Anh Nguyen has a great recap of the Sidekick 3 launch party, complete with photos. Go check it out here. He also has a review of the device up. For those of you that don’t like to read, we’ll go through and give a brief summary when we’re not at work. 🙂

The short of it:
The Sidekick 3 release party was held in Hollywood, CA at Hollywood Palladium, where the theme was “Play, Laugh, Dream, Celebrate.” It sounds like it had a very carnival/playground feel too it, with games, cotton candy, scantily clad women, slides, and swings. The celebrities were all out, with attendees such as: Jose Conseco, Aaron Carter, Taylor Cole, Kristin Bell, Rachel Bilson, Sarah Carter, Christopher Knight, Adrianne Curry, Carlos Mencia, Travis Barker, Mark Hoppus, Shane West, Chris Masterson, Laura Prepon, Haylie and Hillary Duff, Kristin Cavalerri, Serena Williams, Marques Houston, Vida Guerra, J.C. Chasez, Kelly Monaco, Christina Milian, Jadakiss, Jason Mewes, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Misha Barton, Jessica Simpson, Eva Longoria, Kim Kardashian, Mike Tyson, and some totally random basketball players. DJ AM provided the tunes from the turntables.

There were about 200 people in attendance, and the whole block was closed off. There was also an ice sculpture of the Sidekick 3, and if anyone has good pics of this, we’d love to see them! No idea if there were gift bags and if so what was included in them. If you have a few minutes, definitely go check out Anh’s write-up, as well as photos of all the celebs at his site.

We won’t waste words, here’s some videos of the Sidekick 3 in action:
MP3 Video – Trackball Video

The (in)famous appletech has agreed to answer some user-submitted questions for us! For those that don’t know, appletech is one of the moderators over at the hiptop.com forums. He’s got his hands on a Sidekick 3 and is ready to answer your questions. We suggest keeping your questions more specific to the device and NOT “How much does it cost? Where’s my upgrade plan? etc.”

We’ll take some of the best and most commonly asked questions and send them his way when we have a good amount.

If you have a question to submit, send it here. Please keep the ASK: in the subject line so we don’t overlook your email. We’re looking forward to putting some of the rumors to rest, so… what do you really want to know?

Here’s a collection of recent links now that the Sidekick 3 is official. Reviews, pictures, etc. will be coming out like crazy over the next few days I’m sure. If you have any links to add, throw them in the comments and we’ll add them to the list:

www.sidekickiii.com
CNet Video Review
Engadget review with pictures
Gizmodo review
MobileBurn.com’s extensive review
Seattle Times Sidekick 3 Review
We don’t have time to email everyone individually, but a big thanks to everyone sending in the links!

Remember that link we told you to watch out for awhile back? The manual for the Sidekick 3 / Hiptop 3 is now up on Danger’s site. We haven’t had a chance to go through it in depth, as we’re on vacation and rushing to catch up on all the news that happened while we were away from the keyboard. Trusty Hiptop3.com readers, let us know if you find any new info in there.

One thing we did notice is the name of the music player. While TMobile is calling it the Music Player (as we saw on the actual device this weekend), the Sidekick manual is calling it the SonicBOOM Music Player, and it looks much cooler than what we remember. Then again, when we got a chance to play with it, it was on a beach and it was dark.

The manual also mentions MMS (Multimedia Messaging for those that aren’t into the whole brevity thing). As in the past, it looks like TMobile is denying their Sidekick users the joys of MMSing, but the Sidekick 3 does have the capability.

And one last thing the manual reminded us of was the new functionality in the camera as far as increasing the quality of the photos taken. You can now set photo size, flash, exposure, sharpness, fluorescent light filtering, and JPEG quality (compression).

Let us know if you guys notice anything else of interest in the manual by posting in the comments!

Yours truly was able to encounter a Sidekick 3 in the wild yesterday. The owner actually knew of hiptop3.com and was kind enough to let us play with the device after we wiped off the drool. There are no pictures because they were under NDA for another week. I got about 10 minutes to mess around with it. Some things that were noticed:
– The trackball is weird at first, feels real flimsy, but you get used to it
– Jump menus have sub items that have a pretty cool transition when rolling the ball to the right
– The MP3 player is called Music Player, and can play MP3s out of the speaker on the back of the device, not sure if it will play over bluetooth headsets
– The corner buttons (Jump, Back, etc) are smaller and take some getting used to
– HipCat was an available ringtone in the catalog, but there were no signs of the rumoured “Hiptunes” or any sort of song download option
– We didn’t have a ruler, but holding it up to the Sidekick II it seemed to be about the same size. No significant change

Many thanks to the owner for letting us take a peek! 🙂

Thanks to “A.” for tossing the list of specifications that supposedly came from T-Mobile Corporate. Looks legit to me. Everything seems to match up. Of course, being a rumour site, this isn’t “official” until we see a scanned copy of the memo signed in blood by the CEO of TMobile, and witnessed by at least 3 people!

According to this a 64mb miniSD card will be included, the Sidekick 3 will have the trusty Rock and Rockets, No MMS support (this is TMobile’s doing I’m sure), no video capture support, AIM/Yahoo/MSN, the mp3 player IS SonicBOOM, and looks like the screen is still 240×160. The standby battery life of 60 hours will be nice as my current sidekick 2 only gets about a day of standby. Enough chatter, here’s the full list that we received:

Specifications
Battery Life Talk time (hours): 5 hours

Standby time (days): 60 hours

Talk and standby times and other specifications are provided by the manufacturer and are approximate. Actual performance varies based upon features or services used, network configuration, signal strength, operating temperature, customer use, and other factors.
Battery Type Battery type is listed here
Changeable Faceplates No
Codecs AMR
EFR
FR
HR
Dimensions Height 1.26 width 1.90 thickness in inches
Display Type: SXVGA
Colors: (16-bit) 65K
Size: (pixels) 240 x 160
Mini Display N/A
Memory Memory listed in KB, MB, GB

Expandable Memory: Yes
Type: miniSD
Frequency Bands GSM 850
GSM 1800
GSM 1900
Phone Style Flip screen
Phone book Capacity 2000 in device memory, 650 on SIM Card
Operating System Proprietary
Weight Weight (in ounces): 6.7
Call Management
Picture Caller ID Yes
Ringer Caller ID Yes
Speed Dial / One-Touch Dial Yes

Maximum Amount of Speed Dial Entries: 9
Speakerphone Yes

Type: Full-Duplex
Vibrate Yes
Voice Dialing No
Camera
Modes Yes – Airplane mode, maximum. Loud, normal, soft, buzz, and silent
Megapixel(s) Yes

Megapixels: 1.3
Resolution In pixels: 38,400
Video Capture No
Zoom No
Connectivity
Bluetooth Yes
Bluetooth Profile: 1.2
Browser Type:
Type Version:
Supports: WAP (1.0, 1.2.1, 2.0), HTML, XHTML, XML
EDGE Yes

Class: E2
GPRS Yes

Class: Rel 0.4
Infrared (IR) Port No
Synchronization Yes, No
SyncML Yes, No
UMA No
USB Support Yes
USB Mass Storage Yes
Wi-Fi No
Messaging
E-mail Client Yes

Protocols Supported: IMAP4, POP3
Instant Messaging Client Yes – AIM®, Yahoo!®, and MSN® Messenger
MMS / Picture Messaging No
SMS / Text Messaging Yes

Concatenation Support: Yes
Digital TTY/TDD Support: Yes – two apps available for download through the PDM catalog that support TTY: “IP Relay” and “Sprint Wireless Relay”
Predictive Text: Yes
Predictive Text Technology: User configurable Auto Text
Organization
Alarm No
Calculator No
Calendar Yes
Currency converter No
Dictionary No
Memo / Notepad Yes, No
To-do List Yes, No
Phone book Multiple numbers per name: Yes
Address Field: Yes
E-mail Field: Yes
Caller Groups: Yes
Voice Memo No
Personalization & Fun
FM Radio No
Games Embedded: Yes
Games installed: listing of games: Rock and Rocket

Downloadable: Yes
Music Player Yes

Type of Player: SonicBOOM
Supported file formats: MP3
Ringtones Yes

Types Supported: Polyphonic (# of chords), HiFi – t-zones not supported, but there is a Danger download catalog
Themes Yes

Themes Provided: Liquid, Madison, Rodeo, and Surface
Wallpaper Yes

Types Supported: Static

WHATS IN THE BOX:

PV200 Main Unit / With Screen Cling
PV-BL11 1500MAh Battery
PV-AC11 Battery Charger / AC Adaptor
PV-HS11 Stereo Headset
PV-CA11 Carrying Case
PV-LN11 Lanyard / Wrist Strap
PV-SD64M 64 MB Mini-SD Card
PV-UC11 USB Cable
TM0607 Gift Box
TRAY200UP Upper Gift Box Tray
TRAY200BOT Lower Gift Box Tray
TM1352 Start Guide
TM1353 Reference Guide
TM1350 Terms & Conditions Guide
ZZZ260R010 SIM Card
TM1024 Legal Sticker
TM1351 Accessory Guide (will not be in initial BOM)

Some more emails from our inbox for your reading enjoyment. Some are informative, some are funny, some we’re just not sure what to make of. Oh, and everyone asking us about prices, where to get a sidekick 3, details on the upgrade program, etc; just keep your pants on, as soon as we have the info, it will be posted. Now, the emails:

I am a t-mobile employee and the sidekick 3 just
showed up om our internal website yesterday. It looks
great but according to the specs it doesnt have edge,
and its a domestic tri-band. It does however have the
bluetooth and a mega pixel camera. the music player is
called sonic boom and it has four themes named liquid,
madison, rodeo, and surface, and it supports another
type called static. It doesn’t support hifi ringers
from t-zones but thereis a danger download catalog. A
tip is that it doesnt support windows media player
files. it comes with a carrying case, a lanyard, 64 mb
sd card, usb cable, a gift box , sim ,card, and
everything else including a stereo headset…..so what
does this mean…this means the sk 3 will be out in
about a month or so.

—-

I change is a will be on july 10,06 color black and white.

(huh??)
—-

My uncle is a manager at a local t-mobile store in california where I live and I talked to him about he sidekick 3, i copied and printed out that memo and the letter regarding what t-mobile has told there employees to say to customers asking about the SK3. When I asked him about the SK3 myself, he simply answered, “I have no idea, they havent told me anything”. But when I showed the him the printed copy of the memo and the printed copy of the memo the exlains what to say, he was shocked and asked where I got this information, of course I didnt say Hiptop3.com., I just said a friend ;). He said that most of the information on both memo’s are mostly correct and that the scheduled date for the SK3 release is around te 10th of july, but they havent gone into much detail. He did show me a paper with some finanicial and technical information, it said that the upgrade program will be avalible to sidekick 1 or 2 owners and that tey are debating whether or not to allow an upgrade for T-mobile To-Go sidekick owners. The retail price of the sidekick is 399.99 and with upgrade should be free (not sure though). I will try to get back the memo paper and scan it to the another e-mail. I just have to get my hands on it again.l..(oh boy).

Hope you found this info acurate!!
Thanks!

—-

Seeing as to how there’s no recent new news….and I’m bored out my mind at work I thought it be fun to inform you all that last night I received and email pertaining to the upgrade to the sk3. I imediately showed all my buddies and outrage soon followed (I got the last ota before them also) anyhow you’ll have to take my word for it cause there is really no way I can prove that’s what I dreamt of last night…

….p.s. I couldn’t get the phone # to upgrade because t.s. Alberto woke me up at 5 a.m.
-x-

(re-read the last sentence in the first paragraph before you go crazy in the comments 🙂

—-

To whom it may concerm,
I was at a mall in Chicago today(Lincolnwood Town Center) and while I was passing one of those little cell phone stands that have reps from Cingular, t-mobile, sprint, etc and i decided to ask the t-mobile what he knew about the sidekick 3. He told me to expect it early next month and didn’t really tell me much of anything more than what we already know at hiptop3.com, but when I asked about the trade-in program, he directed me to the actual corporate store elsewhere in the mall. One of the reps there confired to me that it would be $299.99 with a new contract, and that there would be a trade-in program for the sidekick 2 owners and will probably allow a $100 discount with the trade-in. so there ya go.

—-

That’s all for now. Remember, if you have any (reliable or new) info and/or pictures, send them over to admin@hiptop3.com. Be sure to let us know if you need to remain anonymous and we’ll keep our mouths shut about which hiptop3.com ninja scored the info.

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):

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.

—-
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