It’s official. T-Mobile has announced the new red scarlet Sidekick Slide. So if the purple color was deterring you before, now you have another option. The T-Mobile Sidekick Slide Scarlet will be available for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement. You should be able to get it online or at stores. There’s not much else different about it, but in case you want the specs of the Sidekick Slide Scarlet, here you go:
· T-Mobile myFaves
· Smaller design with slide screen and QWERTY keyboard
· Available in a black finish with scarlet accents
· QVGA screen
· Web browser enhancements and improved JavaScript support
· Customized MySpace Mobile application available through the Download Catalog
· Personal e-mail access and integrated t-mail account; supports POP3, IMAP FETCH e-mail protocols
· MMS, SMS and IM supported
· Built-in IM clients: AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger
· 1.3-megapixel camera
· Built-in music player that supports MP3 and AAC (requires memory card)
· microSD expandable memory slot; support for up to 4 GB of memory
· Bluetooth
· Dimensions: 4.6 x 2.4 x 0.68 inches, 5.3 ounces
· 2 x 1.5-inch display, 320 x 240 pixels, 65k TFT display
· Battery life: Up to 5.9 hours of talk time and 3.6 days of standby
· Quad-band world phone (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
· GSM/GPRS/EDGE
For all those that were doubting us when we said that video was coming to the Sidekick LX via an OTA, we present you with a page straight from T-Mobile.com. The text reads:
Viewing available memory for pictures and videos
To view available memory for pictures and videos, perform the following steps:
1. At the Jump screen, roll to and select Camera.
2. The available space for new pictures appears in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
The original page for the Sidekick LX can be found here (if they haven’t pulled it yet). There’s also the same page for the Sidekick Slide, although we haven’t heard any details on an OTA for you Slide owners yet and there’s also this page which says: “The Sidekick Slide does not support sending video messages.” So we’re going to stick with saying to expect the video OTA for the LX, but not for the Slide. Sorry Sliders.
A topic of conversation was brought up a couple times while I was “on tour” with the T-Mobile/Grammy Concerts. What would you like to see on the Sidekick the most?/How could it be improved? I conveyed some of my own thoughts and wishful thinking (GPS and Google Maps). But I want to open it up to you guys. I can’t guarantee this will have any impact on the future of the Sidekick obviously, but I’m curious to see what everyone out there thinks the Sidekick (LX or Slide) needs. Drop your thoughts in the comments!
According to TmoNews (an unofficial blog about T-Mobile) the new Sidekick Slide color is going to officially be called “Scarlet” and should be available May 15th. They’ve got what looks like to be an internal memo about it.
A lot of the tech blogs have been buzzing about the Nintendo emulator that runs on the Sidekick. Here’s the real scoop. Yes, it exists and you can play Nintendo games on the Sidekick 3/LX/Slide as evidenced by the video above. It’s slow and more of a proof-of-concept sort of thing rather than a truly viable gaming application. It was basically taking an existing Java NES emulator (Vampant) and wrapping it for loading on the Sidekick since the Sidekick OS supports java. No, it is not going to make it into catalog unless T-Mobile gets real friendly with Nintendo and the license holders of all the roms that you would want to load. The application is a developer app that is only available to Sidekick developers. So basically if you don’t know how to write java, you’ll never get to load it on your Sidekick. When asked for comment, the developer simply stated “HOLLA!”
There’s a video that proves its existence (or at least a prototype) and now BGR is reporting that the Sidekick Slide is slated for a late May/early June release from T-Mobile. They’ve also got the above image, which may just be a color-shifted version of the purple Sidekick Slide we all know.
Looks like the Motorola booth had a red Sidekick Slide on display this year at CTIA 2008. No word yet on when it will hit market (if it even will). I know a lot of people quoted the purple color as being a reason they steered away from the Slide. In my personal opinion the red looks sexy, and I’d totally rock
it. Click here for the full video of the tour of the Motorola booth.
So you didn’t keep an eye out for a Sidekick thief while texting on the subway like we told you to and now your Sidekick is gone. After reporting it to T-Mobile and the proper authorities, what is one to do? Well, if you’re like NY teenager Yudelka Polanco you’ll start doing detective work. The great thing about the Sidekick is that you can still log in to your desktop interface and find out how the person that stole it is using it (as long as they didn’t pull the sim and login as a different user). Most thieves are dumb and will leave behind some clues. Yudelka was able to get ahold of her thief’s email address and through a search on MySpace pulled up his profile. Through some additional detective work online she was able to get some pictures an information on the guy and took that info to the police. The police were able to identify 16-year-old Victor Hernandez and busted him for the theft of the Sidekick Slide as well as a number of other charges. Way to go Yudelka!
Grant Duval, from The Connection (a student newspaper in Sacramento, CA), has put together an editorial titled “What does your cell phone say about you?” In it he mentions Sidekick users:
Sidekick owners have a ton of friends. Even their phone is their “Sidekick.”
People who own Sidekicks are addicted to their friends, not the ones they are with, but the ones at the receiving end of their witty texts.
Sidekick owners are young and may or may not idolize Jay-Z. They are also highly lazy. If spelling out words without using abbreviations and predictive text is too hard, what else is too hard? Getting a job? Paying taxes? I’m on to you Sidekick owners.
Personally I would have said Lil Wayne (based on the number of Lil Wayne Sidekick themes out there) and I’d disagree that we’re lazy and don’t have jobs. How else could we afford such expensive devices? What do you guys think?
If you live in Boston (or anywhere else for that matter) you may want to pause from IMing and texting your friends every now and then to make sure you aren’t about to be robbed! Bostonist is reporting that Sidekick users who are distracted by typing are a target for phone thieves. WBZ TV reports that 23 Sidekicks have been snatched in the last two months from users riding the T (Boston’s subway system).
“Basically they have their heads down,” said Transit Police Sgt Michael Rutledge. “They’re not paying attention to their surroundings and people are taking advantage of that opportunity. When the train doors or bus doors open they’ll snatch the cell phone or Sidekick and run off with it.”
So keep an eye out next time you get sucked into an AIM conversation with the hottie you met last night at the club. Before you know it you may have lost her screenname AND your phone.
