Danger Developers are receiving an email from Microsoft/Danger informing them that the sales of “one-time donload content” will be discontinued as of March 2nd. Yes, as in tomorrow. So if there was ever a theme, ringtone, or app you wanted to purchase from the Sidekick catalog, you better grab it today.

Free stuff and subscription based apps will remain in the catalog. After tomorrow it sounds like the only way to get ringtones or themes will be via the free sites: Sidekick-Themes and Skringers.

Remember how back in October you had a little bit of trouble with your Sidekick? Well T-Mobile continues to do their best to make it up to the people that stuck with the Sidekick through those troubling times. You probably got a free month of data service for October, several of you got $100 $50 cards that you can use to pay your bill or upgrade your phone, and now T-Mobile has put some free stuff in the Catalog to show their appreciation of you as a customer.

If you jump into the Download Catalog (which has thankfully returned), there’s a section at the bottom called “Customer Appreciation”. We haven’t checked the other devices, but on the Sidekick LX 2009 it contains Twitter, 2010 NFL, Animated Screensavers, Crossword HQ packs, Prank Box packs, Sudoku HQ packs, a couple of Backgrounds and Themes, and a handful of Sound FXs. If you pick up Twitter, be sure to follow us: @hiptop3 and @skringers

Good news! As we posted on our Twitter account (@hiptop3), the Download Catalog came back online this weekend. There was much rejoicing.

Also, we heard from T-Mobile directly and they were very happy I’m sure to be announcing that Sidekicks were no longer “Temporarily Out Of Stock” and were up for sale on T-Mobile.com again! You can snag a Sidekick LX 2009 for $149.99 or a Sidekick 2008 for $49.99. And if that’s not cheap enough, you can even get an open box Sidekick 2008 for $34.99. (All with 2 year contracts of course)

Life as a Sidekick user is starting to return to normal as T-Mobile/Microsoft/Danger slowly announce each piece of data that is restorable as they make progress. We’ve gotten back Address Books, Calendars, To Do Lists, Notes, and most recently Photos. I know a lot of people are still waiting on Bookmarks and I imagine that will be next in line. However one of the hallmarks of the Sidekick is still missing and we haven’t heard any word on when it will return.

I’m of course talking about the Download Catalog, aka the first App Store. The Catalog has been down for over a month and this sucks both for Sidekick users as well as Sidekick Developers. I’m sure T-Mobile is feeling the hurt too as a large source of their income from Sidekick users comes from selling applications, ringtones and themes.

While there are no other ways to get applications (save having a developer key), it is possible to get ringtones and themes while the catalog is down from unofficial sites. Themes for most Sidekicks can be found at Sidekick Themes and if you have a Sidekick LX 2009 you can get free ringtones at Skringers.com.

UPDATE (2009-11-11): We’re hearing through the grapevine that the Download Catalog may be up by Saturday if things go well! Keep your fingers crossed.

When Apple released their App Store for the iPhone most Sidekick users laughed and talked about how the Sidekick has had the Catalog (aka Download Fun) for years. We’ve been buying, downloading, and installing apps before the iPhone was even around. But as it stands now, there aren’t many phones out there that you can do this with. T-Mobile is looking to change that. They’re basically going to take the Catalog model and make it easy for developers to write applications and get them deployed to multiple devices. And when you buy an application, part of what you paid for it will go back to the developer with a revenue-sharing arrangement.

We don’t foresee anything major happening to the Sidekick platform, as it basically has the capabilities that T-Mobile is looking to implement on other phones. What we do think will change is the quality and quantity of applications and games available in the Catalog. With developers programming apps for multiple devices they will be motivated to make them Sidekick compatible as they wil make more money the more devices their application can be purchased on. T-Mobile is also opening things up for anyone to get in on the action. So you won’t have to be some big software firm that’s partnered with T-Mobile. You can be just some guy sitting on your couch writing programs.

Another interesting thing is that T-Mobile will be doing a revenue-sharing model with the developer that’s based on the amount of bandwidth used. With T-Mobile launching their 3G network, we should start seeing more streaming audio and video in the future. Chances are we won’t see any of this streaming (except perhaps low quality audio) on the current Sidekick models as the EDGE network can’t handle it, but we would be very surprised if the next generation Sidekicks don’t have support for it along with 3G capabilities. And no, we haven’t heard any details worth reporting about a Sidekick 3G is coming yet. If you’re debating on whether you should wait for it or buy a Sidekick 2008, Hiptop3.com recommends buying the Sidekick 2008.

T-Mobile hasn’t dropped an official announcement on any of this yet, but as soon as we hear more, we’ll let you know.

T-Mobile’s Developer Site
via

A lot of the tech blogs have been buzzing about the Nintendo emulator that runs on the Sidekick. Here’s the real scoop. Yes, it exists and you can play Nintendo games on the Sidekick 3/LX/Slide as evidenced by the video above. It’s slow and more of a proof-of-concept sort of thing rather than a truly viable gaming application. It was basically taking an existing Java NES emulator (Vampant) and wrapping it for loading on the Sidekick since the Sidekick OS supports java. No, it is not going to make it into catalog unless T-Mobile gets real friendly with Nintendo and the license holders of all the roms that you would want to load. The application is a developer app that is only available to Sidekick developers. So basically if you don’t know how to write java, you’ll never get to load it on your Sidekick. When asked for comment, the developer simply stated “HOLLA!”

An anonymous tipster sent us a copy of this video to show what the Sidekick LX is capable of. Whether or not this will ever see the catalog is unknown as I’m sure it would take some lawyers and licensing. But regardless it’s a great example of what the Sidekick LX actually is capable of in the gaming arena.

Busy news day here at Hiptop3… Boy Genius Report has updated their initial look at the Sidekick LX with some new information, that’s somewhat saddening.

“A couple early findings from our Sidekick LX…all ringtones, games, and applications do not transfer over from a Sidekick 3. This mean you’ll need to repurchase everything again. There is a chance this might change as the device is not publicly available, but we doubt it. Also, at this point in time, the Sidekick LX’s Catalog is heavily lacking content…whether developers won’t need to, or haven’t recompiled the apps and games yet, there is only a short few available things to purchase currently in the Application and Games folders.”

They do not say whether it’s displaying that dialog that says something similar to “All your previous purchases will not transfer over to your Sidekick” or if they don’t transfer over simply because they are not yet updated for the Sidekick LX. …More information as it unfolds.

via Boy Genius Report

*update*
From phonemaverick’s “Downloading games & apps” YouTube’s video comments..

BGR is right… for an item to work on a new device, developers must essentially create a new app. So, they charge users to download it to new devices. This started with sidekick/hiptop3. If you download an app to a sk/ht3 and lose the device, you can get a new sk/ht3 and the apps will automatically redownload for FREE. BUT if you switch device types (e.g. sk/ht3 to lx or slide), you may need to pay for those apps to work on your new device.

The emails were sent out, SunCom will soon be selling the Hiptop 3. And as always, the SunCom customers luck out, as they will get discounts (33-50%) on apps and games that they already purchased for the Sidekick II. This discount does not apply towards ringtones though. Thanks to one of our readers for forwarding the full email:

On Thu, 14 Sep 2006 3:06, SunCom Wireless wrote:
>
> Be the first to get your hiptop3 so you can listen to music, surf the
> Web faster, take better photos, use Bluetooth headsets to make calls,
> and just look cooler with a brand new phone! The hiptop3 will be
> available from SunCom Wireless online at www.suncom.com and in stores
> on September 18, 2006 – just FIVE DAYS away!
>
> The hiptop3 is only $299.99 with a 2-year extension to your contract;
> or, you can get it for just $349.99 with a 1-year contract extension
> or $399.99 without an extension to your contract. Your SunCom
> Wireless Sales Associate can help determine your eligibility.
>
> And there’s more good news. You get a discount on the games and
> applications that you currently own on your hiptop2. The Catalog
> content you will see on your hiptop3 was updated to be compatible with
> the new device. So when you upgrade, you will need to purchase any
> content you wish to have on your hiptop3. But if you already have
> hiptop2 content, you’ll enjoy discounts* of 33% to 50% when you
> download hiptop3 games and applications that you currently own.
>
> Now, go on… hook up and get hip!
>
> -SunCom Wireless
> —————————-
> * Discounted pricing excludes ringtones. All prices and dates are
> subject to change.
>
> hiptop is a registered trademark of Danger, Inc. Bluetooth is a
> registered trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc.
>
> If you have any questions about our privacy policy, please visit
> https://www.suncom.com/privacy.shtml