While running around San Francisco, CA we found a new ad campaign that TMobile is launching. Looks like they’re getting back to the grassroots marketing of the Sidekick 3 with a nod to the Back-To-School season. We spoke with the new Marketing Director at the store, TJ, and he said that it was very successful as long as people weren’t hating on it and erasing it as they walked by.

This case rocks! WirelessGround sent us over one of their brand new aluminum cases for the Sidekick 3 to check out. This thing was well designed and feels like it would protect your Sidekick 3 incredibly well. The outside of the case is obviously aluminum but inside there is a nice layer of neoprene that keeps your Sidekick snug and cushions it from any unexpected blows.

Squeezing it into the snug fit, we had to be careful not to push any buttons, but once it was in there, it wasn’t going anywhere no matter how much we shook it. The top flips down and over the screen, latching it closed. There’s a great screen protector that will protect your screen from getting any scratches. All the openings for the buttons are the perfect size, even for me with my big thumbs. I was able to pick up my Sidekick and browse around just like normal.

For those that are fans of belt clipped cases this is a great one. There’s an extra piece that you screw into the hole that you see on the back and attach the strongest swivel belt clip I’ve ever seen.

If you’re not a fan of belt clips, then you can just leave it off. The case is still slim enough to toss into a pocket without it being bulky. And the best things about it riding in your pocket is now the screen is protected and no more accidental button pushes! No longer will your friends get calls from your pants.

After browsing around a bit with the Sidekick 3 in the case I soon needed to respond to an IM and went to flip the screen like I normally do. Of course this wasn’t possible and I thought “Oh great, here’s the downside to this case, I have to take it out to type!” But the design of this case allows you to flip the top, and flip the screen without removing the Sidekick from the case! When you’re done typing, flip the screen and flip the top closed. Quick and easy and your Sidekick never leaves the case so it’s always protected.

All in all we give this case two big thumbs up. If you’re looking for a stylish case that will protect your device better than anything else out there, you can’t beat this one. If you want to check out more info and order one, check them out: Sidekick 3 Aluminum Cases

We’ve done a lot of thinking the past few weeks in regards to custom themes/backgrounds on the Sidekick 3. Everyone and their brother knows about the undocumented but easily accessible custom themes feature on the Sidekick 3 now. We’ve even gone as far as to put up a site with with 4000+ Sidekick 3 themes submitted!

At the same time that we’re enjoying this customization, there’s a lot of talk about how the next OTA may disable this feature in order for TMobile to sell Sidekick users premade wallpapers. In all honesty, we’re hoping they’ll realize that for every custom made theme, that’s one more Sidekick 3 that will be pulled out of a pocket to show off to a friend. One more custom hinge sound that noone has ever heard on a phone that will draw the attention of strangers when you flip the screen.

Is it wrong to think that custom themes are a good thing, both for users of the Sidekick 3 as well as TMobile? With the new themes, we all get a chance to make the phone “ours” whether it means loading a background of Jay-Z, a pair of Nikes, Mariah Carey, Tron, or our geeky favorite, a light saber sound for the screen. In our opinion, this makes us even more devoted and attached to the glossy little gadget.

Looks like Gizmodo is jumping into the speculation and rumor business even more than us! Looking way back to the roadmap that was leaked out, they’re speculating on limited editions being available in October. We haven’t heard anything about Limited Edition Sidekick 3s yet, and we would wager that TMobile/Danger would hold off on releasing these for awhile.
The Sidekick 3 has only been out officially for a month. Yes, the device that we’ve all grown to love is still an infant on the market. If we go by the timeline floating on the tubes and adjust for the real release date, that puts limited editions scheduled in Jan 2007, 6 months after to release. This would make sense from a marketing and business perspective. Drop the first device, enjoy the hype for 6 months, then when it’s starting to die down, drop the limited editions, pumping up the marketing hype again. We all know that the Sidekick works off of viral marketing, and that the best advertisement is not necessarily flashy commercials or shiny flyers, but someone showing it off to a friend.

Is the Sidekick 3 too expensive for you? Haven’t scored a “FREE SIDEKICK 3” from one of the ads yet? Don’t need the fancy camera, mp3 player, web browsing, etc but just need an organizer and a way to text message one other person? Got $34.95? Go get a Slide Click!

We first heard about these from Rockstarr after she spotted them in a Limited Too store. Sounds like they’re trying to start training those Sidekick thumbs early! She made sure to point out: “Oh and NO YOU CANNOT MAKE YOUR OWN RINGERS!”

From a site we found selling them:

Today’s cyber kids have a new language—instant messaging. Set of Two Slide Click SMS Text Messenger/Organizers are handheld devices that simply send and receive wireless text messages instantly, up to 50 ft.! They’re also organizers that store information and important phone numbers, addresses, emails and memos. Secret password functions keep it all private. Uses 2 AAA batteries (sold separately). Each 2 1/2″ x 4 3/4″. Ages 7+.

Looking for an extra battery? Looks like TMobile has started selling them for $69.99. A bit pricey, but if you need one, you need one. Looks like these are fresh on the site, as they’re giving a processing errors when trying to select them. By the time you read this, it’ll probably be fixed though.

Want to change the background on your Sidekick 3? It’s possible! Check out the thread on our forum for more info. We’re also working on something to make it real easy for anyone to create a theme from a picture. Stay tuned!

Want to download some pre-created themes? sk3themes.com has some already!

Got a picture and want to make your own theme? Check out the SK3 Theme Generator

For all you SunCom users, rejoice. You can preorder you Hiptop 3 for $299.99! (with a 2year agreement) They’re saying it will be available in the Fall of 2006. (Way to be specific guys.) As expected, SunCom is going to get what looks to be a cooler Phone screen, but the device otherwise looks the same. Here’s the link to the official page.

Now that we’ve all gone out and bought Sidekick 3s, many of us are left wondering what to do with the old Sidekick II. The guys over at Dreamhost decided to have a little fun with a hammer and an old Sidekick II awhile back. (Please don’t try this at home.. or work for that matter).

There have been rumors of TMobile rolling out UMA sometime in the near future. Looks like some pictures of TMobile’s UMA beta test kits have leaked out recently. The kit appears to consist of a UMA enabled phone (Samsung T709) plus a wireless router (DLink or Linksys). So why the heck are we reporting this on here? That’s no Sidekick 3! Remember that old post about the Sidekick roadmap? Here’s the pic:

Notice the Sidekick 3 with UMA? Does this mean the roadmap was an lucky fake or does it give some validity to it? The release of the Sidekick 3 was pretty close (about 2 months) and we all have heard about the Sidekick 3 Razr. Are we just grapsing at false hope here? What we’re wondering is how they’re going to fit anything else in the device without absolutely killing the battery life.

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