With the mention of FCC filings, we’ve gotten several messages about a filing from Option Wireless in mid-January. We took a look at this originally, and were not really sure whether this could be the Sidekick. The more we look at it and research, the more it looks like it just might be. First off, the filing itself is _not_ for a Sidekick, but for a “GSM/UMTS/GPS Module CU1407”. Basically just the radio and GPS (not the cpu, circuit board, keyboard, etc).
The photo, as you can see with our added markups (click for full size), really looks like it could be the right side of a Sidekick 2009, with the 4 buttons, and space for a trackball, not to mention the port in the lower right that could very well be a mini-usb port. We can’t think of anything else that would look like a Sidekick 2009 so much.
So why aren’t we calling this one 100% for sure?
A minor point is that the last two Sidekicks (LX and 2008) have both used Enfora radios. Since the Sidekick 2009 is a 3G phone, it’s very possible that MSDanger would be switching to a different manufacturer.
Also, in the filings there’s this bit:
The antenna(s) used for this transmitter must be installed to provide a separation distance of at least 20 cm from all the persons and must not be co-located or operating in conjunction with any other antenna or transmitter.
This is fine for cards that are meant to go in laptops (Option’s normal product), but totally unacceptable for mobile phones that are held against your head. We’re hoping that this is just Option covering their butts and putting the responsibility of brain-tumor-testing on Sharp/MSDanger because they do also say “If the final product after integration is intended for portable use, a new application and FCC is required.”
And finally, this is not technically a filing for the Sidekick 2009. It’s just for the radio module that might be used in the Sidekick 2009, but has the potential to be used in any other devices. So while the confidentiality agreements say an expiration of April 13th, 2009 don’t get your hopes up for an April 1st release just yet. We still need to see the Sidekick 2009 show up.
Can you tell that we really want this to be the Sidekick 2009? If you want to take a peak at the FCC filings for yourself here they are: FCC ID: NCMOCU1407