It’s official, T-Mobile issued a press release regarding the end of the Danger Sidekick service as we know it. The servers will go down on May 31st.

Statement: Danger Service for T-Mobile Sidekick

Bellevue, Wash. — Feb. 28, 2011 PST

After May 31, 2011, the Danger Service (a subsidiary of Microsoft) used by T-Mobile Sidekick customers for data services will no longer be available on Sidekick devices.

T-Mobile will provide offers for our Sidekick customers before May 31, 2011, to help make an easy transition from their existing Sidekick device to a new device. We will have more information to share about these offers with our customers in the weeks ahead.

To ensure the best possible transition for our loyal Sidekick customers, an enhanced Web tool is available on myT-Mobile.com to easily export their personal data, including contacts, photos, calendar, notes, to-do lists, and bookmarks, from the Danger service to a new device, computer, or a designated e-mail account. An application is also available in the Sidekick Catalog to make it easy to export personal data to the Sidekick’s memory card. Many T-Mobile stores can transfer data from that card to a new T-Mobile device if the customer brings in the memory card and Sidekick.

I can’t help but be a little sad. We all knew this day was coming, but now we know when. Enjoy the last few months, and here’s hoping the Sidekick 4G can live up to the expectations that the previous Sidekicks set.

Have you ever dropped your Sidekick? Chances are your answer is “yes” as you gaze sadly at the scratch on your screen. I know, I did it just the other week and now I have a big ding in my Sidekick LX‘s screen. I’ve been hearing my friends talk about the InvisibleSHIELD screen protectors for awhile, but didn’t get one myself until recently. I’m pretty impressed with them. They brag that they’re “military grade protection” and I don’t doubt it. Apparently this stuff was designed for use on helicopter blades or something. Pretty crazy. Anyways, just wanted to let you guys know that these things are pretty cheap and totally worth every penny. If you ever want to resell your Sidekick to get the latest version, you’ll get a lot more $$$ if it’s scratch free. Unfortunately they don’t have screen protectors for the Sidekick 2008 yet, but we’ll let you know when they come in. If you’ve got a Sidekick II, 3, LX, Slide, or iD you’re in luck now though. Check them out:

invisibleSHIELD for the T-Mobile Sidekick 3 (Front)

invisibleSHIELD for the T-Mobile Sidekick 3 (Screen)

invisibleSHIELD for the T-Mobile Sidekick II (Screen)

invisibleSHIELD for the T-Mobile Sidekick iD (Full Body)

invisibleSHIELD for the T-Mobile Sidekick iD (Screen)


invisibleSHIELD for the T-Mobile Sidekick LX (Screen)

invisibleSHIELD for the T-Mobile Sidekick Slide (Full Body)

invisibleSHIELD for the T-Mobile Sidekick Slide (Screen)

Think you’ve got the most damaged Sidekick? Are you still using it? We want to see. Post a link to a photo in the comments or email them in to admin [at] hiptop3.com.

We’ve gotten quite a bit of emails asking us “When will I get my OTA?” Honestly, there’s no concrete answer. The OTA process is entirely randomized.

Danger rolls out OTAs in 2 parts, Part 1 is commonly referred to the “Pioneer” phase. (Which is what the OTA is in) What that means is Danger and T-Mobile randomly select a random mashing of users and send them the OTA. They then see how the OTA goes (If there’s any major issues, bricking devices, etc.) If all goes well in the Pioneer phase and noone is killed in the process of the Pioneer phase, then Phase 2 is started and the OTA moves into full roll out mode. Full roll out mode is again randomized, but the rest of the users who were not in the Pioneer group are selected at random for the OTA.

It could take upwards of weeks for everyone to get the OTA. There is NOTHING you can do to make the OTA come faster. (Aside from slipping into a coma for a few weeks) You will get the OTA. Everyone has to get it. Danger won’t forget about you and not send it to you, we promise.

We’ve got more screenshots for you to enjoy of the 4.6 OTA.

Updated with Quick Find screenshots

Brightness and Sound Profile settings are now grouped together

We’ve seen those before.

As you can see here, the browser introduced a new “Full-Size Layout” option

Hiptop3.com viewed in the Full-Size Layout mode

sklxthemes.com viewed in Full Size Layout mode

Globally empty trash menu item, and Quick Find menu items

Quick Find search window

Quick Find results

*new*

Spellcheck Settings

New!

Spell Check in EMail

New!

Spell Check in AIM
More screenshots coming soon.

Here’s a preview of the Sidekick LX Video Recording quality, as you can see it’s postage stamp sized (176×144 px) and the quality isn’t even close to fantastic. We’ve opted not to embed a youtube video as it looks even worse when they Compress and stretch it out, but we’ve posted a Quicktime player of the raw video right off the LX. thanks to Doeboynmek over at the Powered By Danger forums for the video sample.

You’ll need Quicktime to view the embedded video.

Just for kicks, let’s double the size of the video to (352x288px)

You’ll need Quicktime to view the embedded video.
Doesn’t look great, but you can still make out everything in the video, and at least it’s not postage stamp sized video.

As you can see, there’s nothing to get overly excited about but we guess it’s better than nothing at this point.

We’ve been sitting on these videos since they were posted to youtube, but we didn’t want to post them since the quality is pretty bad, and not many of the new features were shown off. But we’ve been getting tons of email about it, so enjoy what you can… I guess. Now stop emailing us about them. We will create our own high quality HD videos as soon as we have the OTA, and properly show off the new features.

The NEW sidekick LX video OTA update – ibarrr

Video Preview – ibarrr

Thanks to everyone who sent these in. (Now stop emailing us about them. Really!)

These are images from the 4.6 Manual we posted Here We pulled them out and mirrored them, so you don’t have to scrounge through the manual for them.

New AIM splash screen, updated to reflect AOL dropping the “Running Man” logo

Updated Camera application splash, Now showing Space Remaining and Video logo.

Camera Application recording a video. Note the 176×144 resolution.

Camera application icons and mode guide

Camera Settings

Boy Genius report is now reporting that the Sidekick LX OTA could start rolling out as soon as this week! See our previous post Here covering the 4.6 release notes. Keep in mind that the OTAs are sent out in groups. It might take a few weeks for everyone to get their Update, but everyone WILL get the update. Just have patience.

via Boy Genius Report

T-Mobile/Danger sure are jumping the gun today. They’ve posted the official release notes and we’re going to Mirror the changed here for you just incase they pull it.

Jump Menu & Settings Features
-Backgrounds menu renamed to “Themes”
-Quick Find item searches across device apps
-Empty Trash across device apps
-Spell Check
-Alarm Clock

Web Browser Features
-View Web pages in two layouts: fit-to-screen and full-page-width
-View and save images on Web pages
-Copy selected text on Web pages (method change)

Instant Messaging Features
AOL Instant Messenger
-Group chats
-Find a buddy
-Set a status message and still chat (We think this means an Available message.)
Yahoo! Messenger
-Find a friend
Windows Live Messenger
-Find a contact

Email
-See if message recipient is online
-Send/receive video attachment

Phone Messaging Features
Multimedia Messaging
-Number of slides increased to five
-Send/receive videos
-Audio recording time increased to 60 seconds
Text Messaging
-Auto-discard messages when mailbox is full
-Multi-select messages

Address Book
-Assign 50 “favorite” contacts that appear in their own tab
-Activity Log for each favorite contact
-Online Now tab shows all contacts who are online
-In Browse Contacts screen, Send key places call to highlighted contact
-Send vCard via MMS (in addition to Email, SMS, and Bluetooth)
-Select multiple contacts in Browse Contacts screen.

Bluetooth
-Transfer photos, videos, music files
-Listen to music/videos with hands-free stereo devices
Printing is subsequently missing from this list, but IS in the 4.6 Manual for the LX.

To Do
-New task priority icons

Camera
-Record and send video
-Selection method change
-Crop a photo
-Manually control slide show
-Space remaining shown in title bar
-Send photos/videos via Bluetooth

Media Player
-Play videos

Catalog
-Installing an application or game does not require a device restart
-More space for ringtones (Ringtones are now allocated 2560K rather than 10 slots. Since ringtones are around 100K each, you have room to store approximately 25 ringtones.)
-Assign a default theme/background or ringtone at purchase time

Over the Air Update Notes
4.6 Manual

Thanks to everyone who sent this information in!

Someone at Danger has put up the Sidekick Gekko manual a little early for our Viewing pleasure. We have not had a chance to review this manual yet, but we will keep this post updated with anything that catches our eye about the Gekko and the Upcoming OTA for the LX (It’s pretty safe to assume they will have a similar (If not the same) OS.)

Sidekick Gekko Manual Manual has since been taken down.

Ok, so at a quick Inspection of the manual, Here’s what we’ve noticed.
(We assume everything mentioned here except where noted will apply to the Sidekick LX OTA as well.)

View Sender’s Online Status
If the sender of an email is one of your “friends” and is online in one of the instant messaging applications, the sender’s name will appear in bold green font and you will see an instant messaging smiley in the From field:

Videos can be transferred via Email (Upto 2mb) as well as MMS and Bluetooth.

Group Chat in AIM moves out of a Menu + Shift hidden shortcut and into an official feature.

Find Text Messages
You can open the Quick Find dialog box by pressing MENU F. Search for a text message by From, Date, and message body fields.
*This feature works everywhere, not just Text Messages.

Photos can be cropped on device.

Gekko will capture images at 1600×1200, 1280×1024, 640×480, or 320×240.

All videos are captured at 176×144 (We assume this applies to the Sidekick LX as well.)

Media files (Music and Videos) are transferrable via Bluetooth between your computer and between 2 hiptops (Kind of like Zune sharing, but no restrictions.)

Auto-Discard Messages When Mailbox Is Full
With this option selected, once your mailbox is full, the system will automatically make room for new messages by permanently discarding old messages, starting with messages in the Trash, then oldest messages in the Inbox and Sent folders. Messages in the Drafts folder and on the SIM card are never auto-discarded.
This is in the Text Message application – Thanks to Theicool for pointing it out.

Alarm
You can set a basic alarm from the Alarm group box, one that repeats daily at a set time. If you want the alarm volume to be different from the sound profile setting, then select the Override Sound Profile check box and select the Alarm Volume button to make adjustments.
When the alarm sounds, a dialog box will appear, giving you the choice to snooze the alarm for 10 minutes, stop the alarm (it will sound again tomorrow), or stop and turn it off (it won’t sound tomorrow).
Note: The alarm will continue repeating every day at the set time until you explicitly turn it off from this Date, Time, & Alarm settings screen or from the Alarm dialog box.
Thanks to legacy for pointing this out

That’s all we noticed that wasn’t discussed in the new features of the OTA and the Gekko, and some things we went into more detail about. If you happen to notice anything we missed, please let us know via the comments section!