OK, I felt the need to clear some things up regarding NetBSD being used for the m3/Sidekick Blade/Sidekick LX 2009.

What does it mean for you? Nothing. You still won’t see any Non-Catalog 3rd party applications, you won’t see a “Jailbreak”, you won’t see free rangt0n3z… none of this will happen with the Blade running NetBSD as it’s foundation. Sorry to burst any bubbles.

What you might and probably see however… is a more stable, reliable and powerful device. NetBSD/*nix is a rock solid foundation to build on top of (Bravo Danger for the choice) and I’m going to bet you as the end user will see a much more stable device that doesn’t crash and reboot nearly as much as previously (Although for us the LX was/is a very stable and reliable device).

So, let’s break this down again. No free applications or ringtones outside of the catalog on the blade.

* GEEK ALERT *

Wow, here’s a nice shift. Remember all those concerns you guys had about Microsoft switching the Sidekick to *cringe* Windows CE? Well worry no more. The next Sidekick will run the free open source NetBSD operating system. Yes, you read that right. Don’t worry, you won’t have to know how to use the command line to make a phone call, your Sidekick LX 2009 will have the same old Danger User Interface we all know and love.

How do we know this?

– We’ve confirmed this via sources that wish to remain anonymous, but we know that’s not good enough for you guys….

– A job posting (also posted here) looking for “a talented NetBSD software developer interested in helping Danger (a subsidiary of Microsoft) ship the next generation of Danger’s Sidekick platform.” (full text of job description below)

Location: Redmond, WA
Client: Microsoft.
Job Description:

Seeking a talented NetBSD software developer interested in helping Danger (a subsidiary of Microsoft) ship the next generation of Danger’s Sidekick platform. Specifically, we’re looking for NetBSD developers interested in commercializing the NetBSD platform for an embedded mobile computing device, focusing on performance and optimization, bug fixing, and integration with Danger’s higher-level platform code, with an emphasis on kernel and driver support.
Qualifications:
– 8+ years of software development experience
– 8+ years experience with C
– Strong understanding of OS concepts (particularly with NetBSD) such as multi-threaded program design and synchronization, processes & memory protection, etc.
– Strong communication skills
– Strong understanding of the NetBSD/GNU software development process and embedded development & debugging techniques
– Deep understanding of NetBSD, including timers, RPC, TCP/IP, etc.
– Experience with ARM processors highly desirable

– A post on a NetBSD mailing list from a Danger employee saying “that Danger is actively and openly working on NetBSD”. Full post:

Subject: Arm support for TI SDP2430, ARM 1136, ARMv6 and ARM VIPT cache
To: None From: Martin Fouts
List: port-arm
Date: 09/25/2007 12:46:40

I’ve just attempted to send-pr a patch that adds support to release-4 for the TI SDP2430 evaluation board, the ARM 1136 processor core, ARM V6 cache support and VIPT support for ARM.

The work represents the effort of Matt Thomas and Cliff Neighbors of 3AM Software Foundry for Danger, Inc. as well the efforts of many people at Danger, including Marty Fouts, Todd Poynor, Ken Sumrall and others. It builds on the previous OMAP port to NetBSD submitted by “Picovex” containing the port to OMAP by Scott Anderson and others at Danger.

Matt Thomas is currently committing the changes to the matt-armv6 branch.

The port is reasonably stable: It has self-hosted on an NFS mounted file system on the SDP2430 board.

Now that Danger is actively and openly working on NetBSD, we will be making some of our other drivers and ports available to the community as they become stable.

– There’s also this post about porting yaffs (Yet Another Flash File System) to the NetBSD/Sidekick.

’nuff said.

Thanks to Ryan who just sent in a clearer picture of the Sidekick LX 2009 from the survey we previously posted. After further investigation and confirmation, we’re calling this 100% true. This is the Sidekick Blade. I think we all agree that it looks good, and that it’s a Sidekick worth getting excited about again. No word yet on release date, but we’re guessing about 4 months. That however is totally a guess.

T-Mobile just recently announced a partnership with the Recording Academy. They’ve been pretty good friends in the past, what with the whole Grammy Tour and all. This is just making it even more official.

If you’re not up for reading the whole press release here are the bullets:

– Announced the 5 winners of the “T-Mobile Sidekick Takes You to the GRAMMY Awards Sweepstakes“. It wasn’t you. 🙂

– T-Mobile is sponsoring the Pre-Grammy Gala on Feb 7th in Beverly Hills, CA

– One lucky winner will be the official T-Mobile Sidekick Reporter with an entertainment news show at the exclusive red carpet event. Auditions for the Sidekick reporter are on Jan. 31 at participating T-Mobile retail stores in Los Angeles.

– T-Mobile is sponsoring the Grammy Tour again this year. More details on dates, artists, locations, and tickets to come. I can’t wait!

Here’s the full press release:

T-MOBILE USA ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH THE RECORDING ACADEMY

T-Mobile and The Recording Academy to Bring Exclusive Music Experiences to Fans Across the Country

BELLEVUE, Wash., and LOS ANGELES – Jan. 28, 2009 – T-Mobile USA, Inc., today announced a new partnership with The Recording Academy® to launch an extensive, multifaceted marketing program in 2009 with T-Mobile and the T-Mobile® Sidekick®. Building on the success of last year’s program, the partnership offers T-Mobile Sidekick customers and music fans the opportunity to be a part of a series of remarkable music experiences throughout the year.

To kick off the partnership, T-Mobile launched a national consumer promotion called T-Mobile Sidekick Takes You to the GRAMMY Awards Sweepstakes, offering Sidekick customers a chance to win a prize package that is a music lover’s dream: a grand prize trip to Los Angeles to attend the 51st Annual GRAMMY Awards on Feb. 8, including two tickets to the official post-awards-show party and a T-Mobile Sidekick device. Five grand prize winners and their guests have been selected at random from entries received electronically and by mail: Ella Valdez of Seattle, WA, Jason Abrahams of Decatur, GA, Vanessa Alex of Long Beach, CA, Daniel Colon of Bronx, NY, and Meaghan Leigh Morin of Cumberland, RI.

T-Mobile also will help sponsor the annual Pre-GRAMMY Gala on Feb. 7 presented by Sony Music Worldwide Chief Creative Officer and three-time GRAMMY winner Clive Davis and The Recording Academy. A Davis tradition for 30 years, the star-studded celebration, attended by artists and VIPs in the music and entertainment industry, will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. In honor of the celebration, T-Mobile will offer one lucky winner the chance to be the official T-Mobile Sidekick Reporter with an entertainment news show at the exclusive red carpet event, interviewing and mingling with the music industry’s elite. Auditions for the Sidekick reporter will take place on Jan. 31 at participating T-Mobile retail stores in Los Angeles.

“We’re thrilled to bring our Sidekick customers another year of unique, exclusive programming in partnership with The Recording Academy,” said Mike Belcher, vice president of branded communications and experience marketing, T-Mobile USA. “Starting with events at the Grammys, the expanded partnership will create special music experiences throughout the year to show appreciation to our loyal Sidekick customers who have always been at the forefront of the entertainment scene.”

“We are delighted that T-Mobile is once again partnering with us,” said Evan Greene, chief marketing officer of The Recording Academy. “With our partnership, we will be able to create a wide range of unique events and experiences that will engage fans and celebrate excellence in music.”

T-Mobile and The Recording Academy also will bring back the exclusive concert series launched in 2008, the GRAMMY Celebration Concert Tour Presented by T-Mobile Sidekick. The tour consists of exclusive concerts featuring a lineup of GRAMMY-nominated and GRAMMY-winning artists from all genres of music. Details on the confirmed artists and concert dates will be announced at a later date, along with information on obtaining tickets and participating T-Mobile retail locations.

We got the above image in our inbox. The reader sending it in danielle says she was taking a survey about smart phones on QuizPoints and was presented with this one. Here are the specs it lists in the photo:

Social Networking Suite of Apps
– Facebook
– MySpace w/ video upload
– Twitter
– YouTube Mobile Access via browser

GPS Location Based Search
– Turn by Turn Navigation
– Microsoft Live Local Search and Maps

Content Creation
– Blog publishing, editing, and management client
– Photobucket Upload and Management
– Video recorder and upload to MySpace/Photobucket

Communications
– Signature Sidekick IM/SMS/E-mail Experience
– Microsoft Outlook/Exchange synchronization

Hardware
– Large (3.2 inch WVGA) screen with sharp 854×480 resolution
– Thin design
– 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, flash and video recording
– Large QWERTY keyboard
– Expandable memory up to 8GB via MicroSD

Everything seems to match up with what a Sidekick LX 2009 would have. It mentions 3G, which is pretty much a given at this point. The introduction of Microsoft Live Search and maps makes a lot of sense since Microsoft now owns Danger. The addition of GPS (finally!) is also a nice complement to the maps and helps the Sidekick compete a little bit with the iPhone and other location-enabled devices. But I’m sure the thing that everyone is freaking out over now is the mention of YouTube mobile access. It’s probably the #1 request for the Sidekick by the majority of the users. It doesn’t seem that out of reach since the Sidekick can play video already, it just needs a way to get it from YouTube. None of the apps are groundbreaking, but they’re things that a lot of us would agree it would be nice to have on our Sidekick.

The hardware looks about right too. A 3.2MP camera isn’t the 5mp camera we hoped for, but it is a god bump up from the 2MP camera in the Sidekick 2008 (not to mention the 1.3MP in the LX). The screen is higher resolution (too early to start working on those new themes?) and of course the familiar keyboard is still there.

Is this the Sidekick Blade that we’ve been hearing whispers about? Hard to tell. We know that “Blade” is a codename and that internally (in software) it’s know as the “m3“. The “m2” was the Sidekick 3, so one would guess the “m3” would correlate to the elusive Sidekick 4 and a “large” upgrade in device. (FWIW, the Sidekick LX was the “m2-hd”) Could MSDanger be working on two devices? It’s very possible, but we don’t have anything to back this up or refute it yet.

So is this for real? We think so. At least we think it’s specs drawn up by someone official that is testing the water with consumers to see what they think. Whether it’s what we actually see in a device in the future, I’m not 100% sure. I think it definitely sounds like the next revision of the Sidekick LX. It’s not too ambitious, but does add a few of the most requested features. Seems to be the way that T-Mobile/MSDanger like to do things with the Sidekick.

If a Sidekick 2008 for $0.01 is too expensive for you, or you already have a T-Mobile account, there’s another way for you to snag a Sidekick for free. KevJumba is running a video contest where you can win a Sidekick plus a $500 American Express gift card. You’ll have to get your creative juices flowing and make a video in response to his video and he’ll choose a winner on Jan 26th. Let us know in the comments if you’ve posted an entry so we can check it out.

Yes, you read the title right. Amazon is back in the business of offering Sidekicks for super super cheap. They’ve got the Sidekick 2008 up for $0.01 after an instant discount of $250 if you sign up with T-Mobile and stay with them for over 3 months. Unfortunately this doesn’t work for existing T-Mobile customers, but for those of you out there thinking of getting your first Sidekick, or coming back from another carrier, now is your chance. The product page says that it’s the black T-Mobile Sidekick, but it comes with the green shell as well. In the end, the color doesn’t matter since you’ll be customizing it with your own shells and free Sidekick themes.

T-Mobile Sidekick Black Phone (T-Mobile) for $0.01

An otherwise boring article posted on TWICE has one sentence that sparks a little bit of hope in Sidekick lovers. The article is about Personal Communications Devices (PCD), a cellphone marketing/distribution company. They work with manufacturers to get their devices out on the market. The interesting tidbit is:

In its 2009 product roadmap, PCD will continue to offer HTC-made phones, will offer a “couple” of new Sidekicks for T-Mobile, and plans a second-generation Quickfire multimedia phone for AT&T with a touchscreen and slide-out Qwerty keyboard.

A couple new Sidekicks for T-Mobile? Could this be multiple models? Maybe some Limited Editions? The Sidekick 2009? Details are of course slim, but we’ve already heard whispers of trial devices of the next Sidekick being out there.

(Thanks Mike!)

Consumerists reminds us that there are all sorts of ways to get discounts on your various bills. This time it’s about getting a discount on your T-Mobile bill because of who you work for. Check in with your boss and see if your employer has any sort of arrangement with T-Mobile and you might be able to get a couple bucks shaved off your monthly bill. If you’re a part of organizations, banks, etc. you might also be eligible as well. You’ll need to call T-Mobile Corporate Migrations at 877-453-8824 in order to claim your discount. Want to see if any organizations or employers qualify you? A quick Google search of that phone number turns up a ton of results. Let us know in the comments if your organization or employer is on the list!

image via

This one is dedicated to all the Black and White Hiptoppers. Aaron (one of the original Hiptop pranksters) fished out some old stuff from back in the day and we thought we’d share it with you. First up is a smoking hot ad for the Hiptop that makes me want to go out and buy 2 Black and White Hiptops even now.

A man known for his great jokes, Aaron once fooled a lot of people into thinking he had the much-coveted color hiptop before anyone even knew what it looked like:

image via Flickr

And noone can forget when he got the original OTA:

And we leave you with your “Fun Fact of the Day” – Aaron was the originator of the Cat Remote rumor that kind of launched Hiptop3.com