Ok, ok, everyone keeps submitting the BGR article confirming some features and how T-Mobile is going to market it as just “Sidekick” with a model number of 2008. So it looks like you’ll be telling your friends you just got the “Sidekick”. We here at hiptop3.com would like to start a grass-roots effort to actually call this the Sidekick Gekko in common conversation because it’s a cooler name. What do you guys think? Which name would you have liked to see T-Mobile name it?

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If you’re looking for a Sidekick 2008 aka Gekko and you’re rich and you can’t wait for the release date, then you’re in luck. Just make this guy on craigslist a big offer and he might sell it to you. Regardless, looks like we’ve got the first “in the wild” pics of the Sidekick Gekko, err 2008 now.

UPDATE: A couple of eagle eye readers have pointed out the blue keypad on the Gekko as well as the LX, which indicates these are trial devices, aka devices that people are given to test before release. I’m sure this guy doesn’t yet realize that he’s not supposed to be selling these devices, especially the Gekko.

craigslist post:

SideKick Lx + Gekko - $250400 (alameda)
Date: 2008-07-15, 10:53PM PDT

ATTENTION SERIOUS NO JOKE
New Sidekick LX(BLUE)
W/ Video Capibility.(365)
Also Able to Record Own Ringtones!
Condition:9/10
Comes With Charger, Case, etc.
If interested Please Write Back.
AIM;############
510-###-#### Call/TXT
Don’t Be Afraid to ask questions. I will not deny you!
Serious Buyers please

s0 be one of the only people!!
Also Have A Regular Brown Lx. In okay Condition.! Not the Best but still usable.!< ---(250) Third Phone is the " SIDEKICK GEKKO!"n0t f0r sale unless a Big Offer c0mes! (400)
ALL PHONES COME WITH HOME CHARGER USB AND ALL HAVE SCREEN PROTECTORS
Also interested in Electronics: IPODS, PS3, XBOX 360 ETC + $$$$

For several months now, we’ve heard all sorts of rumors on the next Sidekick device, scheduled to come out at the end of this month. We’ve done our best to keep track of everything and weigh out which one is more likely. We’re tired of it. Here are the names so far that we’ve heard:

Gekko

Gecco

Aspen

2008

Style2

Snap

here at Hiptop3.com, we’re going to go with Sidekick Gekko until we hear otherwise officially. It’s the internal name used by Danger and it’s also shown up on T-Mobile things as well. This is a rumor blog, we do our best to check on things before reporting, but sometimes we feel it’s better to report based on what we have and give a disclaimer. Sometimes we get it a bit wrong. Sorry!

Feel free to submit your rumors/thoughts/opinions in the comments below.

Another hiptop3.com exclusive coming at you. A little birdy showed us some stuff that shows that T-Mobile is working on a site (probably http://www.sidekick.com/shells)where you can create your own shells for your Sidekick. It looks like it’s going to be going to have a fancy flash interface where you can upload your own images to help customize your device. Links at this time indicate that the actual shells are going to be made by skinit.com. (It looks like this means the “shells” might be more like the “skins” we know and love already) In addition, reminiscent of some theme sites out there, you’ll be able to browse around and see what other people have created, and you can even vote on them. I can’t wait to see what sort of theme/shell combinations people come up with. Some screenshots of the site still in development below:

Feast your eyes on some more pictures of the Sidekick Gekko. We’ve also found more concrete evidence that we were right to begin with when we found out the name was going to be the “Gekko”. Of course, this is subject to change. We’ve heard all sorts of names for this device, but Gekko has the most proof at this point.

Want to compare the rumored size of the Sidekick 2008 to the Sidekick LX? Take a look:

Want to know what the full specs on the T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 are? BreatheTmobile has them for you and we’re reposting below:

T-Mobile Sidekick (2008) Specs:

2mp camera w/video
Media Player
Pc-like HTML web browser
Instant Msg
Email
Automatic Backup
Removable Faceplates (customizable at sidekick.com w/your own art or pix!)
2.6″ high resolution wQVGA screen w/ micro-reflective tft lcd
Bluetooth 2.0 w/file transfer
QWERTY keyboard
Trackball
3.5mm headjack
Mirco SD slot w/ 4gb support

Quadband 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
size: 120 x 57.5 x 18 mm!!!!!!
weight: 140 g
standby: 10 days
talk time: 5 hours
Display: 400 x 240 pixel
ram: 128 mb
Flash ROM: 64 mb

It looks like this device is going to be pretty similar to the Sidekick LX, which is no surprise. He also mentions that the device will be “affordable”, although noone is tossing around a price tag yet. His original post can be found on the TmoNews forums.

So the latest rumor on the street is that this long awaited Gecco device is going to be called the “Sidekick 2008″ by T-Mobile. We have to wonder if T-Mobile marketing is serious about launching a device halfway through the year it’s named for, but then again they did release the SKiD. We’ve squinted our eyes and examined the photos and haven’t been able to see anything that confirms that it will be called the Sidekick 2008. On the back of the screen where it normally says “Sidekick LX” or whatever, it just says “Sidekick”. So here’s your salt shaker, this is what we’ve heard. Probably even more exciting though are some fuzzy pictures floating around that you can see above and below. Looks like T-Mobile is prepared to help you customize the hell out of your device with Sidekick Shells.

via Thanks for the tip Dominic!

We received the above screenshots from a Best Buy employee (they have access to see inventory coming) from their internal tools. Looks like T-Mobile switched around the misspelling of “Gecko” and are calling it the Sidekick Gecco. There’s not a whole lot of details other than the name of the device, the size and weight of the box, and the release date of July 27th that we knew about long ago. Oh wait, what’s that? $299? Is that the price of the Sidekick Gecco? Hmm.. Needless to say, this is exciting and only a couple weeks away!

Big thanks to our anonymous tipster

Someone at Danger has put up the Sidekick Gekko manual a little early for our Viewing pleasure. We have not had a chance to review this manual yet, but we will keep this post updated with anything that catches our eye about the Gekko and the Upcoming OTA for the LX (It’s pretty safe to assume they will have a similar (If not the same) OS.)

Sidekick Gekko Manual Manual has since been taken down.

Ok, so at a quick Inspection of the manual, Here’s what we’ve noticed.
(We assume everything mentioned here except where noted will apply to the Sidekick LX OTA as well.)

View Sender’s Online Status
If the sender of an email is one of your “friends” and is online in one of the instant messaging applications, the sender’s name will appear in bold green font and you will see an instant messaging smiley in the From field:

Videos can be transferred via Email (Upto 2mb) as well as MMS and Bluetooth.

Group Chat in AIM moves out of a Menu + Shift hidden shortcut and into an official feature.

Find Text Messages
You can open the Quick Find dialog box by pressing MENU F. Search for a text message by From, Date, and message body fields.
*This feature works everywhere, not just Text Messages.

Photos can be cropped on device.

Gekko will capture images at 1600×1200, 1280×1024, 640×480, or 320×240.

All videos are captured at 176×144 (We assume this applies to the Sidekick LX as well.)

Media files (Music and Videos) are transferrable via Bluetooth between your computer and between 2 hiptops (Kind of like Zune sharing, but no restrictions.)

Auto-Discard Messages When Mailbox Is Full
With this option selected, once your mailbox is full, the system will automatically make room for new messages by permanently discarding old messages, starting with messages in the Trash, then oldest messages in the Inbox and Sent folders. Messages in the Drafts folder and on the SIM card are never auto-discarded.
This is in the Text Message application - Thanks to Theicool for pointing it out.

Alarm
You can set a basic alarm from the Alarm group box, one that repeats daily at a set time. If you want the alarm volume to be different from the sound profile setting, then select the Override Sound Profile check box and select the Alarm Volume button to make adjustments.
When the alarm sounds, a dialog box will appear, giving you the choice to snooze the alarm for 10 minutes, stop the alarm (it will sound again tomorrow), or stop and turn it off (it won’t sound tomorrow).
Note: The alarm will continue repeating every day at the set time until you explicitly turn it off from this Date, Time, & Alarm settings screen or from the Alarm dialog box.
Thanks to legacy for pointing this out

That’s all we noticed that wasn’t discussed in the new features of the OTA and the Gekko, and some things we went into more detail about. If you happen to notice anything we missed, please let us know via the comments section!