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

If you hadn’t heard, it’s finally time for the Sidekick LX Video OTA to roll out to everyone. Over the last week or two the update has been slowly rolling out. The pioneer people that got the users should also receive a new update that brings them up to the latest version. So yes, it’s finally here guys. It’s rolling out randomly, not based on location at all. Good luck trying to guess when you’ll get the OTA. Just sit tight and we’ll all be enjoying the new video and browser goodness before too long.

Everyone keeps asking where their video OTA is for the Sidekick LX. It’s still in the pioneer phase right now. This means it will roll out to a small percentage of the Sidekick LX users first. Things will be tested to make sure nothing is wrong, and then it will roll out to everyone. The OTA has been in the pioneer phase for about a month, with no word on an official full roll-out date yet. It’s unclear as to why things aren’t rolling out to everyone, but it could be anything from a small bug, to larger problems on the back-end servers. Hang in there guys. It’s totally worth the wait!

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 ΦF hearin this bu I jus wanted 2 Ｋ₪ how I would Ｋ₪ 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.