The Danger servers shutdown today. It’s hard to put into words the impact that Danger and the Hiptop had on the entire wireless industry, as well as me personally. I know that it also played a personal role in a large number of people’s lives.

For a trip down memory lane you can check out the Sidekick timeline and Geekwire has a recap of the history of the Sidekick.

Some other blasts from the past for Sidekick die-hards:
– The old blue camera that plugged into the headphone port that only did 120×90 pixels?
– The excitement of the silver camera that let you take 320×240 pictures!
– The Hiptop Halloween Hunts
– Danger’s Official Timeline (circa 2007)
– Remember 10 Pin Bowling? Blockade? Cognet? HipPaint? the hacked Google Maps application?
– How about all the code names? Shuriken, Gekko, Zante, m1, m2, Aspen, Blade
– The rise and fall (thanks to Popular Science) of the Developer keys.
– hiptopinfo.com, hiptop.com, hiptop.bedope.com, skdr.net, skholla.com, The Danger Zone, hiptop411.com, hipalbum.com, and more…
– Discovering the hidden feature of custom themes. Thanks Jurai!
– T-Mobile’s Sidekick/Grammy tour and all the release parties
– The countless FCC leaks
– The Snoop Dogg commercial where he was asking for help with his laundry
– Who remembers Johnny Chase?

And last but not least.. where’s my cat remote?

If you’ve got a story or a memory to share about the Sidekick, please leave it in the comments. We’d love to hear how it touched other people too.

This evening T-Mobile announced their relaunch of the Sidekick brand with the Sidekick 4G, an Android powered device produced by Samsung.

This Sidekick will be HSPA+ 21 (Able to deliver theoretical speeds of up to 21mbps.) and will be the first to feature a Touch Screen. In addition this Sidekick will feature a 1GHz Cortex A8 CPU, and a VGA front facing camera for video calls through Qik. No mention of the rear cameras specifications however. It will also be running Android 2.2 and features a five row keyboard just as previous devices have.

It’s expected to ship later this spring in 2 colors. Matte Black and Pearl Magenta. No pricing information is available, or if T-Mobile will extend discounts to previous Sidekick Customers.

Full press release below.

Source TMoNews
(more…)

It’s official, T-Mobile issued a press release regarding the end of the Danger Sidekick service as we know it. The servers will go down on May 31st.

Statement: Danger Service for T-Mobile Sidekick

Bellevue, Wash. — Feb. 28, 2011 PST

After May 31, 2011, the Danger Service (a subsidiary of Microsoft) used by T-Mobile Sidekick customers for data services will no longer be available on Sidekick devices.

T-Mobile will provide offers for our Sidekick customers before May 31, 2011, to help make an easy transition from their existing Sidekick device to a new device. We will have more information to share about these offers with our customers in the weeks ahead.

To ensure the best possible transition for our loyal Sidekick customers, an enhanced Web tool is available on myT-Mobile.com to easily export their personal data, including contacts, photos, calendar, notes, to-do lists, and bookmarks, from the Danger service to a new device, computer, or a designated e-mail account. An application is also available in the Sidekick Catalog to make it easy to export personal data to the Sidekick’s memory card. Many T-Mobile stores can transfer data from that card to a new T-Mobile device if the customer brings in the memory card and Sidekick.

I can’t help but be a little sad. We all knew this day was coming, but now we know when. Enjoy the last few months, and here’s hoping the Sidekick 4G can live up to the expectations that the previous Sidekicks set.

If you’ve ever tried to call T-Mobile and get your Sidekick unlocked to use on another carrier, you know they tell you that the Sidekick can’t be unlocked. Well that’s just plain false. You CAN unlock your Sidekick and call and text on other carriers. In fact I just unlocked my Sidekick LX 2009 the other day so that I could use it on whatever carrier I wanted.

UnlockYourSidekick.com is a brand new site where you can get your device unlocked. Rather than sending it off, or waiting for days to get an unlock code, all you have to do is download their software, connect your Sidekick to your computer, and unlock your device on your own.

The guys at UnlockyourSidekick hooked me up with a free unlock because I wanted to see if they were for real. They’re legit and the software (Windows only) is super easy to use. It’ll walk you through step by step. The hardest part for me was getting the battery out of my device. If for some reason you’re not satisfied, there’s a 30 day money back guarantee.

Most of the recent Sidekick models are supported:
– Sidekick 3 (including DWade and Dianne Von Furstenburg Limited Editions)
– Sidekick 2008
– Sidekick LX (including Tony Hawk Limited Edition)
– Sidekick LX 2009
Others are “Coming soon”

You can unlock your Sidekick at UnlockYourSidekick.com.

Life as a Sidekick user is starting to return to normal as T-Mobile/Microsoft/Danger slowly announce each piece of data that is restorable as they make progress. We’ve gotten back Address Books, Calendars, To Do Lists, Notes, and most recently Photos. I know a lot of people are still waiting on Bookmarks and I imagine that will be next in line. However one of the hallmarks of the Sidekick is still missing and we haven’t heard any word on when it will return.

I’m of course talking about the Download Catalog, aka the first App Store. The Catalog has been down for over a month and this sucks both for Sidekick users as well as Sidekick Developers. I’m sure T-Mobile is feeling the hurt too as a large source of their income from Sidekick users comes from selling applications, ringtones and themes.

While there are no other ways to get applications (save having a developer key), it is possible to get ringtones and themes while the catalog is down from unofficial sites. Themes for most Sidekicks can be found at Sidekick Themes and if you have a Sidekick LX 2009 you can get free ringtones at Skringers.com.

UPDATE (2009-11-11): We’re hearing through the grapevine that the Download Catalog may be up by Saturday if things go well! Keep your fingers crossed.

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.

Don’t have a Sidekick LX 2009 yet and you’re stuck with an older device? Well if you’re a Twitter or Facebook addict, you’re in luck! T-Mobile has released the Twitter and Facebooks apps in the Download Catalog for the Sidekick 2008, the original LX, and the Sidekick Slide. The Facebook app is totally free, but the Twitter app will set you back $1.99 every month. Both of these apps will remain free for the Sidekick LX 2009 users though.

Are you on Twitter? Follow us! @hiptop3

Some of us really love the Sidekick. We wear Danger shirts, put stickers wherever we can, show off features to friends, and are probably considered “fan boys/girls” to most people. But some people really, really love the Sidekick. So much so that they want it to be a permanent part of them. First there was the Sidekick II tattoo, then Volcom got his Danger symbols tattoo, and now we bring you Wanda, who is the proud owner of a charm bracelet tattoo that includes a Sidekick LX.

Mike, one of the Hiptop3.com writers, had a chance to ask her a few questions:
What made you decide to get a sidekick tattoo?
I wanted a charm bracelet tattoo and all the charms had to represent me in some way. Everyone who knows me, thinks I’m obsessed with my phone, and maybe I am a little. I fell in love with the sidekick back when they came out with the sk color, but I couldn’t afford one just yet. No matter what phones come out, none of them compare (in my eyes) to the sidekick. So, it was a given that IT had to be one of the charms. Even if they never make another sidekick, it’ll always be with me. Plus, my bracelet would look kind of silly with only four.

Who designed the artwork?
The tattoo artist. I told her what kind of phone it was and she did the rest. She actually drew the whole bracelet for me.

When did you get your first Sidekick?
2005 (the sidekick 2)

How many sidekicks have you owned?
Four, the sidekick 2, sidekick 3, sidekick lx and sidekick lx 09

Tell me more about the Sidekick User Group (Geezers) you are in:
I started out as just a member, then I became the owner. Its a group for us “older” folks who just happen to have sidekicks. Although some of our members have crossed to the dark side and gotten other devices. We’re a mature crowd and talk about pretty much anything, without the vulgar language that sometimes comes with online groups. Anyone with a mobile device can join, as long as you’re 25 or older and willing to behave :-).

If someone over 25 wants to join SidekickGeezers, how do they sign up??
Go to this link https://groups.google.com/group/SidekickGeezers?hl=en and request membership. They have to first sign up with their mobile address.

Nice tattoo Wanda and thanks for taking the time to answer some questions! If you want to see the rest of the chram bracelet, check out the gallery:

[Show as slideshow]

Want to see other Geek Tattoos?

Even though a lot of people have purchased their Sidekick LX 2009’s, there are still quite a few people waiting to see if it is worth upgrading. One of the main thing that the device boasts is having powerful “Social-Networking” applications, such as Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter. We’ve gone ahead and went into the depths of these three, free applications, to bring you the pros and cons of them. We’ll give you all that you need to know, including functionality, issues we’ve encountered, and much more. Remember, we love the applications, but we are providing the most neutral review possible. Let’s dive into it.

Myspace

The Myspace application is basically a port of their version from the older OS. We see much of the same functionality, and the 3G service just makes it run a bit smoother and faster for us. Since a lot of this application is the same as the old version, we won’t be commenting much on it, just giving features.

You have the ability to view all aspects of your profile, including photos, blogs, comments, and your main profile. The profile editor is very nice, as you can place html code in the sections you wish; you may not be able to view these changes in the application, but you can still edit it all. Definitely a very desktop-like editor for your profile. Not only can you upload your photos straight from the album, but you can also upload videos to your profile. In addition, you can set alerts to just about anything that you would need to be notified about in the application. Most of these won’t need to be set, but still nice to have.

Some of the things we wish that existed are the ability to view profile videos and listen to profile music. We understand that this would require a complete update on Myspace’s side, but using RTSP streams, they could have tried to make this possible. Otherwise, the application is pretty complete. There is yet to be a fully powerful mobile Myspace application on any device, but this application is pretty great for an avid user. Overall, it’s pretty stable, and the application auto-reconnects if there is ever an abrupt log out.

Facebook

The Facebook application is a very nice and intuitive app that gives us the best of Facebook. The application pretty much takes the standard mobile edition of Facebook, and turns it into an updating app.

The splash screen is very nice, showing you not only that you have an alert, but actually gives you a newsfeed preview of the latest friend status and Facebook activity. We also like that you can refresh the home, which will give you the latest activity. The image icons and previews come up pretty fast, even just on EDGE.

Viewing a friends profile, you can easily comment, poke, or even message them. Composing a message is much like the email application, but it’s still within the app. You can also comment on statuses, and upload photos directly from your photo album. You can update your status with no problem, and view all messages, friend statuses, and search Facebook; all of these options reside in their own tab.

The ability to “Like” a status does not exist in the application, which is somewhat of a downer, considering we sometimes don’t always like to comment on a status. It also would have been nice to see the ability to upload videos to your profile, or watch videos from other friends profiles. We would have like to have seen a version of Facebook chat as well; we’ve seen it on other devices, and it would have been a great addition to the app if you could use this feature.

Aside from a few flaws, it a pretty great application, and saves you from having to keep using the browser. An app built in keeps everything Facebook related very organized; Facebook users will spend a lot of time in this app.

Twitter

Finally, you can have a Twitter application on your Sidekick, that interacts with the site just the way you want it to; the mobile website doesn’t always have the ability to perform certain tasks, but this application definitely performs.

The splash screen gives you a preview of one or two tweets, and tells you when it was posted. Inside of the app, you can see A LOT of tweets that have been posted by people that you follow. In addition, you can easily update your status, with a text field that has a ticker counting down your 140 characters. Scrolling over a person’s tweet, you can send then an “@ reply”, send them a direct message, see their timeline, and view their profile. You can also choose to stop following that person, or mark the tweet as a favorite. You can delete a tweet you made, follow new people, and update your location.

The problem with this app is that you are forced to choose between intervals of automatic updating, which tend to be either too fast and burn battery, or too slow and not update enough. We wish there was a manual update action, that could force an update. Also, we wanted to see the tweets to be updated after you send a tweet, showing your message and updating the timeline. Another feature that we find missing is Twitpic, or photo posting functionality in general. This is one of the very popular trends when adding something to view in a tweet. Sure, you can go ahead and post it to Photobucket and drag the link in, but direct Twitpic functionality would be ideal. Also, updating your location is more of a manual process; it would have been nice to see it fetch your current location upon request.

 
Hopefully these reviews give you a great idea of what to expect with these social applications. Here are some additional screenshots of all of the apps in action.

Crazyforkicks, a frequent commenter on hiptop3.com (and the epic 400+ comment thread) got two Sidekick LX 2009s from UPS today. An Orchid one for his wife and a Carbon one for himself. So he busted out the double unboxing. Remember guys, “when you kick it, you gotta kick it good”.