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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For all you non-T-Mobile customers, now is the time to get your Tony Hawk LE Sidekick LX. They’re going for $299 right now, but they’re a limited edition, so if you don’t hurry, you’ll be forced to scour eBay for one before too long. Along with the full launch of the Tony Hawk Limited Edition Sidekick LX, T-Mobile has also redesigned the sidekick.com site to turn it into “Tony’s World”. It’s a pretty rad interactive flash site with Tony, his new Sidekick, multiple locations, and a couple Easter eggs. Let us know what you find with your eagle eyes on the site, and keep an eye out for that Yeti!

Looks like Rockstar21 over on the PoweredByDanger forums got ahold of some information that maybe he shouldn’t have. He’s posted some blurry pics of a folder of info on the new Sidekick Gekko/2008/Aspen, slated for release at the end of July. He’s also transcribed the contents of the folder for your information:

Pricing: Get yourself a sidekick at an Affordable price. =)

Catalog: Download more apps, themes and games faster from the catalog

Address book: improved intergration. see what friends are online and immediately start chatting. activity logs. easier dialing for phone calls. improved interface.

Shortcuts: QuickFind, SpellCheck, Shortcut key strokes, and QuickJump(unified inbox and recent applications list)

Headset jack: 3.5 standard audio headphone jack

External memory: 512 mb for videos, pictures and music. can take up to 4 gb card.

Notifications: sounds, vibrations and multi colored trackball.

SMS: yes

MMS: yes

MyFaves: capable

Target Customer: Young fashionable, predominantly female who likes to express themselves and be creative.

Demensions: 120×57.5×18 mm “slightly wider, yet shorter slightly thicker than the sidekick slide”

Weight: 140 g lighter than both slide, and lx

Display: 2.6 diagonal viewing “400×240 pixel WQVGA” Mobile advanced Super V LCD (.4 inches smaller than LX)

Camera: 2.0 Mp still camera and video recorder (should be obviously noticable difference in quality of pictures and video recordings)

Instant Messaging: AIM, MSN, Yahoo. with group chat, stealth mode, and links to profiles.

Media Player: video and music player. 3gp and MPEG 4 with WMA and ACC formats.

Web Browser: yes, with zoom, pan, and scan.

Bluetooth: yes, stereo, phone calls, watching/listening to music and vidoes, sending and recieving media files.

standby time for battery: 10 days
talk time: 5 hours
128 mb ram
64 mb flash rom

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!

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:

We’ve had a number of people write in to point out what looks like a Limited Edition Famous Stars and Straps Sidekick LX on the Famous website. It turns out that unfortunately this isn’t a limited edition that we’ll see being sold in stores. It was a special batch of devices just for Travis Barker, a long time Sidekick user, and crew. I know I know, based on the number of Famous Stars and Straps themes that have been uploaded, I bet a lot of you would be waiting in line to buy this device if you could. In the meantime you’ll just have to make your own with Colorware or a can of spray paint.

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

We’ve gotten quite a bit of emails asking us “When will I get my OTA?” Honestly, there’s no concrete answer. The OTA process is entirely randomized.

Danger rolls out OTAs in 2 parts, Part 1 is commonly referred to the “Pioneer” phase. (Which is what the OTA is in) What that means is Danger and T-Mobile randomly select a random mashing of users and send them the OTA. They then see how the OTA goes (If there’s any major issues, bricking devices, etc.) If all goes well in the Pioneer phase and noone is killed in the process of the Pioneer phase, then Phase 2 is started and the OTA moves into full roll out mode. Full roll out mode is again randomized, but the rest of the users who were not in the Pioneer group are selected at random for the OTA.

It could take upwards of weeks for everyone to get the OTA. There is NOTHING you can do to make the OTA come faster. (Aside from slipping into a coma for a few weeks) You will get the OTA. Everyone has to get it. Danger won’t forget about you and not send it to you, we promise.

We’ve got more screenshots for you to enjoy of the 4.6 OTA.

Updated with Quick Find screenshots

Brightness and Sound Profile settings are now grouped together

We’ve seen those before.

As you can see here, the browser introduced a new “Full-Size Layout” option

Hiptop3.com viewed in the Full-Size Layout mode

sklxthemes.com viewed in Full Size Layout mode

Globally empty trash menu item, and Quick Find menu items

Quick Find search window

Quick Find results

*new*

Spellcheck Settings

New!

Spell Check in EMail

New!

Spell Check in AIM
More screenshots coming soon.