The time is almost upon us. We hear you can start upgrading at midnight Eastern time. The link to upgrade is HERE! Go get em! And for those of you camping out at the two stores in NY and LA, don’t forget to tell us how it all went down.

TMobile has also put up the official phone page for the Sidekick 3 here. I’m a little confused that they mention NYC Peach doing crystals, as I’ve heard that it was supposed to be Crystal Icing for the Sk3. There is also no mention of MMS on the page. 🙁

Speaking of TMobile, rumor has it that TMobile stores actually have demo units in the stores. So if you want to go check it out a few days early, go talk to your local TMobile rep.

We’re running around drinking in San Francisco and heard this. We had to put down the Guinness and post it as soon as we could. So coming from the Sidekick 2 via copy and paste:

Sidekick 3 On Sale Next Week
Yesterday, 11:00 PM source: T-Mobile
T-Mobile today officially announced the Sidekick 3. The latest version is what was shown in FCC filings. New features include EDGE data, Bluetooth, a 1.3 Megapixel camera, music player and Mini SD card slot. Current T-Mobile subscribers will be able to purchase the Sidekick 3 via the web or in two select stores starting June 28. It will be available to the general public July 10. The handset will cost $300 with a 2 year contract, $350 with a 1 year contract, and $400 for prepaid subscribers.

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

As much as everyone is excited about the FCC docs finally breaking out, don’t bother asking TMobile about the Sidekick 3. TMobile employees received the following memo via TMobileNews.com:

>T-Mobile frequently receives inquiries from customers interested in information about new handsets and data devices. Due to the popularity of the Sidekick, customers frequently ask about new versions of the device.
>Action steps
>Please use the following steps when addressing customer inquiries about new Sidekick products.
>Tell customers that we have no information on a new version of the Sidekick at this time.
>Do not speculate to customers about the availability of a new T-Mobile Sidekick product.
>Direct customers to www.sidekick.com, which is updated when there is new information available about Sidekick products.
>

Like we’ve always said, the Sidekick 3 doesn’t exist, it’s just an overhyped cat remote.

We received this in an email from a new source, who states they are a corporate employee. Not sure how legit it is (if at all), so of course take it with a grain of salt. We’ll let everyone pick it apart in the comments like they usually do. We really, really hope that the 1 MB miniSD card is a typo. From what we’ve heard it sounds like the Sidekick 3 will ship with a miniSD card included in the kit, but not sure what size. Seems like a 1MB card wouldn’t be worth the material to even make.
Some comments from the email explaining the memo:

youll notice the markings on it by a permanat marker. its marking out june to july because it was going to be released in june but just wasnt possible so there pushed it back to july, but these papers were already printed to give to people such as employees and buisness partners. he didnt feel like making so many copies again… plus it would of wasted alot of time, effot and money. i only got one but i managed to copy a few….. so zoom in and read all the new stuff it has. ENJOY!!

We received the following TMobile memo from a source that wishes to remain anonymous:

June Retail Handset Pricing, Compensation, Merchandising, and Incentive Updates
[Retail – T-Mobile Employees Only]
T-Mobile is pleased to distribute the June Retail Update, including June Retail pricing, compensation, merchandising, and incentive updates!
·

J.D. Power and Associates Coverage Message
· Channel: All
· Locations: Roughly Pacific, West, Midwest South, and Northeast – (Based on J.D. Powers and Associates regions: West, Southwest and Northeast)
· Set up Date: June 18
· Launch Date: June 19
· Collateral Arriving: from RR Donnelley
· Content: Insert, front window banner, coverage maps and cash wrap inserts, RMU Inserts (pieces received differ based on channel)
· Refer to the upcoming Merchandising guidelines for June 5 – July 24, which will be posted by June 1 on T-MobileNews under Marketing Collateral > Guidelines.

Sidekick 3
· Channel: Company-owned
· Locations: All
· Set up Date: July 9
· Launch Date: July 10
· Collateral arriving: from RR Donnelley and Hamilton
· Refer to the upcoming Merchandising guidelines for June 5 – July 24, which will be posted by June 1 on T-MobileNews under Marketing Collateral > Guidelines.

Ok, we threw it against the wall, and some of it stuck and some of it slid down the wall a little. The latest update from one of our sources says that June 20th will be the announcement and launch party of the Sidekick 3, aka when all the celebrities will get their picture taken with the new Sidekick. June 28th should be the beginning of the upgrade program, which we don’t have concrete details on yet, but we’re assuming it will be the same deal as the Sidekick II. Current owners will receive an email to their @tmail.com address, with a phone number to call and listen to the busy signal for hours, finally get through and place an order and exchange an older Sidekick in exchange for a rebate. The last time, they took any model, and several people traded in their old black and white sidekicks without any problem. As for in store releases, it’s looking like early July. This will obviously vary depending on TMobile locations, shipments, delays, etc.

At this point, we’re no longer calling this rumour, this comes from a reliable source that has an excellent track record with us. This is the information that was conveyed to them. At this point, any changes in date are probably a result of TMobile shifting things around.

Updated Dates
Ok, normally we don’t like posting up the release dates cause we’ve heard everything under the sun from November 2005 to Christmas 2006, but we’ve gotten quite a few reliable leads on this, so we’re throwing it against the wall and seeing if it sticks. We’ve heard that the launch party will be happening on June 20th, and then Sidekick 3s being available to the general public on June 26th. While we still haven’t heard anything about a trade-in program like TMobile did with the Sidekick 2, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it will happen. In that case, we wouldn’t be surprised to see an email go out to existing Sidekick owners sometime between the 20th and the 26th. Hopefully we won’t have another Black Monday this time, and current customers will receive their Sidekick 3s rapidly.

Some more reader submitted info:

Since I’ve been recieving AWESOME news from you guys. I figure it is time
for me to contribute. Venicom is a vendor that does promotions for certain members. Since I work for a large company, we get promos all the time. I tried to get the 8700g through them, but decided to stick with sk2 for a while–since blackberries are really trash (expensive services). Anyway. When I called, they of course said they were out of the sk2. The reason being is that within 4-6 weeks they expect to put the sk3 out. They are even taking pre-orders.
also they dont know the price yet….since t-mobile hasnt released that officially. They say it will be around 449.00-500.00 in their estimation. DANG. thats super expensive.
Hope that was relevant and groundbreaking. *wink*

We did some digging on Venicom, since we had not heard of them prior to this email. They run UShopWireless which does have some great deals on phones, including the Sidekick 2. We called them up and inquired about the pre-orders. Here’s what the rep we spoke with said:

They ARE taking pre-orders for the Sidekick 3
While they did not have an official release date, He said it’s coming out in the next 3-4 weeks, and this was confirmed with T-Mobile
Their price will be $200 after a $100 rebate. That’s $300 up front, and then a $100 rebate
He refused to give the MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price)
He refused to confirm the number of Sidekick 3s that they would be getting initially
When asked why they were taking preorders for a phone that wasn’t even officially announced, he replied that TMobile is about to start their marketing push.