Turns out our source had it right: Microsoft engineers who worked on the Danger/Sidekick meltdown have been able to recover “most if not all” of the data that was lost during last weekend’s catastrophic server failure.
In a statement, Roz Ho, Corporate VP of Premium Mobile Experiences addresses the unfortunate T-Mobile Sidekick customers and apologizes for the massive fail:
Slightly better news for anyone who lost data during the recent Microsoft/T-Mobile Sidekick outage. While it initially appeared that user data may have been lost forever, T-Mobile issued a statement late yesterday saying, “Recent efforts indicate the prospects of recovering some lost content may now be possible.”
Looks like there’s a serious outage going on for Sidekick users. Starting in the last few days, data services have been broken off and even address books have been inaccessible. Apparently the problem is with Danger and Microsoft, not with T-Mobile. My G1 is on T-Mo and I’ve had no data troubles — and it’s Microsoft that’s scrambling to fix the issue. Around the clock, even!
Yo, Sidekick LX ‘09 owners. Check out the Download Catalog. You should find the Sidekick Sync app somewhere in there and guess what? The app brings push email, attachment viewing, syncing, and Exchange support to your beloved Sidekick. Tits, right? (If you don’t see the app right away, check back a little bit later today)
Now that I’ve had a few hours to get acquainted with the new Sidekick LX, I figured some preliminary comments were in order. My overall impression of the Sidekick LX is still positive, but I’ve found a few things to nitpick about. So, without further ado, here we gooooo!
Screen: It’s absolutely brilliant and hands down the best screen available on a mobile handset today. The closest thing to it right now is the BlackBerry 8900 and to some extent the BlackBerry Bold.
Keyboard: The Sidekick has always had the best QWERTY keyboard on the market and the 3G LX doesn’t falter one bit. Keys are bit harder than previous models, but I’m knocking out e-mails, IMs and text messages faster than I ever could on my BlackBerry. OMG, I’ve missed that dedicated row of numbers across the top.
The bird has landed. We just got our Sidekick LX review unit in and we’ll have a review soon, but figured you’d want to see the obligatory unboxing. Enjoy.
After we snagged some info on the video capabilities of the new Sidekick LX yesterday we couldn’t help but ask for more info. And we sure got it. After the jump is sample video taken from the Sidekick LX as well as the startup screen, which was taken from a different device (which apparently refused to focus). We also have a few other hands-on shots and a sample image taken with the new LX.
I don’t want any of you to think that tomorrow’s NYC T-Mobile event has anything to do with anything other than the new 3G Sidekick LX. So, here are two variations of the event invite, which coincidentally were not sent to me by T-Mobile.
Well, well. Looks like someone launched the new Sidekick LX page a little too early.
We’ve known about the upcoming Sidekick for months and yesterday’s leaked memo hinted at an announcement for today, which turned out to be true after all. I’m excited for this new Sidekick because it’s finally on par with every other device out on the market. However, it doesn’t have Wi-Fi but I’m okay with that because it’s 3G and I only use Wi-Fi on my BlackBerry 8900 when I’m overseas.
All the other features have been leaked, but here’s a quick rundown of the new Sidekick LX.
At this point, it’s not really a secret that a new Sidekick is on the way. The rumors have long indicated that the next ‘Kick would be 3G-enabled, and no one really doubted it – but the FCC has gone ahead and confirmed it anyway. Smack dab in the middle of their approval lays mention of 1700 Mhz AWS support, perfectly suited for T-Mobile’s budding 3G network.
For those of you in high school, be prepared to get your mind blown. The Sidekick 2009 is coming May 13, the Wing II is coming on July 22nd and the HTC Snap is coming July 1. A few other models are rolling out of T-Mo this summer, but those are some of the greats.
You can get a free Sidekick 2008 from LetsTalk.com when you sign up for a new two-year contract with T-Mobile. Or, if you need to extend your contract you can get one for $49. T-Mobile is selling the device directly for $99, so you can save a little moolah with this deal.
T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 [LetsTalk.com via dealnews]
There she be, folks. We still don’t really know anything about the Sidekick 2009 aka Blade other than what showed up in an online survey, but we do know that that’s new hardware. The image is too small to glean any tid bits, but at least we know they’re out there. It’s just a matter of time before T-Mobile makes it official.
Do we have any Sidekick 2009 users in the audience?
Looks like Ed at HipTop3 has been exchanging e-mails with someone claiming to have already manhandled the Sidekick 2009. If you recall, the first true whispers of the new Sidekick popped up a couple weeks back about the Sidekick LX 2009 that was spotted in an online survey. Turns out that device is the “Blade” or as T-Mobile calls it, “Montreal.” Blade is apparently the internal codename for those at MS/Danger. There’s a gaggle of purported hands-on details after the jump. But before we get to that, Ed did some sleuthing in his server logs and found hits from “Danger hiptop 5.0” from the last few weeks. Read on to see what that entails.
Ed at HipTop3 is claiming that the LX 2009 that broke cover in an online survey is legit and that it’s the ‘Blade’ everyone but me has known about. One of his readers sent in this screen cap of the LX 2009 to update the previous image that looked to have been taken with a Sidekick. Looks good to me, but I’m not sure I can leave my BlackBerry for the Sidekick. We’ll see when everything gets official or someone has actual specs and photos of the Blade or whatever it’s going to be called.
Well, isn’t this a kick in the pants. As TmoNews was reporting earlier that a 3G Sidekick could be in the works, Ed over at Hiptop3 just sent this our way. One of his readers sent in an image from a survey he/she/it took at QuizPoints and, well, the title pretty much says it all. Of course, we’ll wait to get some more evidence to say a 3G Sidekick is coming, but it certainly looks legit. So, what’s new or purported for the LX 2009? The print is small so you better hit the jump.
Rumor! Grains of salt and whatnot. Forward-looking statements, etc. Thinking caps on, pencils down and what have you. Gearfuse apparently got a tip from an insider close to the HTC Dream saying that the device “will feature a keyboard and trackball almost identical to the Sidekick.” If this is true, fine by me. The Sidekick’s got a nice keyboard.
I’m not head-over-heels, take-it-to-the-prom in love with the trackball but it gets the job done. This video from a few weeks ago is supposedly the Dream in action and, yes, the fleeting glances of the keyboard and trackball make them look like they could be in the same league as the Sidekick’s.
Note: In the interest of supporting our younger readers, I will offer the new T-Mobile Sidekick using standard teenage slang.
Yo, homeslices, dost thou wish to cold lamp with the rappingest phone out there? Does the T-Mobile Sidekick give you Pac Man fever? Well, we have one for frizzle and we’ll givizzle it to you depending on if you comment in the space below. This will make you cool as a pork sandwich at a county fair.
How do you win?
Here’s an apparent video of the HTC Dream running Google’s Android operating system. The video looks to have been shot at incredibly high altitude, as even the most basic and delicate hand movements have left the guy working the camera completely out of breath.
This looks a little clunky for an HTC device so I don’t want to say that this is definitely definitely definitely the HTC Dream but whatever it is, the Sidekick-like sliding screen looks nice. For all we know, it could just be a tricked-out Sidekick so take what you see here with a grain of salt. Unless you’re the guy who shot the video – it sounds like you might benefit from cutting salt out of your diet altogether.
via BGR
Good morning from CrunchGear. We have the new Sidekick 2008, a svelter, sexier version of everyone’s favorite messaging phone here in the office in a sexy shell from SidekickShells.com. The phone itself is $149 with a two year contract and shells are $14.99 for one and $20 for two. The shells are probably the coolest thing about the new phone, aside from the amazing size and weight. Compared to the LX, this thing is a feather-light.
UPDATE – Based on a random drawing the winner is Shaun. He intends to write “Hands off” on his Sidekick. We don’t blame him.
