The Sidekick LX OTA is going to open up quite a few new features for Bluetooth on the Sidekick LX. All of these features are of course software based so everything that the LX is getting, the Sidekick Gekko will also have. Here’s a list of the bluetooth features:

* Phone calls - Use either a Bluetooth hands-free headset or car kit. Read more in Bluetooth Hands-Free Headset (Mono/Stereo) or Hands-Free Car Kit.

* vCard exchange - Send your vCard or any of your contacts’ vCards using Bluetooth. Read more in Set and Send My vCard and Send and Receive vCards.

* Listen to music and videos - Listen to your music or videos using a Bluetooth stereo headset or speakers. Read more in Listening Choices.

* File exchange - Exchange photos, music, or videos that you’ve stored on your memory card with other Bluetooth devices. Read more in Send and Receive a File.

* Print - Print a photo on a Bluetooth printer. Read more in Send a Photo to a Printer.

Yes, it says “Print a photo on a Bluetooth printer! Pretty cool if you ask me. I’ll be at the local Best Buy printing off pictures of my cat if you need me.

Wondering what the Sidekick will be able to record and playback as far as video is concerned? We’ll we’ve got the 411 straight from the manual:

Note! The SonicBOOM Media Player will play 3GP and MP4 (simple profile) video files, and MP3, WAV, MIDI, WMA, AAC (MP4), XMF, RMF, AIFC, IMY, AMR music files. It will not play RAM, M4P, FLAC, RA, AVI, or any other file that is not listed above.

Sorry gang, no YouTube support this time around. Maybe when a 3G device comes out in the distant future.

As for the format the Camera will record videos in, it looks like that’s going to be .3gp files using the H.263 video codec. Should be nice and small for sending to your friends.

We found the following images in our mailbox, already watermarked for us. These come straight from the manual for what we’re all assuming will be called the Sidekick Gekko (or Aspen). For your viewing pleasure:

An illustration of the Sidekick Gekko, nothing too surprising.

About the Camera
You can take photos with the device’s 2.0 megapixel camera, then save them in .JPG format to two locations:
- your device’s built-in memory (called Device Albume on the screen), or
- the microSD memory card you’ve inserted into your device (called Memory Card Album on the screen)

You can take videos (.3GP format) and store them on the microSD memory card. Note: Videos cannot be saved to the Device Album.

You can store up to 1.75M of photos on your device, and store videos and more photos on your microSD card. The number of photos you can store will depend on the capacity of the card and the size of the photos: 1600×1200 (largest), 1280×1024, 640×480, or 320×240 (smallest).

You can aso save one or more photo or video email attachments to an album. Read more in Saving Photo Attachments to a Photo Album.

Replaceable Shells
You can customize your device with replaceable shells!

Capture a Video!

All in all no huge suprises, but some pretty concrete confirmation of what we’ve already reported on.

Sharp (you know, the guys that make all the Sidekicks except the Slide) have announced a new tiny but high resolution (5MP) camera that even has auto focus. If you ask us, this looks amazingly similar in size and shape to the cameras currently in the Sidekick LX. Sharp says the new camera will be available for mass production in July so chances are we won’t see this in the Sidekick Gekko. But this would be something to keep an eye out for the Hiptop m3 (or whatever they’re going to call it), which we speculate will be coming out at the end of the year.

via CrunchGear

For all those that were doubting us when we said that video was coming to the Sidekick LX via an OTA, we present you with a page straight from T-Mobile.com. The text reads:

Viewing available memory for pictures and videos
To view available memory for pictures and videos, perform the following steps:
1. At the Jump screen, roll to and select Camera.
2. The available space for new pictures appears in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

The original page for the Sidekick LX can be found here (if they haven’t pulled it yet). There’s also the same page for the Sidekick Slide, although we haven’t heard any details on an OTA for you Slide owners yet and there’s also this page which says: “The Sidekick Slide does not support sending video messages.” So we’re going to stick with saying to expect the video OTA for the LX, but not for the Slide. Sorry Sliders.

Pictures and videos man. Pictures AND videos.

-Thanks to Ryan for catching this.

For those of you wondering what the Sidekick 3 OTA that is currently rolling out brings to your device, wonder no more:

* GSM network feature enhancements
* Enhanced USSD Support
* Retry option for failed Text Messages
* Enhanced SIM PIN protection
* Optimized PLMN scan algorithm to improve network registration time when returning to good coverage
* Faster PLMN searches

So in short about the only thing you’ll ’see’ is better coverage and the ability to resend text messages when they fail.

Thanks tipster!

A little birdie told us that with the OTA update, the Sidekick LX will finally get support for A2DP Bluetooth devices. What does this mean? In short, you’ll be able to listen to phone calls, MP3s, videos, games, etc. in high quality stereo sound using bluetooth headphones.

(image via)

We’ve been saying it for months and months, but now we’ve actually got some picture proof for you guys. Yes, the Sidekick LX is getting video, as evidenced by the screenshots above. We’re still trying to figure out details on what exactly the Sidekick will support as far as video is concerned. But yes, you will be able to capture and playback video on the Sidekick LX. I’m sure the question on everyone’s mind is “Will I be able to watch YouTube videos?” and as of now we don’t have a firm answer yet. Rumor has it that the H.264 codec will be supported, and YouTube started encoding videos in H.264 for Apple awhile back. So there may be some sort of workaround, but as far as a dedicated YouTube app for the Sidekick LX, we haven’t heard anything yet. We’ve also heard that it might be H.263 instead of H.264. We’ll let you know as soon as we nail it down so you can start converting your videos to be ready.

But for all you Sidekick LX users, look for an OTA coming very soon. And if you’ve been holding off on getting a Sidekick LX because of the lack of video support, it’s time to spend that money you’ve been saving. There was also a recent price drop in the device yesterday, so take advantage of that.

A topic of conversation was brought up a couple times while I was “on tour” with the T-Mobile/Grammy Concerts. What would you like to see on the Sidekick the most?/How could it be improved? I conveyed some of my own thoughts and wishful thinking (GPS and Google Maps). But I want to open it up to you guys. I can’t guarantee this will have any impact on the future of the Sidekick obviously, but I’m curious to see what everyone out there thinks the Sidekick (LX or Slide) needs. Drop your thoughts in the comments!

Got a Hiptop 3 and a provider that allows MMS like Telstra? Then Viva has written something you might be interested in, how to create your own mp3 ringtones. We’ve posted it here so that it’s preserved for future usage.