It’s looking more and more like the next “Sidekicks” won’t really be the Sidekick we know and love. With the purchase of Danger by Microsoft, the team behind the Sidekick has been moved over to a project codenamed Pink. I’ve mentioned this project before, but 9to5mac has some new info on Pink. They’re reporting that the first two devices to come out of Project Pink will be landing in early 2010. The devices will be sliders, so the familiar screen flip will be gone, but they will be manufactured by Sharp like the current ‘kicks. There are two devices rumored to be coming out. Their code names are “Turtle” and “Pure”.

Turtle will be a “squircle” shaped device with a slide out keyboard. The image you see above is a supposed drawing of it. The slide out keyboard will also have a mic so you’ll need to have the keyboard open when you’re making a phone call. The Pure device is more along the lines of a standard candy-bar slider style device. So far no pics of Pure have leaked out yet.

They’re both rumored to be setup to use an App Store model of application delivery and I wouldn’t be surprised if behind the scenes it was the same technology running Danger’s Download Catalog. However probably most controversial news to die-hard Sidekickers: It’s looking like the new devices might be running on Windows Mobile 7. What do you think? Does Microsoft have a chance to jump back in the market or is it too late as everyone jumps ship to iPhones and Android devices.

Remember how sad you were when you found out Fido was dropping the Hiptop? Well cheer up buttercup, it looks like you may want to keep an eye on Globalive if you live in Canada.  Some leaked slides show that the Sidekick LX 2009 will be available to “Global Wireless” customers.  We’re assuming these are slides for the not-yet-launched Globalive’s Wireless division. No word on prices for the Sidekick LX 2009 yet, but they should be coming at launch along with 14 other handsets.  Launch is scheduled for Q4 of 2009 or Q1 of 2010 so you still have a bit of a wait unfortunately.  Oh and one more tidbit, apparently when you are on roaming in the US you’ll be on T-Mobile.

More info (and plan prices) over at howardchui.com and original leaked slides over at HowardForums.  Super blurry spy shot below:

Thanks Antonio!

It doesn’t look like it was the entire Danger team, but definitely sounds like more than one or two. We’ve gathered up some posts to Twitter about the lay-offs. The below are either a) from a Danger employee, b) from a previous Danger employee, or c) directed at a Danger employee.

@ceejbot: Oh look, muscled goons walking around the building: layoffs today. 9:55 AM May 5th from Tweetie

@ceejbot: My officemates all just got laid off. It doesn’t make any sense. 11:02 AM May 5th from Tweetie

@ian: WTF? Microsoft is laying off awesome people from Danger. 11:26 AM May 5th from web

@Perigosa: @jag Ugh. I am so sorry (for everyone else too). 12:44 PM May 5th from hiptop in reply to jag

@dangermikeb: Rough day at the office 12:59 PM May 5th from hiptop

@ahpook: Condolences to dangersoft peeps affected by layoffs, directly or otherwise. 4:50 PM May 5th from web

@dangermikeb: The end of a crappy day at work. 5:29 PM May 5th from hiptop

@robey: that sucks about the danger layoffs. msft really had no clue what they wanted out of that, i guess. 6:21 PM May 5th from Tweetie

@akrasia: Suffocating sadness with a load of cookies. 7:14 PM May 5th from web

@tuony: Condolences to Danger peeps who were laid off today. It’s never fun, however you may be considered the lucky ones after all is said and done 10:27 PM May 5th from Ping.fm

To add to this information, there was also an interesting comment conversation posted on an Engadget review of the new Sidekick LX 2009.  No idea who “Aenar” is or where he is getting his information from, but he provokes some interesting conversation:

Aenar @ May 6th 2009 12:45PM

Enjoy the last sidekick. MSFT just fired the remaining SK staff with armed guards and only made this thing to avoid a lawsuit with TMobile.
Roz Ho congratukated the staff and then fired the employees for making it. MSFT just wanted the IP for WinMo anyway.
Now you get a seriously debilitated “PINK”device from MSFT as your next “upgrade.” From what I have heard, it’s a joke. No PIM apps and no 3rd party development system. A typical MSFT consumer product. Copy,rush to market and FAIL.
No street cred-get the iPhone

LStrike @ May 6th 2009 2:57PM

So that is the second time in these comments where someone claims this…Where is your source? Or are you the same dude that posted this earlier and just change your name?

aenar @ May 6th 2009 3:29PM

Listen there are 200 employees there-in that old Sidekick division. They are hacked off and they talk smack on every message board,social net and twitter. In public. Microsoft has no intention of making another Sidekick. They wanted the service proxy patents and they want to let the CE product lines plus this wacko fantasy called PINK access the proxy. That way they have an instant message leg up on the iPhone which cannot do service-backed/proxy push notifications.
WINMO was horrified by the Sidekick Acquisition and they barked at Balmer to handcuff the PMX division OR the acquisition was just to kill a competitor to PINK off and snag the IP.
Inside talk is PINK is a barely functioning piece of junk-which is unlike the Sidekick. The Sidekick has a following and just needed some capital and decent management to make it a competitor. They have delivered and sold millions of these things and get a recurring service charge for each. UNLIKE the Microsoft consumer product which is 5 years late and billions short. C’mon- it’s a NETBSD Sidekick. There is no way, except for lawsuits threatened by TMobile, that Microsoft would want to sell a Sidekick. Tmobile needed another Sidekick on the way to transition to Google phone. There’s nothing that says a google phone cannot be a sidekick. That name is owned by TMobile.

LStrike @ May 6th 2009 3:58PM

Everything you are saying is hard to argue with but why don’t you provide a few sources with regards to the last of Danger employees being tossed?

Without sources it just sounds like conspiracy theory. If Microsoft has no intention on moving forward with Sidekick than why did they bother bundling in their own software on the phone (which I am sure they threw together resources to code) and promise Microsoft Exchange Support in the coming months?

If I am being sued into something I don’t want as a company I certainly am not going to make the product stronger no? Just because TMobile strong arms them into creating as you are saying a final product doesn’t force Microsoft to build more functionality.

No?

aenar @ May 6th 2009 7:12PM

There is no Exchange support coming for that particular device and if there was, that’s the internal team getting secure IMAP mail from a secure server. The Sidekick engineers, or any other device engineers, are smart enough to access the LIVE search API without getting too many MSFT employees involved- if any-because the Microsoft engineers are as dumb as the day is long. It’s just bits coming from a Microsoft server and the device application has to render them. Microsoft just opens the door-they didn’t do jack after that.

nolatron @ May 6th 2009 4:16PM

The entire SK team hasn’t been fired. I’m a contract worker for Danger via MS/Volt. Sa couple were let go, but not everyone, during a Microsoft company wide layoff.

aenar @ May 6th 2009 4:47PM

30-40 people were let go. The UI team, media teams, hardware and some associated PMs with the Sidekick. Shocking since Microsoft is mostly Political Project Managers with chips on their shoulders.
The remainder of the SK team that the PINK team needs to write in CE(not java or NetBSD) was moved to PINK or WINMO months ago. So the people who shut the lights off on the Sidekick were thanked in an email by the Roz “Dragon Woman” Ho and fired promptly. Then, to keep employees from going apeshitzz, they had the stormtroopers from Securitas(with arms this time) walk the halls and maintain control. Sort of like the Stazi.
So,
a) No more sidekicks. The people that made them are fired or working on the mirage of PINK,
b) Microsoft tried to weasel out of Danger’s contract with TMobile but were threatened with lawsuit
c) To make schedule, MSFT had to ship the Sidekick as designed at that point which was NetBSD and Java. VP of PMX was said to have cried at that announcement.

That’s it. No more Sidekicks.
Naming sources? Do you work for the Dragon Lady-why would I call out these sources. So I can get more people fired? The information is 90% public domain from public feeds anyway.

We don’t want to cause anyone to panic, so we’re not going to make any rash assumptions about the future of the Sidekick.  Just wanted to toss the information that’s flying around up for you guys.  Feel free to speculate in the comments and if you have any hard and fast info, please email admin@hiptop3.com.

Here’s the featureset:
3G Enabled
Social Networking apps (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter) built in
GPS Live Search and Geotagging photos
3.2″ TFT LCD (F-WQVGA 854×480 pixels)
Thinnest Sidekick Ever
3.2MP Camera with AutoFocus
Record your own Ringtones
Carbon (Black) or Orchard Finish

Pre order with 2year contract for $199.99 (Plus taxes and fees, and a 50 dollar Mail In Rebate) at Sidekick.com or buy without contract for 449.99.

*Note: When we spoke with T-Mobile we were told we would NOT have to change the old 19.99 plan to use the 3G on the new devices.

Looks like the T-Mobile Sidekick 2009 is starting to show up in T-Mobile’s inventory system.  Not a whole lot of info other than it looks like it will be initially offered in two colors: Carbon (assumedly the black we’ve already seen) and Orchid (probably a purple of sorts). Here’s hoping they hit that May 13th release date!

via Tmonews

It’s the information we’ve all been waiting for. The Sidekick 2009 (Blade) that we’ve all be drooling over for months is dropping on…

That is of course a tentative date and not officially stated by T-Mobile, but I’m calling this a pretty solid date. This info comes from TmoNews, who got what looks like T-Mobile’s a summer release date list from “a trusted tipster”.

So, you’ve got about a month to start saving (maybe even less if they do a pre-release for current Sidekick users), are you getting a Sidekick 2009?

ok, excitement asside, i have just travelled down to one of my telstra dealers as i said i would in my last post…

i strolled in and wondered over to the hiptop display and picked it up, having a squiz more or less, when a strapping young lad asked if i needed any assistance.
so i decided not to piss fart around and i got straight into it; “hiptop ‘09 blade” i said, “do you know anything about it?”
to which he positively responded with a “why yes i do”…
i continued with a few basic questions about it:
- is it definitely coming to australia?
YES
- when is it coming out?
Around June/July ish, around the time the new iPhone is released (rivals much??)
- will it still be a $30 plan??
he didn’t confirm this, however he said that that was the main reason it was such a popular phone so he said he believed it would continue this tradition.

that pretty much concluded our chat. and i was happy with the information. (i couldn’t believe it, telstra ACTUALLY knew what they were talking about for once!!)

so there we have it, i hope the info i got is of use to you!!

keep in mind i am in australia, so this only applies to the aussies sorry to those in america still searching for information!!

and yes, i know you may be suspicious about this email but all i can do is give you the information telstra gave me which is legit.
any questions just email back.

He also mentioned in comments that he emailed Telstra, but they’re tight-lipped and said they won’t be carrying the Blade. So take it for what it’s worth. For what it’s worth, a release date of June/July sounds possible, whereas the April 1st guess is looking less and less likely.

Here, you might want this.

Thanks Stevo!

* Releasing new products at CTIA isn’t great from a marketing standpoint. Your announcement can get lost in all the press about everything else.
* BUT we did however see the Sidekick iD info leak out accidentally via CTIA. It wasn’t an official announcement, but still something.

* An April 1st release does mean that the Grammy Tour could be used for some excellent marketing opportunities and increase the hype around this long-awaited upgrade to the Sidekick line.
* BUT last year’s Grammy Tour (also around April) saw the Sidekick LX as the showcase device, even though the Sidekick 2008 dropped 3 months later in July.

* We know the device is in the hands of some trial users and is being tested in the wild.
* We haven’t found a filing on the FCC for this device yet. With the Sidekick 2008 we saw FCC docs around May 2008, with the device releasing about 3 months later at the end of July. With the Sidekick LX we found FCC docs in the beginning of August 2007, device was released mid-October, again in the 2-3 month range. This FCC filing is legally required for the device to hit the market in the US, but companies don’t want to file early otherwise us rumor sites get some indisputable proof. Even if we find an FCC filing today, April 1st gives them only a month. Not impossible, but cutting it pretty close. Anyone found the FCC filing yet?

So, like I said, we want to believe, but every day that goes by without seeing any promotional material or FCC filings makes us less and less hopeful.

We got the above screenshot in our email. According to the sender and the contents, it appears to be a memo to a Telstra Manager talking about the plans for the “Hiptop LX 2009“. (The Sidekick is marketed as the Hiptop in non-T-Mobile markets) It says that the 2009 was supposed to be release early this year, but is delayed due to “software compatibility issues” and the necessary repackaging for it to say Hiptop/Telstra instead of Sidekick/T-Mobile. The email goes on to say that they expect these delays will “be resolved in the March/April period” and that more info will be sent out then. It mentions that Telstra is going to release the Sidekick 2009 before T-Mobile, much like the Sidekick Slide was released.

We’re filing this under “we hope it’s true” but are very very skeptical. The proof is lacking in context and easily replicated. Just grab a Telstra logo off the web, type up some text, slap it together in Microsoft Word, and save as a PDF. So, if there are any Australian readers out there that can get us more info, please do so! We’d love to hear that this is a worldwide release.