Looks like Danger/T-Mobile have pulled the famous MySpace app from their catalog. Is this perhaps so they can fix the buggy application that has everyone using the browser still? There have been numerous posts on poweredbydanger.com with people complaining about the poor performance and bugs as well as necessary workarounds to fix conflicts with themes downloaded from sk3themes.com, sklxthemes.com, and skslidethemes.com. Up until the app was pulled, you were able to download and install it for free and continue using it until the end of December. After that you would be charged a recurring monthly fee of $1.99. Did Danger/TMobile just treat this freebie as a beta test for an app that wasn’t quite ready for the market but needed to be pushed out in order to compete with the Helio Ocean on paper? Here’s hoping they squash the bugs and deliver a 100% app by the end of the month.

UPDATE: The MySpace App is back in the catalog. No idea why it disappeared briefly.

Two of the most loved applications by die-hard sidekickers have finally made it into the Sidekick LX catalog.
Weather Underground

Weather Underground is an application that gives you current weather conditions, radar images, and forecasts. Very handy for knowing whether or not you should grab that umbrella on the way out the door. The only downside to Weather Underground is that it is a recurring fee, i.e. you’ll be charged every month that you have it installed.
Terminal Client

Terminal Client (previously known as Terminal Monkey) seems to be an application that you either love and use constantly or you have no use for it. It’s basically a terminal client that allows you to connect via telnet or ssh to a server. This app combined with screen allows for all sorts of fun stuff. As an example, I use it to login to my server at home and turn my lights on and off. It’s also handy for people that want to chat on IRC. For those that have no idea what I’m talking about, chances are you don’t need Terminal and should save the $9.99.

thanks to silversidekick for pointing these out

Several Sidekick users have reported receiving an email such as this:

From: MAILER-DAEMON@tmail.com
To: user@tmail.com
Subject: [!] Account is over quota
Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2007 10:06:12 GMT

Your account is using 3555K of mail storage, this is close to its 12M storage quota.

Delete unnecessary messages, otherwise new messages may be delayed or rejected!

Obviously the email messages are wrong as the 3555 kilobytes is less than 12 megabytes, but it makes one wonder if a much needed increase in mailbox size may be on its way. Old school Sidekickers remember that the black and white Sidekicks (yes, they used to be black and white!) had a mailbox limit of 8 megabytes for the early adopters. Later on the size of the mailbox was dropped down to 6 megabytes for people that started up new accounts. With today’s pictures and emails getting larger and larger, and disk space getting ridiculously cheap you would think that T-Mobile and Danger would keep up with the times. To give some sort of idea of how ridiculous a 6 megabyte inbox is these days, the cost of a 500gb is approximately $100, this means that it costs $0.20 per gigabyte of storage. For the non computer geeks out there, 1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes (or 1000 megabytes if you’re a harddrive manufacturer). This puts the cost of a megabyte of storage at about $0.0002 per megabyte, or $0.0012 for your entire inbox on Danger’s server. Sure, flash based storage on the device is a bit more expensive, but who wants to store all that data on the Sidekick? T-Mobile and Danger should let us store the actual contents of older emails on the server, but still allow them to be retrievable via the network. Or maybe they should let us save the emails to the miniSD or microSD card where you can have 4 gigs of extra space? After all you can only send about 10-12 pictures taken by the Sidekick before your sent box takes up your entire mailbox. Wake up Danger/T-Mobile, its almost 2008.

Looks like T-Mobile has done the right thing and instead of continuing to sell defective Sidekick Slides, they’ve pulled them for the time being. No word yet on what they’ll do to remedy the problem in the long run, but they are offering free upgrades to the blue Sidekick LX for users that are reporting the Sidekick Slide resetting issue. Here is the official word from T-Mobile (via BGR):

“T-Mobile USA suspended sales of the T-Mobile Sidekick Slide™ on Friday evening, Nov. 16, after Motorola – the manufacturer of the device – confirmed that some devices may inadvertently power off when the slide door on the front side of the phone is opened or closed.

T-Mobile has taken this action to help ensure our customers only receive devices we’re confident will perform at their peak, so they can stay effortlessly connected to those who matter most.

Motorola is currently working to identify the root cause of the power cycle issue in affected Sidekick Slide devices. The T-Mobile Sidekick LX™ and Sidekick iD™ are not affected by this issue.

If a customer purchased a Sidekick Slide that is experiencing the unintended power cycle issue, they may contact T-Mobile Customer Care, or go to a T-Mobile retail store, for assistance and to discuss available options.”

We’ve heard from a number of people that this problem has existed for some time. Why T-Mobile would choose to ignore it until a week after release is anyone’s guess. Here’s hoping they’ll come up with a hardware fix and get these things back on the market soon.

We’ve heard a number of reports from various people and sites that there’s a pretty serious flaw with the Sidekick Slide. Those of you that have moved away from the familiar flip of the Sidekick devices may have noticed that this change comes with a problem. Your Slide turns off when you slide the screen. Word has it that this problem existed with the pre-production devices, and we wonder how in the world this was acceptable for production devices. But nevertheless, it appears that this issue isn’t just a few unlucky folks. The crew over at Engadget gave their Slide a test and said it happened 2 out of 30 or so slides. Any true Sidekick users knows that opening the screen 30 times in a day is nothing! BoyGeniusReport says that this is happening with 2 of their devices, and we’ve heard a number of reports from various users via email. To make matters worse, your data is wiped out when this happens. Luckily it’s all returned thanks to Danger’s servers, but if you don’t have coverage, you’re out of luck until you do.

The culprit appears to be a loose connection for the battery. We’ve heard reports of people using a small bit of folded paper or business cards as a shim to wedge the battery more securely in place to fix the problem. No official word from T-Mobile or Danger yet though. So if you’re Sidekick Slide is resetting when you slide the screen, give T-Mobile a call and let them know.

Still haven’t taken the plunge and bought one of the new Sidekicks? Still not sure which one is the right one for you? Silently cursing Danger for being so on top of things that they released two new devices at once? (It’s certainly cost us some sleep trying to keep up) Well BGR might be able to help. They’ve got a quick comparison of the Sidekick LX and the Sidekick Slide. If you want the nitty gritty details, check out the article.

Their ultimate conclusion:
“If you’re a hardcore Sidekick user you’ll want to grab the LX. The keyboard and screen alone make this a win. The Sidekick Slide isn’t really beneath the LX on the totem pole, so if you want an awesome phone, but love the Danger OS all in a small device, you will definitely want to pickup the Slide.”

We basically agree. If you’re a hardcore Sidekick user, the screen on the LX will blow you away, along with keeping all the good stuff of the Sidekick 3 but squeezing it into a sexier body. If you’re looking for something small that will fit in your pocket better and don’t send a bajillion emails/im/txts/etc a day, then the Slide is cheaper, smaller, and probably more your style.

via BGR
image source via Appletech

You probably saw this one coming from a mile away right? Yep, there’s a site for your free Sidekick Slide Themes, just like the sites for your Sidekick 3 Themes and your Sidekick LX Themes. The web design skills still suck, but while the site may not be the prettiest, it’s still the most free way to customize your Sidekick with backgrounds, wallpapers, and hinge sounds. And everyone’s favorite theme artist, prash, has already dropped some themes so you can be ready to customize your Slide when it arrives.

www.skslidethemes.com

It’s official.. The Sidekick Slide has landed for T-Mobile customers. If you were passing on the Sidekick LX because you wanted a smaller device, then now is your chance! Check it out on the official T-Mobile page.

It’s going to cost you $329.99 without a contract, or $249.99 with a contract, which is a bit more than we were all expecting. Heck, it’s even more than what T-Mobile said it would cost. At least people are reporting that T-Mo is tossing in the free Express Shipping for the $30-50 increase in price.

Want to check out the Sidekick Slide Reviews while you wait on hold?

Let us know how your ordering experience went in the comments!

They’ve put together a video showing the way that the screens open on the newer devices. Don’t you guys have some reporting on the iPhone to do? 🙂

Video on Gizmodo.com

Just kidding, we love you guys.

Looks like T-Mobile isn’t the only one pushing the Slide this month. Telstra has a fancy Flash page up advertising the availability of the Hiptop Slide. Sam says the retail stores were telling him November 5th! Check out Telstra’s page for more info!

Update: We’ve been told the Hiptop Slide actually was available at the beginning of November, so go get yours now!