Our first evidence of marketing for the Sidekick 3 was found in a recent issue of Men’s Health (the July/August 2006 issue). One of our awesome readers caught this one and took the time to scan it in super high resolution. (Big thanks Giancarlo!) And we have our first “official” price release it looks like too! According to Men’s Health, it’s going to set you back $350. Looks like it’s safe to say that T-Mobile is only days away from the big marketing push we’re all expecting.

The text reads:
MOST TEXT APPEAL: T-Mobile Sidekick 3
We’ve been unabashed advocates of the Sidekick since it surfaced 3 years ago, thanks to its second-to-none keyboard and Web browser. The e-mail is still anything but corporate-friendly on this version, but it pushes past its ancestors by packing in Bluetooth (for wireless headsets); a miniSD memory-card slot (for storing MP3s or photos taken with the 1.3-megapixel camera); and high-speed EDGE access for faster Web browsing. $350. tmobile.com

Here’s the image (kind of big at 300k):

It’s been a bit slow on the Sidekick 3 news front. Until today that is. We received the follow pictures from one of our kick-ass readers. They had to go into secret-agent covert mode and snuck a device into the bathroom to get some shots without being disturbed. Many thanks to our loyal readers for risking it to get us the latest and greatest info.

UPDATE: After further investigation by others that apparently don’t have work to do at their jobs (hehe) we’re calling these fake. Looks like a clever print-out of already existing pictures. For those that aren’t prone to epilepsy, minusX put this handy animated gif together to compare. That plus some info that doesn’t match up in the emails received. Submitter says he got these pictures when he went to work with his dad who works with “the development team in tennesee (sic) for the FCC” but that bathroom looks a lot like someone’s apartment bathroom. On closer look, I think I have those same cabinets! Oh well, that’s what you get when you rush to post things in the middle of the night. Sorry guys.

We got a lot of emails at admin@hiptop3.com. There are all sorts of emails from “where can I get a sidekick 3?” to exclusive information like you’ve seen posted before. While we can’t hook you up with a Sidekick 3 deal until they’re officially released, we can tell you that we’ll have some good deals for people ready to open a new account with TMobile when they buy a Sidekick 3. For all you current owners, we suggest going the upgrade route with TMobile. Back to the topic at hand, here are snippets from a few emails we’ve received lately. We haven’t necessarily verified the truth behind any of these yet:

Hi, i know how you said on your site not to bother
going to a tmobile store and asking about the sidekick
III, but i like skipped in there yesterday with my
friends and asked the first guy i saw “When is the new
sidekick coming out?” and he said “July 10th” and he
told me about the upgrade, its not going to be like
the old one its going to be only if your eligable for
an upgrade, thank goodness i am!!

—-

Sorry… No pics. But I was able to navigate through the menu options a bit. First thing I noticed, the menu, jump, etc button are smaller. The top buttons are more recessed. It is a tad slimmer. The “mouse” will take some getting used to. It seems loose and with the sideways open/retract menu option… I can see it be an annoyance at first. With the resolution not changing, the immediate difference or benefit of 1.3 megapixel camera couldn’t be noticed.

I know I’m stoked about it and for me… Its gonna be free. Booo yaaaa…

—-

Hey guys, My sister( the one who works for t-mobile) Just got home and said they got to see pictures on the sk3. Went to your site and saw the post. I will tell my sis to send them or print them, because the t-mobile e-mails dont forward pics to other people outside the server. She is heavily insisting that it does not filp open and that it slides straight up, i think she is wrong.

—-

The relase date according to a t-mobile manger at a corprate store is july 14th I got this info because my girlfriends juicy sidekick took a dump and its like the 3rd time so there gonna give her a sidekick 3 if they can’t fix it this time and the manager gave her that date.

—-

I was in a Tmobile store in Denver, Colorado yesterday and was going to trade in my Sidekick 2 for an MDA. The clerk told me in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that the 3 will be available by July 9 and that I should check back with him in two weeks to see if there is a wait list to get on.

—-

Hello, My sister is the senior sales rep at a T-Mobile in AZ. Before all the comotion started with the hiptop 3 they recieved an e-mail that was sent out using the T-Mobile forum. It stated the their will be a G-unit edition Hiptop 3, it will be like the Mr. Cartoon for the SK2. It will not be released until a later date. At the all hands meeting they conduct every other month they also announced to be ready for the Hiptop 3, for it will be released July 10th.

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And finally, a plug for someone’s website that we unfortunately haven’t had time to check out (let us know how it is in your comments) : www.mocospace.com

We heard a rumour that TMobile techs got their sweaty hands on the new Sidekick 3s. It only makes sense that the people that will be supporting these devices come July have an opportunity to look them over and check them out. Hopefully these devices will be rock solid since it’s Danger’s 3rd device and we won’t have to spend time on the phone playing Refurb Roulette! If any of the TMobile employees had a chance to snap some new pictures (we’re suckers for Sidekick pron) or have any feedback, please drop us an email at admin@hiptop3.com. And for the rest of us, the waiting game continues!

We know, this has nothing to do with the Sidekick 3, but we figured this was a good place to spread the word.

This poor soul had their sidekick stolen by the girl you see above. If anyone can do anything to help, please do so!

As much as everyone is excited about the FCC docs finally breaking out, don’t bother asking TMobile about the Sidekick 3. TMobile employees received the following memo via TMobileNews.com:

>T-Mobile frequently receives inquiries from customers interested in information about new handsets and data devices. Due to the popularity of the Sidekick, customers frequently ask about new versions of the device.
>Action steps
>Please use the following steps when addressing customer inquiries about new Sidekick products.
>Tell customers that we have no information on a new version of the Sidekick at this time.
>Do not speculate to customers about the availability of a new T-Mobile Sidekick product.
>Direct customers to www.sidekick.com, which is updated when there is new information available about Sidekick products.
>

Like we’ve always said, the Sidekick 3 doesn’t exist, it’s just an overhyped cat remote.

Manuals, photos, internal photos, all sorts of stuff are available here
Some quick links for you:
External Photos
Internal Photos
Test Setup Photos
Reference Guide Cover
Sidekick 3 Start Guide
Sidekick 3 Reference Guide (part 1)
Sidekick 3 Reference Guide (part 2)

The manual pages look very familiar. Some interesting observations:
– The SonicBOOM manual page we received matches up almost exactly with the “Music Player” page, so looks like a name change. 🙁
– No video support 🙁
– There’s a considerable section on the “Danger Service Privacy Notice” and what sort of information they collect and share.
– Yes, USB 1.1, not 2.0
– MP3s play off the miniSD card
– EDGE support!
– Bluetooth (as if noone saw that coming)

and I’m sure our commenters will have some other things to point out…

The FCC has updated the page and it looks like we’ll get a chance to see some official documentation, photos, and more very soon. Right now it’s returning a server error, but hopefully that will get straightened out soon.

Legit pictures of a Sidekick 3 in the wild! Woohoo! And you’re seeing them here first! (well except for those 6 guys that saw it on the hiptop forums before they got pulled) Looks like TMobile changed the name to “Music Player”, comes with a miniSD card of 64MB, removeable battery confirmed, and more blurry pics to speculate over.

We received this in an email from a new source, who states they are a corporate employee. Not sure how legit it is (if at all), so of course take it with a grain of salt. We’ll let everyone pick it apart in the comments like they usually do. We really, really hope that the 1 MB miniSD card is a typo. From what we’ve heard it sounds like the Sidekick 3 will ship with a miniSD card included in the kit, but not sure what size. Seems like a 1MB card wouldn’t be worth the material to even make.
Some comments from the email explaining the memo:

youll notice the markings on it by a permanat marker. its marking out june to july because it was going to be released in june but just wasnt possible so there pushed it back to july, but these papers were already printed to give to people such as employees and buisness partners. he didnt feel like making so many copies again… plus it would of wasted alot of time, effot and money. i only got one but i managed to copy a few….. so zoom in and read all the new stuff it has. ENJOY!!