Master P and his son, Romeo, are reportedly on board with T-Mobile to help promote the new Sidekick LX. The angle of the campaign? To show that the Sidekick continues to be one of the most popular devices in the “urban communities”. Not only are they praising the device, they’ve also created a song about the Sidekick (entitled “Sidekick” of course) for inclusion in their next album, “Hip-Hop History”. The album is due out Sept 4th. No word on an official release on the Sidekick LX, but it would make sense from a marketing standpoint to promote both the album and the device around the same time. Our guess? Late September, early October.

via MemphisRap

In addition to free Sidekick 3 themes, T-Mobile has finally included themes in the Download Catalog. This means that you can download a theme direct to your device if you’re willing to shell out $1.99 for the convenience. This also lets Sidekick iD owners customize their devices finally. Sidekick iDs don’t have a memory card, so you can’t load your own custom themes and backgrounds on them like you can with the Sidekick 3. To download themes direct from T-Mobile, check out the Download Catalog. For more information on creating your own custom themes, check out sk3themes.com.

Thanks to Fully for the screenshots

The Danger Shuriken (aka the Sidekick LX) has shown up on the FCC’s site. Some interesting things we sifted out of the filing:

– The model number is PV250 (FCC ID: APYNAR0063). The Sidekick 2 was PV100, the Sidekick ID was PV150, and the Sidekick 3 was PV200. It worries us a little bit that this may not be that big of a jump in version or maybe we’re just speculating too much based on version numbers.
– The “engineering prototype” was received for testing on May 26th, 2007. This means that a working sample of the Shuriken has been around for close to 3 months!
– This prototype is “equivalent to mass-produced items” so basically that means the hardware is done as far as design.
– It’s GSM/EGPRS (EDGE), so no 3G for us yet.
– Battery is a Li-Ion 3.7Vdc 1540mAh, a small bump up from the Sidekick 3’s battery. Hopefully there has been some redesign and tweaking to help get the battery life increased since this device will have a bigger and better screen
– The short term confidentiality ends on September 16th, 2007, but Sharp has preemptively filed for a 45 day extension until October 31, 2007. So no external photos from the FCC until after the Halloween Hunt unless the FCC slips on Sept. 16th. For what it’s worth, the Sidekick ID docs hit the FCC in January, and the device was released in April. The Sidekick 3 docs hit the fcc in April, and the device was released in June. Let the speculation begin. We’re guessing October.

The above screenshot was posted to our forums. Is this an actual screenshot from the Hiptop/Sidekick LX aka the Hiptop 4 aka the Shuriken? It is 400×208 pixels, which matches the dimensions rumored for the new Hiptop. If it is legit, it’s surely an internal OS screenshot since it’s branded Hiptop instead of Sidekick. Then again this could just be someone with too much time and photoshop skills on their hands.

Consider it confirmed by Danger’s servers. The Sidekick LX (Sidekick 4) manual placeholder can be found here. Looks like it’s going to be running Danger OS v4.4, a step up from the Sidekick Slide’s version 4.0.

A hiptop.com forum user got the same idea as we did for the Sidekick Slide and checked for the user manual placeholder on Danger’s site for the Sidekick Shuriken, aka the Sidekick 4, aka the Sidekick LX. They didn’t find anything as conclusive as a placeholder, but they did get an access forbidden error, indicating that the folder exists, but is restricted. Why would Danger have a folder on their server named Shuriken if it didn’t exist?

The Shuriken folder
Error if a folder doesn’t exist

via hiptop.com forums

We got a tip from a reader about the Sidekick 4. It’s named the Sidekick Shuriken and measures 130 x 61 x 17.9mm (a smidge longer than the Sidekick 3, but thinner), with a 3 inch widescreen LCD (bigger than previous devices), a 1.3mp camera, and uses MicroSD. Unlike the Sidekick Slide, it will be produced by Sharp, like the older devices. We’re guessing the “Shuriken” is an internal name for the Hiptop device, and that this is probably what will end up being the Sidekick LX.

Rumor has it that it will be available first in the US, and then in Australia. Based on the screen cap of a leaked excel spreadsheet, it looks like it’s also geared towards a release in Germany and possibly the UK, which is expected. No word on pricing yet though. We’ll let you know as soon as we find out more. What do you guys think? Sticking with a Sidekick 3? Going for a smaller Sidekick Slide? Or drooling over a large screen Sidekick 4?