DroidFan]

Another lefty here...

I've also put my passcode in since day #1... never tried to access my voicemail in landscape mode...

I have no problems with the voicemail.

 

[FunN4Lo]

Ima lefty... never had an issue with imputing my VM code. I had to try just now to be sure... works perfectly?!?!?!

 

[takeshi]

I'm left handed and have never had problems with the proximity sensor. I suppose it's possible that the OP's proximity sensor is somehow different but I'd suspect this to be a user issue. In order for me to trigger the proximity sensor with either hand, I have to have the hand above the notification bar.

Granted, I use GV for voicemail so I don't have to enter a PIN but it would be difficult for me to accidentally set it off.

I've also put my passcode in since day #1... never tried to access my voicemail in landscape mode...

Seems like it would be worse having the sensor on the left -- unless it's implied that landscape means "inverted landscape" with the physical keyboard on top if you slide it out.

...and the dial screen doesn't rotate, IIRC.