Just wondering if anyone out there actually got the $100 gift card that T-Mobile said they would be sending out to people that “have experienced a significant and permanent loss of personal content”. If you lost your data and got a $100 gift card, let us know in the comments!

It took a large scale data disaster, but looks like Microsoft/Danger/T-Mobile will finally be giving Sidekick users a way to backup their data to something other than Danger’s servers. An OTA is rolling out to users that will allow you to backup your Address Book to T-Mobile’s Mobile Backup service. The announcement on the T-Mobile forums makes it look like this might only be for Sidekick LX 2009 users, which is a little worrisome for people with other devices.

Here’s what T-Mobile is saying:

T-Mobile will begin rolling out Mobile Backup for Sidekick LX 2009 customers via an Over The Air (OTA) process. All Sidekick LX 2009 customers should receive the OTA in the next few weeks.

What is Mobile Back up?
Mobile Backup is a free service via My T-Mobile that allows you to avoid manually re-entering contacts into a device in the event you need to replace it or in the event it’s lost or stolen.

How will I know I have it?
T-Mobile will send an Over The Air (OTA) update in phases over the next several weeks. You will receive a message that says “System Update Notice”. Once you receive the message, please accept it. Upon successful receipt of your OTA, you will receive a T-Mail confirming that you have Mobile Backup.
Another way to verify receipt of the OTA is to navigate to your device’s Address Book and select Menu. Under the drop down you will see Mobile Backup.

What if I don’t have it right now?
Don’t worry. T-Mobile is rolling this update to our customers in phases. All LX 09 customers should have it by Dec 10, 2009.

So am I at risk of losing my data again until I have the update?
Microsoft/Danger has taken steps to help ensure all data is readily available. This is an additional enhancement to backup your contact data should you change your device in the future.

For more info on Mobile backup check out http://support.t-mobile.com/doc/tm23951.xml

Good news! As we posted on our Twitter account (@hiptop3), the Download Catalog came back online this weekend. There was much rejoicing.

Also, we heard from T-Mobile directly and they were very happy I’m sure to be announcing that Sidekicks were no longer “Temporarily Out Of Stock” and were up for sale on T-Mobile.com again! You can snag a Sidekick LX 2009 for $149.99 or a Sidekick 2008 for $49.99. And if that’s not cheap enough, you can even get an open box Sidekick 2008 for $34.99. (All with 2 year contracts of course)

I know, I know.. this post is almost blasphemous, but I thought it might be helpful for some of you out there. After all, Android is another project by the same guy that helped bring us Danger! (I’m talking about Andy Rubin) Don’t worry, I’m keeping my Sidekick LX 2009, and hiptop3.com will continue running. We ain’t going nowhere.

That said, the Sidekick Disaster of October had a lot of people start thinking about leaving the Sidekick, but the big question is and was: which device to jump to? It seems like there are three solid choices: iPhone, Blackberry, and Android. Each one is different in its own way, and none of them compare to some of the features that the Sidekick has. From my experience and talking with people it feels like the Android platform comes the closest to the Sidekick.

So I sat down and put together Android Shopper to help compare all the different Android devices on the market right now. If you’re thinking about buying an Android device but aren’t sure which one, I’d recommend checking out the comparison of Android phones. If you’ve already switched to an Android device (or tried one in the past), please leave a comment on the “More Info” page for the phone you tried telling everyone what you loved/hated about it!

BTW, anyone want to start a petition to get Android on the Sidekick platform?

Life as a Sidekick user is starting to return to normal as T-Mobile/Microsoft/Danger slowly announce each piece of data that is restorable as they make progress. We’ve gotten back Address Books, Calendars, To Do Lists, Notes, and most recently Photos. I know a lot of people are still waiting on Bookmarks and I imagine that will be next in line. However one of the hallmarks of the Sidekick is still missing and we haven’t heard any word on when it will return.

I’m of course talking about the Download Catalog, aka the first App Store. The Catalog has been down for over a month and this sucks both for Sidekick users as well as Sidekick Developers. I’m sure T-Mobile is feeling the hurt too as a large source of their income from Sidekick users comes from selling applications, ringtones and themes.

While there are no other ways to get applications (save having a developer key), it is possible to get ringtones and themes while the catalog is down from unofficial sites. Themes for most Sidekicks can be found at Sidekick Themes and if you have a Sidekick LX 2009 you can get free ringtones at Skringers.com.

UPDATE (2009-11-11): We’re hearing through the grapevine that the Download Catalog may be up by Saturday if things go well! Keep your fingers crossed.

Danger/Microsoft has added one more thing to the list of data you can restore. If you had photos that were saved on the Danger servers you can get them back now on my.t-mobile.com. Here’s how:

Although we cannot directly restore photos to your Sidekick through the sync process, if you wish to receive a copy of your photos by e-mail, please enter and confirm your e-mail address below. Your photos will be sent to you via e-mail, one photo per e-mail. Depending on how many photos you have, this process may take some time. Once all your photos have been sent, we’ll send a confirmation e-mail to your Tmail account.

Please note: Don’t send these to your Tmail address as you could exceed your Sidekick’s e-mail quota.

It is time for all of you that were waiting on your other data to rejoice. You can now recover your Calendar, Notes, and To Do lists!
T-Mobile posted the following this morning:

Updated: 11/05/2009 8:30 AM PDT
Sidekick Restoration and Software Update
T-Mobile is pleased to announce that Calendar, To Do Lists, and Notes are now available for restoration on My T-Mobile. Microsoft/Danger continue to work on settings and photo restoration. We hope to have these available for our customers very soon.

Like they said, just jump onto My.T-mobile.com and click Restore Your Info. You’ll select the Calendar, Notes, and To Do List items and then click sync. Automagically your data should then sync back to your Sidekick over the air. Let us know how it worked for you. Are you missing any data still or did they recover it all?

UPDATE: In case there’s any confusion, T-Mo put together a How-To.

Looks like the last thing T-Mobile needs right now is happening. I’m hearing reports from several people that there is a nationwide outage of sorts for T-Mobile right now. It doesn’t affect outgoing calls to non-T-Mobile phones, but if someone is trying to call you they’re probably just getting a busy signal right now. So far this is all we know, we’ll let you know if anything changes. Hopefully this will be short-lived.

UPDATE 4:30pm Pacific: Just got off the phone with T-Mobile, they’re acknowledging the outage and say that it is sporadic as far as what it is affecting. Texting, voice, and even internet was mentioned. She also mentioned that rumor had it that other carriers were experiencing similar problems right now but couldn’t name them. Their engineers are on it and it shouldn’t last long they say.

Microsoft/Danger has started rolling out an OTA (Over-The-Air) update to all Sidekick users. This update will not make any changes to your device that you’ll be able to see. It’s intended to fix some behind the scenes stuff so that “all Catalog application data will now be more securely backed up in the Microsoft / Danger systems.” This is NOT the Sidekick LX 2009 OTA I posted about earlier, which I assume is on indefinite hold until everything gets sorted out. It’s assumed that this OTA is rolling out to all Sidekick devices. Let us know in the comments if you received the OTA, which device you’ve got, and when you got the update.

T-Mobile posted an update over on their forums and we’ve archived a copy over on skfail.com since the forum updates aren’t permanent.

It seems like a lot of the Sidekickers out there are being lured away from the Sidekick, while other die-hards are staying true to the Sidekick. I’d love to hear what you have decided.

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