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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."
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
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Freedom or Evil: Freevil.net
G. W. Bush says, "You decide!"
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.
In fairness, the Sidekick (and presumably this new one) also multitasks in the manner you describe. I can start loading a webpage, jump back to my current SSH session, and jump from there to read or send email, and from there to respond to an AIM message, all with the click of a button. The sidekick tells me when the web page is loaded, alerts me when I get new email or an AIM message (by the way, it's a real, real-time AIM client, not one of the silly cellphone AIM "clients" that integrate AIM with the messaging subsystem), and I can jump into and out of any app, able to come back to it in the state I left it (e.g., leaving the TCP session open and working during SSH). It's like having screen installed on a cellphone.
.@.
Of course you will, you just bought it.
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.
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.
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.