What’s a Sidekick launch without official parties?  Of course T-Mobile isn’t going to give up the opportunity to throw a party, so they’re having launch parties for the new Sidekick LX 2009 tonight!  Rumor has it that there will be simultaneous parties in several cities across the country tonight: San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston and Baltimore are on the list.

I’ll personally be hitting up the San Francisco party tonight, listening to tunes spun by DJ Jazzy Jeff and DJ Morse Code.  And of course I’ll be twittering it live with my shiny new LX 2009 Carbon.  You can follow the official hiptop3.com Twitter account at @hiptop3, or my personal account: @edrabbit.  We may even give some live video a shot and upload it to YouTube.

The Sidekick LX 2009 has hit the streets and a lot of people are already looking to customize their devices. While themes for old devices from sites like sklxthemes.com or sk08themes.com kind of work, there are some changes plus a higher resolution screen to take advantage of!

So a new site has launched dedicated to free Sidekick LX 2009 themes: sklx09themes.com. Head over there to grab some free themes for your Sidekick LX 2009 or use the Theme Generator to create your own theme from your own images. For those of you that are experienced theme creators there’s also info on the new theme elements.

It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here. The Sidekick LX 2009 is available to everyone through T-Mobile. For those of you living under a rock, it’s the first 3G Sidekick, with a beautiful new high res screen, great new 3.2MP camera, new social networking apps, and GPS + maps. You can pick up your Sidekick LX 2009 Orchid or Carbon from T-Mobile now!

Want to take a peek at Danger’s official Sidekick LX 2009 manual?

A lot of people are wondering what the new camera can do on the LX 2009, well here are the shots from exiva’s flickr stream.

Sidekick LX (2007 Model)

Sidekick LX (2009 Model) in Macro mode

…enough said.

According to this recent CNET Review, the Sidekick LX 2009 will have Custom Shells after all (available in the summer).  Also Custom “Laser etching” will be available:

“The smartphone is available in two colors: carbon or orchid. However, if you’re not a fan of the colors, you will be able to create custom shells for the Sidekick LX, much like the T-Mobile Sidekick 2008, and T-Mobile’s even added the option of laser etching the case. Custom shells will be available starting this summer. “

Apparently T-Mobile is causing a bit of a stir with their Sidekick LX 2009 launch. First there is the business of all these pre-orders on “back order” status in the system. Then there’s a small group of people who got their device super early. There are also some concerns that devices won’t arrived by the advertised May 12th date, but we’ve been reassured that they will. There was also some grumblings about how the device was being advertised everywhere as carrying a $199 price tag when in truth it was $400+ for some people. At least this last concern seems to be resolved in a kind of sneaky sort of way with a price drop on the Sidekick.

For those that pre-ordered and didn’t have the option to upgrade their device, they were forced to pay over $400 for the new Sidekick. Those that were eligible for the upgrade paid $250 (and will get a $50 rebate). Now the Sidekick LX 2009 is available for $250 if you sign a 2 year contract, even if you aren’t eligible for an upgrade. The kicker is that T-Mobile is not going to change your old order for you. You’re going to have to call up and request to cancel your order and then place a new order if you want to take advantage of the $200 price drop. We’re hearing from a lot of people who have done this without significant problems. Unfortunately this means that you probably won’t get the device early, but for most of us $200 is probably more important than a few days.

Wondering what the default themes that come with the Sidekick LX 2009 look like? Wonder no more:

Don’t like the themes? Well there’s always the catalog or you can get them free over at sklx09themes.com when it launches.

Wonder how the new Sidekick LX 2009 stacks up to the old Sidekick LX or Sidekick Slide you’ve been carrying around? Here are some shots from exiva:

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Over the past few months most of our Sidekick LX 2009 questions have been answered in one way or another. But now that the device is here and actually in the hands of people it’s time to fill in the holes of the questions that haven’t been answered. Exiva was one of the lucky ones who got his Sidekick LX 2009 early. Because he’s awesome, he has agreed to answer whatever questions you have about the device.  This is your chance to ask someone who is actually holding the new Sidekick in their hands.  Here we go!

How does the keyboard feel?
-It’s a harder rubber than the LX. Same style, feels nice. There’s definitely a difference though.

How does the OS look/perform?
-It looks gorgeous on the new LCD (everything does though.) It performs really well. I haven’t noticed any slowdowns yet.

How does it compare to other sidekicks in all areas?
-It’s much lighter than the LX was, It feels more sturdy than the 08 in the few times I played with it. I haven’t tested battery life yet, so I can’t comment on that. The speaker is significantly louder than the LX’s, which is nice.

If you had ringtones on a previous sidekick, were they transferred over?
-Not sure, I never bought any ringtones.

Can we use sounds as ringtones saved from emails?
-Yes, as long as they are 100kb or less. So to get any length in the mp3 the quality will be pretty crummy. You can record on the device up to 20seconds.
Click through for more questions…