Defamer Australia is having a Hiptop 3 contest giveaway. Not only will one lucky Australian win a Hiptop 3, but Defamer will also send them and a friend to the release party down there on May 22nd. In order to enter the contest, Defamer is asking you to:

Entertain us by adopting the persona of either Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan – both girls being somewhat “in the poo” at the moment – and tell us in twenty-five words or less what you think would be contained in a message sent from one to the other.

This ought to make for some interesting entries! If you’re in Australia, head over and enter. Sorry yanks, this one isn’t for you.

Thanks for the heads-up Chris!

A 12-year old Bronx honor student was caught in the crossfire when a gunfight erupted over allegations that someone had stolen a Sidekick. The gunmen is still at large and police are hunting him down. If anyone has any info, call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. Photos and full story at NY Daily News.

Normally we wouldn’t post something like this, but we wanted to make a point. It’s just a phone. A couple hundred dollars. It does not even remotely compare to the value of a human life. If your Sidekick gets stolen, either turn to the internet or just buy a new one. We’re not sure if there is any sort of fund to help with the girl’s medical care, but we’re looking into it, and we’ll let you know. A couple bucks from each person in the Hiptop community can probably help out a lot.

According to the press release, it sounds like Telstra has launched the Hiptop 3 (you know, what T-Mobile calls the “Sidekick 3”) in Australia. It’s not on their site yet, but we imagine it will be soon. No word on pricing for our friends in Australia yet.

Greg Andrews, the director of marketing at T-Mobile has a few press blurbs via video snippets on why the Sidekick iD is going to be a great device. Apparently it’s all about individuality and customization. Personally, we’re still curious to see if there will be any way to load themes without an SD card or if you’ll be limited to the catalog.

Videos:
The iD stands for individuality:
The Youth Market:
Sidekick iD Customization:
Sidekick iD Release Date:

Our favorite Sidekick theme site has somehow uncovered a hidden feature on the Sidekick themes, video themes. They’ve posted a few video themes already. Basically they act like normal themes, changing backgrounds, bubbles, and icons, but instead of playing a sound when you flip open the screen, it plays a video in the background. There are only a couple up right now, but they’re very cool to see in action.
Hope you had a HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY!

Looks like someone might be in some hot water over at UT Starcom after a banner was put up by their booth with a larger than life Sidekick iD. Of course the device hasn’t been officially launched yet, and T-Mobile probably wasn’t happy that someone was jumping the gun on their marketing. I can just imagine the conversation at the UT Starcom booth:

“Why is this banner up? This isn’t supposed to be up yet, it’s not official!”
“Oh @!#$ Should we take it down?”
“No, that would be too obvious that we’re trying to hide something. Let’s just spraypaint over the ‘iD’ parts”
“Brilliant!”

Yes, with a can of black spray paint they covered up the ‘iD’ name and the buttons, leaving the familiar screen and keyboard. This led the boys over at Gizmodo to speculate that the keyboard and the screen will be the same. Keyboard, yes. Screen, no. They’re going with a lower quality screen to help keep costs down.

Thanks to Gizmodo for the photos and everyone who emailed this one in.

The first “doll” with his own Sidekick – of course coming from Mister Cartoon
Pass Da Chutney Or, OMFG this POS!! – A funny article about the frustrations one user has with his Sidekick II
GPhone Kinda, Sorta Confirmed by Google Spain, But Not Really – Should we start tossing the “sidekick-killer” term around yet?
Driving While Texting May Be Illegal in Oregon, Washington – Gizmodo wins best article picture of the year. Hiptop3 shamelessly steals it.

The men who police said raided a Queens home on Wednesday came armed with pistols, but they didn’t count on facing a quick-thinking 12-year-old and her new cell phone.

“I dialed 911 but I hit the ‘check’ button instead of ‘call,’ said Katie Ruiz, describing the nervous call she made on her week-old Sidekick 3, which foiled the violent home invasion. “I had to redial it.”

via AM NY

The Sidekick Wiki is running a sweepstakes where one lucky winner will get a brand new, sparkling white, D-Wade Sidekick 3. It has to be one of the simplest contests out there. Just sign up for the wiki, upload a picture, and post a comment letting them know what your current ringtone is. If you’re the winner, they’ll hook you up with the $399 D-Wade Sidekick 3 (service not included).

This sweepstakes begins at 12:00:01 a.m., Pacific Time (“PT”), on Wednesday, February 28, 2007, and ends at 11:59:59 p.m. PT on Saturday, March 10, 2007. The contest page with more details can be found here.

On second thought, entering this contest is a bad idea. The less people that enter the better the chance for us to win!

It looks like all this D-Wade hype isn’t stopping any time soon. This just in from an anonymous source, there’s a launch party happening for the D-Wade Sidekick 3. The date, February 17th. The place, maybe someone with better eyes can find out from the pictures. The cool part? The invitation is a 6×8″ card with a basketball like texture.