Sidekick2008
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T-Mobile cautiously resumes Sidekick sales at lower prices
After a protracted "let's be absolutely certain we're in the clear" period, T-Mobile has gone ahead and lifted its self-imposed moratorium on Sidekick sales following that little meltdown you may have heard about. Oh, and there's a bonus, too: they're a little cheaper this time around. The Sidekick 2008 has dropped to $49.99 on contract while the top-of-the-line LX 2009 has shed $25 down to $149.99 on contract, so if you were looking for an excuse to live dangerously with your precious address book, this might be as good of a reason as any. Then again, what are the odds of lightning striking twice?
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]
