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The T-Mobile Sidekick -- yep, just Sidekick
After all the buffoonery over what exactly T-Mobile intended to call its newest entry-level Danger device, they've ultimately decided to just go back to basics, drop the acronyms, and christen it simply "Sidekick." Make no mistake, though -- this little puppy is a far cry from your daddy's Hiptop launched way back in 2002, thanks to a 400 x 240 WQVGA display, 2 megapixel camera with video recording capability, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and a microSD slot. Though it's being billed as the iD's spiritual successor, the Sidekick comes dangerously close to LX territory, so it should see some solid movement at the $149.99 asking price on a two-year contract. What's more, the Sidekick becomes Danger's first device with user-customizable shells, available directly from sidekickshells.com for $14.99 a pop (we've got both a really bad and a really frickin' great feeling about the ridiculous sorts of designs people are going to be coming up with there). The whole shebang goes on sale starting today.We've spent just a little bit of time fiddling with a Sidekick this week, and in a nutshell, this thing is a killer upgrade for the iD crowd -- which just so happens to be exactly what T-Mobile's going for. On the downside, the pivot mechanism and controls feel just a little chintzier than those on their big brother, the LX -- but not distractingly so -- and it's surprisingly hard to downgrade from the LX's stunning 3-inch display to the Sidekick's smaller 2.6-inch deal. For those of you with shell design ideas already in mind, though, where else are you gonna turn?%Gallery-28718%
Sidekick 2008 now available on eBay, too
It looks like those bummed they couldn't snag that Sidekick 2008 (a.k.a. Gekko) that hit Craigslist earlier this month now have another shot at one, as an apparently non-prototype version of the device has just turned up on eBay -- again, before one is actually available at a T-Mobile store. Currently, the bidding is topping $300 with the reserve not yet met, but if you've just gotta have one, you can swoop in and snag it for the Buy-it-Now price of $999. Or, you know, you could just wait and spend your savings on things you really need, like RFID-activated sliding doggie doors.[Via Hiptop3.com]
T-Mobile stores don't have the Sidekick 2008 yet, but Craigslist does
Want one o' them fancy new 2008 model Sidekicks before the kid down the street? Of course you do, and if you've got a particularly fat wallet on hand, you might just be able to hook that up. Some mysterious individual has popped up on Craigslist of all places, offering a prototype Gekko -- though it's "n0t [sic] f0r [sic] sale unless a Big [sic] Offer [sic] c0mes [sic]." Gotta pay to play, as they say, though you'd better get on this sweet little deal before Danger smokes out the profiteer.[Via Hiptop 3]
Gekko is the Sidekick 2008 after all, launches July 30
Never before have we dealt with so much naming drama leading up to a new Sidekick's release. Gekko, Gecco, Aspen, Sidekick 2008, the list of candidates goes on, and we finally have a winner: Sidekick 2008 it is! The name comes courtesy of some new internal documentation for T-Mobile reps, which also reveals that the low-end piece will be available come July 30 (seemingly putting the kibosh on Best Buy's July 27 date) with interchangeable shells, a 2 megapixel cam, and a 2.6-inch WQVGA display that'll definitely be a nice bump up from the iD's specs.
T-Mobile to let users craft their own Gekko shells?
Geckos don't have shells, but Gekkos will -- and it looks like T-Mobile is going to be serving up an unprecedented level of customization for its latest Sidekick. Hiptop 3 is showing mockups of what appears to be T-Mobile's shell creation site, a special little place on the internets where users will be able to design their own Gekko (aka Gecco, aka Sidekick 2008, aka "please just release this thing already") skins, which in turn will likely be outsourced to Skinit for manufacture. Considering the Sidekick's line wild, crazy, and creative target demographic, it seems like a great idea and a potential gold mine of secondary revenue for the carrier. Who's going to be the first with an Engadget shell, hmm?
Sidekick Gecco to be christened Sidekick 2008?
A number of shots have surfaced of an upcoming Sidekick that we've alternately known as the Gekko and Gecco, but the rumor du jour on the naming front is that we'll actually be calling it "Sidekick 2008" by the time it launches (later this month if we're lucky). The grainy photography shows a device looking roughly like what we expect the new model to look like -- but more interestingly, it shows the phone wearing a variety of different shells, some of which rock as much bedazzlement as a Swarovski one-off. Pretty cool. Oh, and don't bother trying to go to sidekick.com.shells -- we did, and it isn't online yet.[Via Hiptop 3]
Sidekick Gekko, Tony Hawk LX coming to Best Buy on July 27?
Leaked inventory screens from Best Buy (also known as Poor Buy, So-So Buy, Decent Buy, or Alright Buy, depending on how you feel about the place) suggest that the big box expects to take inventory of the Sidekick Gekko (or "Gecco," depending on whose spelling you believe) along with the Tony Hawk LX come the 27th of this month. That's just about on schedule with the expected release dates for both devices, so it seems believable enough -- and with the memory of the iD fading fast, an entry-level Sidekick with changeable faceplates is just what the doctor ordered (as for the Tony Hawk LX, we're really not sure who ordered that, but it certainly wasn't the doctor).
Sidekick Gekko manual pages leak out
Alleged pages from the Sidekick Gekko's user manual offer little in the way of new details, but confirm some suspected and rumored features and offer the best idea yet (shy of a real photo) of what the front of the phone looks like. Most importantly, it looks like we can now say with certainty that the Gekko will offer replaceable shells, a key detail of the Sidekick iD not seen in a Hiptop model since. The device is also lined up to offer video capture, microSD expansion (we should certainly hope so!) and a 2 megapixel camera -- so if this thing is really the spiritual successor to the iD that we've heard it'd be, it's a definite step in the right direction.
New Sidekick model PV210 passes FCC muster
Rumors swirling around Danger's upcoming Aspen and Gekko Hiptops are approaching a rolling boil at this point, and seeing a new model fly through the FCC's testing procedures certainly isn't going to help to quell them. Honestly, we probably would've passed this one right over had it not been for the big "Powered by Danger" label on the FCC approval sticker here, detailing a new Sidekick known internally to Sharp as the PV210. We've gone through the test reports and we're sorry to report that there still isn't any 3G here -- so despite the device's perfect form factor for consuming gobs and gobs of data, EDGE is going to have to continue to suffice. We imagine we'll be seeing this one announced before too long.
Danger CEO talks up new Sidekick model
If anyone should be carrying Danger's latest Hiptop in their pocket, it's probably the company's CEO -- and sure enough, head honcho Hank Nothhaft disclosed that he was indeed rocking an unreleased model during a recent interview with Financial Times. Details were slim for the picking, but he said the phone -- which we can only assume to be the Gekko -- is "thinner and less wide but has a bigger keyboard." A paradox? Seemingly, so we can only assume that the area dedicated to navigation buttons on the left and right of the phone has been slimmed down to accommodate the bulkier QWERTY. Nothhaft also mentions that he considers Tessera Technologies a "company to watch," so if we had to wager a guess, we'd say that the firm's unique camera lenses might just be finding their way into a Hiptop near you.
Screenshot yanked off Sidekick "Gekko" for the world to see
We still don't have a picture of Danger's so-called "Gekko" and "Aspen" Sidekicks to ogle while we wait for a supposed summer release on T-Mobile, but we've got the next best thing: a screenshot pulled from a prototype. It's still not exactly clear what the relationship is between the two new codenames, but we can now say with some certainty that there'll be at least one all-new model in the mix since the rendering used on the device here doesn't look like any Sidekick currently in the stable. Hiptop3 reports that the Gekko's codename (wait, a codename for a codename?) is "Style 2," pretty much confirming that it'll replace the low-end and recently discontinued iD. Despite the focus on keeping this one cheap, the site also says that the Gekko will sport a feature set similar to that of the LX, so it's not clear what specs will be sacrificed to keep this one affordable. A cheap LX alternative with what appear to be changeable faceplates? Count us in.
"Aspen" and "Gekko" join the Hiptop codename parade?
A little early for all-new Sidekicks, isn't it? TmoNews is reporting that a pair of new codenames have rather suddenly appeared on the Hiptop radar -- "Gekko" and "Aspen" -- with the former due on T-Mobile come July 27 and the latter rolling on in just three short days later on July 30. The three-day separation between two Sidekick launches itself seems a bit suspect, though to be fair, the last round of Danger codenames we caught wind of turned out to be dead-on legit. As Hiptop3 suggests, a round of LX (or Slide) limited editions seems like the most plausible explanation here -- or maybe it's just T-Mob's fancy way of describing new colors.[Via PHONE Magazine and Hiptop3.com]
