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New Hiptop (Sidekick II) Photos
s4xton writes "Some new photos of the upcoming Sidekick II from T-Mobile have been leaked on hiptopinfo.org. In addition to already being one of the best portable GPRS units with SSH2, Web Browsing, AIM and Mail, the new unit, slated for an August release features a built in camera, speakerphone and a number of other features. Thread on Hiptop Forums about it here. Here's some older photos and an owners manual and a previous Slashdot story about the original Color Sidekick."
From the pictures, this looks suspiciously like the old one. I am going to stick with my brand new Verizon Wireless Treo. With a VGA camera, keyboard, Palm OS 5, and 144Kbps download speed, an added 512MB SD card from Kingston, it's got everything I need. Seriously not a troll, if you can get one and you've got the $500 (with a one year activation), it's definitely worth the money. Like the new advertising will say, my laptop does feel really heavy now. (There's nothing like switching away from Yahoo! chat to take a picture and going back with no interruption - while on your phone!)
libertarianswag.com
The original color Sidekick was a great data device but a terrible phone. The RF was dismal and talking on it was awkward. I hope they've improved these points, however with the device being made by Audiovox/Curitel I'm not expecting much.
But now that the price of the Sidekick data plan with voice has dropped to $20 this new Sidekick certainly looks appealing. I like the design and the camera isn't too bad (for a phone) either.
The price.
If you have to ask, you'll never know.
How about IRC though? I mean, this is a fine consumer product with AIM and all that, but how about the geek cred?
I mean, even my dreamcast can run an IRC client.
-- d'arcy poirot
5 posts, and they're down. It's almost 8pm central. Don't you people have lives?
-- No sig for you!
That's great and everything but I'm more interested in putting custom ringtones on the black and white sidekick I have now.. anyone know the way?
seems like the server is getting slaughtered.. for people who just care for the images (not very impressive)..
http://mirrors.linuxpowered.com/sidekick2/
get em while it's hot..or before my server crashes.
This article has not been slashdotted:
...and a couple pics here, if you scroll down.
Sidekick 2 Revealed
--------------------
Freedom or Evil: Freevil.net
G. W. Bush says, "You decide!"
Although I have to say, I'm sort of a mIRC fan. I'd rather have something a bit more Usar Friendly than bitchX on something like this.
-- d'arcy poirot
If you ask the business press:
If it isn't half the price of every other competing product with twice the features and doesn't triple the company's stock price in days while gaining 80% market share and a Wall Street Journal front page feature and a new solid two-ton 24K gold company logo in the marble lobby of a new corporate headquarters with a leather-appointed 2000 square foot conference room with bean salads all around it is a failure.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
I own a Sidekick from T-Mobile, the color version. I bought it a couple of weeks ago because I wanted a way to contact/be contacted since I can't hear. It's such a great device but man, the antenna sucks. I get NO signal within my house, only in the outer parts. I really hope they improved that defect. But I gotta say, that device looks fugly compared to mine: Picture here.
"Black holes are where God divided by zero." - Steve Wright
A Jabber IM client would be a nice touch too though.
I prefer a void in conversation to a vacuous one.
Hmmmm ... I bought a sidekick about 3 months ago, The phone was great with all the features (SSH) but the phone was very shady on the signal (voice/data) | nice idea - If they get it right .. it should be great! (went through 3 phone replacements - talking to customer service (to no avail) . Sold it on EBAY after all the BS from TMOBILE ... Hopefully others have had better luck with the phone !
I think Slashdot should do a comprehensive roundup of the best phones and other multifunctional devices going. Is it really worth it to buy a multi functional device when a seperate mobile and digital camera are better ?
And it's easy enough to use a laptop to send your images to another person. What exactly is the advantage to having a camera phone unless it is for 3G video calls?
Pokémon #451?
The only flaw with the Sidekick is that it's a thin client device. All your data is on the server and subject to T-Mobile's whim. It's a great device, but it can't do stuff like play mp3s or anything that would require a lot of processing power. Still, it's a great smartphone for people on a budget who don't mind being kind of crippled by their service provider.
For my money, though, I'll take my Treo 600 any day. It's quite a bit more expensive up front, but it's far more customizable and expandable. The Sidekick is more of a walled-garden approach.
I've been using T-Mobile's Data plan with a Merlin G100 GPRS Card for the last few months, and I have to say, I'm not that impressed. The speed of dialup, but with latency I haven't seen the like of since 300 baud modems.
Anyone know if T-Mobile plans to bump speed up?
Tweet, tweet.
My dad got a sidekick... the fact that it has no bluetooth wouldn't be a problem if you could just take the sim card out and put it in another device (like a bluetooth phone or an aircard) in order to get some of that unlimited data through to a laptop. To use the card in another device, T-mobile wants you to pay another $20/month to get what amounts to another flavor of unlimited data.
I have been using an ngage with T-mobile's unlimited data. It works fine as a wireless bluetooth modem to my linux laptop or even standalone for IM or basic email if I can be patient enough to type with a number pad.
Too bad there's not something that gives you a decent OS, thumb keyboard *and* bluetooth to a pc. Nokia has it almost right (flip-over keyboard, bluetooth) with the 6820 but it doesn't have Symbian 60 so it's not really extensible enough to benefit from addon programs...
...with just 30-odd comments. Cue the "they must be running the server on one" posts. :-)
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Jesus. Planted ad? Someone to cought up in cell phones? This is a non-story.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Who's Online at hiptopinfo..
There are currently, 2304
guest(s) and 3 member(s)
that are online.
>he RF was dismal and talking on it was awkward
Ive had a sidekick since they were made available. I'm sporting the color model now and have made 6 returns because of poor manufacturing quality. Three for the B&w and three for the color.
Its a nice but it has some serious downsides:
1. Total vendor lock in. The SSH client is free,
but the upgrade is 10 bucks. Games are 10 bucks.
This isn't a palm where you can just upload apps onto it (unless youre a developer).
2. Spotty reception is putting it nicely.
3. Its as thick and big as a bar of soap and sadly this new model doesnt look much smaller.
4. The web proxy isn't scaling. It was usable over a year ago but now surfing anytime during the day means lots of timeouts. The device is too popular for the servers.
Next time I have some cash I'm going to pick up the treo or perhaps just a normal cell phone.
How about a phone that acts like a phone? I know that the issue is primarily with the telecoms but jesus h. christ...when will someone invest money in making the networks better. At this rate, in 5 years I will be able to remotely cook my food with my phone. I would settle for a phone that has excellent clarity and doesnt drop out. Now that's the phone I want.
A story on the Family Movie Act was rejected in favor of this tripe.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
we all know the necessities of a mobile device
A zaurus SL-Cxx series is much better.
Why wait years for a phone to cook your food, when it can cook your brain now!
Free cancer with every handset!
Chicago2600.net more than a lifestyle, its a survival trait.
I use HipTones on my Sidekick to get around T-Mobile's block on non-catalog ringtones. You can find plenty more high quality bundles at the Sidekick Developers Resource.
Cheers-
Austin
I bought it a couple of weeks ago because I wanted a way to contact/be contacted since I can't hear
Same reason why I'm going to buy a Sidekick 2. For 20 bucks and being out and about and having not having enough hotspots to make use of my lapbox's wireless internet, it's nice to know I can be reached through AIM by my family.
Of course, there is Sprint Relay But, I don't really feel comfortable!not enough info on the whole relay thing. So far, the Sidekick with the $20 unlimited plan looks like the thing for a teenage hard-of-hearing geek.
Sidekick 2 looks nice. Hopefully they fixed the problems you mentioned. Seeing how I'm askin' my parents to buy the phone while I pay the bill.
Is the SSH client still only proxy SSH, meaning unencrypted between you and the T-Mobile server, ssh from there to the host?
Heiko
I replaced it last week with a Nokia 6600, which, with the exception of the full keyboard, does everything the Sidekick could do and more, only better. Plus it actually works well as a phone.
I just ordered a Danger Sidekick (original). Maybe its not too late to cancel and wait for the II?
my sony ericsson p800 has ssh, irc, vnc, streaming video, and god knows what else. and it's fine phone too!
go sony ericsson
its a laptop that has a touch screen... something like this is what should be replacing the portable market shortly...
http://www.oqo.com/hardware/basics/
there is a great video here http://www.oqo.com/hardware/video/
This must be Thursday, I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Humm sorry about that some how this got posted on under the wrong article....
Fortunately, slashdot will disable the server,
and the few subscribers who get the pictures
will refuse to share. So, Verizon's IP is
safe, thanks to slashdot!
blah... that's a total photoshop job. ;0)
The Treo 600. Phone-like form. Looks good. Better phone capabilities than most phones. QWERTY keyboard, and runs PalmOS.
And the best think is it feels like a phone and a PDA at the same time. Not a PDA with Sidetalkin', or a phone with comprimised PDA capabilities.
A little more expensive and fragile than a 6600 though.
After having service for 8 days, I promptly tried to cancel due to maybe 65% service in my HOME area, frequent drops, people on land lines were complaining.
Granted, most phone providers may not warrant service, but at least they do work most of the time and usually don't BS this damn much.
All in all close to $300 for 8 days worth of phone usage (they did remove most of the monthly charges), which of course they graciously said they would waive if I started service again within 1 year. HAH! $300 wasn't even the issue, it was the treatment. Never will they see another Deutshe Mark from me, or anyone that I can convince.
The one app I'm still waiting for is a port of NetHack. Then I could have another reason to get angry with my cell phone.
I have had a Treo 600 for almost a year now, and I am quite happy with it. The camera is the worst camera ever created on the planet, but that just means nobody will hassle me in areas where camera phones are prohibited - there's no way anybody would believe the phone could actually take a useful picture.
The Treo has great battery life, and loads of other features. And it's available for Sprint as well as GSM. I am not aware of anything that much better right now.
Everybody knows some radios have great reception, and others won't pick up the broadcast from the radio tower looming overhead without a 6' antenna.
Why don't reviewers also measure reception?
I've seen plenty of feature-laden phones, but refuse to upgrade until I can verify it has reception comparable to my Audiovox 9155.
(Yes, that's my review at the bottom)
As I said, Photos are nice, and video games are fun, but when push comes to shove, a cell phone without reception is a paperweight.
How do these feature-laden PDA things measure up in reception? Which one has the best?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
I owned one of the first generation devices. I loved it and it broke my heart.
The software is smooth and elegant, the design is slick, and it's the best portable email terminal ever made. The damn thing was unreliable, though. I went through no less than FIVE units while under the warranty period.
One had the screen crap out. One refused to turn on. One couldn't charge its' battery. One had a flaky keyboard, and the last one's radio stopped working one day. The last one was a real pisser, since it's a frickin' paperweight without network access.
Obviously, I'm a little bitter. Each time, I spoke to T-Mobile and they promptly sent me a refurbished unit as a replacement. The "new" phone would last for a few weeks, and then something would fail. The last unit I had for three months. When I called T-Mobile, they said that it was out of warranty because they start counting from the INITIAL purchase, regardless of the age of the one that flaked. They offered to send me a refurbished unit for $70.
I wasn't willing to shell out $70 every few weeks for my phone, so I switched carriers. That's when the second problem with Sidekicks reared it's head. Your data is hostage to your carrier.
The Sidekick/Hiptop works like WebTV and merely acts as a terminal for large servers run by the phone carriers. Great, because you never have to worry about backing up your data. Not great, because it makes the phone useless if you don't have GPRS service. I took the phone into Mexico, and I couldn't use any of the PDA functions because all of my data was on T-Mobile's servers in the US.
Also, it's darn near impossible to extract information from the phone for your computer. Like to sync your address books? Forget it. Your computer only has access to the data through a web interface. They kept promising sync capability "soon". I had the phone for a year. "Soon" never arrived. When I left T-Mobile, I had to hand type all of my addresses and notes into my computer.
Summary: I loved mine, when it worked. When it failed, it became a nightmare. I'd pass on this new one until they can prove they've got some quality control.
This
Truth is, you can have virtually full access with neither. The GSPM internet connection on many of the phones is left open and available and is intended for you to be able to buy ring tones and backgrounds for your phone.
Turns out that's just enough opening for you to get to your pop3, smtp, and mostly any webpage.
Furthermore, the time isn't counted against your regular airtime, so while I am only paying $20 a month for the phone service, I am constantly able to check and send email.
I have had bad, bad experiences with T-Mobile phones. The reception sucks! And I live in the middle of Chicago. WTF. I own a digital camera. It's a kickass digital camera. I don't need a crappy camera I'm never going to use on my phone. I have a hard enough time getting away from my office, why do I want my boss knowing I can check my email while I am on the train, too? And someone please tell me, why my signal dies whenever a wall, tree, closed window, etc gets between me and the cell tower that I can see across the street?!?
Computers are useless. They can only give answers. --Pablo Picasso
Does this version have Bluetooth? And does it support multiple GSM frequencies, i.e., making it feasible for international use?
If not, it's just an expensive paperweight.
Mirror of just the pics for those that can't get to hiptopinfo.org
404 Humor Not Found
your joke is TIRED.
Try here for the pics: http://handhelds.engadget.com/entry/15353103208184 08/. They're unwatermarked, too.
It's got NEARLY everything my free docomo phone had only a scant two years ago, that's incredible!
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
Actually a group of companies makes the phones, while another seperate group of companies build the network. Your argument would be like blaming the car companies for all of the gravel roads in the US
A half-empty bottle of spiderman Dr. Pepper?
Slashdot Eds Link Anonymous Posts With Logged Posts
They Are Vermin Feeding On Each Other's Feces.
I Hate \.
The sidekick requires the use of the Danger backend to process all the internet data. Therefore unless you are signed up with a Sidekick plan, your device will not get any data.
Plus the sidekick data plan is $20/month not $30
Chicago2600.net more than a lifestyle, its a survival trait.
Really, I wonder if this one will allow users to install 3rd party software. With the current Sidekick programmers can develop and run their own software on an emulator, but aren't allowed to actually install it on the machines. People have implemented handy things like ssh clients, but unless you're an official Sidekick developer, you can't actually run it.
If they only allowed 3rd party software, I would have bought a Sidekick instead of shelling out the extra cash for a Treo 600.
I've been running around various parts of T-Mobile trying to track one of these sons of bitches down, and all I get is "they're not available any more, there should be a new one out in summer". Woohoo! More shit to burn money on. Like Defcon isn't going to fuck my bank account over.
Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
Hi,
...
I really looked at the Hiptop/Sidekick when it came out, but I heard bad things about durability and reliability, at least of the older units.
I decided to go BlackBerry (the new color 7280), and I haven't looked back since. They are not as beautiful or fancy as Hiptop/Sidekicks, but boy, they are built like tanks! I've dropped my BlackBerry from 3.5 feet to concrete a couple times, with only minor scruffs to its ruggedized plastic case.
BlackBerry is more expensive to buy and run, and you still need to pay an extra monthly fee to get SSH/AIM/ICQ/MSN/Yahoo chat, and the only SSH/telnet apps are still expensive.
The reliability has been stellar, and emails are amazingly fast (faster than SMS even) in that four seconds after clicking SEND on any desktop computer, the email is already on my Blackberry -- no 15 minute email polls, it's a realtime 24/7 email connection to a Blackberry email server (you can still do POP though, but at the cost of a 15 minute poll instead of realtime -- or use both POP accounts and Blackberry email).
File attachments now work (documents, spreadsheets, etc), there is no tangible message size limit for me, and I've got unlimited email.
The color 7280 can be upgraded to have full color HTML browsing (Either by getting Reqwireless, or an extra monthly fee for Hosted BES, or using the 'RBRO' trick).
The chat software is WebMessenger which does AIM/ICQ/MSN/Yahoo and the telnet/SSH software is Idokorro MobileSSH. There is also now an open source ICQ program caleld BlackChat
I made a FAQ at HowardForums (A big cellphone discussion website) that describes the present cheapest way to get full TCP/IP access on a Blackberry (via Public MDS or via Hosted BES), which is a sticky thread at the top of this HowardForums forum page.
Reception has been great so far -- much better than Hiptop/Sidekick in my experience. But that may be explained by the extra GSM frequencies (850 Mhz) and continuing network improvements. I had nonstop reception between a few major northeast cities (both USA and Canada), the Blackberry sends emails very well even when reception is only 1 bar, and the store-and-forward quickly downloads (doesn't stall excessively) as soon as there's a smidgen of reception.
The Blackberry keyboard actually feels better than the Hiptop/Sidekick keyboard, and I was able to thumb-touchtype at 363 keypresses per minute (I'm pretty fast with thumb keyboards). I'm not as fast as that old Treo 180-series guy that went 84 words per minute in the Dom Perignon III Contest (at Fitaly) - do a google on "Dom Perignon III Contest" for more info. But at 72 words per minute (363 divided by 5), that's damn fast for a thumb keyboard!
And I hope the rumors that I heard are true that they are going to finally include TCP/IP with Blackberry OS 4.0 (at least on some networks) with full gateway access. The upcoming Blackberry model 7290 which is rumored, may also include a way to connect it to a laptop to use it as a modem (finally; they've been lagging so long). They make these devices too secure for some of us prosumers that we can't even use Internet on them until recently; they are more designed for businesses than for people like me.
BlackBerry has gone a long way from the early black-and-white models, and are starting to be more appealing to prosumers like me.
I looked into getting the Sidekick because I want a cheap wireless browser and cheap plan. I'd pay for the Treo if the monthly access wasn't so high. Even the T-Mobile coverage isn't as good as Verizon's, the $30 unlimited data makes it very attractive.
Does anyone know if the new Sidekick will support JavaScript? This is a huge problem (for me) with the current model.
The SideKick service is a great concept, and the software is slick. However, the hardware is lousy. Two months into my new SideKick service, the scroll wheel broke; T-Mobile sent a *refurbished* unit that still looked like it had been beat to hell. I'm on my third refurbished replacement. I can't wait for my service contract to end so I can move on to a new carrier and more solid hardware.
I went through four sidekicks in six months. Defective screen, permanent lockup, defective keyboard, defective wheel, etc... and reception so lousy that made me take back all my bitching about Sprint, Cingular, and Verizon in the past.
I loved the interface, AIM client, SSH, etc... all very nicely done. What finally booted me, though, was the lack of sync. Mentioned in dozens of Danger's early press releases, this was never released for the T-Mobile Sidekick. You can't sync your contacts with anything besides their web interface, which itself can't sync with anything and disappears when you cancel service. When it worked, I loved it, and when it didn't work, I still loved it. But the defects and oversights got to be too much, and I cancelled my plan.
The worst part? The sync code is done. It's been deployed on several smaller carriers' networks for the hiptop/sidekick, and works fine. The "conspiracy theory" is that T-Mobile doesn't want to dilute blackberry sales with a cheaper device that syncs, but all they've managed to achieve is looking like asshats and the loss of revenue from people like me.
I went with a Treo 600 on Sprint, and although the interface is not as slick as the hiptop's, I've got IM on all four networks, SSH, VNC, MP3s, XVID, games, reception that works, no need for four replacement devices, and it syncs with all sorts of crap, including my yahoo! account and my office's exchange server.
If anybody wants it, I have a still-working Black&White Sidekick you can have for $60.
The SSH client is actually user-installable through the catalog and costs $10.
The coolest feature you never noticed 'til it was gone; the flashing color rolling wheel is gone. Drat!
...snip...
If anybody wants it, I have a still-working Black&White Sidekick you can have for $60.
Man you must be the best salesman at your Radio Shack.
Bad management trumps ideology - Show the world you want better leadership. http://www.timefornewmanagement.com
Awww yeah. Perhaps it's rare these days, but at least I'm honest. It has a great UI, but reliability sucks. If anybody wants a cheap spare for the inevitable defects they will have with their current unit, super.
I'm sure as hell not trying to win any *new* sidekick converts, but for somebody stuck in a contract with a broken sidekick outside of warranty, this could be handy.
Oh, really? Did that come out recently?
Hello? This is slashdot!
The features we care about most is the ability to tweak it and hack it.
Hiptop_sidekick tweaks and walkthroughs
SSH and IM alone are worth the money to me. Once I installed the development kit, I couldn't quit playing with this thing!
Yes, the "phone" part is sub-par... if they fix that, then they are going to sell a billion of these things. Since I often manage systems remotely, this little baby is worth its weight in gold.
(Sorry, I've plugged my own site twice in two days on here. I'm usually not such a whore.)
Davak