Today we’ve receieved quite a few emails asking;

Will I be able 2 see videos on youtube with THE new ota

Here’s the answer. Yes and No. Let me explain.

No you will not be able to fire up your browser and point it to youtube.com or m.youtube.com and watch a video on your device. Sorry.

Yes you can convert a youtube video on your computer to the proper formats and view them on your Sidekick when you transfer them to your memory card. This is the ONLY way you will be able to view videos on your device. We will be going into greater detail on how to do this on both Mac and Windows in the near future, so be sure to keep an eye out for those.

Here at Hiptop3.com we get quite a bit of email, a lot (Ok, most) of the emails we get are the same questions over and over. So we’re going to cover them all in this post rather than answer each one individually.

Is the ota a new sidekick or is it something that’s on the sidekick lx

Hey, I was wondering, what really is a ota update? Will it benifit me or my sidekick lx

The OTA is a Software update for the Sidekick LX. You don’t have to buy a new sidekick for the OTA. Yes, your sidekick will benefit from the update of course. Read our previous posts on the new features.

How can I get the OTA update in my sidekick lx

how do you get the ota update for the lx? through an email or something

U probably are tired ?F hearin this bu I jus wanted 2 ??? how I would ??? when I get my ota

For the sidekick lx ota update does the update come in from your email. Like can u send me a screen shoot of what it would like when the ota comes and I would know that, that is the ota and I need to upgrade it.

That’s the hidden beauty in the OTA process. You do nothing. Just continue using your Sidekick as usual. When the update is ready a box will popup on your phone letting you know that a system update has been downloaded. You can choose to install now, or install later. If you choose later, it will prompt you again later or you can press Menu from the Jump Screen and select the Update menu item.

This is what the box looks like.

It sucks, I can’t go on myspace using my phone’s web browser anymore because of the new myspace layout. Do you think they did it on purpose to force people to buy the myspace application?

No. MySpace is notorious for being very poor on the Sidekick. Every time they change something the site breaks on the Sidekick. It’s just a coincidence that there is a full Application and MySpace has web developers that occasionally screw things up. You can take the foil hats off now.

So are THE ota updates coming on THE 26 of june

On the 25th is the OTA for everyone gonna be rolled out

We don’t know when the OTA rollout will start. Everything now is a rumor. What we do know is just because the roll out starts on say the 25th of June, that does NOT mean everyone gets it that day. It can still take weeks for you to get your update.

How can I get my update faster?

You’ll get your OTA when it’s ready. Just wait. This might be Tomorrow, this might be weeks. The only thing you can do to make the OTA come faster is slip into a coma until around Mid-July (The OTA should (by our estimations) be fully rolled out by then.)

Will the sidekick slide get the OTA update too?

No, the Slide will not be getting this OTA from all that we have heard. If this changes, we will certainly report on it.

Want to change the color of your Sidekick LX but don’t want to ship it off to Colorware and spend a ton of ca$h? There are some auctions up on eBay selling “Sidekick Lens Frames”. These will replace the plastic pieces of your Sidekick, changing the color to whatever you want. Several people in the past have dismantled their Sidekicks and then painted the pieces. You can skip that messy painting step with these. Here’s a auto-updating list of the auctions available on eBay:

One of the new features that comes with the 4.6 OTA for the Sidekick LX is the “Quick Find”. Basically this is a super quick way to search your entire Sidekick for something. Here’s a quick video of it in action:

Sidekick LX Quickfind feature

So everyone has seen the video recording capabilities of the Sidekick LX, but what about video playback? We converted a video into .3gp and tossed it on the Sidekick to see how it looked. Surprisingly it turned out pretty good! It’s not unreasonable to think that people could be watching TV shows and music videos on their Sidekick. We won’t say movies are a possibility because we haven’t done any testing to see just how much of an impact this has on battery life. Anyways, enough talk, here’s the video:

Sidekick LX Video Playback from HiptopVideos on Vimeo.

Sidekick LX New Browser Features

Looking to pick up a new Jeep Wrangler? Don’t want one of those lame stock Jeep Wranglers? Better hurry over to eBay and check out this auction. Not only will you get a tricked out Jeep Wrangler, but you’ll also get one of the new Tony Hawk Limited Edition Sidekick LXs with your new ride. On top of that you’ll get 4 VIP tickets to the HuckJam tour and a chance to hang out with Tony Hawk himself. All the proceeds from this auction are also going to a good cause, the Tony Hawk Foundation. No, that doesn’t buy Tony new skateboards, it’s a foundation that helps build skateparks in low income neighborhoods and promote skating. The bids are up to $46,200, so you better break out that high limit credit card if you want to bid!

Here’s the description straight from the auction:

Here’s your chance to bid on this one-of-a-kind 2007 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited, “Hawkized” by DUB® magazine! The Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon 4×4 has been tricked-out with 24” TIS™ 09 Toyo off-road tires, custom Skyjacker 9″ body lift, Borla performance exhaust, tinted windows, DUB satin black emblems, and Birdhouse Skateboards mounted on custom skateboard racks! In the interior, you will find 7” Alpine monitors in the headrests, embroidered Tony Hawk logo on the seats, an Alpine DVD HEADUNIT SYSTEM and a Custom Fiberglass Subwoofer Box, plus much more!

The winner will also receive the new T-Mobile Sidekick LX Tony Hawk Edition, designed by Tony Hawk! A long-time user since the first Sidekick debuted, Tony puts his personal design on the iconic device by giving it a true skateboard look. This limited edition Sidekick will be the first Sidekick to ship with video record, play and share. It also includes other enhancements such as a more personalized Web browsing experience, stereo Bluetooth support, easier downloads and more options for theme and background personalization. The device features a slate-grey shell, accented with blue and white designs, and Tony’s well-known hawk graphic. A customized Tony Hawk theme will be included on the device featuring an exclusive video of Tony performing tricks, a Tony-inspired background, and skate-themed swivel screen open and close sounds. For more information, please visit www.sidekick.com.

In addition to the Jeep and Sidekick LX Tony Hawk Edition, the winning bidder will receive 4 VIP Tickets to Tony Hawk’s Boom Boom HuckJam tour and meet Tony before the show! Winning bidder will get to choose which show they would like to attend. Hotel and transportation not included. Click to see HuckJam tour schedule , visit www.boomboomhuckjam.com

Also, the winning bidder will be featured with the Tony Hawk DUB Edition Jeep in an upcoming DUB magazine issue.

I’m sure everyone is clamoring to see more samples of what video from the Sidekick LX looks like. We’ve got another for you. This is what it looks like when uploaded to YouTube and re-encoded:

Here’s the original video that will play if you have Quicktime installed:

If you want to see the original .3gp file that was recorded, click here to download.

We’ve gotten quite a bit of emails asking us “When will I get my OTA?” Honestly, there’s no concrete answer. The OTA process is entirely randomized.

Danger rolls out OTAs in 2 parts, Part 1 is commonly referred to the “Pioneer” phase. (Which is what the OTA is in) What that means is Danger and T-Mobile randomly select a random mashing of users and send them the OTA. They then see how the OTA goes (If there’s any major issues, bricking devices, etc.) If all goes well in the Pioneer phase and noone is killed in the process of the Pioneer phase, then Phase 2 is started and the OTA moves into full roll out mode. Full roll out mode is again randomized, but the rest of the users who were not in the Pioneer group are selected at random for the OTA.

It could take upwards of weeks for everyone to get the OTA. There is NOTHING you can do to make the OTA come faster. (Aside from slipping into a coma for a few weeks) You will get the OTA. Everyone has to get it. Danger won’t forget about you and not send it to you, we promise.

We’ve got more screenshots for you to enjoy of the 4.6 OTA.

Updated with Quick Find screenshots

Brightness and Sound Profile settings are now grouped together

We’ve seen those before.

As you can see here, the browser introduced a new “Full-Size Layout” option

Hiptop3.com viewed in the Full-Size Layout mode

sklxthemes.com viewed in Full Size Layout mode

Globally empty trash menu item, and Quick Find menu items

Quick Find search window

Quick Find results

*new*

Spellcheck Settings

New!

Spell Check in EMail

New!

Spell Check in AIM
More screenshots coming soon.