Last night we headed out to the Mezzanine in San Francisco for the Sidekick LX 2009 Launch Party.  The place was packed with people!  There were other parties in other cities and upstairs you could hop on a laptop and use Skype to chat back and forth with partiers in different time zones.  There were also screens showing the red carpet in LA.  If you’re wondering what celebs showed up, PopSugar has a good photo gallery.

Downstairs on the big screens the party in LA was being broadcast while DJ Morse Code spun tunes.  The bars were open and I think T-Mobile paid me back for a few months of data service.  The highlight of the night in San Francisco was DJ Jazzy Jeff showing us all that he still has skills on the turntables.  But perhaps even bigger news was from the LA party where Blink-182 reunited and performed a “surprise” set, their first in over 4 years.  They only played a few songs but there’s already video up on YouTube:

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: If you have the chance to go to a T-Mobile party, take it.

Let’s hear if for a new and improved shutdown and startup animations on the Sidekick LX 2009!

Want to watch a video of the Sidekick LX 2009 that’s totally in focus? Here’s T-Mobile’s official press release video:

There’s also the video of this guy using it:

If you’re one for soundbites too, then there’s also these videos from Emily Blair, the T-Mobile Sidekick Manager talking about the features of the Sidekick LX 2009:

Last night T-Mobile threw a party to celebrate the Sidekick LX 2009. Our invitation must have been lost in the mail on the way to San Francisco, but EngadgetMobile was there. They filmed this video playing with the Sidekick LX 2009:

According to the rep for T-Mobile:
- Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter are built in automatically downloaded and installed. Technically they’re actually catalog apps so you can uninstall them if you don’t want them later though.
- YouTube video streaming looks smooth
- You can capture any length of video, but MMS is limited to 30 seconds

Thanks again to PBD for giving us a video preview of Mood Lights on the new Sidekick LX-09:

http://s581.photobucket.com/albums/ss259/appletech_pbd/?action=view&current=MVI_1944.flv

T-Mobile has just posted the first unboxing commercial for the Sidekick LX 2009 on their YouTube account. Unfortunately it doesn’t really show much of the device. Luckily Appletech comes through with a video for all of you that want to see what the device actually does. Check out his 7 minute video showing off the Sidekick LX 2009.

Thanks to the folks at the official Danger Device Forums, there are a lot more specifics on features thanks to the moderators who actually have been test-driving the devices for several weeks.  Here is the rundown so far (with some more pics!):

• No Shells like the 2008
• 3 mood lights – new locations: 1 on top and bottom of the keyboard

http://www.poweredbydanger.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1332&d=1240058761

and 1 long one on the top edge of the screen when opened (bottom of screen when closed)

http://www.poweredbydanger.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1333&d=1240058814

• Actual Screen Shot (click for full size)

• no animated gifs
• SDHC Memory – no limit – just what is available on the market (16gb – OK!!)
• Speaker is louder than before
• Video Mode - Low Res is a 176×144 resolution meant for sending via email/mms. This resolution is limited to something like 4 minutes.
• Video taken from an SK09 (Hi-Res Mode – no recording limit!!):

http://s581.photobucket.com/albums/ss259/appletech_pbd/?action=view&current=VID00002.flv

• Photo App  Max size: 2,048 x 1,536

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/8283/img00061h.jpg
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/2281/img00062l.jpg
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/7992/img00064l.jpg

• You can Geotag photos with your GPS location.
• It’s a 3.2MP camera with Auto Focus and flash (no zooming).
• There’s an auto focus mode with options distant and macro mode. There’s white balance controls, and B&W, Sepia, Negative effect options.
• Available resolution options are:
  • 2048 x 1536
  • 1600 x 1200
  • 1280 x 960
  • 800 x 600
  • 640 x 480
• YouTube videos work.
• m.break.com videos work (but not smooth)
• Seesmic does not work
• Facebook app seems to be a souped-up mobile version. No videos, apps, etc.
• Internet Radio Works!! (Ex: ShoutCast):
  http://poweredbydanger.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1342&d=1240089939
• Yahoo Messenger supports animated buddy icons.
• AIM and Yahoo Messenger now support photo sharing
• You can also upload videos to youtube (or photobucket or myspace) directly
• Web Browser still does not support Flash
• You cannot roam on AT&Ts 3G Network due to the ranges being different:
  The LX09 supports UMTS Bands 2100, 1700, 850.
  T-Mobile uses 1700 and 2100 for 3G, while AT&T uses 1900. So you won’t be able to roam on AT&T 3G.
  As for “Other networks”, it depends on what 3G band they are using.
• Still has chrome around the USB/Charger, but appears to be more sratch-resistant:
  http://poweredbydanger.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1338&d=1240087896
• Data plans are grandfathered. T-Mobile will not raise your rates
• When GPS is on, the battery drains faster. (there is an option to turn it on/off)
• Browser is overall the same as the last OTA on the LX. But you have a LOT more room:
  http://poweredbydanger.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1319&d=1239974010
• Still 6MB limit on email/ 100+30 limit on SMS (both same as before)
• No confirmation as to “Free Ringtone downloads” still basing it on info already published.
• Themes can still be user-generated like before
• Social apps (Twitter, Myspace, Photobucket, and Facebook) are all FREE – no monthly charges!!!!

When the video recording capabilities for the Sidekick arrived, many people were disappointed by the limitation of only 20 seconds of video capture. Cramped Thumbs, a new Sidekick applications developer, decided to do something about that and have released Video Recorder, a Sidekick application that lets you record up to 50 seconds of video. Why is it still limited to only 50 seconds? Apparently recording and encoding video really pushes the Sidekick past its normal capabilities. So until we get a new powerful device *cough*sidekickblade*cough* enjoy recording at least more than twice as much as your other Sidekick friends. The app costs $1.99 and is available in the catalog now.

Here’s an example video shot with a Sidekick LX:

You’ll need Quicktime to view the embedded video.

Alright gang, we’ve got some Sidekick 2009 info for you. Here’s the details on the camera that we’ve been able to find out so far.
* It will take photos up to a resolution of 2038 x 1536, meaning 3.2 megapixels.
* There’s a flash, so those grainy shot-in-the-dark photos will be possible.
* There is a new auto-focus feature, so you shouldn’t have to use the jewelry loupe/magnifying glass trick to get up close shots of things.
* Video recording sounds like it’s set to 15 frames per second for now. But might be possible for 30fps.
* You will be able to upload directly to MySpace, Photobucket, and YouTube
* It will support geotagging

All pretty much straight-forward information. For those that don’t know what geotagging is, it means that you can embed location information in the photos you take. So if you take a photo at your friends house and then upload it to a site that supports the geotagging info, it’ll show up on a map at the location you took it. This uses the GPS that’s coming in the Sidekick 2009. It’s all pretty good info, and about what we’d expect from a Sidekick camera.

We got the above image in our inbox. The reader sending it in danielle says she was taking a survey about smart phones on QuizPoints and was presented with this one. Here are the specs it lists in the photo:

Social Networking Suite of Apps
- Facebook
- MySpace w/ video upload
- Twitter
- YouTube Mobile Access via browser

GPS Location Based Search
- Turn by Turn Navigation
- Microsoft Live Local Search and Maps

Content Creation
- Blog publishing, editing, and management client
- Photobucket Upload and Management
- Video recorder and upload to MySpace/Photobucket

Communications
- Signature Sidekick IM/SMS/E-mail Experience
- Microsoft Outlook/Exchange synchronization

Hardware
- Large (3.2 inch WVGA) screen with sharp 854×480 resolution
- Thin design
- 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, flash and video recording
- Large QWERTY keyboard
- Expandable memory up to 8GB via MicroSD

Everything seems to match up with what a Sidekick LX 2009 would have. It mentions 3G, which is pretty much a given at this point. The introduction of Microsoft Live Search and maps makes a lot of sense since Microsoft now owns Danger. The addition of GPS (finally!) is also a nice complement to the maps and helps the Sidekick compete a little bit with the iPhone and other location-enabled devices. But I’m sure the thing that everyone is freaking out over now is the mention of YouTube mobile access. It’s probably the #1 request for the Sidekick by the majority of the users. It doesn’t seem that out of reach since the Sidekick can play video already, it just needs a way to get it from YouTube. None of the apps are groundbreaking, but they’re things that a lot of us would agree it would be nice to have on our Sidekick.

The hardware looks about right too. A 3.2MP camera isn’t the 5mp camera we hoped for, but it is a god bump up from the 2MP camera in the Sidekick 2008 (not to mention the 1.3MP in the LX). The screen is higher resolution (too early to start working on those new themes?) and of course the familiar keyboard is still there.

Is this the Sidekick Blade that we’ve been hearing whispers about? Hard to tell. We know that “Blade” is a codename and that internally (in software) it’s know as the “m3“. The “m2″ was the Sidekick 3, so one would guess the “m3″ would correlate to the elusive Sidekick 4 and a “large” upgrade in device. (FWIW, the Sidekick LX was the “m2-hd”) Could MSDanger be working on two devices? It’s very possible, but we don’t have anything to back this up or refute it yet.

So is this for real? We think so. At least we think it’s specs drawn up by someone official that is testing the water with consumers to see what they think. Whether it’s what we actually see in a device in the future, I’m not 100% sure. I think it definitely sounds like the next revision of the Sidekick LX. It’s not too ambitious, but does add a few of the most requested features. Seems to be the way that T-Mobile/MSDanger like to do things with the Sidekick.