We’re not sure what all this Hiptunes talk is. In the past, TMobile has tried to distance themselves from Danger in their marketing. TMobile is the only one that calls it a Sidekick, instead of a Hiptop. Why TMobile would switch to using the “Hip” name in their marketing, we’re not sure. And that ad that leaked out is terrible, at least from a marketing standpoint. Why is TMobile the biggest thing on the page? Why not a huge Hiptunes logo and then a typical “only available from TMobile” ? Why would TMobile all of a sudden start using the Danger Hiptop font when they’ve worked so hard to brand the Sidekick? Why is Beyonce’s name bolded and not some eye-catching “play mp3s on your sidekick!” Why isn’t there even a picture of the Sidekick on there? And this ad is definitely aimed at the female market with the butterflies and Beyonce. And what is the text on the image? So we’re calling either photoshop, or fire the guy that thought this was a good ad.

UPDATE: Thanks to Twex on the hiptop.com forums we have a link to the source image used to photoshop that Hiptunes ad. It was also pointed out that there was an SK3 badly photoshopped into her hand that we didn’t even notice. Come on now people, everytime you see a picture of a picture, chances are that it’s fake. Why not just post the original picture?

On a related note, we’re pretty sure that Hiptunes is not the name of the MP3 player on the Hiptop 3. Here’s a hint as to the real name (we’re working on getting proof to you now):

It’s not there yet, but Danger has a placeholder for the Sidekick 3 manual for the new operating system. And based on the date, it’s been there awhile. It looks like we’re going to jump from v2.3 on the Sidekick II to v3.0 on the Sidekick 3. No word on whether there will be an OTA for the Sidekick II yet, and we’d be willing to bet not since the changes in hardware seem to be significant.
The only thing the page says is:
This is a placeholder for the R3.0 Owner’s Manual contents page.
Sept 29 , 2005. Release 3.0 © 2002-2005. Danger, Inc. All rights reserved.

So don’t bother flooding Danger’s servers with clicks just yet.
Keep an eye on it here:
https://help.sidekick.dngr.com/en-us/HT3manual/m2/R3.0/Desktop/ (remove the “HT3”).

Just like with the Sidekick II, once this goes live we’ll finally get a chance to see what to expect when this finally releases in late June. Big thanks to our source for hooking us up with this info yesterday!

We received the following pictures from a source who wishes to remain anonymous with the following statement:

Unlike like previous reports, the SK3 doesn’t have a “nub” like a laptop.
But a 3D trackball that will light up instead of the D-pad like the SK2.

We got an email from a reader that simply says:

Subject: Sidekick Launch party is at Plumm club in New York
Body: 2-3 weeks from now. A friend says he’s already been invited.

Josh writes: I was at cingular today and one of the sales people told me that they believe the Sidekick 3 will be available for cingular! The rep went on to say this is due to the fact that the sk 3 will support EDGE technology and t-mobile as we all know, doesn’t support that. Also this speculation would have an interesting correlation with the sidekick roadmap, since they’re unveiling all these different types of sk 3s. Perhaps one is for cingular and another is for tmo! Besides, I know in Los Angeles where I live, when I first turn on my sidekick, the cingular logo shows up. Perhaps tmo and cingular have some sort of contract going on…

————–
Ed Note:
Anyone that has traveled out of Tmobile coverage and gotten bounced to Cingular knows that the Sidekick 2 works perfectly fine with Cingular coverage. Before the comments flood, Tmobile does support EDGE right now, so that point is at least moot. I don’t know the deal with T-Mobile, but I would think Danger would be limiting their possible revenues by only sticking on one carrier.

It’s official, at least as far as the FCC is concerned. The filings for the Sidekick III showed up on the FCC’s website. We’re not sure why they didn’t document the feline behavior modification chip, but we’re sure that’s still being kept under wraps. It’s going to blow the market open for pet control like no other device we’ve seen. The previous pics were legit (to some extent) and we now have the newest pics for your viewing pleasure. Some of the rumours that are confirmed: Bluetooth (for all you lexus drivers), miniSD for expandable memory, and a 1.3 megapixel camera. Many are assuming the miniSD is meant for expansion for multimedia playback, meaning video and MP3. This hasn’t been confirmed yet, so stay tuned for the exact details. At this point we can only guess at some of the software features based on the capabilities of the hardware. Still no release date though, but we assume it can’t be far off if this information is now public.

From Engadget

Danger Press release:

The program will enable Danger’s mobile Internet platform to deliver innovative solutions that extend MSN services.

Palo Alto, CA — April 4, 2006 — Danger, Inc., a mobile Internet software and services company, today announced it has joined the MSN Mobile Developer Program, which provides broad support for independent software vendors and other developers to build innovative solutions on the MSN network of Internet services. These resources will allow Danger to extend services such as MSN Messenger to its mobile consumers through Danger’s mobile Internet platform.

“Having the support and assets of the MSN Mobile Developer Program behind us will help make our next generation of mobile solutions even more attractive and feature-rich for consumers,” said Mark Fisher, SVP of Marketing and Business Development, Danger, Inc. “We’re excited about the opportunities that this program will open up for our development teams.”

Launched in July 2005, the MSN Mobile Developer Program delivers extensive information, tools and expertise to help participants successfully design, develop and market new solutions that extend MSN services to mobile devices.

Today marked the first day of the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, which runs till Feb 16th. Danger has two booths registered there, and it is rumoured that one is in the Audio section of the congress. Could this be the announcement of the Sidekick III? (They don’t seem to have a section for “Pet Control” so it’s hard to tell)

In addition to the exhibition, there is the GSM Association Awards on Feb 14th with categories such as

We can’t tell if Danger is in the running or not, but we will definitely keep an ear out to see if they win anything. Anyone out in Barcelona this week?

-thanks to “p” for the heads up-

Update:
Some Guy Says:
February 13th, 2006 at 1:17 pm

I hate to burst everyone’s bubble but the “rumor” that they have an “electronics” booth and an “audio/visual” booth comes from some guy who looked at the list of exhibitors for the 3gsm world conference and say the prefaced letter for the two booths Danger has. E and AV. E doesn’t mean electronics. Inside the buildings they are ordered into arbitrary sections A, B, C, D, E, F, etc. AV doesn’t mean Audio/Video, it just means the booth is along the Avenue (The AV is given for all booths along the Avenue. For more info, look at the actual floorplans at the 3gsm world conference site.

As to the question, “Why would Danger be there if not to show off another device?” I can think of one good reason- there is no better place to make contacts and try and woo new carriers (particurally European carriers).

via Gizmodo
Danger Inc., creator of the ever-so-trendy Sidekick, may be seeking a new partner-in-crime in the coming year. Danger initially dumped the hardware manufacturing of the Sidekick series over to Sharp so the company could focus more directly on the development of Sidekick software, but recently Danger’s chief executive announced his company may be looking for a second hardware manufacturing partner soon. Motorola, anyone?

Sidekick maker seeks new partner [Reuters] (link is dead, draw your own conclusions)