This one is for all the Sidekick LX 2009 users out there. There’s an OTA update that will be rolling out shortly to help improve 3G connectivity. Personally I haven’t really noticed any bad 3G connectivity, but maybe some of you guys have.

Same old OTA procedure: it’ll download, install and reboot your device. Figured I’d let everyone know so people can stop emailing me about it!

Thanks to everyone that sent this in.

More info on T-Mobile.com

I woke up this morning to several reports from people saying they had gotten an OTA for their Sidekick LX 2009. It’s looking like this update is a combination of the bug fix OTA I mentioned awhile back and the new Mobile Backup support. You should hopefully see less crashes in your Sidekick LX 2009 once this update is applied. The OTA may cause your device to hard reset. Don’t freak out though, all your data should be backed up to Danger’s servers, so it’ll come back. And once you have Mobile Backup, your address book will be backed up to T-Mobile’s servers as well! Hooray for backup!

For those hardcore geeks, the new OS version is 5.0/270115. A couple more screenshots:

It took a large scale data disaster, but looks like Microsoft/Danger/T-Mobile will finally be giving Sidekick users a way to backup their data to something other than Danger’s servers. An OTA is rolling out to users that will allow you to backup your Address Book to T-Mobile’s Mobile Backup service. The announcement on the T-Mobile forums makes it look like this might only be for Sidekick LX 2009 users, which is a little worrisome for people with other devices.

Here’s what T-Mobile is saying:

T-Mobile will begin rolling out Mobile Backup for Sidekick LX 2009 customers via an Over The Air (OTA) process. All Sidekick LX 2009 customers should receive the OTA in the next few weeks.

What is Mobile Back up?
Mobile Backup is a free service via My T-Mobile that allows you to avoid manually re-entering contacts into a device in the event you need to replace it or in the event it’s lost or stolen.

How will I know I have it?
T-Mobile will send an Over The Air (OTA) update in phases over the next several weeks. You will receive a message that says “System Update Notice”. Once you receive the message, please accept it. Upon successful receipt of your OTA, you will receive a T-Mail confirming that you have Mobile Backup.
Another way to verify receipt of the OTA is to navigate to your device’s Address Book and select Menu. Under the drop down you will see Mobile Backup.

What if I don’t have it right now?
Don’t worry. T-Mobile is rolling this update to our customers in phases. All LX 09 customers should have it by Dec 10, 2009.

So am I at risk of losing my data again until I have the update?
Microsoft/Danger has taken steps to help ensure all data is readily available. This is an additional enhancement to backup your contact data should you change your device in the future.

For more info on Mobile backup check out https://support.t-mobile.com/doc/tm23951.xml

Microsoft/Danger has started rolling out an OTA (Over-The-Air) update to all Sidekick users. This update will not make any changes to your device that you’ll be able to see. It’s intended to fix some behind the scenes stuff so that “all Catalog application data will now be more securely backed up in the Microsoft / Danger systems.” This is NOT the Sidekick LX 2009 OTA I posted about earlier, which I assume is on indefinite hold until everything gets sorted out. It’s assumed that this OTA is rolling out to all Sidekick devices. Let us know in the comments if you received the OTA, which device you’ve got, and when you got the update.

T-Mobile posted an update over on their forums and we’ve archived a copy over on skfail.com since the forum updates aren’t permanent.

A little birdie told me that there’s a new OTA (Over-The-Air) Update that should be coming soon for all you Sidekick LX 2009 owners. It’s currently being tested by the super secret trial users. Once all the bugs get squashed it will start rolling out to the general public in the typical Sidekick fashion (randomly and only a few people at first). No word on exactly what bugs have been squashed, but I imagine it’s going to help with the crashing and freezing that many users (including yours truly) have reported on their Sidekick LX 2009.

Not too exciting, but everyone keeps emailing about it. If you haven’t gotten it yet, there’s a Sidekick Slide OTA update going out right now. It will update your Slide themes and change to a Tinkerbell theme. Just kidding, it’s just some radio updating. No new features or anything. The new radio firmware version is v0.4.2.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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

No, this isn’t some new fancy device that’s going to kill the Sidekick. It’s a corrupted 3gp video file that has the potential to hard reset a Sidekick with very little user interaction that’s out in the wild. That’s right, hard reset, as in wipe out all of your data and force you to redownload it from Danger’s servers. Luckily with the way the Sidekick is designed you won’t lose anything, but it’s still an annoyance to have to wait for all your email, settings, etc to download. It’s also a really nasty trick to play on someone you don’t like.

This was first posted in the PBD forums under a thread titled “Virus In Email?! Important!! Read!!”. I know, my first thought too was, “yeah right, Sidekicks don’t get viruses”. Technically this isn’t a virus, and it isn’t even malicious in intent. It looks like it’s just a bug with the way the email application handles a corrupted video. Needless to say though, it is a serious bug that Danger will hopefully fix in an OTA quickly. This currently affects the new Sidekick 2008, as well as Sidekick LXs with the video OTA.

Want to protect yourself from this sort of crash? In your Email, go under Menu->Settings->Attachments->Remove Attachments of these types, and check “Multimedia”. This will remove any movie files that are attached to emails sent to you, including this nasty one.

youngplatinummusic recorded a video with a trick that will help you get the OTA if you’re patient and willing to try something over and over. We recommend doing this late at night when the network isn’t being used as much. You’ll have a better chance of getting your OTA quick and easy if it works. Let us know your results in the comments.

Step 1. Restart your device
Step 2. Do not sign into any apps or send any data……press menu+ o for good luck lol
Step 3. Watch your G7 for 3 minutes if the white swoosh isnt pulsating fast through the 7 then u need to restart (you can even go to network settings press menu + m if ur bytes recieved start counting fast ur good)
Step 4. Restart your sidekick as many times until your g7 continues to pulsate with white streak FAST & NONSTOP…10 minutes later it should still be moving even when ur not logged into messenger or texting or emailing….once u realize its doing the trick…lay ur sidekick down and in about 30 minutes ur OTA will be here…

For those of you rushing out to get your Sidekick 2008, you may notice that you’ll get an update shortly after connecting to the T-Mobile network. That’s right, a 0 day OTA for the Sidekick 2008 to fix a few performance issues. There’s no official changelist as to what this fixes, but the word on the street is that Sidekick 2008s with v4.7/227383 are getting a “Temperature icon” that signifies overheating when they try to charge. The simple OTA will upgrade you to v4.7/231400 and so far we haven’t been hearing any reports of this overheating alert appearing. So if you’re new device is getting that weird icon, wait till your OTA is received before you run back to the store to return it.

Developing thread over on PBD
Thanks to Kyrios for the detective work on this one