We’ve been waiting and waiting for an official changelog for the 3.1 OS, but haven’t seen anything official yet. However, on the Hiptop.com forums (not associated with hiptop3.com) jenniferkvm posted the following:

The list updates I have handed down from my bosses include:

Correction to the battery level indicator.

Correction to battery charging icon. Previously the icon displayed charging even when th battery was fully charged. The OTA fixes this.

Previously the device might have had problems with powering on when the power button was used to power off. The OTA fixes this.

Previously, the clicking DONE in the address book will not save/close an address book edit. The OTA fixes that.

Som beeps in the sounds profile did not also flash the trackball. OTA fixes.

OTA will ensure that redialing occurs when button on headset is pushed after busy signal.

Added Menu + Cancel shortcut in Music Player to remove menu item in playlist editing menu.

Media Player used to be case sensitive when sorting playlists. After OTA, it is not case sensitive when sorting alphabetically.

OTA will allow deletion of multiple selections from a playlist.

Device locking up after going to “sleep”. OTA fixes that.

Fixes echo in Speaker mode.

Battery Cover Notification is noticable when keyguard is activated.

AND Lastly ( I know I saw a couple of threads on this):

Ya know how when you answered a call and the person on the other end couldn’t hear you for a few seconds? Drove ya NUTS!
Yeah, the OTA fixes that……

There’s your list kids……

Add another Limited Edition Sidekick 3 to the list! We knew about the LRG green Sidekick 3, but now there’s a black one to go with it. TMobile just announced the upcoming limited edition device from fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg. The devices will have all the same features as the Sidekick 3, so the drawing power will be the appearance. We do have to say, the black one looks a lot nicer than the green one!
Oh, and the info you’ve all been waiting for?
The new limited edition T-Mobile Sidekicks will be available in limited quantities at select T-Mobile retail stores and online beginning Oct. 30.

Press Release

Is video on the Sidekick finally coming?! A recent surf of Danger’s job page has given us an insight as to what the next generation Sidekick might have instore. With the combination of TMo’s EDGE and the eventual roll out of UTMS, it seems that broadband video could become a reality on everyone’s favorite device! As always, this is just speculation at this point, but it sounds like the Sidekick 3/4 might handle MPEG-4, H.263, H.264/AVC, WMV 7/8, VC-1/WMV9 codecs.

For those interested (and hopefully someone qualified) here is the job description:

Senior Video Software Engineer
Department: Library
Location: Palo Alto, California

As a Senior Video Software Engineer, you will be responsible for moving Danger’s hiptop platform into the video age. We already have the best audio system in the mobile industry; now leverage your deep knowledge of video to take our multimedia architecture to the next level.

Responsibilities

* Help craft the video strategy for Danger’s hiptop platform, including evaluating various 3rd-party video solutions, and recommending hardware changes for future devices.
* Integrate 3rd-party video software into the existing platform and audio engine. Optimize, debug, and maintain this code. Most of this work will be done in straight C, but some inline ARM assembly and DSP coding will be required.
* Expose video features through an extensible and customizable Java library API. Tutor application-level Java engineers, both internal and external, on this API, and help them make best use of it in their code.
* Search for innovative ways to incorporate video into the hiptop experience, including leveraging the unique Danger service architecture.
* Create test suites and work with QA to deliver the highest quality mobile video applications in the industry.

Qualifications
* BSCS/BSCE/BSEE degree and 8 + years continuous experience developing in C/C++, preferably in a technical lead role for some of this time
* 2 years experience developing in Java, preferably with some object-oriented library and API development
* 2 years experience focused on video record and playback, including codec and DSP experience
* Familiarity with popular video codec formats, such as: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264/AVC, WMV 7/8, VC-1/WMV9, etc.
* Familiarity with popular video file formats, such as MP4, AVI, etc.
* Experience integrating and debugging 3rd-party source and object code
* A solid understanding of multithreaded programming concepts
* Experience with ARM9 and ARM11 assembly language programming in an embedded environment, and TI OMAP DSP programming, is highly desirable

The Hiptop is available in the US, Canada, Germany, UK, Austria, Cayman Islands, Singapore, the Netherlands, and now Australia. Based on a press release on their site, it looks like Danger is ready to conquer the down under continent. They’ve teamed up with Telstra (Australia’s leading telecommunications and information services company) this time. But you Aussies will have to wait for awhile before you can enjoy the goodness of the Hiptop 3. For some reason Danger is launching with the Hiptop 2 down under. Although one speculates that an unlocked Sidekick 3 might just work. They’re touting unlimited data plans for $30 with a 2-year contract over on Telstra’s site but no indication on what it would cost with a voice plan.

Danger, Inc. today announced the availability of its mobile Internet service in Australia with the launch of the Telstra hiptop2. Danger’s entry into this market is another milestone for the company, building on the widespread popularity of Danger-powered devices, like the hiptop, that are sold in North America and Europe. The Telstra hiptop2 will be offered with unlimited data pricing for Australian consumers. Telstra is the market leader in Australia with over 8 million mobile subscribers, making the company a significant new partner for Danger.

“Entering the Australian market is a promising development for Danger,” said Henry R. Nothhaft, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Danger, Inc. “By entering new geographies, we are positioning the company for further growth.”

Official press release

Wow, shortly after posting the announcment it looks like some people are already getting the OTA! As normal, it is being rolled out to a pioneer group of 1000 people for testing. There’s no way to tell if you’re one of those few, it’s random. R-A-N-D-O-M. So don’t bother sacrificing that chicken, it won’t help. So far it looks like no significant changes, and yes the themes are still intact.

discussion on hiptop.com/forums

The Sidekick 3 online manual has been updated to reflect the 3.1 Over-The-Air update of the Sidekick OS. While the Suncom Hiptop 3 is supposedly running on 3.1 already, all the TMobile Sidekick customers are currently stuck with OS 3.0 with the battery issues. This update will fix the common battery issues but hopefully not lock off the Sidekick themes. We’re keeping our fingers crossed!

From the manual:

Release 3.1 Over-the-Air Update for Sidekick 3 Users

This update arrives in two parts: first the operating system, then the firmware. Together, the update delivers overall performance enhancements to your Sidekick 3, including a correction to the battery charge readings.

Andy writes to let us know that there is a picture of the LRG limited edition Sidekick 3 in the November edition of XXL Magazine (page 138 if you want to check). For those wondering, LRG stands for Lifted Research Group. There’s not much info in the magazine, but it looks like this just might be one of those limited edition Sidekicks. So if you’ve been waiting for the name-branded Sidekick in green, maybe you won’t have to wait much longer.

An anonymous reader tipped us off to these new exhibits posted on the FCC site. It’s the normal FCC submissions of confidentiality request and test results submitted by Sharp (the manufacturers of the Sidekick) but definitely a Danger powered device. They’re fairly recent, posted on 09/05/2006 with testing taking place in July-August.
A quick breeze through them and it looks like this may be some sort of updated Sidekick 3. The model number is given as PV200E (the original Sidekick 3 is listed as PV200). In addition, the sticker above matches the current sticker in shape. The only difference we’ve found so far is the GSM frequencies. Instead of 850/1800/1900, this one is 900/1800/1900. Our first guess was this is the (E)uropean version of the Sidekick 3. But that begs the question, “Why file with the FCC?” Perhaps this is an updated model with the intent to release in the US as well as globally, a.k.a. the Hiptop 3. Maybe this is one of those Limited Edition Sidekick 3s? I guess we’ll find out when the confidentiality request expires on October 12th. Drop your guesses in the comments

As many of you have probably already noticed, the Time Traveler app is back in the T-Mobile catalog. It was previously pulled due to some bugs. Hopefully those have all been squashed and you can get your handy time zones and alarms again. You can even find out what time it is in Black Rock City, NV! Although they’re a bit late for this year. Let us know how it is! From the catalog:

With Time Traveler, you can keep track of the time in four cities at once, from a selection of over 100 cities. You can also set multiple alarms, each with a different alarm sound. Other features include analog clock mode and timer function.

As far as we know, the Sidekick 3 was the first big mobile device to come out with a trackball. (No, that old Powerbook doesn’t count, you know what we mean) One of our readers pointed out the BlackBerry Pearl that was officially announced recently. We headed over to Gizmodo to check out some good pics of it. It looks way too similar to the trackball found on the Sidekick 3. We’re just speculating at this point and I’m no lawyer, but I wonder if Danger has any sort of claim to this. We all know they’re patent lawyers are all over the signature screen flip. What about the other aspects of the device?