No, this isn’t some new fancy device that’s going to kill the Sidekick. It’s a corrupted 3gp video file that has the potential to hard reset a Sidekick with very little user interaction that’s out in the wild. That’s right, hard reset, as in wipe out all of your data and force you to redownload it from Danger’s servers. Luckily with the way the Sidekick is designed you won’t lose anything, but it’s still an annoyance to have to wait for all your email, settings, etc to download. It’s also a really nasty trick to play on someone you don’t like.

This was first posted in the PBD forums under a thread titled “Virus In Email?! Important!! Read!!”. I know, my first thought too was, “yeah right, Sidekicks don’t get viruses”. Technically this isn’t a virus, and it isn’t even malicious in intent. It looks like it’s just a bug with the way the email application handles a corrupted video. Needless to say though, it is a serious bug that Danger will hopefully fix in an OTA quickly. This currently affects the new Sidekick 2008, as well as Sidekick LXs with the video OTA.

Want to protect yourself from this sort of crash? In your Email, go under Menu->Settings->Attachments->Remove Attachments of these types, and check “Multimedia”. This will remove any movie files that are attached to emails sent to you, including this nasty one.

Want a Limited Edition Sidekick LX? If you’re Soulja Boy it’s as easy as this:
Step 1: Get a Sidekick LX
Step 2: Show off your big LCD TVs so everyone thinks you’re cool enough to get Limited Edition stuff
Step 3: Get your Sidekick repainted by Colorware or snag a new Lens Frame.
Step 4: Jump on sklxthemes.com and grab the Sidekick LX XBOX 360 Theme
Step 5: Go into the Catalog and download Resident Evil for $6.99
Step 6: Make a video about how you’re the only one who has this and post it to the internets!

Nice try Soulja Boy, we’re on to you. A Soulja Boy Limited Edition Sidekick LX would have been better. Maybe you should stop trying to punk people and start working on your music so you don’t stay a 1-hit wonder. Hopefully you realize how much easier (and more convincing) this would have been with a Sidekick 2008 and a custom made XBOX 360 shell.

If you follow the above steps, please let us know which “Limited Edition” you’re faking and where the video is. If you want to see Soulja Boy’s video, check it out here or below:

Via GamerTagRadio – Bury it on Digg

T-Mobile is continuing their 3G network rollout. With rumors of an Android device coming this fall, it only makes sense to have the high speed network deployed in major urban areas before the device launches. This also means that the doors are more open for Danger/Microsoft to put out a 3G Sidekick. Want to know when your city will be enjoying 3G speeds? Here’s the list of rumored dates for when the network will go live in each city:

Baltimore – Aug 18th
Houston – Aug 19th
Minneapolis – Aug 20th
San Diego – Sept 15th
Los Angeles – Sept 16th
Phoenix – Sept 16th
Sacramento – Sept 17th
Portland – Sept 18th
Seattle – Sept 23rd
San Francisco – Sept 24th

Don’t see your city? Don’t worry, there are other cities that are slated for 3G by the end of 2008:
Atlanta
Birmingham
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
Kansas City
Memphis
Miami
New England
Orlando
Philadelphia
Tampa
Washington, D.C.

via

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

Looks like Motorola had one shot at making hardware for Danger and they blew it with the Sidekick Slide. A device plagued with a simple, but glaring power flaw is being laid to rest. Rumors are circulating that the Sidekick Slide is no longer being manufactured and that once it’s sold out at T-Mobile stores (looks like it’s already pulled from online), you’ll have to end up looking for people selling the Slide on eBay if you want this small device. Don’t get us wrong, there were some nice things about the Sidekick Slide, and many people out there love it, but in the end it looks like T-Mobile decided that it wasn’t selling as well as they hoped. We’ll agree that this is probably a good decisions, since it would be pretty hard to compete with the other Sidekicks lately as it won’t be getting a video update and only comes in two colors.

via EngadgetMobile

Ever since Microsoft bought Danger we’ve been waiting for the announcement of a mobile device from Microsoft. There have been rumors left and right about a ZunePhone, which would compete directly with Apple’s highly successful iPhone. Add another rumor to the mill, this time it’s from an anonymous source (via jkOnTheRun) that says there was a meeting in Redmond (Microsoft’s headquarters) to help flesh out the details on a Zune phone. According to this source, the Zune phone will be a specialized version of Windows Mobile 7 and will utilize the Windows Live Services. It will also feature a multi-touch touch screen.

If all of this is true, then this could spell bad news for Danger. Basically it’s everything the Sidekick is not. No awesome operating system, no excellent back-end service, and a touch screen instead of a keyboard. We hope that these new rumors about the “ZunePhone” are false, or at least that this isn’t the only phone that Microsoft is thinking about.

image via

It seems to happen with almost every device. A magazine puts out a short article and includes a new not yet released Sidekick. This time it’s the Sidekick 2008/Gekko in Nylon magazine. The article says: “$149 with two year contract, t-mobile sidekick”. The full spread and a close-up on the text:

via PBD forums (thanks to everyone who sent this in)

Our friends over at TmoNews are reporting that T-Mobile will be slashing prices on their Motorola phones (including the Sidekick Slide) on July 30th. This is only for new individual or family plans with a 2 year contract, so all you current Sidekick owners are probably out of luck and are better off going the eBay route. The full list of eligible phones:
* Motorola Sidekick Slide
* Motorola Rokr e8
* Motorola Razr V3
* Motorola Razr2 V8
* Motorola W490

via TmoNews

What if a PSP got together with a Sidekick? Well, design student Samuel Lau thinks they’d go together perfectly. He’s come up with a design for a PSP with a screen similar to the Sidekick Slide, and a keyboard hidden underneath.

Some words from the designer, Samuel:
-Hope to have 50,000 views and 1000 comments.
-Then i will send this video directly to Sony for consideration.
-Once i reach the target, i will make another official proposal video to Sony.
-I am also raising fund for my education which cost about C$50,000. Hope if Sony like my idea and uses it, they pay half of my education fee.
-Hope i can see the real thing before Christmas 2009 (Fingers cross)!
-So be fast, spread the words!
-Last of all: YOU can make it happen!!!

Here’s his video for Sony to take a look at:

via yanko

Before you get all excited, chances are this is just someone with Photoshop that got told “Hey, I need a phone that looks like it has GPS on it” by their boss, so they whipped something up. But we can’t help wonder why the model in the photo accompanying this article is holding the Sidekick 3 so oddly. Then again she is in a mall, and why would you need GPS (let alone being to get a signal) when you’re looking for a new pair of shoes? Regardless, there have been bits and pieces about GPS getting incorporated into a future Sidekick in some way for awhile. Remember that old job posting? From a technical standpoint it would probably be possible to interface a Sidekick with a Bluetooth GPS as it stands now, it would just be a matter of getting a mapping solution on the Sidekick that’s powerful enough. Maybe with Apple’s new iPhone 3G, Danger Microsoft will have some motivation to upgrade some of the hardware capabilities of the Sidekick to keep up with the location-aware mobile computing that is bound to happen in the very near future.