Andy writes to let us know that there is a picture of the LRG limited edition Sidekick 3 in the November edition of XXL Magazine (page 138 if you want to check). For those wondering, LRG stands for Lifted Research Group. There’s not much info in the magazine, but it looks like this just might be one of those limited edition Sidekicks. So if you’ve been waiting for the name-branded Sidekick in green, maybe you won’t have to wait much longer.

Mark/Space on Friday announced that it’s discontinued development of its Missing Sync for Hiptop, the software that lets Mac users exchange data with Danger Hiptop devices — commonly known to T-Mobile users as the Sidekick.

“It is unfortunate, but the market for this product does not support continued development,” said a company spokesman in a statement.

Read for more info on refunds and cross-upgrades

The first and most popular Sidekick Themes site has just gotten an upgrade to a brand new server. Gone are the error messages when the site got too busy. There are now almost 500 full themes available, as well as 6000+ unsorted user created themes. New features are being added in as testing permits. The latest and greatest is that you can now see both backgrounds (in themes that have them) simply by passing your mouse cursor over the screenshot. On the list is support for adding sounds in the Sidekick theme creator. Got any other suggestions for sk3themes.com? Leave them in the comments!

it may take up to 24hours for some people to see the new server as the DNS propagates

In a recent spectrum auction by the FCC, T-Mobile scooped up a large portion of the 1700 and 2100Mhz bands. For the wireless geeks that want to know all the details, you can check out the FCC page. For the rest of us, what does this mean? In short, faster downloads for supported devices in the future. T-Mobile has dropped hints that they’d be rolling out UTMS next year. This acquisition puts them right on track to set up a 3G network with speeds up to 1920 kbit/s. To compare, currently EDGE is only 180 kbit/s.

Via Gearlog

An anonymous reader tipped us off to these new exhibits posted on the FCC site. It’s the normal FCC submissions of confidentiality request and test results submitted by Sharp (the manufacturers of the Sidekick) but definitely a Danger powered device. They’re fairly recent, posted on 09/05/2006 with testing taking place in July-August.
A quick breeze through them and it looks like this may be some sort of updated Sidekick 3. The model number is given as PV200E (the original Sidekick 3 is listed as PV200). In addition, the sticker above matches the current sticker in shape. The only difference we’ve found so far is the GSM frequencies. Instead of 850/1800/1900, this one is 900/1800/1900. Our first guess was this is the (E)uropean version of the Sidekick 3. But that begs the question, “Why file with the FCC?” Perhaps this is an updated model with the intent to release in the US as well as globally, a.k.a. the Hiptop 3. Maybe this is one of those Limited Edition Sidekick 3s? I guess we’ll find out when the confidentiality request expires on October 12th. Drop your guesses in the comments

Both Gizmodo and Engadget posted about a new smartphone from Pantech that looks like a Sidekick on steroids. This thing is loaded with a 3megapixel camera, a DMB receiver (for TV) with TV-out, QVGA screen, PictBridge for printing straight to supported printers, MP3 player with built-in FM transmitter, has a screen that pops-up to a 30 degree angle for easier viewing, and we think it might actually be able to make phone calls too. It’s supposed to be hitting Korea in a month or so, but who knows if we’ll ever see anything like it here in the States.

The emails were sent out, SunCom will soon be selling the Hiptop 3. And as always, the SunCom customers luck out, as they will get discounts (33-50%) on apps and games that they already purchased for the Sidekick II. This discount does not apply towards ringtones though. Thanks to one of our readers for forwarding the full email:

On Thu, 14 Sep 2006 3:06, SunCom Wireless wrote:
>
> Be the first to get your hiptop3 so you can listen to music, surf the
> Web faster, take better photos, use Bluetooth headsets to make calls,
> and just look cooler with a brand new phone! The hiptop3 will be
> available from SunCom Wireless online at www.suncom.com and in stores
> on September 18, 2006 – just FIVE DAYS away!
>
> The hiptop3 is only $299.99 with a 2-year extension to your contract;
> or, you can get it for just $349.99 with a 1-year contract extension
> or $399.99 without an extension to your contract. Your SunCom
> Wireless Sales Associate can help determine your eligibility.
>
> And there’s more good news. You get a discount on the games and
> applications that you currently own on your hiptop2. The Catalog
> content you will see on your hiptop3 was updated to be compatible with
> the new device. So when you upgrade, you will need to purchase any
> content you wish to have on your hiptop3. But if you already have
> hiptop2 content, you’ll enjoy discounts* of 33% to 50% when you
> download hiptop3 games and applications that you currently own.
>
> Now, go on… hook up and get hip!
>
> -SunCom Wireless
> —————————-
> * Discounted pricing excludes ringtones. All prices and dates are
> subject to change.
>
> hiptop is a registered trademark of Danger, Inc. Bluetooth is a
> registered trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc.
>
> If you have any questions about our privacy policy, please visit
> https://www.suncom.com/privacy.shtml

As many of you have probably already noticed, the Time Traveler app is back in the T-Mobile catalog. It was previously pulled due to some bugs. Hopefully those have all been squashed and you can get your handy time zones and alarms again. You can even find out what time it is in Black Rock City, NV! Although they’re a bit late for this year. Let us know how it is! From the catalog:

With Time Traveler, you can keep track of the time in four cities at once, from a selection of over 100 cities. You can also set multiple alarms, each with a different alarm sound. Other features include analog clock mode and timer function.

Gearlog is reporting from CTIA with a new T-Mobile mystery. The logo above was spotted on all the phones on display at CTIA, both low-end and high-end. Anyone have any ideas on what it could be? What does it mean?

First off, THESE PROBABLY WON’T WORK WITH THE EXISTING SIDEKICK 3. There, now that that is out of the way: Mobility Site is reporting that SanDisk announced a new 4gb miniSD card at the CTIA Wireless show.

The 4GB SanDisk miniSDHC card will be able to provide the fast speed and large capacity required to support increasingly popular but storage-intensive applications such as digital imaging, music and video record/playback functions as well as mobile television and videogames. The 4GB capacity can store more than 2,000 high-resolution pictures, more than 1,000 digital songs or up to 8 hours of MPEG 4 video.

The downside of this is that the miniSDHC cards are not compatible with existing miniSD card readers. But the good news is it sounds like all that will be required is a firmware upgrade to support these. This could be delivered in an Over-The-Air update (OTAu) to the Sidekick 3 quite easily one would expect. And Danger has until 2007 to get that update ready, as that is the projected release of these cards in the retail world.
More detailed info can be found in the press release here.