danger
Sidekick iD fails to impress
While the Sidekick 3 is a pretty formidable messaging intensive communications device, its recently unveiled sibling, the Sidekick iD fails to impress on all fronts. Targeting the youthful generation, I can’t believe they left out essentials like MP3 playback, a digital camera, Bluetooth connectivity, and a memory expansion slot on the Sidekick iD. While adding those will be reflected in a higher price, surely a select few will be willing to part with $99 for something as impotent as the Sidekick iD? Throw in a sluggish GPRS connection for IM and e-mail purposes and you literally have a major disaster on your hands.
T-Mobile is said to be rolling out the Sidekick 4G this coming April 20th over at RadioShack, where this Samsung-manufactured device will feature the QWERTY keyboard that has long been a signature piece of hardware for its precedessors. T-Mobile has obviously moved on from the Danger operating system to Google’s Android 2.2 Froyo, and it remains to be seen whether there will be a Gingerbread update lined up sometime down the road or not. Apart from that, we do know that the Sidekick 4G will play nice with T-Mobile’s 4G network (obviously, by its naming convention), which is capable of a theoretical peak download speed of up to 21Mbps. Hardware-wise, the T-Mobile Sidekick 4G will come with a 3.5″ touchscreen display, a 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor, and a VGA front-facing camera for T-Mobile Video Chat. Would you part with a Benjamin for the Sidekick 4G on a two-year contract?
[MWC] Microsoft made a live announcement today over at 3GSM about their acquisition of mobile software and Sidekick company Danger for an undisclosed amount of dough. Danger will be added to Microsoft’s mobile branch. Does this mean a Windows Mobile Sidekick is on its way? We don’t see why not. Can Microsoft ruin the Sidekick? We don’t see why not. Can they finally have their own phone manufacturing shtick on the rise despite Ballmer’s disapproval (ahem…Zune phone)? We most likely don’t see why not. [Press Release]
If you’ve been having some problems with AIM on your Sidekick, don’t worry, you aren’t alone. Danger, AOL, and T-Mobile have all already acknowledged there is an issue, though halt there. Mentioning no date of when we can expect a resolution.
The problem results in IM’s being delayed, sent out of sequence, or not even sent through at all. T-Mobile says the problem is an AOL issue, though AOL doesn’t confirm or deny this is the case. The issue affects all current Sidekick devices. While T-Mobile usually makes good on fixing issues quickly, AOL might have other plans up their sleeves.